Of course this would be hard for Croft to understand. He didn’t have all the relevant information. He couldn’t have it. And asking him to pass on the word that the omnimancer didn’t want to woo anyone because he was brokenhearted would be guaranteed to increase the town’s collective efforts.
“I appreciate the invitation, and please thank your wife very much for it, but tell her I’ve decided that I’d best not eat with anyone,” he said. “It would create the impression that I expect it—like my predecessor—and too many people in town can’t afford dinner guests.”
He thought Croft would argue. Instead, the mayor nodded, lips twisting in a sad smile. “All right, Omnimancer. If that’s what you want.”
But as he walked to the door, he added: “People will find other ways of trying, though. Mark my words.”
Peter shut the door, shaking his head. If he refused to accept invitations and mostly stayed in the house, he didn’t see what the town could do. He stood in the hallway, trying to decide whether to go check on Beatrix or get back to work, when someone else knocked at the door.
A girl of perhaps nineteen or twenty stood on the porch, smiling brightly at him. Not an auspicious beginning.
“Hello, Omnimancer! Could I please make a request?”
“Yes,” he said cautiously. “What do you need, Miss …?”
“Hennessey. My mother suffers from headaches, you see, so I thought I would ask for a remedy.”
He didn’t relax—she looked entirely too happy about her mother’s headaches. “I may have some headache brew in stock.”
“Splendid!” The girl hopped in without waiting for an invitation and closed the door behind her.
He didn’t like this at all. He thought about tossing her out and making her wait on the porch, but on second thought that seemed over the top. He instead strode to the brewing room at a speed just shy of running for his life and rummaged through the bottles full of Beatrix’s work, nearly breaking one in his haste. There—headache brew. He turned, rushed from the room and promptly collided with Miss Hennessey.
“Oh!” she said in what seemed like exaggerated surprise, her hands on his chest. She looked up at him through her eyelashes. “Oh, my.”
Sheplannedthat. She must have been standing in just the right spot to be out of his line of sight so she could walk into him as he came out. He stepped back and held the brew out to her, trying not to scowl. “My apologies—here it is.”
“Oh,thankyou, Omnimancer!” She looked up at him through her eyelashes again. “My family would be honored if you would have dinner with us. Would tomorrow be convenient?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Hennessey, but no,” he said.
Her smile flickered but recovered. “Then simply name the day!”
“No, but thank you.”
Now the smile was gone. “You’ve eaten with the Sedereys. Twice. Are we—are we not good enough for you, Omnimancer?”
He would have taken the wounded tone at face value if this entire visit hadn’t been a calculated performance.
“As I was just telling the mayor,” he said, “I’ve decided not to accept any more invitations—fromanyonein town—to avoid the perception that I will favor people in a position to give me a meal. Had that occurred to me earlier, I would never have accepted the Sedereys’ invitations, as kindly meant as they were.”
She apparently had no ready plan for this. She merely said, “Ah.” He took the opportunity to slip past her and open the door.
“Good-bye, Miss Hennessey,” he said firmly.
She left—though not without smiling at him, and thanking him, and passing by too close to him. He shut the door a bit harder than necessary.
For crying out loud, would he have to question the true intent of every request for help from here on out? There had to be a solution for this. But what?
He was afraid the ridiculous problem would fall from his lips as soon as he got dreamside, but when he arrived there, it went right out of his head. Beatrix sat on the bed, face in her hands, chest shaking in noiseless sobs.
He put his arms around her, feeling helpless. What could he say?Everything’s all rightwas a bald-faced lie. He finally settled on, “Do you think your panic attacks are getting worse?”
If anything, this made her more upset.“Oh,” she moaned. “Oh ohoh.”
“Has something happened? Can I help?”
She made no answer for a moment. Then she said, “I’m not dayside Beatrix.”
