Pride and Percabeth

Chapter Twenty-Four

Nico looked out the window of the drawing room. The last day of October was clear and frosty. A drab landscape of bare trees and soggy, yellowish brown marshes lay in front of him.
He noticed a flock of crows sitting among the branches of a nearby tree. There were seven of them.
Nico remembered a rhyme his mother had taught him:
"One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret never to be told,
Eight for a kiss,
Nine for a wish,
Ten for something you don't want to miss."

According to this rhyme, the seven crows were an omen that Nico would be faced with a secret, either his own or someone else's.
The cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream were gathered in the drawing room to rehearse. Nico and Miss McLean went over the scene where Lysander and Hermia agree to elope.
"Therefore, hear me, Hermia," Nico read aloud. "I have an aunt, a dowager of great revenue, and she hath no child. From Athens is her house remote seven leagues and she respects me as her only son. There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee and to that place, the sharp Athenian law cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me, then, steal forth thy father's house tomorrow night and in the wood, a league without the town, where I did meet thee once with Helena, to do observance to a morn of May, there will I stay for thee."
Solace stood by the window where the tree filled with crows could be seen. He listened to them read the scene with his usual puckish smile, the one which always got on Nico's nerves.
An eighth crow joined the flock.
"My good Lysander!" Miss McLean read. "I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow, by his best arrow with the golden head, by the simplicity of Venus's doves, by that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, and by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen, when the false Troyan under sail was seen, by all the vows that ever men have broke, in a number more than ever women spoke, in that same place thou hast appointed me, tomorrow truly will I meet with thee."
The performance was interrupted by Solace clapping. 
"Well done," he said.
"We're not finished with the scene," Nico replied.  "Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.
"God speed fair Helena whither away?" Miss McLean added.
Dona Reyna was supposed to join in with call me you fair but Solace started clapping again before she could.
"Would you please let them get on with it," Miss Chase said.
She, Hazel, and Miss Titan were sitting by a window, surrounded by trimmings for their bonnets. Despite her scolding, she was laughing at Solace's antics.