Part III - Pacts
They boarded the train with plenty of time to spare and, for a few moments at least, they were the only ones in their section. With a glance around first to verify to her own satisfaction that no-one was near, Millicent leaned in just a bit closer to Waverly, speaking softly.
"Do feel free to consider me paranoid, Alexander, but please check our ticket packet, would you?"
Tugging the packet back out from his coat pocket, he opened in and looked. Funds - some in pounds, but most in francs. Identification for them both - his in the assumed name. Tickets for passage across the channel, tickets for a train to the Avignon region. Nothing else. Frowning, he searched through the packet again.
"They only gave you one-way passage, didn't they?"
He didn't answer her question. Instead, he gave her a long look.
"How old are you, Millicent?"
She gave him a look that could almost be called teasing.
"My own brother and you can't keep track of dates? For shame. And myself with the world's easiest birth date to keep track of. New Years Day, 1900."
"So you are twelve then?"
"For pity's sake, Alexander, don't say it like you would if I had the pox. I've traveled on the continent with my mother, have had tutors since I was three and I can speak in three languages quite well. I shan't be twelve forever, you know."
He held up a hand in mock surrender.
"I didn't mean it in that way. I meant it as a compliment. I haven't had a great deal of experience with twelve-year olds since I was one myself. And I don't recall my conversational skills and knowledge base as being on par with yours."
She sat back, seeming to consider that with a frown.
"I couldn't tell you how another twelve year old might act. I've never associated with other children. Mother raised me to be able to take care of myself. Perhaps she had an inkling of what would happen after her protector died."
"The one-way passage. You knew or guessed?"
"Educated guess, Alexander. My mother was not without her other admirers and she did not keep my existence a secret. If I were to disappear on British soil, there might be too many questions that might lead to too many embarrassing answers. However should I disappear in route to Avignon?"
"I see."
And, oddly enough, Waverly found that he actually did see. It was as if a section of his brain that had never been stimulated before had awoke to view the world through a whole new set of filters. He found the iced blue eyes studying him again.
"And if I were to disappear with you, even less chances of an embarassing answer in the future."
"You don't seem to be cut from the same cloth as those others, Alexander. If you don't mind my saying, you seem to have both backbone and imagination. Which leads me to the question if you are going to cast your lot with them - or me? I may still end up a nameless corpse, but I plan to make a fight of it."
Waverly found himself smiling slightly at the sheer spunk of the girl.
"I daresay you will. And for now, I cast my lot with both."
That was plainly an answer she hadn't expected. MIllicent clasped her hands at her chest and rested her chin on them as she turned that thought over in her mind in silence.
"I do hate to admit defeat, Alexander, but I must. What do you have in mind?"
"We continue onward to Avignon as expected. Instead of trying to evade those that may be after you, we meet them head-on. But do remember that the advantage will be ours, Millicent."
"You mean because we will be expecting them?"
"More than that. They will be expecting to encounter an unaware young clerk escorting a drugged twelve-year old."
"I see. You mean that the odds are that they won't be expecting any resistance at all."
"Precisely. Between now and then, we need to pool our resources. Pact?"
Waverly offered her his hand and was pleased that she took it immediately. Then the weight of the responsibility settled onto his shoulders and he took a deep breath - only to find the blue eyes had warmed as if she seen what just happened. Perhaps she had - she was as fey a being as he had ever encountered. Far too old for her years. And, for the first time, what seemed to be a geuine smile formed on her face.
"I knew you were not like them, Alexander."
In the not so recent past, he might have viewed those words as an insult. Now he felt as if he had just received a benediction.
