My stomach heaved and I vomited again.
‘How did your species ever live long enough to evolve when you do ridiculous things like this?’ Warm fingers stroked the nape of my neck. ‘It can’t be a sensible reaction toanything.’
‘Poisoning,’ I said weakly. ‘Bad food. Being around things that are bad for your body. Indulging in too much –’
‘All right, all right, it serves a purpose. Adisgustingpurpose, but a purpose. I think you need one more, love.’
‘I don’t –’ I started, then retched onto the pale stone beneath me.
Pale stone?
‘Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé?’
The question came from an unfamiliar female voice, shocked but quiet.
I frowned and looked upwards, blinking.
A woman –a human woman, with curly brown hair and lovely hazel eyes currently wide with shock – rushed towards me. She took a bottle of water –human water, in an expensive glass bottle– from her handbag. ‘Es-tu malade?’
I stared at her. French. She was speaking French. She offered me the water; I pushed myself up, looking around for the first time.
Pale stone buildings. A pale stone road beneath me. Cool, fresh air. A view to die for, looking out across at more buildings made of pale brick, dotted with greenery, and fields stretching for miles around.
I whimpered.
‘Tu vas bien?’ she said.
‘Je vais bien, merci,’ I said weakly. French had never been my strongest subject, and I stared blankly as she quick fired something more complex at me. ‘Vesper?’
His woodsmoke scent settled around me. I breathed in deeply, and let it do its work.
‘Where did you come from?’ the woman demanded, pulling her coat tighter around her. ‘First you were not there, and then you were there, and then you werevomiting, and –’
‘Thank you for your help,’ I managed. ‘I just stumbled. Vertigo. We were trying to get a good photo.’
She frowned at me, no doubt taking in my strange, ill-fitting uniform, and my decided lack of camera or phone. I took a mouthful of water and offered it back to her.
‘You keep it,’ she said. Her eyes flickered to Vesper, and she stared, her cheeks flushing a deep pink as she took him in. ‘You sound … English? American? Where are you staying?’
Jealousy stirred in my stomach, threatening to upset it again. ‘Australian. We’re not sure if we are,’ I said shortly. I staggered to my feet; Vesper caught me around the waist and tucked me against his side. My heart thumped unevenly.
‘Ah, headed back to Avignon, then?’
‘Mmm,’ I answered noncommittally. I glanced around me, my eyes falling on a sign that readChâteau de Gordes.
I closed my eyes. We were in freakingProvence, the subject of multiple teenaged-Anna mood boards before I realised just how much it would cost to get there.Here. ‘We just wanted to see the Sénanque Abbey before we left. Could you point us to a taxi?’
The woman smiled, and gave us some directions, then left only after I thanked her profusely and said pointedly that we didn’t want to keep her. Her evident interest in Vesper made me unaccountably angry, and as I was piecing it all together to get a picture of what had happened, I became downrightirate.
‘We’re on Earth,’ I whispered furiously. ‘You brought me back toEarth.’ I took another swig of water, both to cleanse my mouth and so I would do something with my hands that didn’t involve punching Vesper square in the face.
He looked down at me in surprise. ‘Of course I brought you back to Earth.’
I willed myself not to throttle him. ‘Vesper,’ I said, as calmly as I could manage, ‘I didn’t want to come back to Earth.’
He blinked his golden eyes. ‘But Callantookyou from here.’
‘He did,’ I agreed carefully, ‘and I’m still angry about that. But it doesn’t mean that Iregretit.’
