Chapter Seventeen – An Exchange of Birthday Presents
The next evening was the long-awaited Knights of Walpurgis election. Rachel met up with Gaius after they both caught an early dinner. She walked up smiling, holding his present behind her back. Gaius was wearing new robes, not a patch in sight. Rachel felt chagrined. Buying him new robes had not occurred to her.
“How did it go with William telling O.I. about Amber?” she asked.
Vlad and Gaius’s best friend, William Locke, was the son of one of the two owners of Ouroboros Industries. It had fallen upon him to inform his father of the security breech in the form of Amber and Lucky.
Gaius shrugged glumly. “He was disappointed. So was Vlad. But William said his father and Mr. Moth were rather glad we found out about the leak.”
“Better to know than not.” She was quiet and then asked coyly, “So, have you been having a happy birthday? I mean since last night and since last time I asked you, at lunch?”
“I have,” he replied gallantly. “Rather.”
“I have a birthday present for you,” she announced. It was heavy, so she was looking forward to pulling it out from behind her and showing it to him.
“And I for you,” he replied.
“Me?” she asked, surprised. “It’s not my birthday!”
“Ah, but your birthday is during the spring holidays, and my present for you is here at school. So I figure I should show it to you now.”
“You couldn’t bring it home and meet up with us over spring break?” she asked plaintively. She so hoped to see him over the break.
Gaius’s eyes sparkled with humor. “No, I rather could not. You’ll understand when I show it to you. What do you have for me?”
Rachel pulled his present from behind her back and held it out. It was a brand new O.I. Starling Flycycle wrapped in the long pale paper that Marlowe Hall kept available for murals.
Gaius’s jaw dropped. “A bristleless? A real one? I can’t accept that!”
“Why not?” Rachel cried, hurt.
“Rachel, those are expensive.”
Her bottom lip trembled. Was he going to reject her gift just because he had a commoner’s idea of expensive? She wanted so much for him to have it.
She spoke very quietly. “Not for me.”
Gaius winced. “Don’t look at me that way. What young man could bear that? Okay, let me at least see it.”
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