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You ' ve already compromised our mission . "
     
    " I didn ' t like your schemes anyway , " Allegro muttered and tossed a dark look at his nemesis . " All right, here goes nothing. " The yellow -haired pixie ' s chest rose as he took a deep breath and straightened , giving Nicola his full attention . " In order for England to win in this upcoming war, you mu st marry—"
     
    " Lieutenant Jethro Tell ," Glissando interrupted.
     
    Nicola ' s eyes widened as disbelief swept through her. " You have got to be jesting. Another mission to force two humans to wed? That ' s exactly what happened to Granddear. " She whirled on Glissando, standing on her tiptoes so she could glare at him while he still sat on the sconce. "And what does Lieutenant Tell have to do with anything about the war?" She couldn't imagine the timid man having anything with ending a war or ensuring long post-war prosperity.
     
    "Hello? He's a lieutenant in the Prince Regent's Calvary , to be exact. I wasn't clued into all the details, but it's not out of the line of reason to think the poor man could influence England's destiny."
     
    " I remember when I was very small that you came to me. You tried to entice me to throw a snowball at Mary Turpin. "
     
    " If only you would have. It would have delayed her for ten minutes while she chased after you, and she wouldn ' t have run over old Dr. Wilcox with her steamcar. "
     
    " What? Oh no. You can ' t lay blame on my door. Shame o n you. I was quite young at the time. Why couldn ' t you have gotten somebody older to delay the woman, if that ' s the truth? No, I ' m not buying it . "
     
    " We didn ' t approach anybody else b ecause you were the only Diderot around at the time . We made a pact with the Diderots a long time ago , and not all Diderots have the ability to see us. However, you do . "
     
    " Lucky me. You didn ' t have a pact with this Diderot. Besides, I ' m a Moore. "
     
    Allegro shook his wee head. " You cannot eschew your Diderot roots. "
     
    " Don ' t fret so, lass, " Glissando cooed. " You really were too young to understand. And everything turned out all right in the end. Dr. Wilcox was old and I suppose it was his time anyway. Besides, I was able to find a good doctor to take his place. "
     
    " You ' re talking about Dr. Potter? You ' re claiming to have influenced his coming to Nottingham? I don ' t believe this. "
     
    "' Tis the truth. Face it, lass. And now we are here to demand this one task from you. "
     
    " Forget it. I will not follow in my grandmother ' s footsteps and wed on a pixie ' s say so. "
     
    " Come now, her marriage wasn ' t so bad. Besides she sacrificed herself for an honorable purpose. She ended the war. "
     
    " Whatever. "
     
    Allegro piped in. " Why do you say that, Miss Diderot-Moore ? "
     
    Although she answered Allegro, all of her attention and ire remained on Glissando. " You told her the Seven Ye ars ' War would end if she married . She thought she would help her country, and she gladly did as you instructed. But y ou didn ' t have her best interest at heart because you paired her up with a husband who was cruel . All because of some cockamamie story that the marriage would help end what we now call the Seven Ye ars ' War. She gave up her freedom for nothing because the war lasted five more ye ars after the wedding.  Ye t her sacrifice lasted nearly twenty-five ye ars. "
     
    Glissand o stood and leaned forward to give Nicola an earnest expression. " You can ' t say that, lass. The war could have lasted a hundred ye ars if I hadn ' t interfered , and if your grandmother hadn ' t done what she did . "
     
    The fine hairs on the back of her neck tingled from indignation. " But neither can you claim the war wouldn ' t have ended in seven ye ars no matter what Granddear did. "
     
    Allegro hadn ' t said anything for a while, and Nicola thought the pixie had abandoned their calling . But suddenly he perked up, lights flashing within the pastel colors of his wings,