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Ophelia dozed most of the day away and didn’t even notice when her mother returned from the chemist but she must have been satisfied because when Ophelia woke mid-afternoon she had gone home. He stomach was rumbling again so Ophelia cautiously made her way downstairs and was pleased that her legs supported her without her clinging to the wall for support. She peeked into the lounge and saw Aunt Sophie reading a novel while Michael was playing some sort of video game that looked rather violent.

“Are you going to chase me upstairs again?” she asked.

Aunt Sophie looked her up and down before replying. “Nah, you look much better. Are you hungry?”

“Yes, that’s why I came down.” Ophelia’s stomach rumbled loudly again. “See.”

“I do.” Aunt Sophie laughed as she rose to her feet. “I’ll make you some sandwiches. Would you like some as well, Michael?”

“Have we got some ham, please, mum?” he asked without looking up from his game. “With mustard if we have it.”

“I do believe we have,” she said. “Is that okay for you as well, Ophelia?”

“Ham and mustard sounds good.” Ophelia plonked herself down on the sofa with a relieved sigh. She might be able to stand now but her legs were still wobbly. Still it could have been a lot worse considering how close she had come to dying last night. She would have to talk to Kira about more training because she didn’t want to go through anything like that again if she could avoid it. There was no way to make this completely safe but she was sure they could make it safer with proper planning.

Her reverie was disturbed by Aunt Sophie returning with the sandwiches and a jug of cloudy apple juice.

“Here you are!” She set the tray down on the coffee table. “Michael, pause your game and come and eat.”

“Yes, mum.” Michael shuffled the couple of feet across the carpet on his bum and stayed sitting on the carpet as he grabbed a sandwich. “Thanks!”

“Thanks!” Ophelia echoed before tore into one of the custy sandwiches. “Wow! This is good ham!”

“Glad you like it,” Aunt Sophie said.

“What time did mum go home?” she asked.

“A couple of hours ago. She’d calmed down once she spoke to the Chemist. They told her it sounded like flu and you should be fine, so I persuaded her that I could handle things and she should go home.”

“Good,” Ophelia said. “She needs to look after herself.”

“She does,” Aunt Sophie agreed. “Seraphina called me at Lunch. She’s bringing Kira to come see you this evening and she’ll be staying over, though apparently she’ll be gone for part of the evening because she has a date.”

“Oh yes! She does!”

“Is it that Manion boy?” Aunt Sophie tried to sound neutral but Ophelia knew she didn’t like Philip. She never had for as long as Ophelia could remember.

“Yeah,” she said. “Philip. How did you know?”

Aunt Sophie gave a wry smile. “Just a guess,” she said quietly. “Now eat your sandwiches.”

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