Part 4 (2/2)

She and Simon lived in a large, luxurious house trailer in the middle of a fine stand of trees across from Rose's little house. Simon ought to be blissful and completely satisfied up here drawing his cartoons and looking after Clawdia, but humans could be contrary. Simon was pining. Imagine it.

Pining after Rose Gibb.

Fiddlededee, she would have to suck it up and approach the beastly dogs.

Slowly, with exquisite grace, Clawdia stepped her way across gra.s.s that needed a good mowing. She undulated her spectacularly supple spine back and forth so that her rear and her head took a look at each other with every pace. And her tail stood tal like a s.h.i.+p's mast, the very end tipping forward . . . like a tiny, fluffy flag.

The question was, could she dumb herself down enough to be understood by these lowlife creatures?

Look at that. They're staring, the rude things. ”Good afternoon,” she said. She would not turn her face away, she would not, would not. She needed their help.

Al they did was wiggle their stubby whiskers and sniff.

”I said, good afternoon. You're looking, mmm, somewhat better today.”

”What d'you want?” the bigger one said, although neither of them were an impressive size. ”You didn't have anything to say yesterday, or the day before, or on any day that I remember.”

She stretched. ”One must have standards. Talking to you at once would have been forward.”

”I'm d.i.c.kens. This is my sister, Madeleine. What d'you want?”

Typical lack of grace. ”My name is Clawdia. I live over there.” She indicated the lot on the other side of Rose Gibb's fence. ”I'm with Simon Falzone, a superior sort of person.”

”Good for you,” the other one, Madeleine, said. ”We're with Rose Gibb and we think she's nice.”

”You haven't been here long enough to know,” Clawdia said. ”But, as a matter of fact, I think she's nice, too, and so does Simon. Unfortunately, she's a bit graceless and shy, and he, being a male, is natural y obtuse.”

”Ob-”

”Obtuse,” Clawdia repeated, curling her lip. ”I expect you'd understand better if I said he's thick sometimes.

She's shy and b.u.mbles about, so he thinks she doesn't like him. But of course she does. What woman wouldn't?”

”We haven't met him,” Madeleine said. ”So we don't know about that, do we?”

Clawdia sashayed closer, raised her nose and did her best to look down on d.i.c.kens and Madeleine. ”Do you think you'l be staying long?” She had almost said ”long enough for my purposes,” but thought better of it.

The smal er dog, who had rather nice dark eyes if one made oneself look, said, ”This is our home now,” sounding, Clawdia thought, a bit defensive for some reason.

”It's my opinion, and I'm never wrong, that Simon and Rose want to be friends.” She flipped her tail. ”You're going to help me arrange for that to happen.”

The bigger dog muttered what sounded like, ”Uppity al ey cat,” but Clawdia must have misheard.

”How would we do that?” Madeleine asked.

”Don't bother your heads with al the details. I'l let you know when you're needed.”

She could have sworn d.i.c.kens said, ”Tabby menace,”

under his breath. She stared at him real y hard and curled her lips when he looked away.

”I hear Rose's car,” Clawdia said, twitching her ears back. ”Do as I tel you. I'm going to sacrifice myself and you wil , too. We're going to pretend we like each other.”

Rose drove from the dead-end lane into her driveway and parked.

Today she didn't feel as nervous about coming home to the dogs she had impulsively adopted. A doctor at the hospital where she worked as a pediatric nurse had suggested that since she lived up here on her own she ought to get a guard dog. She hadn't liked to suggest that she wasn't real y alone since Simon Falzone was across the lane.

The moment she opened her door, heat hit her face. She gathered her purse and a bag of groceries from the back seat and took them inside.

d.i.c.kens and Madeleine were the first pets she had ever had. She shouldn't have al owed herself to be talked into taking two dogs, but once she saw the way they sat there, side-by-side, looking at her with such hope, she hadn't had the heart to walk away from them.

If she could look after sick children, she could certainly take care of two little dogs who needed her. Be honest, Rose, you need them, too.

She needed something or someone. Self-sufficient she might be, but she could get lonely.

Come on, buck up, girl. Get on with it.

Nothing she had bought needed to be put away at once.

She must keep on track and do exactly what she had promised herself. Exercise was what she needed, and so did the dogs.

When she had changed from her uniform into a new black cotton jogging suit and sneakers, she went through the kitchen door to the side of the house. Her responsibility for making sure d.i.c.kens and Madeleine got long walks would help change her own life. She couldn't turn herself into a raving beauty, but she could work on the ”pleasantly plump” bit.

Her neighbor, Simon Falzone, popped into her mind as he did far too often. With her arms crossed, she stared across to where his trailer, if you could cal something that big a trailer, was parked. He would be over there drawing, and brooding. Simon brooded a lot. She sighed. Brooding suited him, added to his mystery, and she was certain he was hiding a sense of humor and a heart of gold.

Tal , slim in a muscular way and with the bluest eyes she'd ever seen, she did wonder why he didn't have a wife, or at least a woman in his life. Oh, he probably did. The idea that he didn't was wishful thinking on her part.

Fanciful thing that she was!

Rose snapped to and clapped her hands when she approached the dog run. ”Hel o, there,” she said, opening the heavy wire door. The run had already been there when she moved in two years earlier. ”Walkies time. We're going for real walkies today, not just down the lane and back. I'm dressed for the part now.”

The dogs got up. They looked at each other, then back at her before wagging their tails, which Rose found odd.

”Do you like my new suit and shoes?” She pirouetted for them, then held up one foot at a time. ”Snazzy, huh?”

Furtively, she checked around to make sure she was completely alone before she laughed at her own expense.

When she led the dogs from the pen, Simon Falzone's big tabby cat walked straight up to her. Rose stood stil , amazed. Clawdia-Rose had heard Simon cal her that- was one of those aloof cats that ignored you, but here she was actual y rubbing herself around Rose's legs.

The cat moved on and went right up to d.i.c.kens and Madeleine.

Rose clutched the dogs' leashes tight and felt shaky.

How horrible it would be if they got into a fight. Simon would be furious if his cat was hurt.

”Clawdia,” she said. ”Kitty, kitty, good kitty. d.i.c.kens and Madeleine, don't you be mean to Clawdia. She's our neighbor.”

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