Karen's first kill

Chronologically, this is one of the  earliest episodes involving this character set. Karen is in her last year of guild-schooling.she has not yet met any of the other characters. This is to be in book two or three, depending on how things sort out. It helps lead off in telling about Karen and her origin, after her out-of-the-blue introduction in the final acts of book one.

Karen crept along, folding the cities shadows around her. The other was out there, somewhere. This game was getting serious. They has been playing it on and off since meeting in class all those years ago.

Then, the game was about dolls. In a way it still was. Only now the dolls were maturing boys and young men. Now there was a particular one that the other had picked out. Karen went along for the games sake, but really was not interested in the young man.

Her burgeoning psionics were a curse and a blessing socially. She could sense immediately if a man was interested in his own gratification, or hers. In her disgust she had learned that most young men, and many older ones, in this society seemed to see women as sex objects first, and all else after. On realizing this was what she was learning, her Psi-Master had immediately assigned Karen to another Psi-Instructor, who was happily married. This woman shared with Karen her own experiences of puberty and young womanhood, and of how she learned to see past the bodies drives into the heart and mind of the man, and by this how to ultimately to find love.

But at eighteen, Karen still knew she had a lot to learn in the mean time. She found dating a challenge. She stuck to learning all the social skills required of her chosen profession, and her social position. Her psionics helped a great deal, allowing her to sense when she had reacted or otherwise behaved correctly. But that did not help tonight, playing the game.

Karen had realized some time previous that her opponent/friend in this game wanted the target for herself, physically, emotionally, in all ways.

But he seemed to not be interested.

Tonight, the game changed. Her opponent had set out tonight on a dangerous path. Karen’s senses told her that her opponent was in the prime of her fertility cycle. Earlier Karen had followed the girl as she had purloined a manual from the Whore’s Guild. Socially she had been chasing the guy for long enough to know who the competition was. Karen had addressed her concern to the Guild Masters, but was not aware of anything coming of this. So she came out to play the game one more time, in earnest. But could she kill if she had to?

Karen arrived at the young man’s house, and scouted, being extra careful to conceal her presence. Then she saw her, her opponent, a black shadow in the dark, crossing roof tops carefully making less noise than a cat. The girl landed on the roof and moved to enter, as Karen was restrained by the Psi-Master putting a hand on her shoulder from the deeper shadows, slightly surprising Karen by his presence.

-Olegsdottor, do nothing.- He impressed this in her mind with more force than she had ever felt before. Then the Psi-Master was gone and was suddenly following the girl inside. Moments passed.

-Come.-

The same powerful sense now ordered. Karen moved of her own volition, but initially on instinct. Three other adult figures joined her on the balcony, and they entered. The Girl was bound and weeping on the floor. The bed chamber was empty, save for the seven Guildsmen. Karen recognized half of them as instructors, and one was The Guild Master. He had been inside the whole time. With a curt gesture he sent them all away, back to headquarters.

The Psi-Master picked up the weeping girl, slung her across his broad shoulders, and followed Karen out.

-Olegsdottor, attend me.-

Karen waited on the roof, and then followed as the man took off at such speed that Karen had to use her own psionics to keep up. They stopped halfway to the Guild. He turned to face Karen. The girl was limp, asleep or more. Now he spoke.

“Olegsdottor, what penalty does the guild impose for this one’s actions?”

“I presume death. But I do not know her full actions.”

“Her blades have innocent blood. She went to coerce a man to her bed, after killing the woman he truly loved.”

Karen sobered. She knew as an assassin she had the power to do such a thing, but they were trained from the start not to.

“Then she does face death, for the safety of society we cannot allow such to go free.”

“That’s right. Do you think you could...end her?”

Karen paused. Her emotions ran the gamut. Then something from her past and training came up. ‘A man put down his own animals. Only he loved then enough to end their suffering quickly.’ She was taught this very early on by the guild.

“If given the assignment, yes. A person puts their own down, not leaving it to others.”

He contemplated her a moment. She felt a scan go through her body and mind.

“Good. Only the Guild Master has known. This is my bastard daughter. I don’t know that I could put her down. You being her known closest friend...”

“Where’s the boy?”

He turned and they put half of their stealth aside rushing back to the Guild.

They assembled in the Guild Hall. The Psi-Master put the Girl down, and she was suddenly awake. Standing on the Guild Seal, a Guildsman at each point around it.

