Elaine Orr - Jolie Gentil 05 - Trouble on the Doorstep Read Free Page A

you can figure out how to get in touch with Eric.”
    We both stood, and I pointed toward the back stairs. “You can start up. I’ll just turn off some lights.” As she began to walk across the room, both dogs got up from where they were lying on the floor and began to follow her.
    She turned and grinned at me momentarily. “I have an escort service.”
    I nodded and went through the swinging door into the guest breakfast area. I double-checked to be sure the front door was locked and reset the security alarm and turned off the breakfast room light as I walked back toward the great room. I decided to leave a light on above the kitchen sink, but turned off the overhead light and started up the steps.
    “This place is much bigger inside than it looks,” Pooki said. She was looking down the second floor hallway, and I gestured that she should walk down the hall.
    “There are four guest rooms on this floor, and two have a private bath,” I said, “so there is a lot of space between the rooms. My room is just around that corner, and there’s a room next to it. There’s a shared bath between those two rooms, so you’ll be close.” We had gotten to the room where she would sleep. “I’ll bring you some pajamas.”
    “That’s okay, I sleep nude,” she said, and walked into the room and closed the door.
    I looked down at Mister Rogers and mouthed, “She sleeps nude.” He cocked his head, but I don’t think he got it.

CHAPTER THREE
     
    I GROANED AS I SHUT off the alarm clock and closed my eyes for a few more moments. It was five thirty, and I was getting up at Aunt Madge’s usual rising time so I could do a full practice of her morning routine. Get out the pre-mixed dry muffin mix, thaw a can of orange juice, put the toaster on…My eyes flew open. “Pooki.”
    I turned on the light by my bed and threw back the covers. Mister Rogers and Miss Piggy were already at my bedroom door. In the interest of doggie bladders, I shoved my feet in slippers and went downstairs to let them into the small backyard.
    Back upstairs, I placed my ear almost on Pooki’s door and listened. She had a tiny whistle as she inhaled. So she was there, it wasn’t a nightmare. I glanced at the floor and saw the shorty pajamas I’d placed there last night. What the hell am I supposed to do with her? I didn’t know Eric, so I couldn’t assume his phone message was some kind of sick joke. Her fear was certainly real.
    Pooki had to leave my mind long enough to do my dry run for the Cozy Corner breakfast, and I rationalized that there wasn’t anyone to call this early. Aunt Madge left me a set of three by five cards with simple muffin recipes. She knows my baking skills are poor. I always manage to leave out something or set the oven wrong. One of my more spectacular mishaps was a batch of brownies that I cooked in mini cupcake papers. Except they weren’t paper, they were shiny with aluminum or something and meant for party candies, not baking. I never knew brownies could burn from the inside out.
    I padded back downstairs in my slippers and turned on lights in the kitchen. I mixed dry ingredients and stirred in applesauce before I realized I shouldn’t have put the frozen cranberries for the apple cranberry muffins in the refrigerator overnight. They were waterlogged. “Oh well, can’t stop now.” I took the waterlogged cranberries from the refrigerator and added them.
     
    “YOU KNOW, MOST people probably don’t know that cranberries can bleed,” Scoobie said. He had come by at seven-thirty to check out my first batch of muffins. Aunt Madge gave him a key before she left, in case I locked myself out. She should have more confidence in me.
    “Shut up. It’s kind of like cranberry juice, because I put the berries in when they were still frozen.”
    “Can I have some?” Pooki stood on the landing of the back staircase, having come down from upstairs. Thank heavens she put on the shorty pajamas this morning.
    I thumped Scoobie