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Show tumult with her father, Hoqqam's sister, and the geese so completely out of her mind and go on as though naught had happened, as though a villain and ruffian had not threatened her with eviction from her own home and birthright, had not cracked an innocent maid's skull on the cold frames! The capable Dr'Anya still hadn't learned how to manipulate the strange white robot that Armand had installed in the house, for though she'd handled the AgriRobots in plenty, her family ever preferred human help about the Hall. So without her familiar cottagers, she was doing the running and fetching and cooking herself with young Janni's help. And then mother and daughter noticed, forsooth, that the robot was kept busy anyway-running and fetching and cooking for Armand. By the Saints! Dr'Anya and Janni went out of the scullery; down the main passage, and up to the open door of the male sleeping room. They peeped in. There lay Armand, shivering under the covers, his breath coming in shallow gasps, his lips and face tinged with blue. He had just been propped up on a quantity of pillows by the strange robot. But Armand would not allow Janni or her good mother to come into the room. "By the mass, come near me not!" he whispered. His eyes rolled over them as though his partner and young daughter were death itself and then his eyes stopped-fastened on Dr'Anya's hands. "Thou..thou hast buried her," he muttered brokenly, "thou hast touched human flesh, foully murdered. . .thou g h o u l . . . " Then he turned his head away from her as though ravaged with disgust. By Saint Ida's diving bell! Janni thought full furious. The villain is fair mad...! But her mother touched her arm gently and beckoned her to 226 |