Chapter 22

“That’s interesting!” Anne said.

“And highly unusual,” Pat said, in her amused way.

“You said there were the four cards in a column, and then a cross,” Anne continued. “Which ones were they?”

“I don’t remember all of them. There were two, one overlaid over the other, at the center. It was the Fool and the Hermit.”

Anne fished through the cards. “Oh!” she said at last. “The Hermit—that’s number nine, too.”

“I know,” I said.

“Haunted by nines,” Glendon quipped.

“What does that mean?” I asked him, irritated.

He raised his eyebrows and pulled on his cigarette. “I have no idea,” he said, exhaling.

“So, you think it means nothing,” I continued.

“Why should it? I mean,” he gestured towards me with a hand, “who are you anyway? No one special.”

His slightly scornful air made my face heat up again.

“I never said I was!” I spoke the words through gritted teeth, containing my anger, knowing that any show of emotion would merely amuse him.