A longish face, sort of diamond shaped, lumpy where the jaws hinge. He’s got hazelish-gray eyes that go down at the outside corners, and hair more or less the same rainy color, pretty thick except in the front, and it’s always a mess. Nice wide mouth, ugly nose. A horse broke his nose when he was a kid, thrashing its head around or something, and it never got set right. And later it got broken again, but I can’t remember how. Small ears, more like a woman’s ears than a man’s. And he’s thin—not skinny, but definitely bony. Sally couldn’t have picked anybody who looked less like Norris.

He came home with her a couple of days after she told me, and I grabbed an apple and three raisin cookies and headed for my room, the way I was used to doing when he was there. But this time he said, “Don’t vanish just yet, Jenny. I’d like to talk to you for half a minute.”

I already knew he didn’t talk like any English people I’d ever seen on TV. Like he said, “Half a minute,” not “‘Arf a mo’, ducks”—six years, and I haven’t heard anybody say anything like that—but he didn’t exactly talk Masterpiece Theatre English either. It’s a husky voice, deeper than you’d expect to look at him, and at least his mouth moves when he talks. I mostly understand English women now, but the men can drive you crazy.

I didn’t say anything. I just turned and waited. Evan said, “Jenny, this must all be crazy and frightening for you, I’m sorry. You’ve not even had a chance to get used to the idea of your mother and me getting married, and right on top of it you’re having to deal with packing up your whole life and going to a strange place where nothing’s familiar. I’m truly sorry.”

Sally came to stand beside him, and Evan put his arm around her. That made me feel funny—not so much him, but the way she flowed against him like water, which I’d never ever seen her do with anybody. Evan went on, “Look, I can’t tell you everything’s going to work out, that you’ll be instantly, totally happy in England. I can’t promise to be the perfect stepfather for you, or that you won’t hate Tony and Julian on sight. But Sally and I will do our best to make a home for us all, and if you’ll give us the benefit of the doubt, that’ll help a great deal. Do you think you can manage that, Jenny?”