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Before I could take Sinclair aside and rea, and before I could take Jess aside and get the real scoop, the doorbell rang

"Jessica, I would very much like to continue this conversation," he said, "but I must ask you to excuse us"

"Oooooh," she replied "Va must be one shock after another, because I hadn&039;t heard this many ooooohs in ever "Who is it?"

"No one," he said calmly, "I wish you to meet" He inclined his head toward the door to the stairs "If you please"

I didn&039;t knohat to say, and I could tell Jessica didn&039;t, either After an aard couple of seconds, she shrugged and trotted out

"Screa toward the front door, "later"

I was sort of terrified to see who it was, and as usual, ination ran away fro (beautiful, really) older woray skirt, sensible panty hose, and black pumps They were leather and unscuffed

She herself looked to be in her fifties, with black hair streaked with silver, and a handful of laugh lines in the corner of both eyes

Her eyes

There was so weird about her eyes Sinclair had eyes like that, so on (read: other va to kill me), his eyes went like that They were so black you couldn&039;t see into thelasses state troopers wear You looked in and-it&039;s hard to explain-you only saw yourself Most times I could see his softer side, his love and worry for ood stuff And the tis, I usually had my hands too full to worry about it

I stared at her, a little scared, and she bowed and said soave her a s, Marjorie"

"Your Majesties"

"It&039;s good to see you again"

"And you, Sir"

Sinclair bent and kissed her hand, European style, but before anybody could kissat me, and I almost dropped her hand She was cold, which I expected, and I couldn&039;t see anything in her eyes but me, which I did not

An old one, I decided A va And doesn&039;t give a ripe shit any I pitied them as much as I feared them And I felt pretty sorry for them

"It&039;s nice to meet you," I lied

She inclined her head "Majesty We have otten those eyes Not even Nostro had eyes like those No, we hadn&039;t ain

"I was in a group that carounds Perhaps you didn&039;t notice me"

"No, definitely not" Then, because it&039;s possible she was disappointed (but who could tell? she was a damn robot), I added, "Sorry if I ht, hed unwittingly The robot had been progra observations! "That&039;s one way of putting it"

"Soht like"

We did?

"My king, that is as te an offer as I&039;ve received all year, but Ithe queen a favor"

She did? At least she was speaking English

"Well," I said, "come on in"

"Thank you, ht next to the front hall, and ole Marjie got right to it

"As you know, I am head of the library don"

She was a librarian! I pretended like I knew, and nodded

"I a a newsletter for the vampire community"

"You are?"

"It was your idea, uys get a newsletter or sorinned "It has the ring of authenticity"

"When did I say that?"

"On the occasion of our first ht have had a few things on ht up and introduce yourself, don&039;t bitch about ain," Marjorie said tonelessly, "for alllines from Gone With the Wind!"

At last, the robot loosened up a little She even sht thousand tireat scene the one where Rhett alht because he knows he can totally kick everybody&039;s ass, and killing Charles Ha waste, so he just bows and leaves"

"I think that touches on a rather large thehtfully, crossing her ankles like a lady "Because we see Rhett&039;s bad side frequently, but usually we only see his good side in relation to Scarlett"

"Yeah, like when he brought her the hat after the blockades tightened, and stole a horse for her so she could get out of town and see her mom Who was dead But Scarlett didn&039;t know that"

Marjie was sh my excited interruption "But here, he has a chance to shoot a man from his own hated planter class, in a way that is societally acceptable, and instead, he-"

"Vamooses to the library, which is where he meets Scarlett and all that other stuff happens"

"Love Death War" She sighed "Those were the days"

I ignored the uber-creepiness of the psycho librarian and went on in the saht of it like that! That froed "I have been reading that book since the year it was published, and every ti new Extraordinary!"

Well, shit! Anybody who liked GWtW couldn&039;t be that bad Right? Right "Listen, I&039; foot I&039;m terrible with names and faces, and I&039;m sorry I didn&039;t reht, my queen," she said, and this time it seemed like she meant it "As I am here to ask a favor, I&039;m hardly in a position to sulk"

"Yeah, well Never stopped me What&039;s up?"

"Well, as I mentioned earlier, I&039;m the local librarian"

Local library? As in, there was more than one? "Sure, sure I remember"

Sinclair shot me a look, which I pretended not to see He hadn&039;t said a word for a coupleto scratch each other&039;s eyes out

"And as I said, I will be starting a newsletter It will be online and only viewable to vampires who have the appropriate passwords, etcetera"

"You&039;re not worried about soht Okay, go on"

"I would like you to contribute to it,for it?"

"Yes, ma&039;am Every month"

"But come on, Marjie-"

"Marjorie" Sinclair and Marj corrected me simultaneously

"-you must have a million people who can do this for you"

"That is not the issue, my queen As you of course have discovered yourself,your new position"

"That was supertactful"

Another tiny smile "Thank you, my queen I feel, and many of my counterparts concur, that this would be a way for the coet to know you Perhaps come to appreciate the finer qualities that aren&039;t, ah, i my head in total admiration "You should work for the United Nations Seriously I et pissed"

Ole Marjie inclined her head ave me a look but still didn&039;t comment

"What would you want hborhood observations, essays on the eternal struggle betweensheep-"

"I&039;ve got it!"

"Ah, the sheep issue I admit, it can be controversial-"

"Shut up about the sheep, Marj" Sinclair winced, but I didn&039;t giveto do a Dear Betsy letter What&039;s the one thing I&039;ve wished I could have since I woke up dead?"

"A sheep?"