Noelle did not, in fact, know. Her parents had been complicated, but not monsters. Noelle wondered again exactly how bad Miriam’s childhood had been, and how that had led to her running away from Carrigan’s. Not that it was any of Noelle’s business, because she wasn’t trying to figure this woman out. She’d lost her best argument for why Miriam shouldn’t be here, and Hannah was trying to murder her with only her eyeballs, so Noelle gave up.

“Fine. You win. Operation Save Carrigan’s, welcome aboard,” Noelle ground out. “You’d better not fuck it up.”

“In order to make this work, you will be civil,” Hannah said with an iron voice. “You will not avoid each other, and you will not make everyone else’s lives miserable. We have to find a solution, or Noelle and I will be out on our asses. That means you play nice. Are we all agreed?”

They both nodded. Noelle assumed they would shake on it, but Hannah typed out the agreement, then printed it and made them sign it. She then insisted they follow her to the second-floor lounge, where she tacked it to the wall and hung one of Miriam’s ugly plaid bows over it, for emphasis.

“Great,” she said, standing back from the bow and admiring her handiwork. “Now that y’all have gotten on your adulting pants, we’re going to cement our new agreement with a Bonding Activity.”

“Halloween is tomorrow,” Miriam reminded her, slumping onto the sectional, “which means Opening Day is in two days. Don’t we have to, I don’t know, open up the festival, cut a ribbon, start welcoming tourists? There must be a million last-minute details.”

“Please, as if all that hasn’t been planned for months. You must know I can multitask better than the average person can task.” Hannah held up her clipboard, as if in proof. “You decorated, Noelle cut trees, I organized seasonal workers. We have time for forced bonding.”

She produced sheet masks from under an end table, and Noelle complained that hers was tingly.

“Shut up and mask, Noelle,” Hannah said. More seriously, she added, “Be nice to my cousin or I will personally harm you. This animosity is unacceptable.”

After their masks had been pulled off and Noelle had scrubbed the snail slime from her face, Hannah disappeared back to her office to do more work, and Miriam went out onto the porch. Noelle thought about wandering into the trees to get some time alone, since the past several hours of interpersonal interaction were far over her comfortable limit, but the Old Ladies had her curious, and she was willing to pretend civility if only to pacify Hannah. She found Miriam bundled up on the porch swing.