I can do this.
“Hello?” she says.
I smile. “Sure. What’ll you have?”
“A margarita, I think.”
I order her drink from the bartender and get myself another beer. When she has her margarita in hand, she taps the brim of her glass against my bottle.
“So, do you dance?” she asks.
“I can learn.”
She smiles. “Now those are three words I like to hear from a man.”
CHARLES DE LINT and his wife, the artist MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His evocative novels, including Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, and The Onion Girl, have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction in the manner of story-tellers like John Crowley, Jonathan Carroll, Alice Hoffman, Ray Bradbury, and Isabel Allende.
JACKET ART BY JOHN JUDE PALENCAR
A TOR® HARDCOVER
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DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY
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PRINTED IN THE USA
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
WIDDERSHINS
Copyright © 2006 by Charles de Lint
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
De Lint, Charles.
Widdershins / Charles de Lint.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 0-765-31285-9 (acid-free paper)
EAN 978-0-765-31285-3
1. Newford (Imaginary place)—Fiction. 2. City and town life—Fiction. 3. Magic—Fiction.
4. Man-woman relationships—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9199.3.D357W53 2006
813’.54—dc22
2005034475
First Edition: May 2006
Printed in the United States of America
0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Widdershins Page 64