The worst of the heat was gone and, although the air lacked that freshness of the morning, Cadfael felt a blessed relief as he made his way down the c...ose-packed alleys that led to the main square. The stallholders were packing up their goods for the night and Cadfael could see their offerings were sparse. Leatherwork and cloth, brass pots and gimcrack jewellery with here and there a vendor of unappetising food. The siege had gone hard with the city and no caravans had arrived bringing spices,. " Well," Nancy laughed, "I guess it's all in the family. I'll give Blainea kiss, later."The next few hours were a blur of hairspray and lingerie. They dressedthe girls, first. Their little dresses were white, sleeveless confectionswith scoop necks, plain tops that ended in wide red sashes with littlesplashes of mistletoe scattered around them. The girls wore petticoat-slips that were wide and feminine, but the dresses also had petticoatssewn in, so the result was a wide expanse of feminine. "Dad, can we stay and watch two movies? They may be leaving town soon," Chrissy asked. I saw her dimples grow big."Sure thing kids. My, you two seem a little overdressed for a movie?" he said, just noticing what we were wearing."Chrissy says that this is a date, we're going on, so dressing up seemed appropriate Dad. The first movie starts in 90 minutes," I responded."Would you like a small piece of birthday cake, Chrissy?" I asked."Thank you, yes I would, Chris." Dad, how about you—want a piece. There have been several visits to it by US-based brain chemistry experts. The facility isn't exactly torture related, but it's still disgusting and it's entirely believable that part of it might have drifted into torture research.In some dimensions I'll do even more to land the CIA in a pile of shit, because in those dimensions the CIA scientists who'd been so excited with their experiments on me had sought and been given permission to broaden their investigations to include my family after I'd.