Chapter Four (Cont'd)

   Morgan stared at the woman and said nothing.
   Mrs. Fitz-Gardner smiled uncomfortably, "Sometimes people forget; I'm just being neighborly." She noted Morgan's dress, her beautiful raven hair, her exquisite figure. She looked around the room and saw that it was lit only by candles. Her eyes opened wide with realization, "Oh!" she exclaimed, a little embarrassed, "I'll just be on my way -- leave you two love birds alone." Mrs. Fitz-Gardner winked and turned toward the door.
   "Wait," commanded Morgan. She touched her necklace.
   The woman in pink froze.
   "My friend, Merlin, is late. Do you know where he might be?" Morgan's liquid accent made the familiar words sound strange, unearthly.
   "Well, he might still be at the school: a teachers' meeting or something," Mrs. Fitz-Gardner offered.
   "School?"
   "Glen Lake Public School, in the west end of Colwood, over by . . well . . . Glen Lake."
   Satisfied, Morgan lifted her hand from her necklace.
   Mrs. Fitz-Gardner swallowed hard, nodded a quick good-bye, and headed for the door at a near run.
   "School." Morgan played with the word in her mind. She knew the barbarians would destroy the few remaining church-run schools that had risen in the wake of the Roman exodus. Without Arthur to repell the invaders, reading and writing would disappear all the faster. Good. Ignorant people were easier to control. Perhaps she would be Queen after all.
   Morgan smiled. If Merlin liked school so much, he was about to get the lesson of his life!