Free The Body in the Wardrobe by Katherine Hall Page Page B

pimento cheese [see recipe ] sandwiches, salad, and fruit kebabs for dessert.” Faith had discovered that her family would consume much more fruit if she cut it into chunks and put it on a wooden skewer like an hors d’oeuvre with some sort of yogurt dipping sauce than if she simply put it in a bowl or cup.
    â€œWhat’s pimento cheese? Aren’t pimentos those weird little red things in olives?”
    â€œThose ‘weird little red things’ are diced cherry peppers and when you combine them with grated cheddar, mayo, and one or two other ingredients you get what some people call ‘the caviar of the South.’ It makes great grilled cheese among other dishes.”
    Ben made a face. “You know I don’t like fish eggs.”
    â€œNot yet anyway. But you’ll like this. If you had grown up in Georgia or South Carolina you’d have had pimento cheese sandwiches in your lunch box instead of peanut butter.”
    â€œWhatever,” Ben had said and loped out of the room. He was now taller than Tom. He didn’t slouch but still managed to move as if he were one of those folding yardsticks not fully extended.
    Since then, Faith had continued to think about what taking this position would mean for the Fairchild family. Ben would definitely not be happy to leave his friends, especially with only two years leftuntil graduation. And she predicted just as the movers were packing boxes, Amy would have found a terrific group of new friends and have to be dragged kicking and screaming out of Aleford. What about Faith herself? She’d moved her catering business once, from Manhattan, and could do it again; but she had a firm client base here. She’d have to start from scratch, and would Niki be willing to commute to wherever the new site was? She lived in Watertown, conveniently close, now. And the other part-time employees?
    Yet the worst would be leaving Pix—and Ursula. Yes, she’d see Pix in the summer and Ursula, too. But in Ursula’s case for how long? Faith couldn’t go there. Couldn’t picture a world without Ursula Rowe in it.
    What happened next on what was fast seeming a momentous Sunday night was taking a backseat to Tom’s declaration, but not by much.
    â€œMom,” Ben was back and standing next to her. She hadn’t heard him come in and startled, dropped the knife she was using to slice radicchio for the salad. “Mom,” he’d repeated. “I don’t want to rat her out, but you may need to hear what Amy is saying to Daisy. They’re Skyping.”
    He’d slipped away again and Faith picked the knife up off the floor, putting it in the sink. She’d given Amy permission to Skype with Daisy in her room for privacy. Hard to go back on that, but Ben wasn’t a tattletale. The opposite in fact, often to Faith’s dismay. He seemed to inherit his secret-keeping capacity from his father and he wasn’t ordained.
    Sighing, she’d gone to the bottom of the stairs, slipped her shoes off, and walked up to the hallway. Amy’s door was open and Faith could hear both girls clearly.
    â€œIt really works,” Daisy was saying. “You distract her somehow. Like tell her you’re going to throw up and while she’s getting a bucket or something, you hold the thermometer near the light. But not too near or it will be crazy high.”
    â€œOkay, got it. Gym tomorrow and I can’t say I’ve got my period again so soon.”
    â€œI wish you could come out here and go to school with me. Everyone would love you and the teachers are so nice.”
    â€œI wish I could, too. Well, I gotta finish an essay for English. Really stupid. We have to write about something that changed our life. I mean, I’m only thirteen. Nothing has happened yet.”
    â€œI wouldn’t have a problem with it,” Daisy said, and both girls laughed, although the reference to what had happened the summer