Their foster-grandparents arrived late that evening, and the next day was a flurry of preparations for Christmas dinner, card and board games, and then the presents themselves after supper. Since she had asked for nothing specifically, she mainly received cash for souvenirs for her upcoming trip. Sunday they attended a church service, but otherwise they just recovered from the previous day and relaxed together. Then her suitcase came back out to be repacked that evening.

"Now Nancy," Alice reminded her sister after reading her a bedtime story, "you have to remember that my teacher Professor Potsdam will be in this room and will wake you up early. She is going to give you a test, and you must do exactly as she says."

Nancy nodded. "Ok."

"And when my husband gets here later, do not say that he is my husband. Don't call him 'brother' or say anything about the marriage or us loving each other or anything."

"Why?" Nancy wanted to know.

"We had to get married because I walked into a dangerous spell, and it was the only way to save my life. Since we can't tell Mom and Dad that, they can't know that we're married," she said.

"Oh," Nancy said. "So you didn't get married because you were in love?"

"No, we didn't," Alice admitted.

"But you love him now?" her sister asked.

Alice smiled. "Yes, I do, but when he comes here tomorrow just talk to him like he's just a teacher."

"So I should call him 'sir' or…what's his name?" Nancy asked.

"Mr. Grabiner," Alice said, wondering if her sister would be addressing her husband as 'Mr. Grabber' tomorrow.

The twins had already been warned that he was coming to pick them up, with the appropriate threats applied. They had not told them about Potsdam's presence, just in case they decided to mess up on purpose. Considering their father's mental resistance, this seemed a doubly good decision. After all, he should have accepted that 'Uncle Ed' was family without doing a background check.

Life would be so much simpler if she did not have to worry about the Velvet Curtain.

Alice finished tucking her sister in, and then returned upstairs where chocolate-covered goodies and the shuffling of dominos awaited her.

...

Alice woke up at five-thirty the next morning to Professor Potsdam waking Nancy. Momentary panic that Potsdam had come to find her for not handing out the mail vanished as she woke, and she remembered to tell her teacher about what her father had said yesterday.

"Hmmm…" the plump teacher considered. "This is rare. Typically, most normal parents never question that whatever story we want them to believe is true or not…they just find reasons within themselves to find it true."

"That's what I thought," Alice replied.

"That he did that though…. At least he was able to find a logical reason 'Uncle Ed' would be paying for your educations," Potsdam said. "I wonder how Edward and your grandfather were involved with each other."

After that, Potsdam teleported with Nancy elsewhere, and Alice tried to get some more sleep before her alarm went off.

When her alarm did go off, she got ready, dressing in the outfit Hieronymous had gotten her. If anyone asked…she decided to simply say that there was a thrift store near the mall she sometimes went to on weekends. There actually was one, she had seen it from her seat on the school van, but she had just never been in it.

After finishing off her suitcase and putting it beside Clark's, which was already by the front door, she sat down to breakfast. It was eight-thirty when the doorbell rang, and her mother got up from the table to answer it. "Thank you so much for coming Mr. Grabiner. The kids haven't finished breakfast yet. What time do you have to leave the house?" she heard from the direction of the door.

"We should still be there with time to spare if we leave at nine." Her husband's voice.

"Won't you join us for some breakfast then?" her mother asked, coming around the corner leading Hieronymous to the table. He looked different in a suit and tie instead of his normal robes. Alice decided that she liked the look. "Have you eaten?" her mother asked him.

"A little, but I would appreciate a cup of coffee if you have it handy," Hieronymous said, allowing himself to be corralled into a chair.

"Hi Professor," Clark piped up, and Alice echoed him. Nancy curiously peered around Gramp's round belly at Hieronymous before sitting back in her chair, but she remained mercifully silent.

"Good morning. I trust you two are packed?" Hieronymous asked.

At their affirmative answer, he nodded and then was distracted by their mother pressing pancakes and bacon on him.

Alice busied herself with her own pancakes, thinking how strange it would seem to most of the students at school to be seeing their feared professor obediently accepting breakfast from a normal housewife. They might understand, though, if they knew that it was his mother-in-law herding him into a chair.

She decided that more people being present, rather than fewer, was a benefit in this situation as there were more distractions present. The adults monopolized him, paying little mind to her or her siblings as they spoke to him. In between bites, Hieronymous answered questions thrown at him. They were model students, and had never managed to land in his detention. Yes, he had been told that the twins would likely make up for their elder siblings absence in detention. He regarded them as responsible members of the student government, and they performed their duties well. They were passing their tests, that he was aware of, with distinction. Their parents had reason to be quite proud of them.

By then it was nine o'clock, and after a flurry of goodbyes and hugs for her and her brother, and thanks for her husband, they were off. Even then, it was not until they were in the car and had turned a corner that Alice let out a sigh of relief.

"That went well," Hieronymous stated, "better than I had hoped."

"I was worried they might ask you what you taught or something," Clark said from the backseat.

"I had an answer prepared, just in case," her husband said. "If someone asks in the future, I teach mathematics."

"Why math?" Alice asked.

"Because," he explained, "if you can get through a year in my Red magic class and can still count that you have ten complete digits on your hands, you pass." …