As the clouds over the meadow grew thicker, Cally’s mood grew darker. She was tired of being a receptionist with not very much to do, and she was tired of staring at her word processor screen and not seeing any words appear on the page. She was tired, also, of trying to speak to the ghost of a preacher who kept appearing and standing in front of her desk and not saying anything or acknowledging her presence at all, making her feel like she was the one who was the ghost.

Mostly, she couldn’t stop thinking about the questions she wanted to ask Ian, and she was tired of waiting for Foster to come out of the back hall so she could go and request an audience with Ian, herself. She began seriously considering just approaching “the White Council” herself and flatly demanding an explanation.

The only thing she had the power to actually accomplish, at the moment, was to send Emerald a brief email asking her to please sign on to chat later that night. “I am wondering about this Vale your story speaks of,” she wrote, “where you grew up, and what relation it has to what Ian once told me, about how the area around his house used to be called the Vale. I am thinking maybe we are neighbors, now, and that maybe someday soon, somehow, we can finally get together for that cup of coffee we always talked about.” Her hand trembled as she clicked the button to send the email, but she sent it anyway, and then resumed watching the minutes tick slowly away.

Katarina passed through the Hall from time to time, bringing Joan a fresh cup of tea, or running up the stairs to check on Bethany. “Her color is much better!” she was happy to report as she returned down the stairs. “The only trouble is, now she thinks she should be able to get up and take a shower and get back to work, and I don’t think she’s well enough for that yet.”

Cally’s unchecked internal response was to wish Bethany could get back to work very soon indeed, and then she felt like a heel for thinking that way. “No,” she agreed with Katarina, “though it might be good for her if you can help her sit up in the chair for a little while. Let’s just hope she won’t try to take a shower without one of us there to help. We don’t want her to fall again!”

“Maybe I can get Ignacio to help her come downstairs and relax in the parlor for a while.” Katarina looked to the parlor doorway through which Nell’s voice could be heard. “Nell could keep her company. But I thought she and Foster were leaving to go back to Raleigh today?”

“I thought so too,” Cally said, “but Foster found some new information he wants to impress upon Ian.”

Katarina had no reply to this, but the way she blew her bangs up out of her face told Cally what she would have liked to have said, and Cally agreed with her.

Afternoon was well over before Foster came back into the Hall. Stopping at the desk he asked Cally, “What are you doing for dinner tonight?” It didn’t sound like an invitation so much as a challenge.

Cally sighed. Ian would be surrounded by friends and family at dinner for the next couple of hours, and then he would take his dessert and retreat to his quarters as usual. She would not have a chance to talk to him that night, and she was tired of waiting. She made up her mind to try a different approach to getting the answers she wanted. “I thought I’d go into town and try some of that gourmet pizza,” she told Foster. “I don’t want to be a moocher or a freeloader.” She would try the pizza, she was thinking, but mostly she would try to join Merv Arkwright and his cronies on the loading dock and attempt to pry some answers from them.

“Well,” said Foster, pushing up his glasses, “I hope you have a nice time. Nell and I will probably be gone by the time you get back. It’s been nice getting to know you.” He did not sound sincere, and was in fact not even looking at her as he spoke, but through the parlor doorway toward Nell’s voice.

“You’re right,” said Cally. “I’d better say goodbye to Nell now while I can.”

She tidied the desk and slung her computer case over her shoulder, then went into the parlor. The television was off and Nell was sitting quietly with her hands in her lap while Foster went upstairs to see to their packing. “I just came to wish you a nice trip home,” Cally said.

Nell jumped up and ran to give Cally a hug. “I’m going to miss you!” she said. “I can’t wait to see you again!”

Cally didn’t expect she would still be at Vale House by the time Nell visited again, but she didn’t say so out loud. “I’m so glad I got a chance to get to know you,” she said sincerely, and then fumbled for how to conclude the conversation. Phrases like “I hope all your dreams come true,” and “Thank you for all you’ve given me,” went through her head, but didn’t seem like they would make sense if she said them out loud. She returned Nell’s hug, and then went up to the Rose Room.

