Читаем Digging Up The Dirt полностью

Benjy turned his attention to the Abyssinian. “Now, Miss Endora, I figure you were the ringleader in this little escapade. I’m not sure it does any good telling you not to get Peanut in trouble again, but at least don’t get him in trouble digging up the flower beds, okay?”

Endora gazed up at him a moment, uttered one quick meow, and rubbed against the dog again.

“Okay, you two.” Benjy stood. “I’m going to try to get these back in the ground before Miss An’gel and Miss Dickce get home. I don’t want them to get upset seeing the mess you made. But I am going to have to tell them what you did. Understand?” He waited a moment while the two animals stared at him, then he patted each one on the head. “You can sit and watch me undo your bad work.”

He turned to the flower bed and examined it for a moment. There were distinct holes where each azalea had stood, and if he worked quickly enough he ought to be able to get them replanted before the sisters returned from the garden club board meeting. They had been gone only about an hour, he reckoned. He knelt in the bed and set to work while the two responsible for the mess watched quietly.

The soil was still soft from the watering Miss An’gel gave it when she finished planting the bushes earlier. He wasn’t sure at first that he would like the feel of the damp dirt on his hands, but after a few minutes he began to enjoy the process of restoring the plants to the earth. Growing up in Los Angeles, he’d never had the chance to do any kind of gardening, and he began to understand the attraction it held for his two benefactors.

When he finished with the last azalea, he got to his feet and stepped back to examine his work. He hoped Miss An’gel would be pleased. He felt a momentary doubt. Perhaps he should have waited until the sisters returned and let them supervise him. No, he decided, he had done okay, and if Miss An’gel wanted them moved at all, he would do it for her.

Peanut barked suddenly and stared toward the driveway. He trotted several feet away from Benjy and stopped, still focused on the driveway. Benjy knew that meant the dog had heard a car, and moments later the sisters’ Lexus came into view.

Benjy stared down at his filthy hands and his dirt-encrusted jeans and sighed. He had hoped to get cleaned up before he had to face the sisters but that wasn’t going to happen. He trudged forward with Endora beside him. When they reached Peanut, the dog accompanied them to meet the sisters at the garage in back of the mansion. “Time to face the music, kids,” he informed the animals.

After dinner in the kitchen that evening, Benjy excused himself when the sisters declined his offer to clear the table. He went off to his apartment over what had once been the stables with An’gel’s reassurance that he had replanted the azaleas perfectly. When he was gone, the subject turned to Peanut and Endora and their misbehavior earlier in the day.

“They’re mischievous children,” Dickce said tartly. “Honestly, Sister, one would think you’d never been around house pets in your life.”

An’gel glowered. “Dogs, yes. Cats, no. I wouldn’t be surprised if Endora was the ringleader. She’s so sly, and she loves to irritate me.”

Dickce snickered. “You’re getting paranoid over a cat that weighs less than five pounds. It’s because Endora likes me better, isn’t it? That’s why you’re always claiming she’s got it in for you.”

“If Endora were more like Diesel, I wouldn’t have a problem with her. He’s a much nicer cat, with better manners.” An’gel thought with fondness of the Maine Coon that belonged to their friend Charlie Harris.

“Diesel is a wonderful cat,” Dickce said, “but Endora is a sweet girl. You need to pay more attention to her instead of making a fuss over Peanut all the time.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” An’gel said. “I guess I take after Mother when it comes to felines. You know she wasn’t all that fond of them.”

Dickce smiled at the thought of their beautiful mother who had always had at least two or three dogs in the house. “No, she wasn’t. She was definitely a dog person, but she let me have cats, as long as it was one at a time.”

An’gel nodded. “Yes, she did, and you wouldn’t let me have much to do with them either.” She shrugged. “Back to the present. Benjy said he gave them both a stern talking-to about digging in the flower beds. Peanut is smart, and I don’t think we’ll have a problem with him bothering the beds again. Unless Endora takes it into her head to dig.”

“Of course she’s going to dig.” Dickce spoke tartly. “She’s not always going to use the litter box indoors.”

An’gel decided it was time to change the subject before they got deeper into a discussion of Endora’s sanitary habits. “Enough of that. I’m curious about Sarinda and the way she behaved at the meeting today. Didn’t you think she was odd?”

“Odder than usual, certainly,” Dickce said. “Probably her same old pattern of trying to get more attention.” She drained the last of the red from her wineglass and looked about for the bottle.