Hurriedly, I pushed myself to my feet.
As Lucas stood also, I asked, "So what were you doing? When you saw me?"
"Like I said, I thought you were in trouble. There are some rough charactersup in these parts. Not everybody has self control." He brushed a few pine needles from his sweater.
I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. My instincts got the best of me. Sorry about that."
"It's okay, honestly. I realize you were trying to help. I meant, before you saw me. Orientation doesn't start for another few hours. It's really early. They told students to arrive around ten A.M."
I've never been very good at playing by the rules."
That was interesting. "So ____ you're a morning person, getting a jump on the day?"
"Hardly. I haven't gone to bed yet." He had a fantastic grin, and I'd already noticed that he knew how to use it. I didn't mind. "Anyway, my mom couldn't bring me herself. She's away, on business, I guess you'd say. I caught the red-eye train in and thought I'd walk up here first. Get the lie of the land. Rescue any damsels in distress."
When I rememberedhow fast Lucas had been running after me, and realized that he'd been doing that in an attempt to save my life, the memory changed. The fear was gone, and now it made me smile. "Why did you come to Evernight? I'm stuck here because of my parents, but you could probably have gone someplace else. Someplace better. So, like, anywhere else."
Lucas honestly didn't seem to know how to answer. He pushed branches back as we kept walking through the forest, keeping any of them from scraping my face. Nobody had ever cleared a path for me before. "It's a long story."
"I'm not in a hurry to go back. Besides, we've got a few hours to kill before orientation. "
He lowered his head, but kept his eyes fixed on me. There was something undeniably sexy about that move, though I wasn't sure he want it that way. His eyes were almost exactly the same,e colour as the ivy that grew on the towers at Evernight. "It's also kind of a secret."
"I can keep a secret. I mean, you're going to keep this whole incident secret for me, right? With the running and the freaking out"
"I'll never tell." After a couple more seconds of consideration, Lucas finally confessed, "An ancestor of mine tried to go to school here almost a hundred and fifty years ago. He washed out, I guess you'd say." Lucas laughed, and it felt like the sunlight had broken through the trees. "So it's up to me to 'restore the family honour.'"
"That's not fair. You shouldn't have to make all your decisions based on what he did or didn't do."
"Not all my decisions. They let me pick out my own socks." I smiled as he tugged up his pants leg to reveal a silver of argyle sock above his heavy black boot.
"How did your great-grand-whatever wash out?"
