What Marcia and Claire should have been doing as parents issafeguarding Phoebe from the dangers of growing up too fast, nurturingher until their daugh...er had time to understand the in-born wisdom ofher soul. That was the sacred trust they had as parents. They hadfailed, both of them, each in their own way, to be worthy of that trust.Marcia turned on her computer. She typed a quick reply to a concernedemail from Walt anxious to hear how things had gone. When this was sentoff, she stretched,. Scott's plan called for a regular trade with a number of countries. He was looking to exploit the times by offering some of the Scottish surplus food for the opportunity of using the labour of other countries.If he could establish agreements with those areas that had the raw materials he wanted, he could send in small teams to extract the ores and use the locals to do all the work.He could set up regular shipments to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and northern Africa so that he was shipping. I could feel it whistling out of my ears, "O-okay..." I opened mymouth and stuck out my tongue. I just had to...to...I could feel my chest heaving as though I'd just run a mile as the panicset in.Just had to...My eyes scrunched up tight.Just had to...lick it. The taste was clean, not at all sweaty--duh, I'djust cleaned it! It wasn't a strong taste at all, really. But...it feltlike there was an electric current running up my tongue with a wire allthe way down to my thong. I kept licking it. I go, grab my coat and purse from the coat hanger and head up towards the door. I gasp in shock as soon as I open it. Patrick stood there, with his hand raised as if to press something—probably the doorbell. I smile at him, "Hey, you." Immediately, Mr. Brooke goes into fatherly/we-don't-have-anything-going-on mode. "So I'll really appreciate it if you take care of Lauren tonight–Oh, Patrick, hello! How are you?" he flashes him one of those charming smiles that always gets him out of.