Chapter Nine
Hold on, folks. Don’t anyone start losing their heads.” The General held up his hands. “Dude wouldn’t hurt a flea.”
Pepper cupped her hands and called Wolfgang’s name. He had been right there a minute ago, sniffing around her ankles. “Are boars vegetarian?” she asked Rhett.
“They’ll eat anything that fits in their mouth,” he answered grimly.
Not the answer she wanted. Wolfgang was chicken nugget sized. He’d go down in a single gulp. “Form a search party,” she shouted to the growing crowd over her shoulder. No cause to panic. Yet. But definitely time to be proactive.
The General bristled. “I keep him spoiled on twice-a-day home-cooked meals. Dude is a friend to all dogs big, small, and yes, even miniature.”
“Too friendly.” Rhett crossed his arms. “This is why I spoke out at city council about letting a razorback boar have park privileges.”
Colonel Jim drew himself to his full impressive height and linked arms with his partner. “Now see here, Sport, the council voted five to four in the General’s favor. Dude is legal.”
Rhett whirled. “Only after you made backroom promises offering members a seventy percent discount at the General’s General Store for three months.”
“Rumors and conjectures.” Colonel Jim waved a smug hand. “Nothing can be proven.”
Pepper blew up her bangs as the bickering grew in volume. Thomas Jefferson wasn’t lying when he wrote that all men are created equal. He just forgot to add the “equally stupid” part. Finally she broke out the commanding finger whistle Dad made her master in case she ever got lost in the woods.
Startled silence ensued.
“Focus, people. Please. My client can’t be eaten on my first day.” There it came, the strange sensation of standing outside herself, the one that accompanied hyperventilation. “To be on the safe side though, how does one give a swine the Heimlich?”
“Honey, look at the shade she’s gone. What would you call that, celery root?” Colonel Jim asked, tapping the side of his chin thoughtfully. “That color would look fabulous in a linen set.”
“What do you need?” Rhett stepped forward. “Water? A seat?”
“My client, in one piece and undigested.” She took off, walking the perimeter of the park, her voice cracking from strain. “Wolfgang? Wolfgang? Here, buddy. Hey you, come on. It’s your ol’ pal, Pepper. Here, boy.”
The park buzzed like a hive. Let them stare. Point. Shake their heads like she’d lost her damn mind. No humiliation was too great to find Wolfgang. If Dude gobbled him—
“Pardon me. Might I be of some assistance?”
Wait a second. She glanced at the phone. Had British Darcy come to save the day? Nope. This was a real, live person. Be still her heart.
Outside the dog park, on a wooden bench, a dashing man with an inquisitive gaze set down a book titledDaily Life in the Georgian and Regency Periods. He dressed in brushed wool trousers and wore oxford shoes like he’d stepped out of her brain as a replica of her fantasy man. Except he wasn’t in Manhattan, he was here, in Everland.
Rhett glowered over from across the park—not at all a Mr. Darcy type—except for that bemused frown. He was more an all-American good ol’ boy who watched football on Sundays, barbecued in his backyard, and threw around a Frisbee with dogs.
Totally not her type.
This guy, on the other hand…
“Hello.” She tried flipping her hair over her shoulder, forgetting it was tied up. Wonderful. Now her hand dangled somewhere behind her head and she was a gesticulating crazy person. “I’m looking for a dog. You might have mistaken it for a swamp rat?” If she talked fast, maybe that would distract him.
“Indeed.” He gave his chin a musing rub. “I must say that I harbor a sneaking suspicion on his general whereabouts.”
“You do?”
He nodded in the direction of a rustling bush. “Consider directing your investigation that way. A great deal of whining emitted from the foliage a moment ago.”
She bent, peering into the undergrowth. Wolfgang crouched beneath a branch, snout deep in one of Dude’s peaches.
“Are you crazy?” she muttered. No wonder the hungry swine was on the move. “Do you have a death wish?”
Wolfgang pointedly ignored her, lapping the pit to a gleaming polish.
