6

Dolore tilts her head thoughtfully.

"You know, if I'm honest, I never really considered that it might actually happen. Like I say, I think it's very unlikely that anything terrible will happen in Silvertree. But I suppose, if whatever she was afraid of did ever come to pass, and I had remembered what she said, then I probably would have tried to find what she had hidden. Of course, I haven't thought about it at all in a long time; but since it all came back to me this week, I have been going over what she said every now and then. When she said that she had hidden 'everything you need to know'—it made me very curious what it was, and how she knew it in the first place. This is all pure speculation, of course, but there were times when I almost wondered if your grandmother was working for somebody, or some organization, and there were things she was doing that she couldn't tell anybody. Whether or not that's true, I certainly got the impression that she knew something the rest of us didn't. I suppose I may never know now. But if you have questions of your own, Huknock, then the best thing would probably be to talk to your grandmother yourself. If she was willing to trust me with those books, then I'm sure there must be much more she would trust you with."

Just then, Dolores checks her watch, and seeing the time she realizes that she had better get home. Before she leaves, though, she thanks you for coming to meet her—and she reassures you again that there's nothing you need to worry about. She also tells you that once she is back in town, she will make arrangements to give your grandma's books back to either her or you. With that, she gives you one last smile, and sweeps out of the room in a swirl of colorful silk.

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