Charles’s green eyes bored into me. “But then we’d have no reason to come back to the property. You and I both know Madame Blue would kick us out in a heartbeat.”
“True.” I picked at the skin on my elbow, a nasty nervous habit. “I’m just worried something else bad will happen.”
He shook his head, also shaking off my concern.“We’ll be fine.”
“I know I will be, but what about you?”
“I’ll be fine too,” he assured me despite loads of evidence to the contrary, but he had a smile on his face again. “Now let’s go eat before my stomach starts making some truly terrifying noises.”
I still felt unsure about joining the others but had to admit we were in a pretty tight spot. Reluctantly, I joined Charles, making sure to swipe the key from the top of the doorframe so nobody else had access to it while we were staying inside. We found Madame Blue, Billy, and the Mackenzie couple eating pastrami sandwiches and what appeared to be potato salad.
“No Blaire today?” I asked casually as Charles and I took our seats.
“She does intermittent fasting. Some trendy Zoomer thing,” Madeline Mackenzie explained with a huge grin pointed my way. She seemed to be in a far better mood now that she had the room she wanted. Good riddance.
Charles pulled the platter of sandwiches across the table and helped himself to two on rye, leaving the sourdough for me.
I spooned big heaps of the salad onto each of our plates while he polished off the first triangle of his first sandwich. Something green mixed into the creamy potatoes caught my eye, causing me to take a closer look at the lump on my plate. Yup, capers.
That was one food I truly despised, and there would be no eating around them. The bitter little balls ruined anything they touched—especially my taste buds.Bleck.
Charles finished his first sandwich and then dug into his potatoes with great enthusiasm. After taking that first bite, he turned to me and I nodded. A second later, he grabbed my plate and transferred all of my salad over to his. Ah, he knew me so well.
“My cooking not to your liking?” Madame Blue shouted from the other end of the table.
“The sandwiches are delicious,” I enthused, pointing toward my plate with one hand and giving a thumbs-up with the other. “I’m just not a fan of capers.”
“No class,” she muttered to herself, though it was loud enough for everyone to hear.
Mrs. Mackenzie snickered, but then her husband put his hand on her arm and she fell quiet.
Charles seemed to eat even faster after that, wanting to free us quickly while still satisfying his stomach. By the time I finished my sandwich, crusts and all, he was ready to go.
He placed his napkin on his plate and rose to his feet.“Thank you for a delicious meal.”
I got up too, then scrambled after him as he strode swiftly toward our room, which was now very close to the dining area.
At the door, Charles’s stomach gurgled loudly.
“Didn’t you get enough to eat?” I teased.
He grimaced and placed a hand to his belly.“Just need to make a quick trip to the bathroom. I’ll be back with you soon.” He bent to offer me a kiss, but then quickly changed his mind and took off power-walking in the direction of the communal restroom.
I shrugged and let myself into the room to check on Charlene.
She woke up when I joined her on the bed.“Where’s your mate?” she asked, searching the small room for Charles.
“He’ll be back soon. How are you feeling?”
“Still sad about Mommy, but I’m not so sleepy anymore.” She licked her paw and ran it over her head.
“That’s good!” I enthused as the kitten settled herself on my lap.
“Yeah,” she said with a heavy sigh, falling over onto her side dramatically in true cat fashion. “But now I’m bored. Would you tell me more of the story of Octavius?”
I chuckled at how wide her bright eyes were when she made this request.“You like that story, huh?”
“Yes, very much.” She bobbed her head, already picking up our human gestures after such a short acquaintanceship.
Then I had an idea that I was sure would be a hit.“Want to see a picture of him?”
“Yes!” she squeaked in pleasure, jumping back to her feet and glancing around the room in confusion. “Where is it?”
“On my phone, one sec.” I pulled out my cell phone and flicked through the camera roll, settling on a photo I’d snapped of Octo-Cat and Grizabella on my wedding day, which had somehow turned into their wedding day, too. He looked very handsome in a pink bowtie while she stood at his side witha bow of her own and a fancy lacy veil.
“Wow, I’ve never seen a cat like that before.” Her eyes were trained on the Himalayan, a former show cat and true beauty.
“That’s Grizabella. She’s his mate,” I explained, then pointed to the other side of the photo. “And that’s Octavius.”
Charlene looked at Octo-Cat briefly before her eyes darted straight back to Grizz.“Does she live with you too?” the kitten wanted to know.
“No,” I answered with a sad smile. Of course my cat fell in love with someone on the other side of the country, because life could never be easy. “She lives very far away.”
“I bet he misses her when she’s not around. Just like I miss my mommy.”
“I think you’re right about that. Want to see more photos?” I offered, since like every cat owner in the history of existence my camera roll was filled with candid snaps of my furry roommate.
“I want to see all the photos!” she cried, drawing a happy chuckle from me in response.
Charlene was absolutely enamored with my spoiled tabby, asking many questions as we browsed. Finally she squinted her eyes tight and reported that the light was hurting them again.“But we can look at more later, right?”
“We can even call him if you want to meet him. When your eyes are feeling better.”
“I would love that very much, but right now I’m feeling sleepy again.” She wasted no time curling back into a tight little ball.
“Good night, Charlene,” I said, placing a light kiss between her ears.
13
Charles remained in the bathroom for a worryingly long time. At one point, I even got up to check if he’d somehow gotten locked in again, but he assured me—through a tightly shut door—that he was fine and would be out soon.
I tried not to worry, but this was odd behavior for my new husband. Another hour passed before he finally returned to our room, looking absolutely worse for wear.
“I think someone poisoned me,” he whispered cautiously.
“Poisoned!” I couldn’t help but shout.
“Shhh,” he warned, putting a finger to his lips to emphasize the point. “We don’t know who’s listening. And poison might be too strong a word, but I do suspect there were laxatives mixed in with the potatoes. You’re fine, right?”
“Fit as a fiddle.” I spun around with my arms in the air to give him a look at me from all angles, then dropped my arms and frowned. “But do you really think someone slipped you something? That’s awful.”
He held his stomach and dropped onto the foot of the bed so as not to disturb Charlene who was sleeping near the headboard.“Yeah,” he groaned. “Someone’s definitely out to get me.”
I lay across the middle of the bed between the two of them, turning onto my side to face Charles. A theory was forming in my head.
“Maybe not you specifically,” I said, giving that a second to sink in. “If they slipped something into the potatoes, they could have meant to get the both of us. Same with the stairs. They had no way of knowing you’d be first down in the morning. And the room, that could have just as easilybeen me—or both of us—inside.”
Charles thought about this for a moment.“So someone’s out to get us. They just keep gettingme specifically. But why would anyone even want to? We just arrived last night, and nobody knows us here.”
“Your guess is as good as mine, and I have no guesses at all. We do, however, have a fairly limited pool of suspects.”