Excerpt: In which Julie meets Mr. Sherrinford Sigerson

Suddenly the door opened and a man strode out, scowling. He was thin and tall and he glanced down at me over his hooked nose as he passed. His steely grey eyes swept over me, seeming to see every detail. I felt as though he could see through me, if that were possible. A small spark of amusement leapt into his eye and he stopped walking and turned back to me, offering a hand.

“Miss Julie Reid, I presume?” He spoke in a clipped British accent. “I believe you are in one or two of my classes.”

I shook his hand and said I was glad to meet him.

His eyes crinkled up as though he were about to make a joke. “I have to run to my next class. I’m sure we will have time to get acquainted later. Let me just say that I’m glad you have been placed in an attic room. The windows open onto the roof and from there you can continue your habit of stargazing every night. Good day.” He turned and strode away down the hall, leaving me bewildered. I turned to Idina who laughed at the sight of my expression.

“How did he-?” I hadn’t told anyone about stargazing, not even my mother.

“He does that to everyone,” She said. “I’m not sure how he figures it out, but he’s hardly ever wrong. Maybe he’s psychic.”

I didn’t think he was a psychic. There was too much of an air of scientific reason about him. Somehow he had seen something about me that no one else had seen before. I was shaken by this, but I didn’t have time to think it over because the door was standing open and Mrs. Wright was waiting for me behind her desk.