Page 9 of Fangs, Frost, and Folios
“Good. Busy. Don Ernesto is having some big holiday party, and my mom is helping plan it for all the employees. It’s all she can think about right now, so I’m just glad I don’t have to live with her.”
“You’re Muslim.” Tenzin pursed her lips. “I assume your mother is too.”
Dema was used to Tenzin’s bluntness. “She is. This is a holiday party for all faiths, so that’s what she’s planning.”
Tenzin frowned. “But it will be mostly Christmas themed because Ernesto is Christian.”
Ben put his arm around Tenzin. “Everyone loves a party, Tiny. Just go with it.” He looked around the house. “Where’s Sadia?”
“In her room listening to Pearl Jam on a cassette player she found at a thrift shop last week.” Dema bit back a smile. “She asked me if I’d ever heard of them before.”
“What?” He frowned. “Who listens to cassette tapes anymore? That’s even before my time.”
“I have a collection of vinyl records somewhere.” Tenzin gazed into the distance. “Marvelous technology, but still not as good as live music. What’s a cassette tape? Is it sticky?”
Dema stared.
“There was a good fifty years or so that she just…” Ben waved a hand over Tenzin’s head. “It’s debatable whether it’s worth catching her up or not.”
The nanny smiled. “Well, good news. Sadia knows everything about Pearl Jam, cassette tapes, and grunge music, so if Tenzin wants to know, she’s come to the right place.”
Tenzin and Dema exchanged a look that Ben couldn’t interpret.
“Oh.” Tenzin smiled. “So she’s there?”
“Oh, she issothere.” Dema rolled her eyes. “Hormones are raging.”
Ben blinked. “What? Hormones? What are you…?” Realization dawned. “No.”
“Ben, your sister is twelve now. She’s almost a teenager,” Dema said. “It’s perfectly normal.”
He rushed past them into the house. Not Sadia. Not his baby sister. She was far too young for all the teenage drama and tears and the—
“Ben?”
He saw her at the top of the stairs. “Hey! We just got here. Dema was telling Tenzin that you’re a Pearl Jam fan now. Did you know I saw them in Chicago when I was—?”
“Oh my God,” she mumbled. “It’s not, like, a big deal. I’m more into Green Day now.” Sadia rolled her eyes beneath overlong black bangs, huffed out a breath, and spun around. “Welcome home or… whatever since you don’t live here anymore. Mom and Dad went to look for some old stuff in London or something. Sorry you had to waste your time to come babysit me for Christmas.”
Ben felt attacked, and he’d barely spoken a word. “Uh… hi? Happy to see you? How’s it going? Missed you too?”
Sadia let out a long sigh. “Hey. I missed you and Tenzin even though we, like, talk every week. Why didn’t you tell Mom and Dad I could go to New York with you guys?”
“Because we wanted to come to LA to see you?” What was happening? Why was she angry? What was going on? “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” Sadia screwed up her face into an indignant expression. “Just…” She sighed deeply, rolled her eyes, and swept down the stairs past him. “Fine.”
Three
Audley Manor was a redbrick Jacobean mansion with soaring round towers framing a set of double doors painted bright green with gold trim. The giant cobbled courtyard was dusted with snow and lit by Christmas lights. A formal garden was bedded for the winter season, and wrought iron lampposts dotted the grounds.
Beatrice looked around as flakes of snow started to fall. “I feel like an owl is going to fly down at any moment and drop off an envelope with my invitation to wizarding school.”
“Is that what you want for Christmas?” His wife was an endless amusement. “An owl?”
“No,” she whispered. “I want a mystery.”
He put his arm around her and pulled her close. “And I believe you’ll have one.”
