Beatrix had suspected Mrs. Clark possessed a sense of humor, but they’d never talked long enough for her to tell. She grinned. “Maybe they figuretheywent through it, and they don’t see why the rest of us should get away scot free.”
“You have.” Mrs. Clark reached out with a trembling hand and patted her on the arm. “Smart woman.”
“Still—you have Anna, Tommy and Evan to show for it.”
Their mother nodded but said nothing. Beatrix belatedly remembered that Mrs. Clark had told her once—in the only real conversation they’d had before today—that she’d planned on having just one child.
Beatrix leaned in. “What can I do for you? Bring dinner? Clean? Arrange for help with the boys when Anna’s in school?”
Mrs. Clark flushed. “No. But thank you, Miss Harper.”
Too proud to accept help. If they’d been friends, it would have been different.
But it wasn’t too late for that, was it?
“Please call me Beatrix,” she said.
“Oh.” Mrs. Clark’s smile returned. “All right. If you call me Sue.”
As Beatrix rose to go, Mrs. Clark—Sue—caught her hand. “Please tell Omnimancer Blackwell how grateful I am. If he hadn’t insisted … Well, please tell him.”
Beatrix swallowed, all her conflicting feelings for him swirling like a tornado.
“I will,” she said.
CHAPTER 6
The knock on the door wasn’t Beatrix’s.Rap, rap, rap. Miss Knight stood on the porch, dark hair twined around her head in her usual braid.
“Omnimancer,” she said, her steady gaze suggesting deep stores of animosity.
“Miss Knight. I’m afraid Miss Harper isn’t here?—”
She ducked under his outstretched arm to get into the house. “Good. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to talk to you. Alone.”
Not today. He couldn’t handle it today.
“Well?” she said.
Short of tossing her out, there really was no way around it. He walked into the receiving room, putting the massive desk between them.
“Do you understand,” she said, carefully enunciating each word, “what you are doing to Beatrix?”
He opened his mouth, trying to formulate an answer.
“You’re making her ill,” Miss Knight said, and that was not one of the half-dozen choices he’d considered.
“What?” he said, the question harsh with urgency. Were the panic attackshisfault somehow?
She shot him an impatient look. “I know what you’ve done, Omnimancer. She’s trapped in a nightmare relationship with a man who’s twisting her feelings and driving her out of her mind.”
He sighed. It was too much to hope that Beatrix hadn’t told her best friend about that. He desperately wanted to tell someone, and Miss Knight at least was under a Vow.
“It’s a nightmare for me, too,” he murmured.
Miss Knight put her hands on the desk between them. “Then what are you going todoabout it?”
“The Vows have fused, and we can’t?—”
