Page 12 of Hunted By the Guardian
Noah’s head jerked up. “She said that to you too?”
“It’s been a very long time,” Violet said. “She used to tell me that when I was no older than you are now. But I remember…you’ve just reminded me.” She smiled at him. “Thank you, Noah. It’s very special to me that you were able to help me call back a memory of someone I know you and I both loved.”
“I didn’t think you really loved her,” Noah said quietly. “I thought you just wanted to get her house.”
“I only want this house so much because I remember being here with her,” Violet said. “I have a lot of happy memories here. I’m sure you do too, don’t you?”
Noah nodded slowly.
“It’s very sad that she’s gone,” Violet said. “But you and I might be able to make some new memories together, if we’re both willing to give it a try. I’d like that very much.”
“Maybe,” Noah whispered. “Maybe we could.”
“In the meantime, would you like to come to the library with me?” She held out a hand. “I think I remember seeing a book about insects there. That seems like it might be of interest to you.”
Noah perked up. “Really? I didn’t know there was a book like that.”
“Maybe Aunt Margaret was saving it to surprise you,” Violet suggested. “It’s a mighty big library.”
“Yes,” Noah said, and to Violet’s surprise and delight, he reached out and took her hand. “I would like to see that book, please.”
She smiled at him and led the two of them into the house. The book in question was waiting on one of the end tables—she’d spotted it and pulled it out before going to look for him. Her conversation with Molly about his interests had made her believe that this might be just the thing to win him over, and it looked like she had made a good judgment. It’s a very lucky thing Aunt Margaret had this book!
“I thought some quiet reading time might be a good way for us to spend a little bit of our day together,” she suggests. “I could read the book I’m in the middle of, and you can read that one. What do you think?”
“Oh…” Noah’s head dropped. “Well…could you read it to me?”
“Certainly, if you’d like,” she said, picking it up. She frowned. “I suppose I didn’t realize boys of your age still liked having stories read to them—but if it’s something you enjoy, we can certainly do that.”
His face was beet red. “It isn’t about…it’s not that I enjoy it,” he mumbled. “I don’t know how to read.”
She lowered the book. “You don’t?”
“Nobody ever taught me!” His cheeks blazed. “How could I learn when there was no one to teach me?”
“You couldn’t, of course,” she soothed him. “It’s all right, Noah. I know things were difficult for you before you came to live here. I didn’t realize you’d never had an opportunity to learn how to read, but that isn’t your fault, and I don’t judge you for it. I can read the book to you.”
He nodded slowly. “All right,” he agreed.
“Do you want to come and sit next to me so that you’ll be able to see the pictures?” she asked him, patting the chaise next to her.
He hesitated, but the lure of the pictures must have been too great to resist. He made his way over and sat down next to her. A moment later, he was leaning close so that he could get a better look at a drawing of a beetle. “I’ve never seen one that color,” he said.
“This one doesn’t live in England, so you probably never will,” she said. “This bright red type only lives in the jungle. We don’t have them here.”
“I wish we did!” Noah said, with more enthusiasm than he had shown for anything so far. “It’s so interesting!”
“Well, it’s probably good for us that they don’t live here,” Violet chuckled. “This beetle is poisonous. It bites, and when it does…”
“Do you die?” Noah asked, his eyes wide as saucers.
“No, not usually. But your hand—if that was where it bit you—would swell up this big.” She held her own hands up to demonstrate, and Noah gaped. “And it would hurt terribly. Best not to let such a thing happen to you at all.”
“How do you know all this?” he asked her. “Were you…were you bitten by one of them?”
“No, no,” she assured him. “Remember, they don’t live here—only very far away. I’ll never meet one in my life, and unless you become a jungle explorer one day, neither will you. I know because I’m reading about them in the book, that’s all.” She pointed to the picture's description. “It tells me right here what they’re like. I’m just reading and telling you about it.”
“Hmm,” Noah said.
