Elspeth turned slowly to stare at her mother, a dozen different thoughts racing through her head. Trust and appreciation for her thinking ahead and making the necessary phone calls for these arrangements were not among those thoughts. For one moment, Elspeth even considered telling her mother to go to hell, that they’d go check into a hotel. All of them . . . except Martine. Unfortunately, she couldn’t really afford it herself, and knew Meredith couldn’t either.
No, it was better for them to stay at Aunt Marguerite’s until they could get ahold of the insurance companies, both hers and Meredith’s, and see if there was any kind of housing allowance in a situation like this. Until then, Aunt Marguerite’s would do. Elspeth was very fond of her aunt, and knew she’d be kind and understanding with Meredith.
“So, I talked to Mortimer,” Sam announced, leading Alex and the twins to join them. “He says we’re going to Marguerite’s?” She looked at Elspeth in question, and when she nodded, relaxed and smiled. “Okay then. Mortimer is sending Donny to collect Martine and the twins, and I thought Wyatt would rather Meredith ride with us?”
When everyone looked his way, Wyatt nodded solemnly, but his gaze was shifting around the dark yard, searching the shadows and corners. No doubt looking for their arsonist, Elspeth supposed and started looking as well.
“I think we’d do better to wait in the front yard where the streetlights offer more illumination,” he said now.
“Good thinking,” Sam said with a nod and began to usher the group around the house.
Elspeth couldn’t help noticing that Wyatt positioned himself between her and his grandmother, one hand holding each of them by the elbow, ready to move them where he wanted if trouble hit. Usually he would have had one hand hovering near his weapon as he escorted them, she knew. Unfortunately, he didn’t presently have his guns. Those were sitting in the bathroom sink in her burning apartment.
“Is Mortimer sending someone to deal with the police and the firemen?” Alex asked Sam as they reached the front of the house and found both departments in evidence. There were two police cars, a large fire truck, and uniformed men running everywhere, Elspeth noted as they made their way across the front yard. One of the neighbors must have called 911 relatively quickly for them to already be here.
“Yes. Magnus and Rickart are going to come handle the police and firemen,” Sam assured her, mentioning two of the men from the UK Enforcers who had come to assist while the North American hunters were short on Enforcers. “They were the closest crew and should be here—right now,” Sam finished with a wry smile as they saw an SUV glide into view on the street.
“Not a moment too soon,” Elspeth said dryly as she noted that they’d been spotted and several of the uniformed mortals were making a beeline for them.
“Which one of you is the homeowner?”
“Did everyone get out?”
“Is there anyone still in the house?”
“Is anyone hurt?”
“Do you know how the fire started?”
The questions came rapid-fire as half a dozen men converged on them.
Elspeth saw Meredith open her mouth to explain that she was the homeowner, but the woman never got the chance to say it. The men had already turned away as one and were walking back across the yard.
“Well, that was . . . What on earth . . . ?” Meredith said a little shakily. Elspeth slid into her thoughts to calm her and then watched as the officers and firemen made their way straight to Magnus and Rickart as they got out of the SUV. The two men had obviously taken control of them from their vehicle when they saw them converging on the group. She’d have to thank them later, Elspeth thought on a sigh. She was just too tired to deal with things like that at the moment.
“It’s all right, Merry,” Sam said soothingly as Elspeth retreated from the woman’s thoughts. “That’s Magnus and Rickart. They work with Elspeth and me. They’ll take care of everything.”
“Oh, how nice,” Merry said with a weary smile.
“That’s impressive,” Wyatt said solemnly next to her, his gaze on the two immortals facing the half circle of men in uniform. “And one hell of a handy trick.”
Elspeth smiled faintly, and then spotted a second SUV pulling up behind the first, and breathed a sigh of relief.
“There’s Donny,” Sam said now. “Martine—”
“Yes,” her mother interrupted. “Come along, girls. Our ride is here.”
She sailed across the yard then, simply expecting the girls to obey, but for one of the few times in their lives, Julianna and Victoria did not obey at once. Instead, they simply watched her until she was several feet away and then turned to Sam and begged in unison, “Can’t we ride with you?”
Sam eyed them sympathetically, but shook her head. “I’m sorry. There isn’t enough room for all of us in our SUV.”
“We could ride in the back with the cooler and the gun chest,” Julianna said desperately.
Sam hesitated, but then pointed out, “It wouldn’t be comfortable and there are no seat belts back there.”
“We’d be safe enough,” Victoria assured her. “So long as we aren’t beheaded we’re good, and that can happen as easily with seat belts as without.”
“And a little discomfort is fine,” Julianna added firmly, “so long as we don’t have to ride with . . .”
They all turned to watch Martine crossing the yard and Elspeth could see the struggle taking place on Sam’s face. It was obvious she didn’t want to say no. Finally, Elspeth said, “If you’re going to allow it, you better say so now and get them in the SUV before Mother notices they aren’t with her and takes control of them.”
“Yes, yes, all right. Get in the back quickly, girls,” Sam said, and then shook her head as they watched the twins run for the SUV parked in the driveway. As the rest of the group followed at a quick clip, Sam elbowed her sister and muttered, “Your mother-in-law is so going to hate me.”
“But my sisters-in-law won’t,” Alex pointed out. “Besides, the more I see of my mother-in-law, the less I like her, so what do I care what she thinks?”
The driveway was much closer than the road, and their group reached Sam’s SUV faster than Martine reached the one Donny was in.
“Uh-oh. I think you’d best get this puppy in gear and get us out of here, Sam,” Alex said suddenly in warning as they were doing up their seat belts. “Martine just noticed the girls aren’t with her and doesn’t look pleased.”
Elspeth glanced toward her mother to see that she’d stopped in front of Donny’s SUV and was looking back to where they’d been standing when she started off. No one was there anymore. Of course, when she didn’t spot them at once, Martine glanced around until she did spot them. But Sam already had the SUV started and was maneuvering around the police cars in the driveway to get to the road.
“Call Donny and let him know the twins are with us and he only needs to transport Martine,” Sam ordered once they were accelerating away up the road.
“You don’t think he’ll figure that out for himself?” Alex asked dryly, even as she pulled her phone out of her pocket.
“He might not. The girls ducked out of sight in the back the minute they got in,” Sam explained, glancing in the rearview mirror as both girls popped up now in the back.
“She has to see you to . . . do her thing,” Julianna finished with a glance at Meredith.
Victoria nodded, and added, “We thought ducking might be for the best. If she’d try to make Elspeth . . .” She paused briefly, and when Elspeth noted the concentrated look on her face as she peered at Meredith, she realized she was taking control of the woman, and understood why when she finished, “If she was willing to make Elspeth bite Wyatt, she might not be above making us jump out of a moving vehicle.”
“Yes,” Julianna agreed unhappily. “She appears to be less concerned about our well-being than controlling us.”
Elspeth would have liked to argue the point, and say that their mother loved them all and certainly wouldn’t have made them jump out of the vehicle, but she wasn’t at all sure that was true. In fact, she was rather surprised her mother hadn’t taken control of Sam and made her stop the car. The only thing she could think was that Alex must have been in the way, preventing her seeing Sam to do that. Or perhaps she’d just been so shocked at being disobeyed so openly that she hadn’t thought to do it.