Chapter 3 #2
“Besides, I could never get a bun right like you, Imogene. I don’t dare put these needles in my hair. They’d fall right out.” She slowly lifted a set of knitting needles from the bottom of the jewelry box and slid them out of their velvet bag to inspect them.
Mrs. Chrysler caught her breath as she beheld the set. “They certainly are beauties,” she sighed, looking over their ornate pattern. “I’d forgotten. Let’s hope they still work.”
Katherine smartly struck together the tips of the needles, and a shower of happy golden sparks burst from the impact like miniature fireworks. “They’ve still got it, Imogene!”
She tucked the velvet bag into the inside breast pocket of her vest, checked her outer vest pockets for her peppermints and pocket watch, and patted her skirt pockets to make sure she’d put in enough gold pieces and handkerchiefs.
“All right, last thing is to slip a few essentials into a traveling pack,” she said.
She grabbed some clean undergarments and fresh socks from the dresser, then moved into the main part of the house.
Mr. Scruffles and Ember followed in her wake, mewing excitedly and weaving around her legs. Tilly hissed quietly from her perch.
I don’t care what you say. I don’t want to go, she spat.
Katherine grabbed a book from a shelf in the sitting room and tucked it inside her pack beside the underwear—“For downtime,” she said—then she reached out to pet Tilly, who recoiled disagreeably and disappeared.
Next, Katherine nabbed a telescoping umbrella from the coat stand—“For the weather…”—and headed for the kitchen, opening a cupboard and reaching for a small sack of kibbles—“And for the kitties.”
“Now wait just a minute.” Mrs. Chrysler confronted Katherine as she tucked the kibbles in her pack. “What is your plan for those?”
“Well, I know they can catch their own food, but I’d really rather they didn’t,” Katherine replied. “It’d be rough on the birds.”
Mrs. Chrysler stared blankly. “The cats are not coming,” she said. Her statement was more an order than an observation.
“Oh, but look at these two,” Katherine gushed, indicating Mr. Scruffles and Ember, who were eagerly attending her every step and continuing to mew and meow and carry on in the most undignified, but highly endearing, fashion.
“I’m not suggesting we bring all of them.
I just don’t think we have a choice with these ones,” she said. “I do believe they mean to come.”
Mrs. Chrysler continued to stare. “Whatever for?”
“Well, you saw them last night. They’re very loyal.” She reached down, and the two adventurous pets rubbed their cheeks and foreheads against her hands.
To the end of time, ma’am! Mr. Scruffles said.
Where you go, I follow, my love, Ember added.
“See? We’ll just bring these two, plus maybe Tilly, if she wants to come.”
I don’t! the nearly invisible cat yowled from the next room.
Mrs. Chrysler apparently resigned herself and began repacking her yarn bag. “Have it your way, Katty,” she sighed. “As long as they don’t get in the way.”
“They won’t. They never did before. And you never know, they might be useful.”
“Sure.” Mrs. Chrysler finished with her bag. A sudden thought seemed to strike her. “And no more, now, right, Katty? You’re not going to come home with more pets than we started with, are you?”
“I can’t help them following me,” Katherine replied airily. True, she had collected cats on their travels the way some people collected luggage stickers, but it was never intentional.
Mrs. Chrysler rolled her eyes. She helped Katherine wash up the breakfast dishes, the two women ticked off a final checklist of what they would bring and do, and all seemed set.
“All right, let’s go.” Mrs. Chrysler shrugged on her coat and handed Katherine her shawl and scarf. “You want to lock up?”
“It really is better to do it outside.”
“Ah, yes. I’d forgotten.” Mrs. Chrysler massaged her head absently.
“Well, let’s go then.”
Are you sure you’re not coming, Tilly? Ember called as she waited for Katherine to open the front door. Mr. Scruffles was already fading through the wall beside it.
The puffed purple tail wagged angrily from its shelf and curled around its invisible owner. YES!
Katherine and Mrs. Chrysler took one last look around the cottage to be sure that all was in order.
“Have you always had that footstool?” Mrs. Chrysler asked, indicating a large, cozy-looking ottoman in the sitting room.
“Oh, that’s just Reginald.” Katherine opened the door, her keys jangling.
The four-legged footrest, still with a cat face, looked up at Tilly with sorrowful eyes. I’m perfectly happy to stay at home, he said, and be part of the furniture. But you. You will miss the mistress.
Tilly scowled crossly and muttered under her breath.
Then she leapt down onto his cushioned back, landed on the carpet, and bounded across the floor.
Foo on you, she said over her shoulder. Have fun collecting dust bunnies.
She skittered over the doormat and squeezed through the closing door just in time.
Once outside, she trotted over to Katherine and tucked herself amidst her skirt folds.
Oh, Tilly! You made it after all! Ember set a few leaves alight with her paws in excitement, and Katherine stamped them out with her sturdy boots.
“Calm down and stay close, kitties. You too, Tilly, I see you there. We’re going on our ride now.”
Tilly purred self-soothingly and cuddled in closer. Don’t say a word, she told Mr. Scruffles.
I hadn’t intended to, he said, then apparently couldn’t help himself. But it’s going to be like old times! You’ll see! We’re going to have an adventure!
That’s what I’m afraid of.
Katherine pulled the knitted map out of her pack and peered at it intently.
Mrs. Chrysler put her head in close too, inspecting it carefully.
The image upon it shimmered and glowed, its exquisite detail blurred only at the edges.
The women could easily pick out all of the roads and crossroads, the woody copses, and the town, with its abbey just outside.
“Where exactly, do you think?” Katherine asked.
“How ’bout here?” Mrs. Chrysler said, indicating the edge of town. “Shouldn’t be a bad walk to the abbey, or to Merchants Lane. Equidistant, you might say.”
“I agree, a good choice.”
Katherine plucked the amethyst brooch from her vest and held it slightly above the map. “Ready?”
“So ready!”
Katherine draped one side of her long scarf on the ground for her cats to tread on—although this was hardly needed for Tilly, still huddled in the folds of the skirt—and presented a corner of the map for Mrs. Chrysler to hold.
She placed the center of the amethyst brooch to the destined spot, aligned its compass rose with north on the map, and revolved the jewel twice.
Nothing happened.
“Erm.”
Mrs. Chrysler shifted uneasily and sucked her teeth. “I do believe it was three times, Katty.”
“Oh. Was it?”
“Yes.”
“Been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Don’t be embarrassed. Just one more turn.”
Katherine revolved the brooch a third time. “Well, that should have—”
With a tinkling puff of swirling air, the quintet disappeared.