Free Please Do Feed the Cat by Marian Babson Page B

she? I saw a station taxi heading towards Dorian’s just a little while ago. There hasn’t really been time to meet her.’
    ‘Perhaps not for you,’ Jennifer said bitterly, ‘but she was around here before she bothered to unpack. I’ll bet Dorian put her up to it. She couldn’t have known where the bookshop was. He probably drew her a map.’
    ‘But why?’ Freddie was still puzzled.
    ‘Because he’s been furious with me ever since I included his last book in the remainders sale. He wanted to make trouble.’
    ‘Nothing new about that,’ Lorinda observed. ‘Personally, I blame Dorian for everything that’s happened this past year.’
    ‘No, I mean, why don’t you want her in the shop?’ Freddie persisted.
    ‘I don’t mind her coming in here,’ Jennifer said wearily. ‘And I don’t mind Opal – even though she rearranged my table display to give her book more prominence. But Adèle actually knocked Opal’s pile of books off the table while my back was turned – and she tried to blame poor Misty! As though Misty would do a thing like that!’
    ‘Never,’ Lorinda agreed. Bookshop cats were all expert at threading their way through stacks of books and even leaping from pile to pile without disturbing a thing.
    Prrreow? Misty appeared in the doorway, drawn by the sound of her name.
    ‘No, I didn’t call you, darling,’ Jennifer told her. ‘I was just talking about you and what a good girl you are. Not like some humans I could mention.’
    ‘We’ve spoiled you, Jennifer,’ Freddie said. ‘The rest of us are so civilized we wouldn’t dream of behaving like that.’
    ‘Well, why should you? You have no reason to. You all write different books with your own separate characters.’
    ‘And they don’t? Wait a minute …’ A distant memory was flickering at the edge of Lorinda’s consciousness. Somewhere in the depths of her unexplored souvenirs of the trip was a stack of business cards she had accumulated in her travels. ‘What name did you say?’
    ‘Adèle Desparta – and she’s in direct competition with Opal Duquette. They’re both doing a history-mystery series with Bess of Hardwick as their character!’
    ‘You’re right!’ Freddie whistled softly. ‘Competition doesn’t come any more direct than that.’
    ‘I knew I’d met the author of the Bess of Hardwick mysteries in New York!’ Lorinda felt vindicated. ‘I’ve even got her business card in my collection. But Gemma said I couldn’t have because Opal had never been to New York.’
    ‘That explains why you didn’t want them both in the shop at the same time.’ Freddie got down to practicalities. ‘But what did you think we could do about it? And how long do you think you can keep them apart? They’re bound to meet sooner or later, the village isn’t that big.’
    ‘I don’t know – I thought you could be a buffer zone, or something. I told you I panicked. And I don’t care where they meet, so long as it’s not here!’ Jennifer seemed to be feeling better. ‘You should hear the way they talked about each other! I wouldn’t like to see them in the butcher’s shop, either. The hatchet, the cleaver – and all those long sharp knives lying around …’ She shuddered.
    ‘Trust Dorian to get us into a situation like this,’ Freddie said.
    ‘Dorian couldn’t have known that Gemma would have
her cousin to visit at the same time.’ Lorinda defended him, although she wasn’t sure he deserved it.
    ‘Couldn’t he?’ Freddie quirked an eyebrow. ‘I wouldn’t put it past him.’
    ‘Anyway …’ Neither would Lorinda. ‘He said she’ll be going all over the country doing her research. She may not be here very much.’
    ‘We can but hope.’ Freddie did not sound very hopeful. ‘We have enough on our hands right now. All we need is another complication.’

Chapter Eight
    The rest of the week passed quietly – and without the expected summons from Dorian to any sort of soirée to introduce his guest. In