Part 19 (1/2)
”The Historian is seldom easy to find.”
”That's only because I've never gone looking for her.”
”True enough. Meanwhile,” Martha glanced up and down the hall. ”You have a guest house to run.”
”Run?” Claire stared at her mother in astonishment. ”Have you forgotten what's in the bas.e.m.e.nt?”
”This was probably set up as a guest house because of what's in the bas.e.m.e.nt. This is a unique situation. The more you think about the site, the more attention you pay it, the stronger it becomes. You need a distraction, something to occupy your time.”
”But the guests...”
”They're here two or three nights at most. Hardly long enough for a sealed site inside a dampening field to have much effect.”
”But I already have a job; I'm a Keeper. I don't know the first thing about running a guest house.”
”Dean does.” Martha looked remarkably like Austin as she added, ”And you said you didn't want him to leave.”
”Because I need a cook and a caretaker,” Claire explained hurriedly, picking at a wallpaper seam.
”You still do.”
”If I'm really a part of what's going on,” Dean broke in, ”I couldn't just walk out.”
”You couldn't walk out on old Augustus,” Austin sn.i.g.g.e.red, ”and he didn't have Claire's...”
Claire's head jerked up. ”Austin!”
”... sunny personality.”
”Good, that's settled.” Martha smiled on them both in such a way it became obvious the problem had been solved to her satisfaction.
Since there seemed to be no point in continuing the argument, and since she wasn't entirely certain which argument to continue, Claire started down the stairs, her heels thumping against the worn carpet. Dean fell into step beside her. ”I want you to know that things are not going to continue the way they were under Augustus Smythe. I am not going to watch pa.s.sively. I'm going to take action.”
”Okay.” When she glared at him from the corner of one eye, he smiled and added, ”Sure.”
”Are you laughing at me?”
”I was trying to cheer you up.”
”Oh. Well, that's all right, then.”
As they disappeared down the stairwell, Austin wrapped his tail around his toes and looked up at Claire's mother. ”Nice to have things settled.”
Smoothing down the wallpaper Claire'd been picking at, Martha frowned. ”It's hard to believe that all this has been sitting here for so many years with no one aware of it.”
”It was a bit of a surprise,” the cat admitted. ”You can't blame Claire for wanting to wrap it up and leave.”
”Staying does ask a lot of her.”
”Not the way she sees it. She thinks she's been declawed.”