Merlin was very, very lucky that Francine's limited bird-reading ability did not choose now to crap out, or she'd be staring at him from a crack in the closet door. Though at least it would be herself that she'd put in there, not him.

"She didn't freak out." That's because she's not you, Francine. "I mean, I didn't think she would. I know her. But..." But she was pretty much conditioned to assume people would, and she'd known that a lot longer than she'd known Dinah. "I guess was still a little afraid anyway."