Patricia Veryan - [Sanguinet Saga 09] - Logic Of The Heart by Patricia Veryan Page A

with relations, then?"
    "Oh yes. But we won't be here long."
    "Don't you like the country?"
    She considered this, then said judiciously, "I been looking it
over. It's pretty, but there's a awful lot of it."
    "Very true. But you shouldn't go looking it over all alone,
child."
    "I don't. Wolfgang was with me, else Mama wouldn't let me go
out. He's my 'fierce an' 'vincible guard dog,' Uncle Andy says.
Wolfgang the Terrible he calls him 'cause Wolfgang 'tacks anyone who
comes near me."
    "He sounds terrible indeed." Montclair glanced about,
wondering with a touch of unease if Wolfgang was as antisocial as
Soldier, or whether he was another figment of this extremely bright
little girl's obviously fertile imagination. "Where is he?"
    She glanced around, then called shrilly, "Wolf… gang… !"
    Almost at once there was a rustling in the undergrowth. "Here
he comes," said Priscilla fondly.
    Wolfgang plunged into the clearing, then paused, scanning
Montclair with ears alert and eyes unblinking. "Stand very still, Mr.
Val'tine," whispered the child. "An' p'raps he won't bite you very bad!"
    Montclair, who had instinctively tightened his grip on the
branch, regarded 'Wolfgang the Terrible' in silence. The dog was white
with liver markings. His eyes and ears were large, he was about seven
inches tall at the shoulders, and he probably weighed in the
neighbourhood of ten pounds. He advanced on Montclair without marked
hostility although the ratty tail did not wave a greeting. Montclair
saw the somewhat protruding dark eyes fixed on the stick he held. He
tossed it aside, and Wolfgang took three quick leaps to the rear.
Dropping to one knee, Montclair called, "Here, Wolfgang. Come, old
fellow."
    Wriggling, the dog inched forward. His ears flattened
themselves against his head, and his tail was wagging so fast that it
was almost invisible. He licked Montclair's outstretched hand, then
flung himself down and presented his stomach for inspection. 'A fine
guard dog you are, sir,' thought Montclair, troubled, as he caressed
the small head.
    Priscilla, however, who had watched this meeting with her
hands tightly clasped and an anxious look on her face, gave a sigh of
relief. "Thank goodness he likes you," she whispered. "He can be
dreffully awful!"
    "I'm sure he can." Montclair stood up, took her hand tightly
in his, and led her among the decaying slabs to the very edge of the
pit. "Do you see her?" he whispered.
    Her eyes very wide, for she had not dared venture this close,
Priscilla adjusted her spectacles, peered downward, and whispered back,
"No. Who?"
    "The Fury. She lives down there, only she comes out if she
hears little girls. Especially little girls who sing. She likes the
taste of them."
    He felt the small hand tremble, and she shrank closer against
his leg.
    "A real—
Fury
?' she whispered. "Is she bad
and wicked and ugly?"
    "Very bad. And very ugly. She does cruel and awful things to
children who come here alone."
    A pause. Then she quavered, "Wolfgang wouldn't let her. He
takes care of me. He's braver than anything!" She thought, then added
reinforcingly, "He could bite the King, I 'spect."
    "Perhaps he could. But the King is only a man. The Fury is a
witch. A wicked witch with no heart and a big hairy wart on the end of
her nose. So I want you to promise me you will never come here again,
Priscilla. As one friend promises another."
    She looked up at him, her eyes very big behind the spectacles
that made her face seem even smaller. The sunbonnet slipped down to
cover her left ear. She asked, still in that hushed whisper, "Isn't you
'fraid of the Fury?"
    "Yes, I am. She must be asleep or she'd have heard us and
pulled us both in there. That's where her cooking pot is. Down at the
bottom." The child was beginning to look quite pale with fright and he
thought he'd made his point, so drew her back. It was more important
that she get safely to her family than that he see the Henley woman
today. He sat on the blocks again and discovered