The Nemesis

Connie Kendall sits down for a job interview inside a half-finished building that its owner plans to call Blackgaard's Castle. Richard Maxwell has brought her there to meet Dr. Regis Blackgaard, a smooth, silver-tongued man who says he is not a doctor of medicine but an expert on children. Blackgaard asks Connie about herself, and she admits she no longer works at Whit's End because she was fired. She explains that she started up a computer program called Applesauce that she was never supposed to touch, in a computer room she was never supposed to know about. Blackgaard calls it terribly unjust and invites her to be angry, but Connie will not take the bait. Whit trusted her, she says, and she let him down. When Blackgaard leans in and asks what Applesauce actually does, Connie stops and points out that the question has nothing to do with a job. He smiles, apologizes, offers her a position anyway, and tells her to answer quickly.

The moment Connie is gone, Blackgaard drops the charm. He has no intention of hiring her - Whit's hold on her is far too strong - but he can still use her. His real goal is to keep Whit and Tom Riley away from tomorrow's town council vote on his business license. When Richard hesitates, saying that manipulating kids is one thing but going after Tom Riley is too much, Blackgaard reminds him coldly that he knows about the grades Richard had a boy change at the college, and about worse things besides. Richard gives in. Blackgaard promises him it will be fun to topple two of Odyssey's most powerful men at once.

Out at Tom Riley's farm, Whit admires Tom's two horses, Leah and the new mare Rachel, and the two old friends trade worries. Tom is uneasy about the vote and about a man who will not say what he intends to do with his property, and he is not sure he can outtalk the argumentative Philip Glossman. Whit promises to stand beside him at the meeting and reminds him what David said facing Goliath - the battle is the Lord's. Tom turns the advice right back on him, because Whit is quietly eating himself up over Connie, especially after seeing her with Richard Maxwell. Both men decide that a little prayer is the best idea either has had all day.

At Whit's End, Richard finds Lucy Cunningham-Schultz, who feels awful about snapping at Connie and wants to apologize. Richard offers her something better than an apology. Outside, away from listening ears, he lays out a plan: all Lucy has to do is make one phone call and deliver one note, and Connie and Mr. Whittaker will finally sit down and talk. Lucy says it feels like lying. Richard insists she would only be helping two people do what they already want to do, and adds that she would be helping him, too. Lucy gives in and asks him to explain it one more time.

The next morning Lucy calls the Kendall house and tells Connie's mother, June, that Whit wants to meet Connie at Stonebridge right away. Then she hands Whit a typed note supposedly from Connie asking him to come to Stonebridge at half past ten - the same hour as the council meeting. Whit hesitates only a second before deciding that Connie matters more, and he goes. Out at the farm, Tom feeds his horses, tells them to stay in the barn, and drives off toward town.

On Stonebridge, Whit and Connie apologize to each other. Connie admits she had let jealous thoughts creep in when Eugene was hired back, and Whit admits he handled their last meeting badly, too. Then the two messages do not add up, and they realize someone arranged the whole meeting. Connie assumes it was Lucy being kind. Talking it over, Connie describes having to send Lucy and another girl home from camp for breaking curfew, and says that getting fired taught her there is a reason for rules and consequences when you break them. Whit begins to smile. That understanding is exactly why he hired Eugene back, and now Connie has shown it too. He invites her home to a certain ice cream, invention, and discovery emporium.

Then they see the smoke. It is rising from Tom Riley's place, and the barn is burning. Tom, who spotted the smoke in his rear-view mirror and raced back, lies unconscious in the doorway, knocked down by a swinging door while trying to reach the horses. Connie drags him to the porch and calls the fire department while Whit plunges into the barn and leads out the terrified Leah and Rachel, just before the roof falls in. Tom comes to, shaken but all right, and wonders aloud whether he left something flammable out or whether someone set the fire on purpose. He cannot imagine why anyone would want to burn his barn.

In the council chamber, Glossman notes that Mr. Riley has failed to appear and moves straight to the first item on the agenda. The vote goes four to nothing, and Dr. Regis Blackgaard gets his business license. He thanks the council warmly and calls it the beginning of a long and profitable association between himself, Blackgaard's Castle, and the town of Odyssey.