One
Tonino awoke feeling quite ill. He sat up, rubbing his eyes, and remembered why. For the fiftieth day or so (it seemed) since he had left Italy, he'd spent the night on a train. What little color had been in his cheeks left it with this knowledge, and he made a mad dash for his handkerchief, upsetting his stomach even further. He only just made it the toilet in time.
From the bunk above where Tonino had been sleeping, Cat gave an enormous groan into his pillow.
"Oh, that's too bad! I hate it when people are sick! And the last day, too!"
Tonino was too busy being ill again to attend, but Rodger, from the opposite side of the compartment, gave Cat an amused look that somehow managed to convey that he thought Cat was being rather insensitive. Cat opened his mouth in a fruitless attempt to defend himself, and instead murmured a spell to keep Tonino from vomiting.
"Anyone up for breakfast?" he asked cheerily.
Between Cat and Rodger, they managed to bundle Tonino down to the breakfast compartment, where he sat silently clutching his stomach. Undeterred, the other boys set in fiercely and had made quite a dent in the breakfast laid out by the time Chrestomanci, Millie, and the girls arrived.
"Not feeling well?" Millie fussed over Tonino.
Chrestomanci raised an eyebrow in that unfathomable way of his.
As the morning progressed and Cat paid more and more attention to the game he and Rodger had invented for train rides, Tonino grew steadily more pale, until, at last, he gave in to the urge of being sick all over Chrestomanci's shiny shoes and the hem of Julia's new dress.
"Oh, bother!" wailed Julia. "Cat!"
Cat hastily slapped his magic back in place, blushing furiously. The rest of the ride he spent next to Tonino, leaning across the aisle to watch Rodger and Janet play and occasionally glancing back at the younger boy. Tonino, to his credit, felt terrible that he was so dependent on Cat. When the porter announced they were approaching Caprona, he attempted to make things better by telling Cat about his home. It came out all wrong, of course.
"Caprona is the grandest state in all of Italy. We were blessed by the Angel who came down to Heaven and presented the first Duke with a scroll that held the words to the strongest spell ever. The Casa Montana and the Casa Petrocchi are the keepers of the peace, and my brother Paolo's to be the head of the Casa Montana after Old Niccolo and our father."
There was more, much more, and it was all bragging and twisted. Tonino could see Cat grow more scornful with every word he spoke, but he just couldn't stop. It was as though a spell had been placed on him. Curse of the Betraying Tongue! he thought miserably. It seemed an eternity before they finally chugged to a stop and Millie ushered the boys down the aisle and out of the station.
His melancholy was forgotten for a little bit then. Half of the Casa Montana had gone to the station to meet him. Tonino was swept up in hug after hug, aunts laid sloppy kisses upon his forehead, and, most wonderfully, everyone chatted loudly at him in swift Italian. He lost sight of his English companions for a while, until he saw Chrestomanci speaking to his father and both of them smiling at him.
"Papa!" he exclaimed, wriggling away from the rest of his family. "I saw the Tower of London!"
He road home in the shiny yellow Ferrari acquired while he was away, with the other children. Janet was looking at him, very awed.
"Could you teach me Italian?" she asked.
Tonino was so pleased to be home that he began teaching her at once, with explanations of the city in English around the edges. Everyone enjoyed the ride down the smooth cobblestone roads of Caprona save Cat, who, if the reader will recall, did not fare well on motorcars.
The Casa Montana loomed up ahead of the car, golden Angel gleaming of the gate that was open to reveal crowds of people and a large banner that read 'Welcome Back, Tonino!"
.
A/n: Before you bite my head off, I'm aware that Cat and Tonino should be getting along better than I had them get along. This chapter wasn't very eventful, but I'm hoping the next one will be. Still, I write as the story guides me, so one never knows.