“I care about my solitude, my games, and my time. The sooner I help you with whatever it is, the sooner I get back to my routine.” Felicia paused and peered at Maureen’s face, glanced at the clock, and scowled some more. “Shall I put tea on?”
“Please.”
Maureen waited until Felicia returned with a tea tray. She smiled as she noted that her cranky friend had added finger sandwiches, fruit, and cheese wedges to the usual small tea cakes and cookies. “Something’s up at the museum. I think it has to do with a package that just arrived from Egypt.”
“But you don’t know?”
“No.”
“All right, tell me.”
Maureen told the tale from beginning to end, starting with Kulwinder’s arrival and ending with the mini tea party in the museum café. “Everyone huddled together like they needed protection. I didn’t feel any of the bad vibes. I don’t know why not. But the most interesting thing is the fact that Mr. Sperling didn’t poke his head out of his office, even though Raven screamed right outside it. Nor did he answer my knock.”
“What did you wear today?” Felicia took a sip of her tea.
“What I’m wearing now. I came...”
She stopped as Felicia shook her head impatiently and asked again, “What did youweartoday?”
“Oh. Yes. Well, my usual protections and wards against that which would harm me.”
Felicia gestured her cup at Maureen. “Clearly they worked. That’s why you’re fine. Now. What do you want from me? Why aren’t you going to the Wilson girl to solve this problem?”
“Karen Wilson?”
“She’s the only Master of the City representative I know of. She’s the one who deals with things like this.” Felicia took a vicious bite of a finger sandwich.
Ignoring the implied threat, Maureen shook her head. “We all like the Wilson girl...”
“Speak for yourself.”
“...but she doesn’t have any actual magical power. She’s mundane but she’s got allies and she did get adopted by a baby gargoyle which links her into that set. Still, it’s not like she could do anything about this herself.”
“Then her allies could take care of it.”
Maureen sipped her tea, watching Felicia over the rim of the teacup. “The Stewart Historic Museum may be the smallest regional museum in Kendrick, but it’smymuseum and I am asking you for help. I don’t want my little museum to come to the attention of the Wilson girl, her allies, or the Master of the City. That’s borrowing trouble when I don’t need it. At least, not until we’ve solved the problem. Please?”
Scowling all the more, Felicia took another bite of her sandwich, then gestured it at Maureen to continue.
Satisfied that she was going to get her way, Maureen pursed her lips, thinking. “The stone tablet. There’s something about it. Something I don’t recognize, butyoumight.”
“Me?”
“Well, you have a different way to your magic than I do. You might... you know?”
Felicia clunked her teacup down. “I’m not a black witch. I simply do not suffer fools. At all. I am apragmaticwitch. If someone gets hurt in the process, they deserve what they get.”
Maureen let out a slow breath through her nose. “Like I said, you have a different way about you and your magic than I do. Youmay have come across this in your... pragmatic way. Will you help?”
“Will it get you to leave me alone quicker?”
“Yes.”
“Fine. What do you want to do?”
“Come to the museum tomorrow and help me figure it out.”
Felicia shook her head. “No.”
