Zelda's nerves weren't helped when he started by talking about the girl from the book. She pressed her hands against the side of her legs. Then Mr. Darrow kept going, and he definitely wasn't telling her that he had secretly been in love with Book Girl the whole time, so that was a relief. She just wished that he would look at her - Zelda fixed her gaze on Mr. Darrow's face, and tried to read it.

She guessed it was fair. She had been convinced, until he came back, that he wasn't going to. If that had been a little nervy for her, it hadn't been for Mr. Darrow - he, after all, had been missing for years. She was just always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"What would you have said, if you - weren't nervous about that?" Zelda asked. Hopefully it wasn't 'the girl I had a thing for was secretly your sister, Xena,' because then she was going to have a serious problem.

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