He stared at it, aghast. “Who gave you this?”
“Dot Yamaguchi—one of the League leaders from Hazelhurst,” Lydia added for his benefit, though he could hardly forget, having uncovered Plan B in the young woman’s dormitory room. “She heard a knock on the door and opened it to find this in an unmarked envelope.”
Beatrix, sitting to his right, raised a hand to her forehead. “How many of the League leaders have copies?”
“I think we’d better assumeallof them,” said Rosemarie Dane, squeezed next to him on the left. “Certainly every one of the state-chapter leaders who were already predisposed to dislike Lydia.”
Beatrix’s sister sighed. “We’ve already heard from five of them.”
“All calling for her immediate resignation.”
They were huddled together on the couch in the Clarks’ apartment. It was the only nearby place they could think to go that would be guaranteed to have no bugs or watchers, as much as anything could be a guarantee, and Beatrix hadassured them that Mrs. Clark would do whatever she could to help.
“But this isoutrageous,” said Mrs. Clark, who’d bustled her older children into her bedroom with promises of later treats and now sat in the lone chair by the couch with baby Will in her arms. “You’d just miraculously recovered from a coma, Omnimancer—this kiss was an honest expression of relief and love! If you explain the circumstances, they will see they’re being manipulated.”
“No,” Miss Dane said. “They won’t.”
Having watched some of the dynamics at work during the League’s national convention last fall, he was inclined to agree.
“The League is split,” Lydia explained. “There’s the new guard who sees things the way I do—that magic is here to stay, and what we should be fighting is the ban on typics running the country. Then there’s the old guard.” She sighed. “They see magic as evil incarnate.”
“They’re equally expressive about inappropriate behavior between an unmarried woman and an unmarried man,” Miss Dane said. “Let alone an unmarried woman and an unmarriedwizard.”
Beatrix squeezed her eyes shut. “It was my fault. I did this.”
“We can see that.” Miss Dane, dry as death.
“No, I mean—I initiated it. I wasn’tthinking, I was just so—so?—”
“I kissed you back,” Peter said, casting an irritated glance at Miss Dane.
Lydia put up a hand. “We need to decide what to do, and fast.”
“I think,” Miss Dane said, “that the time has come to go to the press.”
He stared at her. Beatrix said, “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”
“Of course it is.” Mrs. Clark’s words were shot through with quiet assurance. “Romance and intrigue—they’ll eat it up, and think of the sympathy you’ll get. Have them call me, and I’ll tell them your behavior was so proper that no one in town even suspected.”
“Except you,” Beatrix said, smiling for the first time in the conversation.
“It wasn’t how you behaved with each other. It was how shattered you were when he was in the hospital—that’s when I knew you loved him.”
His heart pounded loudly in his ears. Then he turned and kissed Beatrix in front of everyone. Miss Dane yanked them apart, glaring.
“None ofthat, thank you,” she said. “You will be models of propriety until you are married, do you hear me?”
He was tempted to argue simply because he was annoyed with her. But Beatrix gave a dutiful, “Yes, Rosemarie.” Sliding a glance his way, she added, “Every second of every waking hour.”
Thank God for dreamside.
“Now, kindly listen,” Miss Dane said. “You will talk about your engagement: how you suddenly realized you were in love and planned to marry quickly because it would bewholly inappropriate to be alone together otherwise. Then disaster struck. The coma.”
Strategic. Smart. Not altogether true.
“You will also discuss your assistance to us,” Miss Dane concluded, giving him a look he last recalled seeing when he had the temerity to groan at a grade-school assignment in her classroom.You WILL complete this, Mr. Blackwell, whether you like it or not.
“Well—I don’t see that we have any other options,” Lydia murmured. “Peter, are you willing?”
