Page 12 of A Bear in a Birdbath
“They met unexpectedly while you were away and…ah…hit it off,” Margo said between clenched teeth. “I think they’d make a cute couple.”
“I never took you for a matchmaker,” Harriet said, twisting the ring on her finger. “But don’t think that I didn’t notice when you let Tobias up to my office that first time.”
The way Harriet said his name was soft and lingering. She seemed to hear herself, stopped playing with her rough diamond, and frowned at Margo. “You don’t think she’ll get hurt, do you?”
Even the distant possibility of it gave Margo a pang of worry and regret. “He wouldn’t dare,” she snarled. She forced herself to gentle her voice. “I think they’ll be great together,” she said. “She’s…his mate.”
Harriet’s whole face lit up. “Really? Oh, that’s wonderful!” She seemed to hear herself. “What is wrong with me?” She shook her head in disgust. “So, why do I need to set them up if that’s the case? Why aren’t they off nesting already? These things usually work themselves out without interference.”
“They met in…slightly weird circumstances.” He was unconscious, and she was tossing Wilson Kinetics. “They didn’t get to the point of exchanging names.”
If Harriet had any suspicions that Margo secretly wanted Eva—or Bruno—and Bruno!—for herself, she gave no indication. “I’ll set something up,” she promised. “Tobias is a hopeless busybody, and this will get him off of my back about the wedding for a while.” She gave her ring another of those soft smiles, like she didn’t really mind Tobias’s various pressures.
“Thank you,” Margo growled. “Now, I have some concerns about your lease contract that I wanted to bring up…”
She suspected that her hire was an act of pity because job opportunities for trolls were not thick on the ground, but when Harriet had appointed her as a manager, Margo took it seriously. She spent her evenings studying law and researching contract language, following current legal issues and poring over case studies. She took online business classes and got a subscription to The Economist. She memorized the food safety guidelines.
If anything, it only made her more boring.
Not only was she a troll, she was a pedantic troll, quoting regulations and enforcing the rules.
But trolls had hearts, and she’d lost hers twice now. The best she could do was mend someone else’s.
12
EVA
The note on Eva’s dress dummy had been brief. “You are required to attend a private dinner. Formal attire.” An address finished the note.
It was Harriet’s handwriting, and there were no clues as to the occasion, or why Eva herself was being pressed into attending. Harriet didn’t often bring her to events and Eva was glad of it. The baker-thief was making noises about Eva setting up her own clothing design company, but Eva balked at the idea of having to be even a token front for such a business. Cameras flashing in her face? Interviews? No, she wanted no part of that kind of fame.
But she was intrigued by the note, and she owed Harriet a great deal, so she picked the most formal attire she had, a slight black velvet dress embroidered all over in silky black thread so that it looked rather plain until the light hit it and brought out all of the designs.
It reminded her of Margo, and Margo’s kiss as she smoothed it down over her slim figure.
Why had Margo kissed her? Why did she pretend she hadn’t?
Eva was jealously glad that Margo seemed disinclined to follow up on Bruno’s declaration that he was her mate. Maybe the blow to his head had just addled him. It was easier to think of that, than of losing Margo to that gorgeous man.
But in some ways, it seemed like she had already lost Margo. They barely spoke now, and Margo never smiled, more stone-faced than ever. Eva could only guess why things seemed to have gone so wrong.
It was Eva’s fault. Her heart was flawed. She was poison.
Eva hadn’t meant to fall in love with Margo. But Margo was so kind and smart behind her gruff exterior that Eva had liked and trusted her at once, barely noticing when trust melted into affection, and at some point attraction. And then Margo had kissed her and unleashed all the tender feelings that Eva was most afraid of. Eva gritted her teeth and pulled on a coat.
The address took her to the arboretum. She pulled into the empty parking lot and gazed in confusion at the entrance. Were those rose petals scattered in the snow?
For a moment, Eva had a stab of hope and fear. Was this some form of troll courtship? Had the kiss meant something after all?
But Margo had a mate, and this didn’t look at all like Margo’s style. Eva followed the trail through the double doors, down a candle-lit hallway into the romantically lit arboretum with its arched glass ceilings.
It wasn’t Margo waiting for her.
The light wasn’t much more flattering, but the big man that Margo had knocked out was much less terrifying sitting at a white-clothed table holding a delicate crystal goblet in one meaty hand.
Bruno Bigliotti. The factory manager of Wilson Kinetics.
Bruno put his glass down at her approach and gingerly stood, clutching at the napkin in his lap before it could fall to the floor.