Karen was placed behind the girl opposite the Guild Master.

“Cassidy. You stand to center for judgment. You set out with bright blades, and stained them with innocent blood. You then sought to seduce another, where we apprehended you. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I love him. With her out of the way, I could get him to love me.”

“You have been taught that to do such is against our bylaws, and the morals of society.”

“What good is power unused?”

“Power is to be used for the good of all. Do you freely admit to using your power for your own gain?”

Cassidy broke down at this point, and sobbed, finally choking out, “yes.”

The Guild Master softened. “You know the penalty for your actions?”

“Yes.” Tears wet the floor.

The Guild Master nodded.

A Guildsman stepped forward from Cassidy’s left and unbound her arms, leaving her legs bound.

Cassidy opened her hood and removed her head wrap.

Karen expected to see her long black hair fall free, but instead Cassidy had shorn her hair to an unruly brush cut. She removed her outer and inner layers of her costume to her leather leotard. Karen watched in fascination, feeling every thread of her own costume and every piece of gear in it, realizing that her first kill stood before her undressing from a guild sanctioned costume.

The lacing on the leotard back was opened and Cassidy pulled it off her shoulders, arms, and chest to hang with the rest at her waist. A knife was put in Karen’s hand as the tribunal stepped into the outer dark of the room. Karen walked forward silently, shifting the knife in her grip from over to underhand.

Karen reached for her compassion as she took Cassidy’s chin in her left hand, pulled her up onto the balls of her feet and against Karen’s own chest, and swiftly brought the knife around and under her left breast between the ribs and into the heart, a swift twist and she felt the knife pivot on the rib muscles, slicing heart and lungs, flooding Cassidy’s chest with her own blood.

Karen heard the air escape Cassidy’s nose when she hit her and heard her struggle for breath as life left her. The whole time Karen held Cassidy’s mouth shut and held her off her feet. Karen sent a first and last psionic message to Cassidy. ‘I loved you, Cassidy, as a friend. I’m sorry it ended this way.”

Karen held Cassidy’s body as it went limp, a little trickle of blood clotting under Cassidy’s nose. Karen felt Cassidy’s life leave her friends body. The Psi-Master was at her side, closing Cassidy’s clothes and removing the knife as a sponge was used to staunch the blood from the wound. He and others took the body away.

Karen stood there, suddenly feeling empty.

Her Psi-Instructor took Karen’s shoulders and led her to a bed.

Karen awoke. She was on a cot in the Guild Masters office; her senses told her it was midday.  She opened the door, and the man standing there said she should wait to talk to The Master before leaving.

Karen used the bathroom and returned. The Master came in dressed as a local noble. He leaned against his desk. She sat on the unmade cot, her hood and balaclava open, her brown hair falling around her.

“Karen, thank you for warning us about her. First kills tell a lot about the assassin. Whether they are tempered for it, whether they should be doing this. How do you feel?”

“My friend...do we really have those here? Cassidy broke the rules, she was unstable. She should never have been allowed to get this far, and...”

He kindly interrupted her. “And now you have put her down, as any loving master does with a terminally ill animal, cutting short its suffering. Your father would be proud.”

“I felt her life leave her.”

“Yes. I don’t know what that feels like, though I’ve seen it often enough. Go home. Your sister is at the usual place waiting. By the way, you are now no longer a student, Apprentice Olegsdottor.”

“Thank you, Guild Master.”

He gave her a small insignia pin as she left.

Introducing Abey

This section happens a bit further along. Caspian and Steven are traveling by foot in pursuit of Roxanne, after she was sold by her kidnappers.

This first part is in desperate need or rewriting.

Caspian and Steven find a young woman tied to a stake in the ground.  She obviously in physical duress.  She is out cold, or asleep, using most of the rope for a pillow.  She is young (19), and small (less than 5 foot nothing).  She is wearing a leather shirt, home-spun trousers, and leather boots.  Also a leather belt.  Her hair is very dark brown, with some sunstreaks in it, and tied back with a kerchief.  Her plain features are tanned, but showing a burn right now.

She had a rope tied around her left ankle, which is secured to a stake in the ground.  The circle inscribed by this has a small bush off the side of the trail, but is otherwise barren of growth and shade.  Farther out is the edge of the clearing, allowing some shade, but not in the middle.  The road passes by, but does not cross the circle.

