At that moment, fear for my future turned to hope and anticipation. I could do the Keeper job. I’d been doing it. Yes, it had been ugly. But I’d get better. And I had friends to help me keep my head above water when I needed it.
I actually smiled. “It will be okay,” I told her.
Alice’s smile eased some of the worry from her face. “Yes. It’s going to be brilliant.” She slapped her hands on the table and stood. “Now then. You make that call, and I’ll go pick up our dinner.” She headed toward the dividing door. “I just need to tidy up a bit, feed Fenwald and Oliver, send out a few emails, and Bob’s your Uncle.”
Bob’s your what? I asked myself. Then I shook it off and made the call to my favorite pizza place.
Twenty minutes later, as I was slipping the last of the new books into their proper spots on the shelving, Alice was heading out the front door to pick up dinner when she made an exclamation of surprise. “Oh! Hello, sweetums. I’m afraid we’re closed.”
A young, sweet voice I recognized said, “I need to see Naida.”
I came around the shelves and emerged into the open space as Maude Quilleran stepped through the door, a plastic carrier clutched in her hand. “Hello, Naida,” she said, grinning broadly.
I hurried forward, relieved to see her smiling. My reaction when I’d heard her voice was panic, assuming something horrible had happened because of my clumsy, if ultimately successful, artifact retrieval. But she was the picture of happiness.
And her hair looked spectacular.
I tucked a bristly strand of my wavy brown hair behind my ear and wondered if she’d let me borrow her brush. “Hey,” I said, smiling. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” she assured me. “I wanted to thank you again for getting my brush. If that derf Margo had used it and realized it was magical, my dad would have played Beethoven on my colon for getting him in trouble with the PTB.”
Grimacing at the mental image she’d created, I laughed. “I’m happy I could help.”
Maude glanced around the store, her expression filled with awe. “This place is really icy. He’s going to love it here.”
I looked around too, trying to see it through her eyes. She was right. The cozy little bookstore was wonderful. I suddenly realized how much I’d come to love it. It was starting to feel like home. “Thanks,” I said, grinning. “Can I get you something? I don’t know if we have any pop, but I can make tea.”
She shook her head. “I can’t stay. My dad’s expecting me home. He goes ballistic if I’m even ten minutes late.” She rolled her eyes, giving even Sebille a run for her money with her technique.
“Okay,” I said, waiting for her to tell me why she was there.
Maude looked down at the carrier in her hand. “I know you said you didn’t want me to pay you for helping…”
I shook my head. “It’s okay, really. I was happy to help.”
“Meow.”
I blinked in surprise at the soft cry, my gaze locking onto the carrier. “Oh, did you get yourself a kitten?”
A tiny gray face appeared in the mesh of the door, startling orange-gold eyes sparking in the overhead light. “Meow!” the little thing demanded, clearly sick of being inside the carrier.
“He seems to be unhappy about being in that carrier,” I said. “How about if I got him some cream?”
“That would be great,” Maude said, settling the carrier onto the carpet. She dropped to her knees and opened the door as I moved to the tea area and opened the small refrigerator, pulling out the container of cream.
“Meow,” the kitten declared as he padded into the nook with me, winding around my ankles as I poured cream into a small bowl and placed it on the floor. The purring commenced as he bent to slurp his snack. “He’s adorable.”
Maude nodded enthusiastically. “He’s going to love this place. So many nooks and crannies.”
My head jerked up to find her looking hopefully at me. “Please accept him as my gift to you, Naida.”
There was more to her request than a simple desire to pay me back. I could tell from the earnest expression on her face, and something that looked like worry in her pretty blue eyes. It was really important to her that I take the kitten.
I scratched his tiny back and frowned as I felt bone. He was too skinny. And I noticed as I sat down next to him that he smelled.
As if reading my mind, she said, “You’d literally be saving him, Naida. He needs a home. Someone to love him.”
The fuzzy baby licked the bowl clean and then climbed into my lap, his contented purr rumbling against my legs. He closed his startling eyes and fell immediately asleep. “I don’t know…” I started to say.
“Please, Naida?”
The kitten rolled over in his sleep, belly up, and I found it impossible to resist the fuzzy tummy he exposed. I was toast and I knew it.
I looked up and she smiled, the tension leaving her face at something she saw in my expression. Maude clapped her hands. “Yay! The only thing I ask is that you let me visit him once in a while.”
“Any time. I hope you will.”
She hopped up and down a couple of times and then glanced at her phone. “Yikes! I’m late. I have to go.” She started running toward the door. “I’ll see you soon!” And she was gone.
I sat with my new baby for several minutes, enjoying watching him sleep. He sure moved a lot when he was sleeping. Hopefully, that didn’t mean he was going to be a handful.
The bell on the front door jangled, and Alice came in. I panicked, realizing I hadn’t cleared the new house member with her. Then I straightened my
