Lily Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    ‘Don’t laugh !’ Georgie snapped, giving her a little shake. ‘What were you thinking of? You would have died if you’d fallen onto the terrace!’
    ‘I know. But it’s so funny – this is the first time you’ve acted like my big sister in ages. Maybe I should do stupid things more often.’ She smiled up at Georgie, leaning back against her sister’s knees, and not minding the tight grip of her fingers. ‘Wouldn’t you have cast a spell to catch me, anyway, if I fell?’
    Her sister sat down next to her, hugging her arms around her knees. ‘I don’t know if I could, Lily.’ She closed her eyes, as though it hurt to look at her sister. ‘I would have tried. Of course I would. But nothing works.’
    ‘The prophecy…’ Lily started.
    ‘Wrong.’ Georgie shrugged. ‘Or perhaps that seer was simply too frightened of Mama to say anything different. Mama’s worried that another child will be better than I am. There are other magical families still. There’s an Endicott girl, the same age as me, she says…’
    ‘Oh…’ Lily nodded thoughtfully. ‘So that’s why Mama is so angry all the time now.’ Then she frowned. ‘Georgie, what is it that they want you to do?’
    There was a skitter of claws, and Henrietta poked her wrinkled muzzle through the bars of Lily’s balcony. ‘Yes! I want to know that too, please!’
    Georgie sprang up, nearly tipping Lily over, then seized her sister, and dragged her back against the wall of the house, holding an arm across her front. ‘Who’s there?’ she snapped.
    ‘Georgie, stop it!’ Lily wriggled out from Georgie’s grip, and pointed. ‘Look! It’s only Henrietta.’ She smiled, a proud little smirk. ‘She’s my dog. I brought her out of the picture of the girl in the pink silk dress downstairs. It’s Great Aunt Arabel, did you know that?’ She looked up, and caught the expression of horror and fear that had turned Georgie even paler than she was before. ‘What is it? Oh… Are you worried that I stole her? Great Aunt Arabel does look rather cross about it, but unless we bring her out of the picture too, there isn’t a great deal she can do, is there? Don’t worry, Georgie.’
    But her sister was staring at her, her eyes dark violet pools in her white face, eyes the colour of bruises. ‘ You brought the little dog out of the painting? Your magic – you’re starting to find your magic,’ she murmured, her face twisting strangely.
    Lily nodded. ‘Are you angry?’ she asked, her voice small and thin. ‘I won’t tell Mama, if you don’t want me to. I’m sure yours will work again – perhaps it’s – it’s just your age…’
    ‘Oh, Lily…’ Georgie murmured. Then she laughed. ‘That pug is going to have a fit if we leave her there much longer.’
    Henrietta whined crossly. ‘I shall stick here if I put my head any further through these bars,’ she pointed out. ‘You are most unkind, talking so quietly, and on the other balcony. Come back here!’ She wriggled herself back out of the bars with an almost audible pop.
    ‘Come back to my room?’ Lily pleaded. ‘We could curl up on my bed. We haven’t done that for so long. Please, Georgie.’
    Georgie nodded, stepping back in through her window, and holding her hand out to Lily to follow her.
    Lily looked around curiously as her sister crept to the door. Georgie’s room had changed in the last year or so, since she had last been allowed to play in there with her sister. The pretty furniture was pushed out of the way, leaving room for swaying towers of books and papers. Odd vessels were dotted here and there, most of them with strange crusts of old spells staining the glass, as though Georgie had been desperately practising between her lessons. Georgie hardly seemed to notice, simply weaving her way between the piles to the door. Lily caught her breath as she saw that there was a scarlet thread tied around the white porcelain door handle, but Georgie untangled it so easily,