Petra

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Imogen Fox was such a delightful creature, Petra thought. There was something otherworldly but also familiar about the girl. She reminded Petra of those drawings in Brian Froud's Faeries. It must be the giant eyes and the pointy proud chin.

Petra fancied Ms. Fox's calm and civilised disposition. The Titan didn't actually frighten the girl. She was just being respectful. The Titan being Mr. Oakby Esq. Petra couldn't quite remember how he'd gained the pet name in her barmy brain; she did tend to think metaphorically. Or was it allegorically? There was something there about devouring one's own children; and being all mighty and majestic.

Petra kept walking, pointing at the areas of the dig, and allowing her gob to rattle on. Ms. Fox seemed to earnestly listen; while the Titan obviously boiled and brewed. Following the metaphor, Petra was hoping he'd steam enough, and the noise would be deafening, and then the whistle would pop and fly across the lawn, just like on Petra's favourite kettle.

"Oh, and what's happening with those bodies in the dam?" she asked over her shoulder, and saw Ms. Fox trip.

"Pardon?"

"That unpleasant Mr. Horvat, may he rest in peace. Whatever they say - 'ni nisi bonum' and such - but he was such a brute. And there was a girl there as well, wasn't it? An Asian one?"

Ms. Fox stared at Petra for a few seconds.

"We've been... introduced," Petra explained, and wrinkled her nose. "All of them weren't quite my cup of tea. I tend to stay away from my countrymen, especially the 'men' ones. Although, if memory serves me right, Mrs. Horvat was his soulmate, that is if either of them had any soul."

"Do you mean to say you knew of Mr. Horvat's relationship with Ms. Sarin?" Ms. Fox apparently had trod through Petra's ramblings and had processed the information. That surely deserved a certain degree of admiration. Few managed.

"We've had dinner. Myself and the lot of them. The Serbians." Petra cringed at the memory. "That would have been around the time they all arrived and took root. It was more like a mycelium, considering how slimy they all felt."

Petra laughed. "Pardon me, it's all in these clouds of associations in my head." She wiggled her fingers in the air. "But they seemed to have formed a ring, you know sort of like a drug ring, but to do with construction. So my brain naturally connected the roots with mycelium because it's like a fairy ring."

"It wasn't Ms. Sarin who was found in the dam," Ms. Fox said carefully. "Mr. Horvat's body was discovered together with that of Ms. Kitty Oswood."

"Oh that's odd." Petra shrugged. "I specifically remember that I thought that the other girl was too beautiful for him. She had those large black eyes; and I thought that was perhaps her rebellion against a despotic father that pushed her into the brute's arms. Don't you find that a natural progression, Mr. Oakby?"

Petra shot a quick glance at the Titan, who had been industriously pretending that he was just walking along, on his own volition.

"I wouldn't know, Dr. Nenadovich," he answered haughtily, and looked at her sideways, like a frightened horse.

"You're a father of a girl. Didn't you daughter choose a gambler and rake for a husband?"

The masculine jaw under the grey beard set; and the blue eyes shot daggers. Petra internally squealed in glee.

"I rather you refrain of discussing my personal life, Dr. Nenadovich. It's quite enough that you've invaded my land."

"Invaded?" Petra laughed. "You've vainly given in to the Dean's pleas, Mr. Oakby. And now you're being difficult about it, just for the sake of being difficult. Just like you aren't sharing all the treasures of your library with the public."

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