The bed had been made, and the rose-themed knickknacks on the dresser had been lined up neatly according to height. It didn’t even bother Cally anymore. She knew for certain now that it could not be Joan, even dressed as the White Lady, doing this, and it wasn’t George. She was sure he was telling the truth when he said that touching objects was not in his skill set. Maybe it was Melissa. Or some other entity entirely. “Just leave my computer alone!” she said to the empty room. She dropped the laptop case on the desk chair and locked the door behind her as she left.

The evening was still hanging on to late afternoon when she walked into town, and the clouds thickening overhead tinted the sky a vivid palette of reds and purples which made Cally think of one of Nell’s paintings. Merv Arkwright was inside his feed store and had not yet come out onto the dock. Cally walked on past, but was determined to come back later and ask him the questions she had meant to ask Ian. She had even brought her note pad, as a ruse to pretend she was just doing research for her book. The book she was doubting, more and more all the time, she was ever actually going to write.

The entire town seemed particularly quiet that evening. The only cars parked in the street were Andi’s in front of her coffee shop and Jud Thornton’s in front of his hardware store. There were shadows moving inside the News Store but Cally made a point of not looking closely. She stayed on the other side of the street until she came to the crossing with Railroad Street. Here she turned the corner and made her way to Motherboard Pizza.

“Ms. McCarthy!” Luke greeted her with a large wooden paddle in his hands. “I hope you’re hungry. I am experimenting with a new spinach and artichoke sauce. How is Ms. Chase?” He put the paddle down and took off his orange and green stained apron.

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“Call me Cally. Bethany is doing much better. And that experimental pizza actually sounds really good. Do you have dining-in facilities here?”

He laughed. “For you, the finest seat in the house.” He escorted her to a small table next to the front window. It was the only seat in the house. “And no charge tonight. I’ve made a large, and won’t be able to finish it myself. I’m frankly kind of, well, burned out on pizza, you understand.”

Cally nodded and sat down. “I think I can help. I haven’t even had lunch.”

“I’m afraid all I have to drink is water,” he said, setting two plastic bottles in the middle of the checkered tablecloth. “I wish I served wine here, because nothing would go with this pizza so well as a nice pinot noir. Unfortunately I have been having an uphill battle trying to get a license to serve alcohol. It’s so hard to get anything done in this town,” he sighed.

“Bless you for trying,” Cally said. “People like you might be able to save this little town.” She looked out at the shadows lengthening in the street. “Speaking of that, I was hoping to talk to Merv Arkwright. Do you think the boys will be playing their music tonight?”

“They’ve ordered their usual large pepperoni and mozzarella,” he said, “So I assume so. Excuse me.” A timer had gone off and he turned to retrieve the big wooden paddle from the counter.

As he was slicing up the very fragrant pizza with a cutter the size of a dinner plate, Andi appeared in the doorway. She let out a cry of delight to see Cally there and bent to hug her. “I just stopped in for a sandwich to take home with me,” she said.

“Not tonight,” said Luke. When he set the pizza down, it nearly covered the whole table. “Sit, sit,” he insisted, and went to get the kitchen step-stool to use as a third chair for himself.

Cally had to admit, the spinach and artichoke pizza (“with cave-aged gorgonzola” Luke explained) really was very good, and the three ate in silence, except for “mmm” noises and the licking of fingers. Then Luke looked at his watch and got up. “The guys are probably ready for their basic pepperoni,” he said, picking up the warming envelope from the counter. “You ladies take your time. If a sudden rush of hungry customers comes in, please take their orders and tell them I’ll be right back.”

As soon as he was gone, Andi took the opportunity to ask Cally how things were going at Vale House. “Joan’s still not in jail?” she laughed.

“I thought of calling and asking the sheriff, today, about that, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t talk to me about it.”

“No, he wouldn’t.” Andi said. “That wouldn’t be ethical. Just be patient. He’s a good sheriff, he’ll get to the bottom of it. How about you, though? Do you really think she’s guilty? Why would she do something like that, anyway? Do you have any ideas?”

