Glorina
I came back to myself. But it wasn't over yet.
Tolly looked at me for a moment, then said, "Do you think that would have been entirely your choice, Ms. Hoi?"
In answer to him, I stood shakily, and walked over to him, and kissed him. After a moment of surprise, he started returning my kiss, with great enthusiasm. He put his arms around me, and drew me down on his lap. I continued the kiss.
After far too short a moment, he pushed me away, gently, but still holding me on his lap. "You have proven your point, Ms. Hoi," he said huskily, breathlessly.
I took a couple of deep breaths and steadied myself. "No, I didn't. You pushed me away."
"What? Were you going to, um, 'bed' me right here?" Tolly's eyebrows rose high toward his forehead.
Yes! Yes! Yes! "No, of course not," I said. "But I was going to push you away."
"Then, why didn't you?" An's voice broke the moment.
I looked around, confused for a moment. I had forgotten our audience. So, apparently, had Tolly. He gave a little grunt, and moved me from his lap to sitting beside him. He kept his arm around my shoulder, though.
"I guess . . . I forgot," I said, lamely.
"Hmm. 'Forgot'," Tolly said, peering down at me.
"Glorina," came An's voice, pleasantly conversational, professional. "What do you want?"
"What?"
"If you could go anywhere or have anything in the world that you wanted, what would it be?"
"Anything?" My voice was soft and distant. "If I could have anything, I'd like to find a hole somewhere, crawl into it, and pull it closed behind me, so that no one could ever find me, ever hurt me again."
There was silence for a moment, then Jelana whispered, "You're safe now, here, Glorina. No one will hurt you. You can come out."
I sat there stupidly sat there and blinked, then slowly put my head down on the table-top and gave a couple of long, shuddering sighs.
Jelana stepped back, and I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder. I turned and looked up, and there was Tolly squatting down, so his head was about the same level as my own.
"Glorina," he said earnestly, "I swear to you, I will do everything in my power, everything, to see that you have something better to look forward to than a tomb."
I looked into his eyes, and again, like the first time I saw him, I felt "Safe haven, safe haven" written in their depths. I found myself wrapping my arms around him, leaning on his shoulder, clinging for dear life.
He gave a little "oof" as I hit him, then wrapped the arm that wasn't holding his cane, around my shoulders. After a moment of precarious balance, we both landed on the floor with a thud.
"So, that's what happened to your leg," An's voice came clearly. I thought I heard suppressed laughter.
"No, that's not what happened!" Tolly said, struggling to sit down more comfortably, without disturbing me. I'm not entirely sure he made it.
An
I was instantly sorry for having almost laughed. Tolly was sitting there awkwardly, having dropped his cane, one arm around Glorina's shoulder, the other one stretched behind him, for support. He looked up at me, and I saw a bit of desperation in his eyes.
I shook my head ruefully, and went over and put my hand on Glorina's shoulder. "Glorina!" I said.
She looked up and around, and seemed to realize the situation. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Tolly!" she said. "I didn't think!"
As if Glorina ever did anything without thinking.
She clambered off of him, somehow managing not to hurt him further, then reached her hand out to him. "Let me help you up."
Tolly looked up at her hand, then sighed. "That's fine, Glorina," he said. I can handle it." He found his cane again, and used it for support as he stood up.
"I see," I said, not entirely approvingly.
He gave me a sharp glance, then rather pointedly pulled out a green pill packet and took the pills with a glass of water he grabbed off the table.
"See, I can be taught," he said, sitting down and pressing his head on the cane handle.
"I never said otherwise," I said, still slightly acerbically.
Jasin and Belinda had been bustling around, clearing the breakfast foods off of the sideboard, clearing the tables.
"I'm sorry, sir," Jasin told Tolly as he passed by, "We hadn't realized how late it was. We let the lunch rush go on without us. Fortunately, they say they haven't had any major snags, but we really need to get out there and supervise."
Tolly looked up at him. "Do you need me?" he asked.
"No, sir. Not at the moment. Take time to recover. This morning was . . . pretty intense."
"You can say that again," Tolly muttered, putting his head back down.
Belinda came back in and placed a slice of cheesecake in front of Glorina. "Here, young lady," she said. "You deserve it."
Glorina looked at it, then back up at Belinda. "I can't eat that," she said, "It's far too fattening."
