"Why are you not eating anything tonight, Gemma?" Ann asks me with a concerned expression on her plump face, creating a look that quite resembles a grimacing hamster. I have not told her and Felicity yet of my encounter with our fellow members of the order, Salina and Ellis.

"I'm just thinking," I hope that this is an adequate answer for I do not wish to be bothered while I think. Ann gives me a hard, long look, then shrugs her shoulders and goes back to attempting to delicately shovel pork roast into her mouth. A task doomed to fail, I believe, but Ann keeps trying.

"Something's happened that you're not telling us Gemma. And I really don't want to have to go through that whole best-friends-tell-each-other-everything speech again. And it's about the realms, I'm sure." Felicity chastises me while holding her own forkful of pork roast and managing to look graceful. I give her an icy glare. Why did I have to have friends that are either extremely bossy or terribly dim?

"If it were that important, don't you think that I would have told you both by now?" I think that by saying this, I have gotten myself into a terrible pot of trouble, and I wish to snatch it back into my mouth and forget about the whole conversation. But instead, I have awakened a hornet's nest.

When I see Felicity drop her fork on to her plate, I jump at the racket it has made. A couple of other girls have been startled also, but they just go back to their business. Ann is regarding this little episode with an unreadable expression.

"It's that gypsy boy, isn't it?" Felicity hisses at me vehemently. Ever since I caught her with her own gypsy, in the little boat house by the lake, which, may I point out, is the reason we are such jolly good friends today, as she was afraid that I would tell. She has been rather touchy on the subject of this wild breed of human.

"Felicity, I dare say that this is not the time or place to speak of such matters," I hiss right back at her scornfully. "And besides, he is Indian not gypsy!" I decide to add as I moodily roll my eyes and head for the nearest exit. Because the truth is, I wish that my news were about Kartik. Oh how I missed his bright, understanding brown eyes, and long lashes. I miss how he laughs and how he speaks with that smooth, deep, masculine voice. But most of all, I miss the feeling of his touch. The way fireworks went off inside my body when he kissed me during the holidays.

Back in my room that I share with Ann, I stand in front of my full-length mirror. I suppose that some would call me handsome, though that subject would surely end there with that simple accusation. My complexion is terribly ruined beyond repair by my splattering of freckles along my nose and high cheekbones. My unnerving green eyes stand out almost as if they glow, and my high forehead gives way to a possibly entangled mass of reddish blonde hair, though I would call it a thicket of wild roses instead, for it is so wind swept and wild looking. I have a long, graceful swan neck, one of my attributes, which leads too my chest, below a very bony collarbone, are my ample bosoms, which I daresay is the only reason any man would ever look at me! I have a long upper body, a flat tummy, and long legs, all pale as the moon on a winter night, naked against the black sky. I am tall unfortunately, and big bones, but skinny, there is not a bit of fat on me.

Slowly I peel of my clothes, and change into my nightdress, Ann has still not arrived from downstairs, and she is probably reading to the younger girls. Ann needs to feel needed. She starts wasting away when she has no purpose.

I am settled down with Pride and Prejudice, when there is a commotion from just outside of my window. Rocks are being pelted at my window and someone is loudly whispering my name.

"Gemma! Gemma?" I would recognize his voice anywhere. I throw my book onto the ground, it is boring anyway, and shoot out of bed. As quickly as I can I open the latch on the window and swing it out. I am looking from three stories up into the face of Kartik.

"Come down," he says with a smile. He needn't ask me twice, for I am down the grand staircase in a mere ten seconds, and running right past the bewildered glances of teachers and students. He meets me by the edge of the woods, where we are hidden from sight by a large tree and blanketed my shadows. He holds out his arms, but I hesitate, then rush in. The warmth of it is amazing. A man can make a woman feel so alive!

Softly he murmurs into my neck, "I told you I'd be back,"