“I know,” mumbled Felix.
“So what are you doing propping up at Amber’s bar? Why aren’t you telling Thea?”
Felix closed his eyes, wagging his head. “I’m not sure she’ll listen.”
Josh sighed. “Look, I never thought I’d offer to helpyouwith anything, but I want to see my sister happy. She deserves to be happy.”
Felix met Josh’s bright blue eyes. “I promise. I’ll do everything I can to make it happen.”
43
THEA
With a heavy feeling in her chest, Thea pulled into the yard at Small Oaks. She came to a stop outside the house and turned off her engine. What a waste of her afternoon. There’d been no sign of Felix at the school, and when she’d returned home, she’d found a cryptic note from Kitty on the whiteboard in her office.
It said she’d gone to lie down, but someone needed to pick up a donation of blankets and supplies from a shop about an hour’s drive away. It was a long trip, but they were grateful for any donation. Besides, Thea hadn’t wanted Kitty to set out in her condition. With the size of her belly, she doubted her friend would even fit behind the steering wheel.
Thea had left Ammy with Josh and set out herself. When she’d arrived, though, the shop didn’t know what she was talking about. They said there was no donation to pick up, and so here she was, back home, a little confused and dog-tired.
Thea slammed her car door, startling a group of blackbirds that were strung out along the top of the stone wall. “Hello?” she yelled as she walked through the wide-open front door. Thea gave a grim smile. Her lack of home security and herslipping standards wouldn’t impress Felix. Perhaps he’d bend her over his knee and growl at her. At the thought, the lurch low down in her gut made her pick up her pace. She was still having inappropriate thoughts about him, and last night, she’d picked up her vibrator for the first time in weeks.
Following the voices and laughter, she headed up the hallway into the kitchen. The smell of butter and chocolate hung in the air, and the old, tiled floor looked as if there’d been an unseasonal blizzard. Josh stood leaning against the bench, holding a huge pottery mixing bowl, while Ammy stood on a chair brandishing a wooden spoon coated in brown paste.
“Hello, Mummy!” she said, her grin and flour-covered face melting Thea’s heart. “Joshie and I are making muffins.”
“I can see that, darling. And who’s going to clear up?” With a start, Thea re-ran the words that’d just come out of her mouth. Clear up? She couldn’t remember a time when she’d used that phrase in her house. Perhaps Felix had rubbed off on her. Ammy’s sing-song voice interrupted the prickle in her chest.
“Kitty says there are mice in the old barn.”
Thea sank down into one of the old wooden chairs at the table. Her bones ached. She’d had a thorough clean out of the rabbit shed earlier, and then there’d been the fruitless journey to pick up invisible blankets. The last thing she needed was to check for mice.
“There are always mice in the barn.” Hadn’t an advance raiding party already chewed through her feed sacks yesterday?
“No, I mean hundreds. Maybe thousands!” Ammy threw up her arms as if describing Armageddon.
Thea quirked a brow. Maybe the nibbled sacks from yesterday were only the tip of the iceberg. It was a bit early for an infestation. Harvest time was when they could expect mice, not early spring.
“Josh?” she asked, hoping he’d volunteer to investigate.
“I have no idea,” he said with a half-smile. “But I can’t go look. I’m mixing. It’s an important job.” Ammy nodded at her uncle, and they exchanged a fleeting glance.
“Where’s Kitty?”
“She’s putting her feet up. You should see the size of them.”
Ammy giggled. “Yes! Kitty has balloon feet.”
Thea threw her hands up. “Fine. I’ll look”.
With a puff of air from her cheeks, she stood and headed to the front door. As she did, she spotted a rack of sweet-smelling cookies that must have recently come out of the oven. Doubling back, she picked one up and popped it into her mouth, one side of it hanging out like a dog’s tongue.
Ammy gasped. “Mummy!” She dropped her spoon and leaned to take hold of Thea’s arm. She took the biscuit from her mouth and put it on the side. Her daughter reached up and smoothed down Thea’s curls with sticky fingers. Her large, earnest eyes were full of something Thea couldn’t quite read. “There,” she said. “You look beautiful, Mummy. I believe in you.”
Thea blinked. Was the mouse problem that bad? Should she wear some sort of armour? Strap some dinner plates to her knees. Use her colander as a face mask? And since when did clearing mice rely on good looks? Thea looked at Josh for a clue to Ammy’s meaning. He kept his eyes on the mixing bowl, the corners of his mouth twitching.
“You two are up to something.”
Both Josh and Ammy ignored her. Instead, they poured over her mum’s old recipe book, brushing away the flour as they read the instructions for the muffins.
