Louisa smiled. “It’s French for—”
“It’s not a word that should ever be used by young ladies,” Annaliese hurried to interrupt, “Besides, as all three of you know, we have more important matters to discuss with Mrs. McCormick over the salty language of Pierre.”
Louisa’s smile faded. “Other matters?”
“Norma Jean ran away with Velma,” Mabel said before Annaliese could get a single explanation out of her mouth. “She also staged the skunk assault with help from the three of us out here, and ... she emptied Seth’s safe.”
For the briefest of seconds, Louisa stared at Mabel before she frowned. “What do you mean, she staged the skunk assault?”
“She nicked a few of your son’s skunk thingamajigs,” Penina explained. “She then told us to release the contents of those thingamajigs right at the beginning of lunch, and voilà—which is a French word I know I’m allowed to say because it means something to the effect ofhere you go, a harmless phrase if there ever was one.”
“The castle erupted into absolute madness,” Mabel added. “That madness is exactly what Norma Jean was hoping for because it allowed her and Velma the opportunity to make a break for it.”
Louisa turned to Seth. “Why in the world would you invent something that smells like skunk?”
“I thought it would be safer for Norma Jean to carry a skunk deterrent around with her over a percussive grenade.”
“If you had concerns regarding Norma Jean’s safety, you should have just broached the matter with me,” Louisa countered. “I could have hired a bodyguard to watch her full-time, which would have made it next to impossible for her to run away, and from the sound of it, in possession of enough funds to finance whatever plan she’s formulated now.”
“You hired a bodyguard after Norma Jean almost got abducted,” Seth argued. “To refresh your memory, he lost track of her on his second day on the job.”
“That’s because the man told Norma Jean she wouldn’t be able to get out of his sights, and she took that as a challenge.”
“She’s clearly taken her house confinement as a challenge,” Annaliese said. “But before we settle down to figuring out where she may have gone, I believe it’s past time the girls got de-skunked.” She nodded to Seraphina and Irma. “May I prevail upon the two of you to run down some hydrogen peroxide, as well as send notes to Mrs. Zambarello and Mrs. Glessner telling them we need to speak with them?”
“Of course,” Seraphina said. “I’ll see after the girls.” She nodded to Irma. “You’ll pen the notes?”
After Irma inclined her head, Seraphina nodded to the girls, who began trudging toward the castle, looking less than enthusiastic about facing a hydrogen peroxide bath and then a meeting with their mothers.
“Make sure to not let anyone get that hydrogen peroxide in their hair,” Louisa called. “From what I read, it can turn even the darkest hair platinum blond within minutes.”
“Perhaps it’ll be best if we both oversee their baths,” Annaliese heard Seraphina say, which had Penina looking grumpya second later, rather as if she would have loved nothing more than to turn herself into a blond if Irma’s attention wavered.
“Norma Jean certainly seems to have outdone herself this time,” Louisa said, sending a nod toward Mabel’s back. “To think that she talked sweet little Mabel into this preposterous scheme of hers is truly beyond the pale, especially when dear Mabel is always so very well-behaved whenever she visits our home. I now find myself wondering exactly what lengths Norma Jean went to in order to get Mabel and the Zambarello sisters to agree to help her.”
“I believe all she had to do was threaten to stop speaking to them quite like she’s done with Phoebe and Coraline,” Seth said.
Louisa lips thinned. “Norma Jean stopped talking to two of her best friends?”
“She blamed them for her getting caught at the fair.”
“My daughter has no one to blame but herself, although I suppose I need to shoulder some blame as well since I’ve obviously been spending far too much time of late being ill,” Louisa muttered before she lifted her chin and began marching toward the castle without another word.
Seth was moving after his mother a moment later, Annaliese striding into motion as well.
“It’s not your fault Norma Jean ran away,” Seth said once they caught up with Louisa. “You know she’s always been headstrong and unmanageable.”
“But whose fault would her unmanageable behavior be except mine—a mother who hasn’t exactly been present in her or any of your lives lately?”
“You’ve always been present in my life.”
Louisa stopped walking. “And while that’s kind of you to say, you know it’s not the truth, but now is hardly the time for me to delve into self-reflection as I have a daughter to run down.”
“Zut!” Pierre squawked, a squawk that left Harriet, who’dbeen awfully quiet of late, jumping away from where she’d been standing close to Louisa, where she immediately took to looking guilty.
“Give it back,” Annaliese said, earning some monkey chatter from Harriet before she held her paw out to Louisa, or rather, the sparkly brooch she’d nicked from Seth’s mother.
“No need for you to return that to me, dear,” Louisa said. “I brought that for you, as well as an entire jewelry box filled with costume jewelry that I dug out of the attic.” She caught Annaliese’s eye. “I thought your mother would appreciate it if Harriet had some sparkly jewels of her own but obviously not real ones.”
