The answer he suspected was confirmed as she turned wistfully toward the beach. "I don't know..." She whispered slowly. "I think I'd rather stay here, if that's all right."
Dr. Grove nodded. "Of course; I won't be gone long." He plopped his hat on his head and stepped down the path. After two paces he stopped. "Madi..." He searched for the words. "If you do—go down to the beach..."
Madi caught his meaning. "I'll be safe, Dad," she affirmed.
Ash pulled his coat closed against the breeze and began the short walk into town. The actual distance was less than a mile, but it felt somehow so much longer today than it had yesterday, in the eager company of his daughter and her new friend. Ashley trudged down the road. Some people cast knowing glances at him as he kept his head down to focus on his goal. Someone had erected a set of wooden barricades around the mess, but Ash could see other places affected by Celian's mad dash to the sea: broken rails, a cracked window, and so many booths moved to more secure locations, not so open any more.
Store clerks were still picking glass shards off the ground inside and the pavement outside. Ash caught the eye of the supervisor, and the two men exchanged a nod. Ash joined the crew and began sweeping up the pieces of wood and glass.
A soft sigh sounded behind him. A gloved hand began picking up debris next to him.
Ash looked up and met the eyes of Miss Agatha Dalton.
"Good morning," she said.
Ash rocked back on his heels to stand, and he instinctively reached for the young woman's hand to assist her to her feet.
"Good morning, Miss Agatha," he said. "Can I help you?"
Her lips twitched, but her eyes smiled. "On the contrary, Dr. Grove, I came to help you." She returned to sifting out the larger pieces. They worked in silence for a while, until Agatha spoke up again. "She's all right, by the way."
Dr. Grove lifted his gaze in confusion. "Who is?"
Agatha's cheeks flushed pink. "The maid... Mollie. She's worked as our cook for several years, we never knew of any... issue..." She stammered over the word and gestured toward her head to convey her meaning. "But the robbery... it did something to her. My parents saw that she needed help, so they sent her to a place that... helps people like her, a place where she can be safe and well again."
The doctor sighed and turned away from Agatha for a moment, so she wouldn't see the consternation on his face. From the sound of it, Mollie was the sort with a mental instability he knew modern medicine had no way of restoring or understanding--but Agatha seemed to find comfort in the idea of an asylum as a place of safety.
"You must find great comfort in that news," he replied, turning back to join her.
Agatha looked around the mess and sighed again. "All this... I can't help feeling that it might be my fault, after all."
Dr. Grove shook his head emphatically. "Absolutely not! You mustn't blame yourself."
Agatha frowned. "Then what else could it be? Has this sort of thing happened before? It seemed that he was fairly well-behaved until the moment he laid eyes on me."
Ash took her hands as tears glistened in her eyes. "Hush! It wasn't because of you. I am quite certain there were other influences in play. Celian would never—"
"How can you say that?" Agatha pulled away. When she saw the sympathy in the doctor's face, she relented. "I'm sorry."
Together they righted a shelf and began restocking it with knickknacks.
"So tell me about Celian," Agatha continued. "Madi said she met him on the beach."
Dr. Grove's thoughts began to scramble as he debated every word of his response. "Yes, that's true." She would never hear the truth from him, but he would do his best not to lie.
Agatha went on. "I wonder how he came there. Have you met him before? He certainly seems like an old family friend, with the way Madi seemed so taken with him."
A smile twitched the doctor's lips. "No, we had not met before," he assured her. "That friendliness? That's just Madi's way. She didn't much care where he came from." He paused in his work and looked toward the road. "All she knew was that he needed a friend, and she could be that for him."
"So he was alone when you met him?" Agatha pressed. "And he's never said where he is from?"
The increasing questions struck a nerve within the doctor. Ash was never one for fabricating a lie—but what would she think if he flatly refused to answer? "Miss Agatha," he spluttered. "May I ask your meaning by these questions?"
She hesitated for a long moment. "Well," her voice came a bit stammered, much less eager. "To be sure, I never meant offense... I only—well, I was curious!" She finished in a very flustered tone.
Grove glanced across as she tried to hide her face with a basket of kites—but he could still see the bright-pink tips of her ears.
"If you're so curious," he chuckled, "you might ask Madi herself. I left her at the house, but she could very likely be down at the beach by now."
Agatha stood sharply, still avoiding eye contact with Dr. Grove.
"Thank you," she murmured, "I think I shall..."
Ash shook his head as he watched the distracted young lady wander off, and he resumed sorting the shelves.
Madi watched her father until she could no longer see him, and then her eyes immediately honed in on the rolling tide. The flickering white crests looked so much like Celian's long, flailing arms sometimes, Madi had to concentrate very hard to remind herself that they couldn't all be Celian. She kept watching, kept praying. Sighing heavily, she stood and began tracing the small sandy
