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Scorpios are often able to perceive more than the other signs.” Melantha inclined her head toward the black door. “My meditation room,” she said. “Once inside I’m insulated from all stimuli. I learn much from meditation.”
    Danica smiled politely, then rose from her chair. She felt at a loss to know what to do next, but she didn’t want to ask Melantha. The older woman seemed to operate on a different frequency from Danica’s and Danica didn’t understand her. Dislike was perhaps too harsh a word, although she’d felt last night that Melantha didn’t like her.
    A Scorpio , she thought. The Scorpion was the symbol of the sign as the Archer was for Sagittarius. The thought of the insect in her bed came into her mind.
    Melantha smiled, a knowing, unpleasant smile as though she saw what Danica was thinking.
    “When will you be finished?” Danica said.
    “My report goes directly to Galt,” Melantha told her. “He’ll let you know sometime today.” She looked down at the charts again and Danica let herself out of the room, then out of Melantha’s house.
    She retraced her steps back toward Lydia’s house. She was passing behind Evan’s when the sensation of being watched crept over her. Hidden eyes following her. Why? Danica glanced all about but saw no one.
    Then there was a stirring of leaves in the bushes uphill from her and a child’s face appeared.
    “Amy,” she called. “Good morning, I’m happy to see you again.” She waited in the path and the little girl finally slid down toward her.
    “I didn’t tell you my name last night—it’s Danica.”
    Amy stood beside her on the path, staring upward. Her grey eyes were astonishingly light in the olive face framed with black hair. She reached a hand up toward Danica.
    Danica realized the girl wanted to touch her red hair again, and so she crouched down next to Amy and smiled when she felt the small hand stroke her head.
    “Have you ever seen red hair before, Amy? It’s just hair like yours, only a different color. My eyes are green and yours are grey. Different colors again. There are lots of different colors. The sky is a blue color today.”
    Danica no longer felt Amy’s hand and she saw the girl was gazing up at the sky. Danica reached out her hand, then felt rather than saw Amy shrink away. She immediately drew back her hand. “I won’t touch you if you don’t want me to,” she said. But she knew the tenuous rapport between them had been broken. A moment later Amy darted off up the hill and disappeared.
    As Danica stood up she heard her name and looking around saw Galt Anders in the open doorway of his house. “Come in and have coffee with me,” he said.
    With a lift of spirits, she agreed. Someone was making a friendly gesture. Two people, if she counted Amy.
    Galt’s kitchen was a near duplicate of Lydia’s.
    “Are all the houses identical?” she asked.
    “Practically, though we’ve made various modifications. The original builders were advocates of communal living. They started out with quite a bit of money and the highest ideals.”
    “What happened?”
    He shook his head. “I don’t know exactly. I do know I bought the property for a good deal less than it’s worth. No one lived here by then. I heard rumors of a feud that left two people dead and others arrested. I was happy to acquire the property, but I dislike having benefited from another’s failure.”
    “How many children do you have here?” Danica asked.
    “Amy made fifty. She’s our last, and without more housing and more staff I’m afraid we’ve reached our limit. I don’t really want more children right now—too many and we dilute what good we may do.”
    “She’s an unusual little girl.”
    “I saw you together on the path. Do you know you’re the first person I’ve ever known her to touch voluntarily?”
    “She—it’s my hair…”
    “I know. You have beautiful hair.”
    Flustered, Danica glanced at him and saw he was smiling at her. Her red