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"This way, my friends," the doctor said, and he led them through the small foyer of the Inn, decorated with intricately woven tapestries and filled with the smell of wood and fresh cut flowers. There was a long desk upon which a bell rested. The doctor rang the bell and its chime seemed far too brash in the quiet foyer. In response a squat woman in an apron appeared from a back room. She was in her forties and her face was weathered, but she still might have been pretty were it not for the anguish in her eyes.
When she saw Doctor Nichols, however, she brightened immediately.
"Oh, doctor," she said. "Thank the Lord you're back."
"Hello, Mrs. Gilroy," the old man said kindly. "Yes, I've returned, and these are the young people I spoke to you about. Miss Tamara Swift, and her brother, Master William Swift."
Mrs. Gilroy lowered her gaze and nodded in a gesture of deep respect. When she looked up at them again William was made profoundly uncomfortable by the intensity of her gaze.
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