"I don't." She seemed tobe speaking through herteeth-anyway there was something odd about her diction. She had her back to him and he couldn't see her face, but her hands were clawed.
"Jade,"Mark said urgently. He was scared enoughto run, but he couldn't leave her. He couldn't.
No good guy would do that.
Too late. The blackberry bushes to the south quivered. Parted. Something was coming through.
Mark's heart seemed to freeze solid, but then he found himself moving. Pushing Jade roughly aside.
Standing in front of her to face whatever the thing in the dark was.
Mary-Lynnette kicked her way through the blackberry canes. Her arms and legs were scratched, and she could feel ripe, bright-black berries squishing against her. She'd probably picked a bad place to get through the hedge, but she hadn't been thinking about that. She'd been thinking about Mark, aboutfinding him as fast as possible and getting away from here.
0Just please let him be here, she thought. Let him be here and be okay and I'll never ask for anything else.
She struggled through the last of the canes into thebackyard-and then things happened very fast. The first thing she saw was Mark, and she felt a rush of relief. Then a flash of surprise. Mark was standing in front of a girl, his arms lifted like a basketball guard. As if to protect her from Mary-Lynnette.
And then, so quickly that Mary-Lynnette could barely follow the motion, the girl was rushing at her.
And Mary-Lynnette was throwing her arms up and Mark was shouting, "No, that's my sister!"
The girl stopped a foot away from Mary-Lynnette.It was the little silvery-haired one, of course. This dose Mary-Lynnette couldsee that she had green eyes and skin so translucent it almost looked like quartz
crystal.
"Jade, it's my sister,".Mark said again, as if anxiousto get this established. "Her name's Mary-Lynnette.She won't hurt you. Mare, tell her you won't hurther."
Hurt her? Mary-Lynnette didn't know what he wastalking about, and didn't want to. This girl was as weirdly beautiful as the others, and something abouther eyes-hey weren't ordinary green, but almost silvery-made Mary-Lynnette's skin rise ingoose pimples.
"Hello," Jade said.
"Hello. Okay, Mark, c'mon. We've got to go. Like right now."
She expected him to agree immediately. He wasthe one who hadn't wanted to come, and now herehe was with his most dreaded phobia, a girl. But instead he said, "Did you hear that yelling? Could you tell where it came from?"
"What yelling? I was inside. Come on." MaryLynnette took Mark's arm, but since he was as strongas she was, it didn't do any good. "Maybe I heardsomething. I wasn't paying attention." She'd been looking desperately around the Victorian living room,babbling out lies about how her family knew where she'd gone tonight and expected her back soon. How her father and stepmother were such good friends of Mrs. Burdock's and how they were just waiting at home to hear about Mrs. B.'s nieces. She still wasn't sure if that was why they'd let her go. But for somereason, Rowan had finally stood up, given MaryLynnette a grave, sweet smile, and opened the front door.
"You know, I bet it was a wolverine," Mark was saying to Jade excitedly. "A wolverine that came down from Willamette Forest."
Jade was frowning. "A wolverine?" She considered. "Yeah, I guess that could have been it. I've never heard one before." She looked at MaryLynnette. "Is that what you think it was?"
"Oh, sure," Mary-Lynnette said at random. "Definitely a wolverine." I should ask where her aunt is, she thought suddenly. It's the perfect opportunity to catch her in a lie. I'll ask and then she'llsay something-anything, but not that her aunt'sgone up north for a little vacation on the coast. And then I'll know.
She didn't do it. She simply didn't have the courage. She didn't want to catch anyone in a lie anymore;
she just wanted to get out.
"Mark, please ..."
He looked at her and for the first time seemed tosee how upset she was. "Uh-okay," he said. And to Jade: "Look, why don't you go back inside now?You'll be safe there. And maybe-maybe I could come over again sometime?"
Mary-Lynnette was still tugging at him, and now, to her relief, he began to move. Mary-Lynnette headed for the blackberry bushes that she'd trampled coming in.
"Why don't you go through there? It's like apath," Jadesaid,pointing. Mark immediately swerved, taking Mary-Lynnette with him, and she saw a comfortable gap between two rhododendron bushes at the back of the garden. She would never have seen it unless she knew what to look for.
As they reached the hedge, Mark turned to glance behind him. Mary-Lynnette turned, too.
From here, Jade was just a dark silhouette againstthe porch light-but her hair, lit from behind, looked like a silver halo. It shimmered around her. MaryLynnette heard Mark draw in his breath.
"You both come back sometime," Jade said cordially. "Help us milk the goats like Aunt Opal said. She gave us very strict orders before she went on vacation."
Mary-Lynnette was dumbfounded.
She turned back and reeled through the gap, her head spinning. When they got to the road she said, "Mark, what happened when you got into the garden?"
Mark was looking preoccupied. "What do you mean what happened? Nothing happened."
"Did you look at the place that was dug up?"
"No," Mark said shortly. "Jade was in the gardenwhen I got there. I didn't get a chance to look at anything."
"Mark ... was she there the whole time? Jade?Did she ever go in the house? Or did either of the other girls ever come out?"
Mark grunted. "I don't even know what the othergirls look like. The only one I saw was Jade, and she was there the whole time." He looked at her darkly. "You're not still on this Rear Windowthing, are you?"