Belinda looked at her, then glanced rapidly at me. I sighed, then went and sat next to Glorina. "How are you feeling now, Glorina? A bit warmer?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Glorina looked puzzled for a moment. Then she shivered. "But I'm tired."
"That wouldn't surprise me at all," I said, using my best clinical voice. "You used a lot of energy this morning. It wouldn't hurt to have a bit of dense caloric intake." It's not like she wasn't thin enough, maybe too thin, to begin with.
She tilted her head inquisitively at me.
"Just this once, you could consider the cheesecake to be medicinal."
Her eyes lit up. "Medicinal cheesecake? What a lovely idea!" She immediately picked up her fork.
Belinda smiled approvingly, then bent over to talk to Tolly.
"I don't want to rush you, Uncle Tolly," she told him.
He raised his head and looked at her. "But?"
"But we've got this room reserved in an hour, and we'll need at least half that to get it all set up. More time would be better."
He nodded. "Right. We'll be out of here before then."
"Of course, if you really need more time, we can shuffle the schedule around, use the other small dining room . . ."
"But you really hate to do that, since it's such a pain to get to."
"I keep telling you, it wouldn't take too much to redesign things to make everything much easier."
"It wouldn't take much, she says. Anything like that would close both small dining rooms for at least six months." Tolly was sitting up much straighter now, and looking more animated than he had all morning.
"Not that long, Uncle Tolly," Belinda said. "Talk to Mattan. He has some ideas . . ."
"He always has ideas," Tolly said.
"And most of them are good ones. Both rooms would be a joy to serve afterwards. It'd even make the main hall easier to care for."
"Is it worth the loss of time and money, though?" he shot back. "Especially since it's my time, and my money?"
She laughed. "It's not like you don't have plenty of both," she said.
I hissed at her, and nodded toward Glorina, who was following this exchange with wide open eyes. Belinda started a bit, then nodded back at me.
"You know I'll win this argument in the end, Uncle Tolly," she said, smiling at him.
"Maybe, but not today," he growled at her. But he had a twinkle in his eyes.
"Tolliver McLichtensen always enjoys a good argument," Glorina said absently, almost as if she was reading it.
Belinda shook her head, and muttered, "I'll let you deal with this." She bustled off.
Jelana and I looked at each other, and back at Glorina.
"'Tolliver'?" I whispered to Jelana.
"Hush," Jelana whispered back.
"I have no more scripts," Glorina told us forlornly, when she saw she had our attention. "No more numbers. Nothing tells me what to say in this situation."
"You've been running without a script for a few days now, haven't you?" Jelana said.
Tolly continued to sit there, his head against his cane, not appearing to listen, but if I knew him, listening intently. By the side-long glances Glorina kept throwing him, I doubt she was fooled, either. I leaned over, and put my hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me, and I nodded toward the door. He looked at Jelana and me, on either side of Glorina, grimaced, but nodded, and rose. I noted he was still leaning rather heavily on his cane as he walked out.
I turned back, and saw Glorina staring right at me, frowning slightly, then she said to Jelana, "It certainly shows. One stupid thing after another." There was a bitter edge to her voice.
"One might often do stupid things when one is scared," I noted.
She looked at me with narrowed eyes. "I know what you're doing,"
"What do you mean?"
"That calm, detached voice. You're a doctor, right? But not really. Something else as well. Where you need to calm people down."
"Perhaps," I agreed, with a half-laugh. "Does it work?"
"I haven't decided yet. I just want you to know that I know it."
"Glorina," Jelana asked, pulling Glorina's attention back to herself, "Did you ever . . . argue . . . with my brother?" She seemed troubled.
"Well, of course I did." She seemed surprised at the question. "It took a day or two to figure out how to get the rhythm right, and the best topics. And a lot of research so that I could win at least occasionally. That pleased him. We were getting along swimmingly. I had just about—" She caught herself. "Well, it's too late for that anyway. Doesn't matter now."
She got up, we all did, and said, "I am really tired now. May I head back to my room, or am I under some sort of arrest?"
"We'll do what we can for you," I told her. "You can go back to your room if you want."
"Perhaps I'll see you at dinner?" she said.
"Perhaps," I said neutrally. "I haven't decided yet when I'll head back home."
Jelana said, "I'm not entirely sure, either. I've been out and about more these last few days than I've been in months. Daved's been missing me, though he is finding all this fascinating. But I will need to spend an evening at home soon. Especially since I won't be surprised if I have to spend a lot more time in town in these next few days."
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