“Those two children don’t look very happy,” she said, and marched over towards the swing sets at an alarmingly fast clip, cane and all. Jonathan tried to head her off, but somehow, even half-running to keep up, she got there first.
The two little girls, one three and the other five he thought, sat on the swings without moving, their chubby little fists holding on to the chains as they talked quietly to each other. The smaller one had been crying, Jonathan saw. He sighed. The medallion didn’t work as well on children, for some reason. It was as if their little brains were changing too fast to hold on to the commands he gave them. Most of the kids adjusted eventually, but these two had only been here for six months, and seemed more resistant than most. Of course, it didn’t help that their mother had a tendency to forget they were even here. She was so lovely, he kept her quite busy with other things.
“Hello children,” Miss Volkova said, sounding for all the world like a Russian Mary Poppins, with her faint hint of an accent. “Dear me, what seems to be the problem here?”
The smaller girl wiped one grimy hand under her nose and Jonathan winced. Kids were great and all that, but they were so messy.
“I miss my daddy,” she whispered. “I want to go home.”
Jonathan cleared his throat and smiled through gritted teeth. The last thing he needed was these brats ruining his carefully created image of blissful family life just when he’s clinched the deal. The old lady was clearly ready to sign on the dotted line. “Now, now, sweetie, you know this is your home, and you love it here. Look, here comes your mommy.” He turned and glared at Grace where she was sitting on a nearby bench until she put down her paperback and came over to wipe Elena’s tears away with a crumpled tissue.
Placing one hand firmly over the medallion, he knelt down in front of the two girls. “You don’t really want to be anyplace other than here, do you? Come on, I know you think this is the best house in the whole world. Better than Disneyland, even.”
Elena blinked rapidly. “Better than Disneyland,” she repeated.
“It’s great,” Katya agreed, smiling at her sister. “Can we go play with the other kids, mommy?”
“Of course you can,” Grace said, shooing them off and sliding one arm around Jonathan’s waist possessively. “That will give me more time to spend with Jonathan.” She gave a suggestive little wiggle before letting him go. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend, Jonathan?”
As he turned toward the old lady, he thought for a moment he caught a glimpse of an almost savage fury on her face, and strange glinting sparks seemed to shoot from her eyes. But it must have been a trick of the light, since when he looked again, she was just a harmless old woman giving Grace a bland smile.
“Your girls are just lovely,” Miss Volkova said in a quiet voice. “You are very lucky to have them.”
“I’m a very lucky woman,” Grace agreed, but she was gazing coyly up at Jonathan in that way she had that could turn him on in an instant.
Time to end this tour and move on to something more entertaining. He was pretty sure the medallion had done its job anyway.
“Well, I hope you enjoyed your visit here,” he said, turning around to lead his guest back toward the front. He’d noticed she’d arrived in a limo, complete with a driver, which encouraged him even more. As they moved away, he patted Grace on her lovely round bottom and whispered, “This won’t take long. Meet me in my room in a few minutes.” She giggled and ran off without a backwards glance at her children.
“It was very educational,” the old woman said. “Very educational indeed.”
“Wonderful,” Jonathan said, helping her into the backseat of the limo. “So, shall I get that lovely room set up for you, Miss Volkova? No need to wait, is there? I hope we will see you again soon.”
She gave him a small, wicked smile. “You can count on it, my dear. You can definitely count on it.”
***
Chudo-Yudo glanced up as Barbara stalked into the Airstream still dressed in her “old lady goes visiting” clothes, but looking otherwise like herself again, down to the scowl on her long-nosed face.
“How did it go?” he asked, then ducked as one sensible shoe came flying by his head to smash into the wall behind him. Its twin followed, accompanied by some impressively rude language, most of it in Russian. The previous Baba’s education had been very thorough.
“Ah,” he said. “That well.”
He strolled over to the refrigerator, opened the door with one paw, and delicately picked up a beer between his teeth. He waited until clothes had stopped arcing through the air and handed it to Barbara.
“Thanks,” she said, dropping to the floor with a sigh and taking a long swallow. “I feel like I should scrub the inside of my brain out with soap.”
Chudo-Yudo gazed at her thoughtfully. “Nice underwear. Black lace suits you.”
“Shut up,” she said, but without much vehemence behind it. “If I had to wear those silly clothes for one more minute I was going to implode.”