“Tell her I’m happy to make it if she’s busy.”
“She doesn’t like anyone messing with her kitchen,” Kat warned her.
“Oh, right.” Meredith remembered the laundry room warning. The housekeeper was territorial. “Well, if she’s too busy, don’t pester her, Mishka.”
“I’ll just say ‘please,’” he called out as he dashed off.
Meredith started to gather the plates, but Kat stopped her. “Mrs. Warner prefers to do this herself,” she warned.
“Right, I keep forgetting this is a royal family.”
Kat wrinkled her nose. “I guess.”
“What movie are you going to choose tonight?” Meredith asked as they left the dining room.
“I don’t know. But for sure it won’t be a princess movie. I hate those.”
Meredith laughed as they passed through the foyer. “They were never my favorites either. I grew up watching more westerns than anything. My dad loved old westerns.”
“That sounds better than princess movies.”
In the living room, Kat went over to the walnut cabinet and slid the doors open to reveal a TV framed in by shelves containing a huge selection of DVDs. “George usually has a crying fit if he doesn’t get his choice of movie,” she said as she thumbed through the cases. “And I go to my room to escape it.”
“He was rather gentlemanly about it tonight.”
“That was for your sake.” She pulled out a case. “How about this?”
“The Journey of Natty Gann?” Meredith exclaimed. “I love that movie! I saw it once a long time ago. That was at a friend’s house when I was about your age, but I always wanted to watch it again.”
“Really? You love it?”
“It was so exciting. The girl searching for her dad. And wasn’t there a dog?”
“Yeah.” Kat had the remotes and was already putting the DVD into a machine and turning on the TV. “Kind of a wolf dog.”
The movie was just starting when Mishka joined them and announced that Mrs. Warner would be bringing them popcorn shortly. He flopped down on the big leather couch next to Meredith then groaned. “NotNatty Gannagain!”
“I happen to love this film,” Meredith told him. “I haven’t seen it for years.”
His brows shot up. “You do?”
“Shhh!” Kat scolded.
“I saw it once as a child,” Meredith whispered in his ear. “Of course, I was older than you, so maybe I appreciated it more. But I would think, as an animal lover, you’d at least like the dog.”
She slipped an arm around him, giving him a sideways snuggle, and he beamed at her. She had a feeling his opinion onNatty Gannwas about to get an overhaul. As the three of them sat in the comfortable room, eating popcorn and watching the movie, Meredith thought perhaps this summer wasn’t going to be such a disaster after all. Sure, it wasn’t how she’d planned it to go, and she still felt strangely disconnected from everyone and everything she’d ever known, but it also felt a bit adventurous. And if nothing else, she would have a story to tell when she finally got home.
11
For the next few days, Meredith and the children fell into an almost comfortable pattern. Oh, Kat was still picking on Mishka, and he was still whining about his bossy big sister, but it felt toned down from when she’d first arrived here. In the cool of the morning they would play tennis and football. Thanks to Kat’s urging, Meredith, donning a conservative one-piece black swimsuit that appeared to have never been worn, would enjoy a swim with Kat in the afternoon. But Mishka refused to venture near the pool, saying he preferred to read in the cool quiet library. On her fifth day at the estate, Meredith privately confronted him.
“Mishka, why are you afraid of water?” she asked firmly but gently from the library door.
“I’m not afraid.” His brow creased, and he buried his head even deeper into the reference book about reptiles.
“I think you are.” She looped a towel over her arm and sat by him. “And I bet you don’t know how to swim, do you?”
He just shrugged, head still down.
