Chapter 62. The Blue Bowl

The twins arrived carrying a cake tin between them with the solemn concentration of people transporting something explosive.

Diana crouched to take it.

“We made the top,” said the girl on the left.

“Not the whole cake,” her sister added. “Mommy did the boring part.”

Their mother closed her eyes briefly. Tomas laughed behind her.

Diana had heard so much about what had happened to him that she was relieved to meet him like this, laughing at his daughters’ account of the cake.

She took the tin and stood.

“Then the top is what we'll admire.”

“I'm Nora,” the first girl told her.

“And I'm Millie. She always says it first.”

“Someone has to.”

Gabriel came out of the kitchen and greeted their parents. Nora looked him up and down with interest.

“Daddy said you were tall.”

“Was he right?”

“Yes. But not very.”

Diana turned toward the kitchen before he could see her face.

He followed wi