Steven moves to free her, but Caspian tells him not to.

“Why?”

“She is here for punishment.  If she really wanted to leave, she could have.  She is wearing a knife.”

“Leaving her here to die of thirst is not punishment.  It’s torture.”

Steven cuts her loose, and lays her out.  He then pours a little water into her mouth.  After a bit, she stirs, but does not awake.

“I guess she is from this town?”

“Most likely, or the surrounding farms.”  Caspian just stood by, not trying to help a wit.  “And now that you have cut her loose, and began to care for her, you have just created a bit of trouble for us.  Oh, well.”

Caspian sighed, shrugged, and then turned to inspect the trees.  He then pulled his bush knife from his belt, and lopped two branches from the trees.  Both were about half again as long as he was tall.  Next, he lopped all the smaller branches off these, leaving the ones on one side, to form a bit of a bed.

Steven pulled out his blankets, and lay the thickest one out.  He then put the branches across it with their few remaining limbs in the middle.  The blanket is then folded over the branches to form a bed.  Steven then lay the woman on it, and wrapped the blanket the rest of the way around, adding the second blanket to the roll, to hold her in.  The branches extended easily beyond either end.

“Take the other end, and we will be off.”  Steven stood at the girls head, ready to pick up the short end of the makeshift stretcher.

“No.  She is your problem.  Those are long enough to drag.  You just need a bit of a yoke.”  Caspian pulled a length of leather strap from his bag, and handed it to Steven.

“I don’t believe you.  You would just leave her here to die?”

“This is not our concern.  She was here for a reason.  Getting involved like this will only make things worse.  And I won’t do it.”

Steven took the leather strap, measured it, and tied it into a loop that ran over his shoulders, and down by either hand.  He then knelt and put the loops around the ends of the branches.  Lifting the end up, he stood, being sure that the woman did not slide out.

“Fine.  But I thought you helped those in need.”  Steven shifted the strap to balance the load.  Still looking accusingly at Caspian.  “Let’s get going.”

Steven then set out, walking past Caspian, dragging the travois behind him.  He did not have to take it far.

Inside a half hour, they were at the edge of a farming village.  Steven dragged his burden to what appeared to be the town square.  Here he lay her back down and was accosted by what passed for local law enforcement, who had followed from a shop at the edge of town.

“Who are you, and why are you bringing her here?”  Steven looked the man over.  He was a head and a bit more shorter, but considerably thicker than Steven.  And his garb seemed to denote that of a smith.  His face looked to be perpetually sunburned, with a liberal application of ash and slag rubbed in, and coating his leather apron.  His soot covered hair was scraggly and long, tied back by something that only kept about 3/4ths of it back.  The rest just floated about his head.

Steven remembered his last encounter with any police.  This guy might not be so patient.  “My name is Steven.  I was traveling in this direction, when I found her tied to a stake in the ground.  She needs healing.”

The smith did not even look at her.  “Did she ask you to do this?”

Steven shook his head.  “No.  She has not aroused since I first found her.  If she does not get help soon, she could die.”

The smith continued to look unconcerned.  “If that is what she chooses.”

Now Steven was annoyed.  “What happened to human decency?  Doesn’t anybody care for anybody here?”

Caspian stepped in.  “Steven, I tried to tell you.  She was there for a reason.  None of these people were helping her there, they won’t help you here.”

The smith spoke again.  “If you help her, she becomes your responsibility.  As a stranger I can give you this much.  Put her back, or keep her.”  He folded his arms, and puffed his chest out at Steven.

Steven looked around, seeing that several people had gathered to watch and see.  In passing he realized the he was taller than everybody, by a good margin.

“You’re saying that just by trying to get her help, she becomes my responsibility.  How’s that?”  Steven was a bit incredulous.

The smith continued his huff.  “She was out there as punishment.  If you are going to interfere with that, she becomes your responsibility.  Take her with you, or put her back.”

Steven looked around, considering what to do.  He looked at Caspian, but got no help there.  He looked around, and finally saw one person looking more than impassive.  A woman with a basket of shopping in her hands, looking concerned.  The woman caught Steven looking at her, and abruptly turned and walked away.  That settled it for him.

“Get me your healer.”

The smith shrugged.  Then turned and walked away.

