After the old woman finished washing her hair and wringing it dry, she had Cecilia Adler smell it.
"It smells wonderful." Cecilia Adler took out the Aquilaria. "Ian, this…"
The scent made Ian Quincy feel uncomfortable all over. "Honey, keep it away from me."
"Fine." Cecilia Adler placed it by the doorway to dry in the sun, planning to learn how to purify it from Ian Quincy before working on it at their new house.
The old woman took two blossoms and placed them under her pillow. She had been dreaming a lot lately. Last night, she had even dreamed that after Seraphina died, she became a ghost hidden inside that ox-horn comb. For the first twenty years, she watched Cecilia and wept every day, and for the next twenty years, she watched Titus Shaw and wept.
At this thought, she asked, "Cecilia, that ox-horn comb and badge I had Educated Youth Hu mail to you—did you keep them safe, or did you give them back to your father later?"
"I gave them back to him."
