Cat Seeing Double

Ha

"I've never seen anything so beautiful," she whispered. She and the kit stared and stared at the medley of brilliant colors, the thickly woven, intricate patterns. The kit crept closer still, watching the rug and watching Ryan and Ha

The kit followed. They were poised among the pillows looking down at that sea of colors and sniffing the scent of clean wool when Ryan and Ha

Ryan lifted her hand as if to stop them, but Ha

"What harm can they do?" Ha

"Don't you worry they'll pull a thread?"

"It's a well-made piece, the English know how to make rugs that last-the English know there'll be cats on them. And Joe is a perfect gentleman. Kate and I kept him for a week, at the cottage, when we were down looking at the Pamillon estate. Something about Clyde painting his place. The cat had perfect ma

Beneath the cats' paws, the wool was softer than a featherbed. Dulcie and the kit rolled deliriously, wriggling, sinking into the thick pile, the kit flipping back and forth lashing her long, fluffy tail.

But Joe rolled for only a moment. He came to rest lying on his back, his white paws waving in the air as if in total abandon while he considered the flaw in the fireplace.

In the morning light, from this angle, he couldn't see that out-of-place, ragged scar. Rolling across the rug as if crazy with play, he looked again.

Nothing. The rising dawn light coming from every direction showed the black recess as smooth as the other two. But last night he had seen the diagonal scar ru

"See," Ha

"You love doing something that would enrage her."

"She'll never know, as long as they're out before she gets here."

"She's coming down? This morning?"

"She's in Half Moon Bay-or was, last night. She called me about something, I told her the rug was here. She sounded pretty excited, for ice queen Maria

"There, that's the last of it," Ha

"I'd like to roll on it, myself," Ha

"Go ahead, you earned it. It truly is magnificent. You can-"

Both women turned as a car pulled into the drive. They couldn't see it from the entry, that wall and the door were solid. Ha

Her excited voice would have startled even the dullest cat. But as Joe and Dulcie leaped for the open screen, Maria

The cats, crouched among fallen branches, looked for the kit, but she had vanished. They peered back toward the bright room, where Maria

Staring back at her from among the freshly split logs, the kit crouched unmoving, her black-and-brown coat hardly visible against the pine bark, but her yellow eyes wide with fear.

Having apparently, in her panic, bolted straight through the mesh curtain, she was trapped. When Maria

26

Kit stared out of the fireplace at the tall, black-suited, spike-heeled blonde with all the fear she would exhibit facing Lucifer himself. And from the woods outside, Joe and Dulcie watched with the same fear of the woman. Even Ryan looked uncertain.

But Ha

Maria

"There was not one cat in here, Ha

"We didn't see them come in," Ha

Beyond the screened windows crouched among the forest's foliage, Joe and Dulcie looked at each, laughing at Ha

As they watched, Ryan knelt, reaching in to the kit. The kit came to her at once. Ryan picked her up, carried her to the long windows, set her through and gave her a Utile pat, then closed the screen.

Kit was a streak, fleeing to them. Behind her, Ha

Pressing between Joe and Dulcie, the kit shivered with the residue of fear, but lashed her tail with anger. "I would have slashed her, I would have bloodied her." But soon she began to wriggle, to scratch at something in her fur. Turning, she licked her back, fidgeting as if she itched all over.