eb93c43e214c621f9157c05b4b6a6878

“Friends of Tessa Torrance and Prince Dante. John is Prime Minister of England and Janine is his wife.”

“But… what are they doing here is what I’d like to know.”

Odelia shrugged.“To be absolutely honest it’s a mystery to me, too.”

“Honey, are you sure you’re up to this? I thought you were going to take it easy for a while? Enjoy those first weeks of blessed motherhood?“

“I thought so, too, but Tessa insisted ours was the best place for John and Janine right now, so…” She blew a strand of hair from her eyes.

“What does Chase say?”

“He doesn’t know yet.”

“Oh, dear.”

“He’s been so busy with this new case. I hadn’t the heart to tell him. You know how he is. He’d drop his case and come running and that’s the last thing I want.”

“But—“

“I’ll tell him when he gets here.”

“All right,” said Marge as she took Grace from Odelia’s arms. “I guess you know best.” Immediately the baby stopped wailing and was soon glancing around with distinct interest.

“Hey, baby,” I said, waving at the newborn. “My name is Max and these are my friends: Dooley, Harriet and Brutus.”

“Hi, tiny human,” Brutus growled.

“She does have a name, you know,” said Harriet, and smiled up at the baby. “Hey, Grace. Can you understand what we’re saying? You are a Poole, aren’t you?”

But baby Grace didn’t speak. Instead, she drooled, which I guess is also a form of communication.

“Babies don’t immediately start speaking,” said Dooley knowingly. “I saw that on the Discovery Channel. It takes a couple of years.”

“Years!” Harriet cried. “But why!”

“Because humans are slow,” Brutus grunted. “Everybody knows that.”

“Yeah, it takes them years to start talking, and years to start walking,” said Dooley, “and years to start riding a bike, and years to start driving a car. It’s a very, very,very slow process. Like watching paint dry.”

“Give me kittens any day,” Harriet murmured. “Much quicker on the uptake.”

“And a lot cuter, too,” Brutus grumbled.

“Would you call kittens cuter?” I said. I thought Grace looked pretty cute. All pink and round and shiny with health and vigor.

“Definitely,” said Brutus. “Nothing beats kittens when it comes to the cuteness factor.”

“I’m so tired,” said Odelia, rubbing her face. “But if I lie down I know I’ll fall asleep and wake up twelve hours from now.”

“Give me those beddings,” said Marge. “I have a load to wash anyway.”

“No synthetic fragrances, though,” said Odelia. “Or fabric softeners.”

Marge rolled her eyes.“Between Tex demolishing our garden house and your lodgers this is turning out to be one heck of a day.”

Odelia frowned.“Does this have anything to do with the spa you’re building?”

Marge laughed.“Spa? What are you talking about? We’re building a second bathroom.” And when Odelia simply stared at her in wordless surprise, she continued, “With your grandmother hogging the bathroom every morning we had to do something. So we decided to turn the garden house into a bathroom. Only now Tex has gone and demolished it, figuring it wasn’t sturdy enough. I just hope he’ll be able to build that bathroom. Which reminds me—when Chase comes in, can you ask him if he’s got a couple of hours to spare this weekend?”

“Sure thing, Mom,” said Odelia, and yawned cavernously.

“Go and lie down,” said Marge encouragingly. “You need it. Or better yet, come and crash at our place. With these Boggles you won’t get a wink of sleep.”

And so three generations of Poole women walked out of the house, and then it was just us… and those fearful Boggles! Which is why we quickly followed suit.

“A new bathroom?” said Harriet as we emerged through the pet flap. “I thought Gran said they’re building a spa resort?”

“You need plenty of bathrooms in those resorts,” said Brutus. “To wash off the mud from those mud baths and the sweat from those saunas. I’ll bet this is just the first of many more.” He shrugged. “You have to start somewhere.”

It sounded reasonable enough, and since we were all pretty tired from the emotional rollercoaster we’d been through, we followed Odelia and Marge through the opening in the hedge, into the house, up the stairs, into Gran’s room, where we all settled ourselves on the old lady’s bed and were soon fast asleep.

CHAPTER 13

[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]

At some point Odelia joined us, and I must say we spent a fair time taking a well-deserved nap… until a loud voice awoke us. It seemed to come from somewhere nearby, and even though I didn’t immediately recognize the voice, it was clear that Odelia did, for she groaned and said, “Oh, God, not again.”

It was, of course, one of the guests of her Airbnb, namely Janine Boggle, inquiring loudly where her landlady had gone off to or words to that effect.

Odelia walked out of the room on her tippy toes, careful not to disturb us, and moments later I could hear her converse with her esteemed guest on the landing.

“Oh, there you are.”

“I was just—“

“I wanted to talk to you about meal arrangements.”

“Yes?”