Ambrose lingered behind to watch Matthew unbutton the cassock and caught Roland’s eye, shrugging. “Haven’t you ever wanted to know if he was naked under there?”
“Him? No,” Roland answered. “Priests in general? Perhaps.”
Mae sighed and pushed them both with the palms of her hands toward the stairs. “Where is Rosalind?" she asked as they went.
“She went to get her brother,” Matthew said, coming up behind them. “Since he likely knows who the discus olympians were. I told her not to bother. Posh lads like that aren’t going to get any sort of punishment for mischief unless it bothers someone equally posh.”
“Rosalind thinks the world is just,” Vix said with a sniff. “If you rob her of that, I shall push you down these stairs.”
“Yes, yes,” Matthew intoned, sounding exhausted. “I wouldn’t.”
“He really wouldn’t,” Ambrose said, sounding delighted by the entire exchange. “But she really would.”
“And here we find Sir Ambrose,” Reed quipped, “still fascinated by the prospect of casual violence.”
“Hush,” said Mae.
The landing was still peppered with children as the nursery was being swept out and wiped down. Mae did not immediately spot any further frog bones, but that did not mean none had been yet discovered.
Dinah was lingering by the door, frowning at the gathering group in the classroom, her focus narrowed at Ezra’s apparent inclusion in the goings-on. She made a decision to usher her charges back into their room and shut the door behind her, telling them before it closed that if any of them got up to any mischief or otherwise misbehaved, she would make them sleep in the haunted infirmary.
“Ah,” said Mae. “You are our ghost.”
“Nonsense,” Dinah replied, clicking the door shut and marching with them into the classroom. “I am its custodian.”
“Wait until she tells them about golems,” Matthew said with a smirk.
“Oh, now that’s an idea!” Dinah replied with approval, clasping her hands dreamily under her chin. “I bet I could get some clay from the workshop near my house too. If not … Mr. Reed, you are intimate with a sculptor or two, are you not?”
“Dinah,” said Mae, frowning.
Roland could not cover his mouth this time because he was busy shutting the classroom door, so he just allowed himself to laugh at these people outright.
Only Tod appeared to openly disapprove.
He was also the first to speak.
“This has to stop,” he announced. “We cannot let ourselves be endlessly terrorized without reaction.”
“Oh, I reacted,” Vix snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. “I reacted.”
Roland looked to Mae, who ran two firm fingers over her brows and temples and sank into the chair they’d shared the night before, seemingly without realizing it. She shook her head and tilted it back to stare at the ceiling.
“It might not be endless,” she reasoned. “The Season is almost over, and I very much expect the attention will wane when thetongoes home.”
“Until next summer?” Matthew said as gently as he could. “With whatever lingers in between?”
“Well, what do they want, exactly?” Ambrose asked, peering out the window at the scaffolding. “Other than for the clinic to cease to exist, is there anything we could actually offer them?”
“Oh, I think not,” his wife retorted. “They literally threw refuse at me and you want to offer them gifts? Bag that, Ambrose. Let’s set them on fire.”
He chuckled, looking back at her with so much naked affection that it made Tod clear his throat and shuffle in his seat in discomfort.
“They want teaching cases,” Ezra said from his stool by the chalkboards. “We can’t offer them our patients as sacrificial lambs. That would be monstrous.”
“Agreed,” said Mae, her voice still sharp despite the crumpled posture of her body. “Agreed.”
“That inspector seemed a little scandalized by the concept of asking a patient permission to be observed during treatment,” Roland said, worrying his thumb between his fingers. “That was odd, wasn’t it? Have they never thought to simply ask for volunteers? Perhaps in exchange for priority treatment or some such?”
