Clayton Xavier smiled gently. Jacqueline Spann had just told him what had happened over the past few days: Phoenix Golding had been bullied by the Thorne family, Old Master Tate was refusing to teach her English, and Phoenix was no longer paying for her schooling. She had poured out all her grievances, and everything she said, both directly and indirectly, pointed to how domineering and brutish the Thorne family was—and that naturally included Nora Thorne.
"Armstrong, Nora."
Clayton Xavier smiled as he greeted them, but the look he gave Nora Thorne was complicated. 'He just couldn't see how this cute, innocent little girl could be the unreasonable tyrant Jacqueline Spann had described.' Still, the Thorne family bullying a defenseless woman like Phoenix Golding in front of the whole village really was going too far.