“Caspian.  Do you know anything that could help?”

“No.  That is not my kind of magic.  But I don’t think she needs magic.  Just some proper care and rest.”  Caspian shrugged his shoulders.

Steven blew out a big breath, and sat down.  “If we leave her here?”

“She is yours now.  If you leave her here, they will ignore her, and she will die.”

“Wonderful.  So now I have to see to her while traveling to find Rox.”  Steven stood up.  “Did you see the woman with the basket?”

“Yes.  You noticed that she seemed to be the only person concerned.  Cyrril is following her right now.  Probably the girl’s mother,” Caspian speculated.

Steven looked where she went.  “Let’s go see if she will help.”

He turned to pick up the end of the travois, when a large, grubby, older man got Steven’s attention.  This man was all but stomping at them.

Caspian seemed to notice him at the same time as Steven.  “Who is this?”

Steven stood taller, as the man stomped up.  Then Steven ducked a balled up fist, and dropped the end of the travois.  He then returned a fist of his own, doubling the man over and dropping him to the ground.

Steven stood up, and back.  “What was that about?”

Caspian just stood by, watching, curiously.  Then knelt down next to the girl.

The grubby man got back to his feet.  “I won’t let you have her.  She’s mine.”

Steven cocked his head.  “Oh, really?  Then why weren’t you seeing to her needs?  I found her out there nearly ready to die.”

The girl’s weak voice answered Steven’s question.  “I will not accept his help.  I will not have him.”

“That is not for you to decide.  Your father and I settled the matter.”  The man tried to move to lay hands on her.

Steven just stood in his way.  “It seems to me that she already made her decision, and that is the one that matters.  Otherwise, she would not have been where I found her.  I am a stranger here.  But I gather that she is my responsibility now.”  Steven did his best to look as imperious as he could, summoning all his Marine Pride, standing to full height and stature.

The grubby man shrunk a bit, but was not ready to give up the issue.  “She has no say in the matter.  This was already settled between her father and me.  She is my wife now.”  He turned his attention to her.  “You had better learn that.  That is why you were out there.”

Steven could hear Caspian quietly chanting over her girl.  But his primary attention was on this thug.  And how to end this situation.  Then a thought whispered to him.  “Was the union consummated?”

This caught the grubby man off guard.  “What?”

Steven knew that he had found a crack.  Now to exploit it.  “Have you slept with her?  Have you been naked with her, and had her?”

Steven had no idea what the local euphemism was, but his question seemed to get across, and kick his opponent where it counted.  The man turned red with anger, and slipped into apoplexy.

She answered the question, with a laugh that seemed to cut deeper into the man’s ego than anything Steven could do.

“Well, then.  Since I am the one currently caring for her, and you being refused of her, I don’t think you have any claim.  Now stand aside, before you get hurt.”  Steven had softened his voice, to the condescending tone used to address one who is not bright enough to understand anything more.

Like a bubbling mud pot, the man finally boiled over and again tried to attack Steven.  But the fight was over before it began.  In three swift motions, Steven had him on the ground, gasping for air, and grasping between his legs in a private world of hurt.

At that, Steven rolled him over to face the other way.

Caspian had stood back up, and looked a bit amused by what happened.  Steven looked down at the girl.  Her dark eyes looked up at him in gratitude, and she managed a week smile.

Steven then picked up the end of the travois, and dragged it out of the square.  Caspian directed them to where Cyrril was, at the house of the girl’s family.  Her father was not home, but her mother was, and had been the woman with the basket.  She quickly and graciously provided Steven with some food, herbs, and medicines and the girl’s things in a shoulder bag and rucksack.  Caspian, being the bag holder, repaid the woman, and they were on their way before more trouble could find them.

That night, when they finally stopped for camp, Steven’s arms and shoulders were quite sore.  The girl had drifted at the edge of awake much of the time, but not really into coherence.  Caspian and Steven made camp, and put together a soup rich with the herbs from the mother.  The girl drank most of the broth, and then collapsed into real sleep.

Steven realized that he did not yet know her name, as he went to sleep.

Tertiary characters get a moment in the spotlight.

This is a section from further through Act One of the story. By this point, Roxanne and the kids have been kidnapped, and Caspian and Steven have followed, going back to Tywacomb, Caspian's native planet. Here it introduces a few tertiary characters that have been mentioned before this point.

