Dean appeared, armed with chicken soup. I could not imagine him being up so late. He considered me and Morley and found himself at a loss. His heart and mind were in the right place but he was physically unable to follow through.
I made some noise that, after years of seeing me come home tipsy, he understood. "He's asleep. It took all he had to resist long enough for the rest of you to get busy." He tried to sound positive but could not conceal the fact that he was extremely worried.
This was not a good time to lose the Dead Man.
Dean was still trying to figure out what to do when Tinnie pushed him out of her way. She brought blankets and two of the heated stones Dean used to warm his feet during winter's bitterest nights. She was calm and businesslike. She placed the rag-wrapped stones against my chest and back, then buried me in blankets. She told Dean, "I can feed them."
I tried to purr, managed to sound like I was choking on phlegm. Tinnie made sure I wasn't, then focused on Morley. Dean said, "According to Mike we lost Dotes the second the attack began."
Typical. Dean was on nickname terms with Miss T after one exposure.
He asked, "What about you, Tinnie?"
"I'm still flustered. Still not sure what's real. But I'll be all right. Worry about Penny instead."
Dean passed the soup. Tinnie settled into the seat the ratwomen used to feed Morley. She blew steam off a spoonful of broth. Dean went off to help somebody else.
"We have a world of things to talk about, Malsquando. Mostly concerning how my head has been working lately." She got Morley to take some broth; then she looked down at me. I wasn't shivering as badly. Her eyes were unreadable. "I saw things tonight that gave me a new perspective."
That did not sound good.
"I promised you and the Dead Man. . Well, I promised. I'll stick to that. General Block explained what it's all about."
I wondered what Block was up to, stirring the pot while drunk and angry.
Tinnie got some more broth into Morley. "I see that this has to be dealt with. There are only a few people who can handle things like it. And you're one." Another spoon of soup. "I should be supporting you, not distracting you and holding you back."
That cost her. She had clamped down hard on her emotions. No doubt Strafa tending me in the street was in the front of her mind. That was a slice of reality she couldn't ignore.
I couldn't say anything. I snuggled the rocks and tried to appear grateful.
Penny came to the doorway. She looked as rocky as I felt. "I'm going to leave now, Mr. Garrett. Please send for me when he's able to go back to work."
I tried to tell her that I would.
Tinnie said, "He can't quite talk, yet. Shouldn't you just stay here? It would be safer."
Penny considered me, weighing the risk of being ravished against the certainty of safety and comfort. From behind her, Kyra said, "Stop worrying. Garrett is harmless. My aunt ought to be ashamed of the stuff she told you. It's because of her in-securities. He won't even look at this cross-eyed." She posed.
Oh, woe! The mighty Garrett considered harmless by the young and the beautiful?
Tinnie snapped, "That is quite enough, Kyra!" She told Penny, "She's right, though. You are safe. There's an extra bedroom upstairs. Use that. Warn Dean so neither of you get any surprises. Go on. You need to stay close to good people right now."
Good people?
What was this? That shock must have hit Tinnie hard.
Kyra said, "I'll show you."
And she knew, how? And why?
Tinnie looked like she had the same questions.
Many interesting things must have happened here in my absence.
Muted girl voices came from the kitchen. Dean definitely was exceeding the call of duty tonight. He should have been in bed hours ago.
65
The woman tried hard to drown me but I was too crafty. Whenever she shoved soup into my face I swallowed it. It was Dean Creech wonder soup. Every spoonful hit bottom, then declared itself throughout my body. Energy came back fast, along with confidence and a sense of well-being. It wasn't long before I found my voice.
"Something I've been wanting to bring up all evening, darling. I never got to it because so much was going on."
Wow. I made a miracle comeback. Almost as good as shaking that awful cold overnight. Though I hadn't, really. A host of unpleasant symptoms were back now that Old Bones was asleep.
I could not help feeling uncomfortable about how my sidekick had begun operating without consultation. Strafa had put me away drowning in my own snot. Next morning the mess was gone and almost forgotten.
Maybe Old Bones didn't think I had time to be sick.
Tinnie developed a mild glower while I rambled through distracting thoughts. "Let's have it, Malsquando! Good or bad, let's get to it."
I was nervous. When Penny and Kyra got upstairs they would see that somebody had used that bed.
The guilty flee where no man pursueth.
We could see some interesting action when Strafa returned.
"All right. Here we go. Before the good goes away and the mucus comes back. Jon Salvation has been bullying me to get you to act in his next play. He wants you bad. Did he talk to you about that?"
"He tried to talk to me about something but I didn't pay attention. And he kept hemming and hawing."
The woman can have that effect on the male of the species.
"He has a new play about fairies. He wants you to be in it."
"I'm done with that stuff." Stated entirely without conviction, damned near begging to be talked into changing her mind. "I wasn't able to be that kind of woman."
"What you weren't able to do was stop being a self-involved pain in the ass. You were Tinnie Tate to the third power."
Had to be the soup. Something in the soup was worse than alcohol for loosening the tongue.
"Garrett?"
"Let's just say you wouldn't have put up with half of what you dished out if you'd been doing Salvation's job."
Her mouth opened and closed. No words came out. She reminded me of a freshly caught trout, with distractions. Say, better, a freshly caught mermaid.
"He wants you for the lead role, darling. And he's sure this will be his biggest play yet."
Her eyes got huge. She drifted off into fantasyland, harkening to dreams she'd had before she alienated everybody.
"Really?"
"Really. I tried to talk him out of it. He insists you're perfect. I'd bet he used you when he created the character. Who you might not like much if you do get involved." Tinnie had no patience with women who had quirks like hers.
Jon Salvation had a reputation for drawing his characters from life, and writing them true.
"What?"
"What I'm saying is, we don't see ourselves the way other people see us. Not saying that what they see is any less subjective. But the way you were at the World. ."
"Stop!"
She did not carry the argument forward.
I had unearthed ambitions my honey had kept hidden. She felt vulnerable, now. Maybe secretly ashamed.
She knew she had been a jerk back when she got kicked out of that select pool of cuties who could act without having to entertain the punters in private after the show.
She had been good but her uncles never approved.
She got all starry-eyed and lost in her imagination.
"Tinnie?"
"I'm sorry, Malsquando. This. . It's. . It's a lightning strike from a clear blue sky. He really said he wants me?"
"Like I told you, I think he used you to create the fairy queen. You wouldn't even have to act. You could just be you. As long as that you isn't the Tinnie that got everybody so mad. ."
She jumped up and down like she was Kyra's age. "I know what you mean. I learned my lesson. I'm not that Tinnie anymore. Garrett, sweetheart, you know what this means?"