Touched by the attention—too touched to be irritated by the fact that the two of them had obviously been spying on her by Farsight again—she accepted the towel, and pretended to “lean on them,” although she didn’t put any weight on their young shoulders. The wet towel was actually a good idea, it was wonderfully cool on her neck and went a long way toward unknotting the knots in it. The littles weren’t satisfied until she was lying in her own bed with the towel across her forehead. And even then, Tory asked anxiously if she wanted tea, or Mama, or a hot brick at her feet.

“I’ll be fine now that I’m in bed,” she promised them—and actually, she did start to feel a bit better. They tiptoed away to go back to whatever they were up to in the center room, and she worked on relaxing those tense neck muscles and unclenching her jaw.

I’m surprised I didn’t splinter my teeth. . . .

But the windows were open, Kee and Tory whispering together was rather soothing and blended nicely with the birdsong coming from the other side of the room.

The next thing she knew, the center room was full of chattering people and her father had just sat down on the edge of her bed, which was what had awakened her.

“Feelin’ better, poppet?” he asked sympathetically. “I told ye I was takin’ care of it, didn’ I?” There was just a hint of admonition in his voice that she hadn’t trusted him.

There were a lot of things she could have said at that point, most of them accusatory about not trusting her, but she decided to say none of them. “The headache’s mostly gone,” she said instead.

“Well, good.” He patted her hand. “Yer Mama read me a lecture on leavin’ ye outa plans what concerned ye,” he added. “So . . . I’m right sorry.” He let the sentence trail off, then cleared his throat self-consciously. “Master Ketnar an’ me had a little palaver wit’ th’ scribes, an’ you was right. One on ’em kept a copy of th’ test, put Geoffers’ name on’t, an’ got inter th’ place where the finished exams was an’ copied yer answers. Then ’e swapped the real exam fer the cheatin’ one.”

“What’s going to happen now?” she asked.

Mags made a face. “Not much. Scribe was turned out. Geoffers was expelled. But Dudley? Not much c’n be done t’touch ’im. Tisn’t a crime as such, an’ there ain’t anyone like t’ take it serious. Not serious ’nuff to bring the law on ’im.”