How I managed to eat four pancakes, three pieces of bacon, a bowl of raspberries, and drink four cups of coffee I do not know, but when I was done I was a little proud of myself. Eating in the face of adversity. That had to be a little-praised skill, and I felt as if I had regained control.
But once our breakfast was done, we had to do the work of buying books for our new employers, and I suddenly regretted my appetite. I didn’t, however, regret my quick thinking to get rid of the wire. Now, though, my light pink shirt was stained brown, and I couldn’t very well conduct business in a coffee-stained shirt.
“I need to change,” I said as we helped clean up breakfast, as much to protect the wire in the napkin that Beattie was guarding ferociously as for any other reason. “I’ll just run up an
