“Thank you,” she said. “As many of you know, our family has been hosting Professor Jupiter Peacock this past week. We thought it would be a great honor to have such a distinguished academic to stay, and I confess that I hoped that he would speak kindly of our hospitality so that I might be in with a chance of winning Host of the Year.” She paused. “However, our guest behaved so disgracefully while he was staying with us that I want it on record that my family would not accept any honor or award that comes from him, or from anything he said or did. While he was in our house, eating our food, enjoying our heating and electricity, he was constantly betraying us. This vile man threatened my daughter repeatedly, telling her that if she didn’t do what he said he would not vote for us. Our daughter did not tell us about his dreadful behavior because she didn’t want to upset us, or ruin Midwinter, or cause trouble. I urge all mothers out there to make it clear to your children that no matter what is happening in your life you would want to know IMMEDIATELY if someone was threatening or bullying your child. It wouldn’t matter if it was my birthday, or I’d had a hard day at work, or my father was ill, or if we’d just had some bad news. NOTHING is more important than my daughter’s safety. I hope she realizes that now, and that this was in no way her fault.”

Lexy smiled gratefully at Hazel from the front row, where she was sitting with Nurse Underwood.

“And any children out there who are worried about something that is happening to them and for some reason really can’t tell their parents—maybe because it is their parents who are doing it, or maybe they don’t even have parents—your teachers care about you. Tell one of them. Just find an adult you trust and tell them as soon as possible. Perhaps even a librarian? Don’t wait for the right moment, or try to negotiate in any way with your abuser. Just tell someone.”

The audience burst into hearty applause. Except for the hairy librarian from Special Collections, who didn’t want children to speak to him under any circumstances. Of course, if anyone ever did tell him something like that, he’d have to take action and have it stopped. It would totally ruin his day, but perhaps that wouldn’t matter so much in the scheme of things. However annoying children were, they still needed to be protected. He joined the applause.

This wasn’t how Jupiter Peacock had been hoping his lecture would start. But he found he couldn’t stop the woman from speaking. His magic had been frozen somehow.