Margot Winslow is the focus character for this scene. She is Roxanne's mother. Mike is her husband, and is only mentioned. Not mentioned and perhaps needing some explanation is that Roxanne is an only child, but this is mentioned and a plot point later.

Doris Winchel is the next door neighbor to Steven and Roxanne. She is a stay-at-home retiree married to another. Her husband does not play any significant part of this story.

Steven and Roxanne live in a rural area of the Carson Valley, Nevada. This valley is south of Carson City, Nevada, and east over the last line of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Margot Winslow always enjoyed coming to visit her daughter, and grandkids.  The cleaner air and altitude of Carson Valley agreed with her.  Her husband, Mike, on the other hand despised any gain in altitude, equating that with getting cold.  He refused to travel to Tahoe in the winter.  In lighter moments he claimed to be allergic to snow.  Margot, on the other hand, enjoyed snow, so long as it was not moving sideways.  She had seen enough of that growing up in Nebraska.  For her purposes she was well enough off in Santa Cruz.

Now events happened that had left her wondering a few things.  First were the strange dreams, about flying through space.  Then there was the phone call.  She had heard of Judge Kevan; that he was a good judge to go before, and a kind of stern man personally.

When he called Thursday evening to report that Roxanne and the kids had been abducted, she was devastated.  Then when he said that his best investigator was on the case, and to call Steven and tell him to trust the investigator, and go with him, that had been strange.  More so was that he had only given a single name, “Detective Caspian.”  That was different.  But her instincts said that this was all right.  So she called, and relayed the message.

She then told of this to Mike.

The next day, Friday, Margot had gone to Sacramento, and found this Judge Kevan, and taken him to lunch.  The information they shared was quite startling, to both of them.  He had been surprised that she had known that her grandmother was an elf from another planet.  When he told her of the origin of the kidnappers, she quickly put together that Rox and the kids had been taken to her grandmother’s home world.  Then he mentioned that Caspian and Steven had already left in pursuit.  Margot was a bit dumbfounded by this.  She left lunch promising to keep in touch.

She drove to her husband’s work place, and told him everything she knew, start to finish.  And also why there was no good reason that Roxanne had not been told of her half-breed status.  They decided to do what ever they could to keep things in order.

When she finally got back to her office, for the last 20 minutes of the day, she found two messages from a detective investigating the abduction, one from Judge Kevan, and a handful from her work she had neglected that day.  She told her secretary, partners, and boss what she had been up to and why.  Also that this might take up unexpected time in the next while.

She then planned to drive up to Roxanne’s place on Sunday, and see the detective then.  Also to take care of the house.  Mike begged off the trip, having other things he wanted to do.  Margot recognized it as his dislike for traveling, and let it go.

So here she was taking a Sunday drive from Santa Cruz through Tahoe, going to her daughter’s house to finish cleaning it up and to close it up until Roxanne and Steven returned.  She arrived just after ten a.m. and let herself in.

Doris Winchel watched a strange car pull up in front of the Caplan house.  A Toyota Corolla with California plates and what looked like some extra fancy work done to it.  After a moment, a woman got out.  Doris almost jumped, thinking for a moment that this was Roxanne.  But this woman was dressed in slacks and a nice blouse, where Roxanne would wear jeans and a tee-shirt.  Also her hair was snow-white in color, but pulled back in the same kind of tail that Roxanne routinely wore, if a bit longer.  And Roxanne never carried a purse like that one.

Doris watched the woman walk up the driveway at the Caplan’s and decided that she had better go see what she was about.  Especially after Steven’s call asking her to watch the place.  She put her current project down, wiped her hands on her apron, and picked up the ring of keys that she had been given.  She walked next door, and found the door closed, the strange woman evidently having gone inside.  Doris knocked, and waited.  After a moment the strange woman opened the door.  Again for a brief moment she thought she this was Roxanne.  But this woman, while almost a physical match, was visibly older.

“I’m from next door.  Are you here to visit Roxanne and Steven?”

The woman looked Doris over, then pointed at her.  “Mrs. Duncan, right?”

“Mrs. Winchel, dear.  How can I help you?”

“I’m Roxanne’s mother, Margot.  Steven asked me to come and take care of whatever I found.  But he didn’t mention you.”  Margot looked a bit puzzled.

