“That’s too bad. I always got along with our mother very well. People said we were very much alike.” Lilith looked smug and somehow managed to convey pity for anyone who experienced a parental problem.
Merida admired that Kateri managed to say as much with her silence and her tight smile as most people did with their words. “At the SHS, we’re all friends, sometimes confidantes.”
Merida walked on the other side of Lilith and signed, “Will we be intruding?”
“Of course not!” Lilith replied. “Katherine wouldn’t have invited us if that was the case.”
Both Merida and Kateri stopped in the street and stared at Lilith.
“How did you know what she said?” Kateri asked.
“Oh. That.” Lilith smirked. “I’ve been studying signing so I can understand what Merida says when she speaks.”
Merida blinked in astonishment. Nauplius had learned sign language … after two years, when he finally had to admit his ideal woman, his Helen, would never speak again. He had come to like the fact she was mute; it kept her isolated.
Benedict Howard had learned sign language, but he had a motive—he wanted in her pants.
What was in it for Lilith?
Lilith didn’t wait for her to ask. “I like to know things. I find ignorance a disgrace to the human condition, and this time in Virtue Falls has reminded me of Kateri and her childhood friend who used to sign to shut me out of their silly conversations.” Lilith did a double take and stared at Merida, then at Kateri.
Kateri walked on.
Merida widened her eyes and stared back.
Lilith shook her head slightly. “Not that I cared, but while I’m still woefully slow at understanding, I will do my best to keep up.”
Merida nodded and touched her mouth in thanks.
Lilith signed, “You’re welcome,” then, obviously pleased with herself, she turned on Kateri. “Katherine, why are you going to a quilting club? Mother despaired of teaching you to sew on a button. She always said you were spectacularly unprepared to take care of yourself.”
Merida remembered that. Kateri’s stepmother had made it quite clear Kateri was not a daughter of the house and would someday have to fend for herself.
“Yet non-seamstress that I am, I facilitated the very first Thursday night quilting group.” Kateri sounded determinedly matter-of-fact.
“After you were court-martialed, left the Coast Guard and were forced to become the town librarian.” As Lilith remembered Kateri’s fall from grace, her stride lengthened as if satisfaction fed her energy.
Merida envied Kateri’s serenity whether it was real or feigned … Lilith was so annoying that with very little provocation, Merida could have shouted at Lilith.
They reached downtown and the concrete building with a sign beside the door proclaiming, VIRTUE FALLS LIBRARY.
Kateri ushered them in.
Lacey raced toward Kateri, barking in ecstasy, and danced around her, front paws in the air.
Kateri murmured endearments.
A dozen strange women sat around the quilting frame, a dozen strangers’ faces turned in their direction.
Merida shrank back.
One woman stood at a library table wearing an eccentric all-black outfit with half capes over the long black sleeves, a half skirt over capri leggings and black woven flats with a sparkle of silver. She was thin, elegant and European, and she rolled a rotary blade along a broad wooden straight edge, cutting perfectly straight strips of red cloth that she lifted from the table and set aside. She glanced over her shoulder. Her cool gaze met Merida’s.
Elsa Cipre.
Animosity swept Merida. Fear, too. How were these people everywhere she went? She backed out the door and retreated to the sidewalk out of sight of the open door and the quilters.
Why had she come tonight? What had she been thinking? She didn’t like strangers. She had been lured by the pleasure of a few moments spent with Kateri, and by the knowledge that Kateri needed her to help handle Lilith.
Friendship and compassion, both guaranteed to destroy her. Would she never learn?
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Lilith and Kateri joined Merida on the sidewalk.
Lacey came out of the library and stood on the top step of the porch, head cocked.
“What’s wrong?” Kateri asked.
Merida stood shook her head and pointed inside, then shook her head again.
Lilith answered for her. “It’s Elsa Cipre. She and her husband are staying at the B and B with us. He’s a visiting professor at Washington State University. Wherever that is.”
“In Pullman, across the state,” Kateri said.
“I stand shoulder to shoulder with our friend Merida when I say—the woman is truly obnoxious.” Coming from Lilith, that comment was either funny or a damaging indictment.
“The Cipres are very superior people,” Merida signed, and if signing could be sarcastic, this was.
“Except when it comes to fashion?” Kateri muttered.
Merida gave a twisted smile. “She takes a special interest in me.”
“I’ve seen evidence of that interest. Elsa Cipre seems almost motherly toward you.” Lilith frowned, her brow knit in confusion. “Why would any woman feel motherly toward another woman? You’re obviously capable of taking care of yourself.”
Merida and Kateri again exchanged sideways glances. Lilith was so completely unself-aware in her judgments and of her own personality, they didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh.
“She is”—Merida seemed to search for the word—“tiring.”
“We don’t have to stay,” Kateri said.
Lacey gave a bark, ran down the stairs, did her dance around Kateri, around Lilith, around Merida, then put her paws on Merida’s leg and looked up enticingly.
Merida stroked her soft head and felt the return of her courage. She signed, “I can shake it off. Let’s go in.”
At their return, a spatter of applause came from the regulars.
Kateri loved these people. They were her friends, the backbone of her life in Virtue Falls, always there, always dependable, showing their support in discreet and loving ways.
As always, Mrs. Golobovitch sat at the head of the quilt directing operations. “Hello, Kateri, I’m glad you decided to join us. Would you introduce us to your friends?”
“My sister, Lilith Palmer, from Baltimore.” No one audibly gasped, but a few opened their eyes wide, as if they didn’t dare blink at the news Kateri had a sister. “My friend, Merida Falcon, currently living in Virtue Falls.” Merida commanded her own kind of reaction: she wore lavender coveralls, a purple sleeveless T-shirt and had recently shaved the hair over her left ear. Which put her in the mainstream of Virtue Falls fashion. But she was so beautiful, the women looked and looked away, as if she was difficult to view.
Kateri introduced the women around the table, and when she introduced Lillie and Tora Keidel, Lilith said, “Oh. The sisters who are friends.”
Damn. Lilith had noticed Kateri’s slip.