Cally picked at a piece of pizza crust. She had lots of ideas, but she wasn’t sure she should be talking about them. Someone might start thinking she needed medication, herself. “I thought I knew what was going on,” she said carefully. “But when I tried to grill Joan yesterday, well, now I’m not completely sure. Everything I thought I knew has been turned on its head lately.” She didn’t say so, but she realized this was true about everything that had happened since she’d first packed up her car and headed for Woodley. “Andi, you’re Not From Around Here. Tell me: how did you discover Woodley? Was it hard for you to find, for you to get here?”

“I’ve heard people say this place is harder to find than a daisy in a snowstorm,” Andi said, laughing. “But for me it was a no-brainer. I found the listing for a vacant storefront in the paper. I was like you: starting my life over. Again. Anyway, the listing agent for the storefront was Jud Thornton. He gave me a lift here and showed me the place, and I was sold. I’ve called this town my home ever since, and the locals are even sort of starting to agree.” She laughed, then grew serious again and laid a hand on Cally’s. “But that doesn’t really answer your question, does it? Cally, what are you getting at? What’s bothering you?”

Cally shook her head. “I’ve started to wonder if I’m just losing my mind,” she said. “Like my daughter always said I would. Nothing seems to add up. I...” She stopped suddenly, because a figure was passing by outside the window and she recognized the easy, rolling walk of Ben Dawes as he headed toward Main Street. If he saw her and Andi through the window of the pizza shop, he gave no indication.

“Oh.” Andi smiled broadly. “I see. Yes, he’s a looker, isn’t he?”

“I guess so,” said Cally, “but he needs a haircut.” Andi wasn’t buying it, so Cally stopped trying. “What’s his deal, anyway? He’s an odd one!”

Andi stopped smiling and shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. You’re right, he’s an odd one. There’s this whole town mystery around him, and Bree Dawes, too, that nobody really talks about, even though it’s right there in front of their faces.”

“What? Are they married to each other or something?” Cally felt a twinge of the old heartsick, betrayed feeling she’d thought she’d left behind her forever, but Andi was shaking her head. “No, no, he’s not married, that anyone knows of. Though I understand he does have children who don’t live around here. No, Brigit Dawes is his baby sister.”

Andi waited silently until Cally’s expression showed the words had sunk in.

“His. Baby sister?” Cally squinted, trying to make this add up in her head. It didn’t. “How is that possible? Does she have that disease that makes people age fast?”

“She’s the normal one. Well, normal for her, anyway. No, Ben is the one who doesn’t seem to be the right age. I’ve only lived here a short time, so it isn’t obvious to me. But people talk, you know how they do. People who have lived here for a long time, sometimes they let something slip and I hear them make a reference to the way he never seems to get any older.”

Cally cocked her head and gave Andi a level look. “What is he? One of those sparkly vampires or something?”

Andi threw back her head and let out a hearty laugh at this. “Oh, God love you, Cally! No! Well, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think so. He’s a truly nice guy. Everyone loves him. But now you mention it, you hardly ever do see him outside the news store. No.” She shook her head. “That’s probably not because he’s a sparkly vampire. I just figure, if a person mysteriously never seems to age, they would tend to lay low, to keep people from talking.

“But you know what: since you’ve come along, this is the third time in as many days I’ve seen him outside the store, walking around town.”

“I guess I should be flattered,” Cally grumbled, picking a slice of Greek olive off her pizza and eating it as if she meant to hurt it.

“Sarcasm does not become you, Cally.” Andi stood and opened the door, craning her head to see around the corner to Main Street. “Look, he’s sitting in with the guys on the dock. You should go and talk to him.”

“I don’t think so!”

Andi sat back down and took both of Cally’s hands in hers. “I think he really likes you,” she said.

“I wonder where I’ve heard that song before?”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Dammit. I’m sorry, Andi. I’m acting like a petulant child, aren’t I?”

Cally pressed her palms against the tablecloth and gave herself a firm mental shake. She was here, she reminded herself, for a purpose, and she wasn’t going to let Ben’s presence deter her. Standing up quickly, she went around the table to hug Andi. “Finish the pizza,” she said. “Don’t let it go to waste. When the rush comes, take lots of orders for Luke.” She stepped out the door into the darkened street, but paused to turn back and say, “And thank you for being a friend.”