“I d?nnae ken what that means,” he calls after me.
I spin back around to flash him two.
He throws me an unimpressed look and then walks back to the girl, putting his arm around her, closing the door behind him.
Piano.
I don’t know where to go or what to do. I can’t go back to the tree house. I don’t want to go to the Old Valley. I don’t know how to get home.
I spot a little lizard that’s staring at me from a few metres away. He’s glowing this warm sort of yellowy green, perched at the edge of the dock.
I watch him for a few seconds, and briefly I feel better, distracted by something that’s so strange it demands my full attention, and then the lizard drops off the edge of the dock.
I dart towards it and peer over the edge, but the lizard’s landed in a beached canoe.
He stares up at me, blinks twice. And for some reason, I feel like he’s telling me something.
I look over my shoulder to see if anyone else is seeing this, but there aren’t many people around, and besides, who’s watching a sad, crying girl chase a lizard anyway?
I slip down over the side of the dock and land on the sand.
I stare at the lizard, which stares back at me. “Am I to understand we’re to share this?” I gesture to the canoe.
Quite typically of lizards （and as I suspected）， he says nothing in return.
I hold out my hand. “Are you a nice lizard?”
He runs onto my hand and immediately curls up in the palm of my hand.
“Well, at least one of us is set for the night.”
I climb into the canoe, curling into a ball, being careful not to squash my new lizard friend as I do.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there is no such thing as fate, and maybe I hate it here.
* * *
* Though I’m not so sure that he noticed.
? And knowing him, I doubt he meant it in the way where a girl might throw with focus and precision and a quiet strength that would go over Peter’s head.
* Much.
* I hope.
* How good of him. How very superior to all the other men I know on this island.
CHAPTER
NINE
“Are ye havin’ a sleep with a lizard?” says a deep* voice I don’t particularly want to hear first thing in the morning, all things considered, though were I being honest, I suppose I’m glad to hear it also.
“No.” I keep my eyes closed for a few more seconds. “I believe that was you.”
Jamison snorts a laugh, and I blink my eyes open, staring at my little lizard friend and my little lizard friend only. He’s still all curled up in my palm, I give him a smile, then lift my hand up to the top of the canoe and let him climb off me.
“Look at ye.” Jamison nods his chin at me. “So at one with nature.”
“Look at you.” I glare at him. “So clothed now.”
He tilts his head. “Are ye a bit sad about that?”
I give him a stubborn look. “Not even remotely.”
Though actually, if I were to be entirely truthful, perhaps I am a bit （but very remotely）。
He crouches down so we’re closer to eye level. “What’re ye doing in a canoe?”
“Oh.” I sigh. “I just grew tired of all the comforts you get from living in a tree house and decided I wanted to create some new lower back problems for myself.” I give him a sarcastic look.
Jamison squashes away a smile, nodding. “Ye fighting with the wee man?”
I look away. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
He moves his head, looking for my eyes. “Ye came to me last night.”
I give him a look. “And you came with someone else entirely, so that’s completely brilliant for you.”
Jamison frowns. “Is thon what ye were there for?”
I quickly tuck some hair behind my ears. “Of course not!”
He stands, arms folded over himself, staring down at me, brows furrowed. “Yer angry.”
“No, I’m not,” I tell him hotly, and I don’t know when I decided I felt like fighting with him, but I do.
He offers me his hand to help me up, but I brush it away, heaving myself up instead—and rather indelicately so, I might add. He rolls his eyes at me.
I’ve never fought with a man before, so I can’t tell for certain whether that’s what we’re doing right now, but whatever this is, I must admit that there is a thrill to it.
Jamison nods his chin at me. “I like yer dress. It makes ye look quite swarthy.”
I shrug dismissively. “I just get darker in the sun is all.”