Sydney had done her best. That much was fair to say.
She'd gone to Margaret and Martin herself, and explained the situation.
Margaret had listened with the patient, slightly pained expression she reserved for conversations where she needed more than was being given. Martin had crossed his arms about forty seconds in and kept them there. Clara, who hadn't been summoned but had appeared as well, also listened. She was also a Senior of the community so Sydney didn't min.
Thankfully Rachel later joined.
Rachel didn't make a production of it. She just started talking, from the beginning, in the order that made sense, at the pace a person needed rather than the pace a story moved. She didn't skip things and she didn't inflate them. Twenty minutes later the three of them weren't experts but they weren't confused either, which was more than Sydney had managed in twice the time.
