“I’ll say this one last time,” he told her.“You must keep your cats outdoors for the duration of your Aunt Kendra’s visit.”Leaning over the back of a couch, he snatched up an orange tabby and strode to the entrance hall.
Kendra heard the door open and shut and assumed he’d tossed it outside.
“Find the rest and put them outside, too,” he added as he returned to the drawing room.“How many do you have now?”
“T-ten.But Papa, it’s cold outside!”
“Ten cats?”Kendra blinked her irritated eyes.“Tencats?Who on earth lives withtencats?”
Rebecca put her hands on her hips, which were clad in an adorable sapphire-blue gown, an exact miniature of her mother’s.“Aunty Lily has twelve.”
“Or thirteen,” Violet put in.“We’re never quite sure.The number varies.”
The orange tabby reappeared on a windowsill—the one belonging to the only window that had been left slightly open—and let loose a long, sadmeow.It squeezed inside, leapt to the floor, and promptly ran to Rebecca, who swept it up into her arms.“It’s all right, Kitty,” the girl crooned.“It’s too cold out there, I know.”
Kendra sneezed again and blew her nose.Loudly.From upstairs, two more sneezes resounded, one after the other.
“Are some of the children ill?”Amy asked.
“Not ill,” Trick said grimly.“Cats make Cas and Pol sneeze as well.”
“Oh, no,” Violet breathed.“The cats have been all over this house.Where will everyone sleep?”
“Those affected by cats will sleep in the cottage, quite obviously,” Ford said.“I must say, I didn’t expect to be nearly this happy we finally renovated that old place.”
Violet nodded.“We must rearrange everyone and have this house scoured clean.Jason, would you and Cait mind moving in here so Kendra and Trick can have your cottage bedchamber?”She turned to Kendra.“Our first arrivals chose the more peaceful rooms, since it’s bound to be chaos in here, but—”
“Of course we’ll move,” Jason interrupted as he rose.“And Griffin and Adam will move in here, too, so their cottage chamber can go to Cas and Pol.I’ll instruct our staff to transfer our things immediately,” he added, striding from the room to see it done.
“Kitty needs to go outside, Rebecca.”Taking the cat from his daughter’s arms, Ford opened the window wider, then tossed the animal back outdoors before slamming the sash down with a resoundingbang.“And the rest of them, too.Otherwise there will be nowhere we can all gather together.”
“It’s too cold for my kitties to be outside all day and night!”Pathetic meowing came through the mottled glass, and Rebecca began to cry.“They’ll die!And it will be allyourfault!”
Violet rose and went to pat her daughter on the back.“There, there, dear.They cannot stay in here, or Aunty Kendra and Cas and Pol won’t be able to join in our festivities.”
“We can gather in the cottage!”Rebecca more or less bellowed.
“No, we cannot,” Ford returned.“There are”—Kendra could all but see her twin brother’s brain whirl as he calculated—“twenty-one of us who need to gather.”He paused and blinked.“Bloody hell, how did we get to be so many?”
“We all had children,” Violet informed him calmly before turning back to her daughter.“Your kitties don’t have to stay outdoors.You may keep them in the stables, so long as you remember to go feed them and enlist the help of the stableboys to make sure they don’t escape.”
Kendra was sneezingandwheezing now, and two more sneezes resounded from upstairs, nearly in concert.
“But—”
“No buts, Rebecca,” Ford interrupted.“Your mother has proposed a reasonable solution.Go upstairs and ask your cousins to help you find the remaining cats.All of your cousins except Cas and Pol, that is.”
“I’ll let Hilda know she needs to recruit every hand to clean.”Violet followed her daughter upstairs.
As Jason returned, wrapped in a warm cloak, Kendra sneezed yet again.
Amy rose.“Kendra, let’s go to the cottage.You can return when all the cats have been removed and the house has been swept.”
Kendra looked to her husband.“Trick?”
“We men should go cut the Yule Log,” Jason said.“Our belongings are being transferred now.I trust you ladies can oversee moving everyone.”
“Amy, did you bring the plum pudding?”Cait asked.
