Page 52 of Fangs, Frost, and Folios
She smiled. “Nothing we couldn’t handle. Met up with some old friends. Spent ages in a giant library.”
“That sounds like fun.” Sadia handed a corn husk to Isadora. “We had a bonfire last night.”
“Oh yeah? That sounds fun too.”
Her daughter’s eyes sparkled with secrets. “It was really fun. Kaya came over, and then tonight Isadora said that since Christmas is next week, we needed to start the tamales.”
“Your great-grandmother is wise.” Beatrice slid onto the bench against the wall, sandwiching Sadia between her mother and her great-grandmother. “Is that a new necklace?” She saw the gold peeking from Sadia’s black T-shirt. “That’s beautiful.”
Sadia looked up, and Beatrice knew there was a story that she wasn’t getting. “Uh, yeah. Early Christmas present from Dema.”
“It’s beautiful.” She looked at her grandmother.
I’ll tell you later.Isadora’s eyes spoke volumes.
“Well good,” Beatrice said. “Sounds like you had a great time.”
Sadia leaned her head against Beatrice’s arm for a moment. “Missed you.”
And her heart melted. “Missed you too, honey.”
Giovanni was overseeing the unloading of their luggage when Ben wandered over.
Giovanni smiled. “There you are. I was wondering why everyone was hiding inside.”
“Tamale-construction night.”
“Ah.” He gave Ben a quick embrace. “That definitely explains it.”
“How was England?”
“Cold.” Giovanni looked toward the south lawn. “Do I smell woodsmoke?”
“Sadia’s friend came over last night and we did a bonfire.”
“A bonfire when it’s sixty degrees at night,” Giovanni muttered. “She’s definitely a Southern California girl.”
“No worries around here. Smooth sailing,” Ben said.
The man was hiding something, but Giovanni would find out eventually. “Good. We had a little fun in England looking for the play.”
Ben’s eyebrows went up. “Fun?”
“Your aunt ninja-stalked a group of thieves breaking into the manor house where we were searching for the manuscript, and then the thieves took hostages and they all ended up getting locked into a vault while I was in London. Nobody died, and we turned the thieves over to the authorities.”
Ben blinked. “Well, that’s an unexpected twist.”
“I guess Beatrice had more fun than I did.” He patted Ben on the shoulder and started for the kitchen, grabbing the briefcase with the manuscript on the way. “Oh! René du Pont sends his regards.”
“René?” Ben scowled. “Guess I should have been expecting that when you said there were thieves in the library.”
“Oh no,” Giovanni said. “This time he was helping us.”
“He was… What?” Ben rushed to catch up with Giovanni. “What do you mean, he was helping?”
“In fact, we may actually owe him a favor.”
“I’m sure they didn’t intend to irritate you when they worked with the Frenchman.” Tenzin patted Ben’s thigh as they watched Sadia and Beatrice decorate the Christmas tree in the living room. “They were using the resources in front of them, and René can be very—”
