Dinner was absolutely delicious. She’d never been much of a picnic person, but she had to admit, those much-vaunted ribs were even better eaten on a strong wooden table and benches in the orchard, under the Japanese lanterns and waning sunlight. Eagle’s fish was even more delicious grilled. She even had praise for Mrs. Fox’s cherry jello molds and Betty’s apple pie. Puppy giggled as Bear dug into his fish, guts flying everywhere until Betty patted at him with a napkin.
Troll was, rather surprisingly, every inch a gentleman. He didn’t roar or insult anyone once, other than scolding Bear about his messy eating habits. He even brought chilled champagne for everyone but Puppy, who got fresh-pressed peach juice despite her protests. He almost looked presentable in his blue jacket and trousers and red silk shirt. It still hung off him in thick folds, and Hilary still suspected it had been made for someone at least slightly more filled-out.
They were still sipping champagne when night fell, and they made their way to the fountain. “It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?” She murmured.
“It is.” His eyes never left her. “It’s almost as beautiful as you.”
Hilary blushed in spite of herself. “Thank you. You know,” she added as she put the champagne glass on the concrete lip of the fountain, “I’ve wondered why you’re so harsh on Bear. He can’t help being the way he is.”
“I’ve told you, he wasn’t always that way!” Troll looked away with a soft growl. “He is…was…a good friend. He used to be brill…well, he wasn’t always like that. When he was hurt by…” He nearly coughed himself into the fountain. Hilary thumped his chest. “When he was attacked, I didn’t really know what to do with him. We need him, but he can’t…” he coughed again, gulping the champagne. “Can’t do what I originally hired him for, or what Eagle needed him for.” He looked away from her, hurt in his dark eyes. “I let him down, Hilary. When he…when we found him like that, I couldn’t even look at him. I avoided him for days. I knew I’d failed him.”
“I don’t think you failed him.” Hilary took his hand. “It was this person you all can’t talk about who hurt him, not you.” She sighed. “I do wish my sisters weren’t so enamored with your friends. I want so much for them. Maple needs someone who can take care of her, and Betty…she’ll be returning to college, when she can. She’s brilliant. They’re too talented to be married to animals.”
Troll narrowed his eyes. “Is that all they are?” His fury was obvious, even in the rapidly oncoming twilight. He clenched his clawed fists. “Maybe I don’t want them married to selfish, controlling witches who can’t see who only see their fur and feathers. Maybe I’d rather they focused on their work. Bear pursued a girl once. Very pretty, too, but she was too high-minded to give him the time of day. Maybe,” he added with a soft, angry growl, “you should stop assuming what you want is what your sisters want and actually let them follow their hearts.”
“And maybe,” Hilary added, her own color rising, “you should stop denying that you and your friends are under a curse, and you can’t continue your all-important work if you’re covered in fur and feathers and one of you has most of his brain locked away. I know there’s a curse. I’ve heard you talk about it, and it’s obvious, with the walking zoo around here!”
He narrowed his eyes. “Hilary, I can’t tell you about it. None of us can.”
“Can’t,” she snarled, “or won’t? What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing,” he growled. “I’m not afraid of anything!”
“Yes, you are!” She looked him right into those beautiful almond-shaped eyes, just as the first fireworks were heard in the sky. “You’re afraid of her, aren’t you? That horrible ‘her’ all of you keep talking about. Her and…” her voice dropped here. “Losing your friends like you lost your first wife.”
“I didn’t lose her!” His growl was laced with fury and pain. “She walked out on me! I loved her, more than anything, but she believed…” He coughed again, so hard he knocked the champagne glass onto the pavement. She pulled away as it shattered into a thousand pieces. “It doesn’t matter what she believed. She left me. I never would have left her if I wasn’t trying to save my friends.”
The fireworks continued behind them, red and blue and green bursts of light and fury in the inky black night sky, but Hilary only had eyes for the grotesque creature in front of her. “To save your friends? Couldn’t you have found another way?”
“She found out we had…” he coughed again. “Information on her. She would have…turned them over…to her superiors…if I didn’t…” He coughed so hard, he almost ended up in the fountain. “Let’s just say,” he added, “that I didn’t want to do it, but my friends’ lives were at stake.”
“You should have done something more sensible,” Hilary hissed. “Like killed her or poisoned her drink or, I don’t know, dunked her in Lake Erie!”
“Believe me,” Troll muttered, “I wanted to.” He nodded at the sky. “I think they’re just about done.”
They watched together, both of their eyes now on the sky. Hilary leaned on the concrete as the sky lit up with every shade of scarlet and gold and green imaginable. She barely noticed it when Troll’s claws ended up on hers…until she looked down and saw their fingers and claws interlaced.
They finally pulled their hands and claws away, almost as red as the last of the sparkles and smoke in the ebony sky. “Yes,” she coughed, “well, I need to get going. I promised Dad and C.J I’d call them for the holiday. I miss them rather badly.”