Mrs. Winchel thought a moment.  “Oh, I remember, you visited last summer.  I watch everybody’s houses around here.”  Doris stepped inside, causing Margot to step back.  “Steven called me the night things happened and asked me to watch the place while they were gone.  So, where shall we begin?”  Doris turned and entered the kitchen, looking around.

Margot was a bit put off.  Here was this woman in her apron barging in like she owned the place, and offering help.  ‘Why not?’ she thought to herself.  Shrugging, Margot closed the door.  She would have to remember Mrs. Winchel’s correct name.  She had always been associated with donuts in Margot’s mind, just the wrong brand.

Margot first got out her clipboard and pen and walked the house, noting damage and messes.  From there they went into the yard, and around back to the garage, still noting things.

Margot unlocked and opened the side door to the garage, turning on the lights as Mrs. Winchel followed.  Not having been in here before, Mrs. Winchel was immediately scandalized by the poster of the family that hung over the main doors.  Having a print of the same that was portrait sized in her office at home, Margot paid the poster less heed than Roxanne ever did, and went through the place as quickly as she did the house and yard.

They went back to the house, and found the detective in his car in the driveway, taking notes to himself.  Margot went out, and introduced herself, as Mrs. Winchel made some sandwiches and juice.

The detective invites himself in, and finds his tape recorder on the kitchen counter.  He winds it back to listen to it, and scowls a bit in disappointment.  They all gathered around the kitchen table, and he starts, by turning on the recorder.

First, he asked Margot for her identification, and how she fit in all this.  He then asked if there would be any reason for Steven to have the family killed or kidnapped.  Or for Roxanne to take the kids and run.  Or where Steven went and why.  Or if she knows who this private investigator ‘Caspian’ or ‘Judge Kevan’ was.  Using her skills as a lawyer, Margot gets out of him that he really does not have anything to go on, and is fishing for clues.

She then rounds on him, chewing him out for not trusting the accounts given him by truthful people.

He counters that he is not being given the whole truth.

She parry’s that he has enough to solve the case, and to stay out of the private lives of those involved.  And if he is done, that he is invited to leave now, or she will have him arrested for trespassing, verbal abuse, and abuse of authority.

He, seeing that he will not get any farther, leaves.

Margot and Mrs. Winchel finish lunch, and then commence to clean the house, starting with the lunch dishes.  Josh knocked on the door as they were finishing up.  He explained that he had seen people here, and was wanting to know what was going on.  He then told them about his truck, and Rox helping with it.  Margot knew nothing about this, though Mrs. Winchel did.  She asked Josh to return later, and they could talk all about what was going to happen.  But first they needed to finish straightening up.  So he left, promising to return.

Mrs. Winchel left just after, to finish her house work, and leaves Margot to the laundry.  By the time things are ready to be folded and put away, Mrs. Winchel has returned, and began vacuuming the living room after moving all the furniture to one end of the room.  They get everything folded, and put away.  The kid’s beds are finally put back completely right.

Margot also calls Steven’s secretary to confirm with her that she is getting the mail, and tending to the bills.

Mid-afternoon, a stranger showed up at the door, asking for Roxanne, and about picking up the Camero.  Roxanne had already arranged to sell the car to him, and finish the deal this day.  Margot finds the business records, and a bill of sale, and finishes the deal with a note that she is a third party conducting it.  She then takes him around back.  As he watches, she pulls the car out of the garage, and leaves it for him.  They close the garage again, and he drives away.  Margot then looks at the various piles of truck parts, and the two trucks in process.  This reminds her of Josh.

 Margot leaves the cashiers check with the mail and a note to the secretary what it’s about.

Mrs. Winchel was now out tending her flower beds, and simply moved on the take care of Steven’s.  They had to be Steven’s because Roxanne could not even grow mold.

Finally Mr. Winchel comes home from his errands, and Mrs. Winchel calls Josh and has him come over.  They work things out that Josh can work on his truck, but only when Mr. Winchel is there.  And he has to clean up everything.  Margot also arranges to have Mr. Winchel drive the truck with the trailer for the errands that need to be run, again with Josh along, and only for these related errands, and they have to buy the gas.  Steven’s Secretary is left a note about this arrangement.

When everything was done, Margot bid farewell to the Winchel’s and Josh, and arranged to come by every few weeks.