by Lisa Tuttle
The bird stretched his neck out, putting his head back until the beak was pointed up at the ceiling. Then he opened his beak and swallowed the morsel.
Bella gave a despairing cry and dropped her face into her hands.
For a moment the room was silent except for the soft crackling of the flames in the hearth, and the faint snoring of Alys, asleep in her sister’s lap. Then Ann spoke.
“Mr. Jesperson, I have changed my mind,” she said. “You may have a piece of my ginger cake, after all. It is mine, you know. Alys said she made it for me, and so she did, but I added something to it, a special ingredient, when she was not looking. That is why I had to tell her she was not allowed to eat any of it; no one was to touch it, unless I said so. And now I say that you may eat it.”
“Thank you, Miss Ann,” he said with a little bow.
“Will you have something to drink with it? There is that bottle of Madeira wine. Forgive me for not serving you, but I do not wish to disturb my sister.”
“Do not trouble yourself. Miss Lane and I are leaving now.”
Her eyes widened and she gave a little gasp. “Not before you have eaten your cake?”
“I shall take it away with me, for later.”
“No—you must not—you must eat it now.” She scowled. “Do you hear me? Eat it now; otherwise, I shall think you very rude, and not at all a gentleman.”
Bella raised her face, which looked as pale and lifeless as a mask. “Throw it on the fire,” she whispered. “Please.”
“I am sorry,” he said, and turned toward the door.
I took one last look at the three sisters in that room with the dying fire, and looked up at the bird, as still as a statue in the shadows near the ceiling, and then I followed my friend.
Outside the house, we met the police arriving.
About the Author
LISA TUTTLE won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer of the Year in 1974 and has since written a dozen novels within the wider field of fantastic fiction, and more than a hundred short stories, some of them award-winners, as well as nonfiction and children’s books. Her first novel, Windhaven, was written in collaboration with George R. R. Martin. Others include The Mysteries, which combines a detective story with ancient Celtic legends; The Silver Bough, a contemporary fantasy set in Scotland; and Lost Futures, short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
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