He frowned. “Maybe I shouldn’t have taken you away from them. You love them, don’t you?”
“Don’t worry. We’re needed here.” She rubbed his hand again. “See you again tomorrow? I can help you with the rose bushes. I think they’re too much for one person.”
He gave her that familiar lipless, toothy grin that made her knees weak. “It’s a date. See you tomorrow.” She couldn’t help her schoolgirl blush, even as she hurried inside with the remaining champagne glass. It had been a long time since she’d had a date, or anything like it. This Troll may have been the ugliest, most hideous creature on the planet and a controlling ass, but he almost had manners sometimes.
As soon as she showered and changed into her lightest cotton nightgown, she put on the wonderful fan and let it run over her bed as she called her brother. “C.J!” She said with a genuine smile. “Hello! Happy 4th, dear! How’s Dad? Were you able to afford his famous ribs? I really should get Troll to wire you some money. He’s certainly got enough to be able to afford this place.”
“Hi, Hilary. We do all right. It’s just the two of us right now. I did make a good enough salary for us to afford ribs for two. Wish you girls could have been here. We both miss you. Dad said he was going to the fireworks, but he passed out listening to the municipal Independence Day concert on KDKA. I just got back from the fireworks. I know some of the guys who set them off, and they got me in for free.”
“I miss you too, C.J, and so do the other two. Just be careful around those fireworks. Don’t want you to blow up anything you might need.” She smiled a little. “I wish you two could be here. These creatures really aren’t so bad. Troll may be the most grotesque piece of stage makeup I’ve ever seen, but he also treats the roses in the garden like they’re his children. That’s why he threw that fit when Dad picked one. He claims they’re all he has. Something about a first wife who left him, though I have no clue who would marry something that looks like it’s out of Lon Chaney’s worst fever dreams.”
“Just be careful, Hilary.” Her younger brother even managed to sigh deadpan. “You’re missed onstage, too. Pavla’s not a bad actress, but she’s not meant for this role. She can project well and knows her lines, but she’s cold and hard as the steel coming out of the mills downtown. She’s only here because she has Hunnicut over a barrel. He’s totally smitten with her.”
Hilary rolled her eyes as she leaned further into the air blowing from the fan. “Hunnicut was never known for his taste in mistresses. He tried for me, but he looks more like an especially jowly pig than any of these creatures resemble animals. He’s far from my type.”
Her brother’s gentle deadpan voice switched from mild amusement to worry. “Hilary, I talked to those FBI agents. They suspect Pavla of not only being affiliated with at least two different Fascist groups in Germany and Hungary, but two reporters, three actors, and two strong officers in the German and Hungarian armies all vanished after having relationships with her or doing articles on her in Germany. And she’s gotten offers from two other producers who are acting more like lapdogs than humans. They’ll do anything for her, repeat whatever she says.”
“I knew there was something going on with that sour cream puff!” Hilary snarled, clutching the phone so hard, her knuckles turned white. “I’ll bet that whatever she did to Hunnicut, she’s doing to those other producers, too. And it’s probably how she got my role, too! I wouldn’t put it past that…that Wicked Witch of the East to have done something to those men, too. Bet she’d be deported on her rear right back to Czechoslovakia if more people knew about this!”
“That’s the trouble.” She could hear her brother turn off something humming softly in the background. Dad probably forgot to turn off the radio again before he passed out. “The FBI men don’t have concrete evidence. Someone promised them evidence, then vanished before they could give it to them. They won’t say who.”
Hilary’s screech scared every mouse, beetle, and hoot-owl within a five-mile radius. “WHAT?! Why can’t they just…arrest her? What more evidence do they need than people going missing and producers giving her roles just because she twists them around her little finger?”
“First of all, Hilary, you just about broke my eardrums. I had to hold the phone away from my ear.” Her brother’s gentle voice was now somewhere between annoyed and frustrated. “Second, they need something that actually links her to those groups. No one knows what happened to those men or the ones who were going to produce that evidence, and I doubt they’d care if she’s playing footsie under the table with a few theatrical producers.”
“Well, we need to find those men and that evidence,” Hilary growled, “before the Wicked Witch of Eastern Europe does a lot worse than making a few men disappear…like making my career disappear!”
C.J sighed. “Just be careful. And give the other two my love. Dad says he loves you, too. We miss you.”
“I miss you two, and so do the girls. I’ll see you the moment we figure out what’s going on here. Give Dad our love!” Even as she put the phone back on the cradle, she shuddered despite the heat. That Czechoslovakian wiener schnitzel was up to something illegal…and she wanted to get her hands into more of her roles! If only Jeff were here, she’d be able to talk to him about all this…but he wasn’t. No one knew where he was. She was certain it wasn’t back in Europe. That little trollop would lie between and over and under her teeth if she could stay in America and wreck havoc on her career.
“Oh Jeff,” she murmured as she turned out the light and lay her head on the pillow, “where are you? If you’re not in Europe or here, where is she holding you?” This time, she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
