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“Nobody cares about your darn ducks, Mabel!”
“Speak for yourself! Quackie Chan is an icon.”
“Quackie Chan is a stupid name for a duck.”
“You have a stupid name, Agatha.”
“You have a stupid face, Rosie.”
“Ladies, ladies,” Leonard said, interjecting.
“Are the infantile insults necessary?” Amos asked, looking at the squabbling seniors. “Can’t we all get along?”
My grandmother sniffed into her teacup, and by the expression on her face, she was most perturbed by the disturbance to our afternoon tea date. “Unlikely,” she muttered. “They’re all heathens.”
I wasn’t about to disagree. I’d been away so long that I’d forgotten about the insane rivalries the seniors of White Peak engaged in, and I sure as hell wasn’t here for the great duck and chicken migration of the town.
Did elderly people need so many feathered pets?
I wasn’t sure.
My grandmother was a staunch protestor of both the chickens and the ducks, and I had to admit that I was kind of on her team.
I didn’t understand them, either, and I kind of felt bad for the staff who had to clean them out. Ducks were messy little suckers.
“Why are there so many chickens?” I whispered to Grandma.
She sniffed, cradling her China teacup. “They got stiffed by the breeder. Ended up with a rooster, and when Mabel and Agatha researched hatching chicks, they couldn’t convince them to not do it.”
“What about the ducks? Are there ducklings?”
“No, darling. They learned their lesson after that. Females only. The drake was rehomed.”
“There’s a bonus, I suppose.”
“Mm. I’d prefer not being woken up by that godforsaken rooster every morning. I’ve petitioned for him to be rehomed as well, but I fear I’m in the minority.”
I wrinkled my nose up. “Is he necessary?”
“Depends on who you ask, dear. I don’t want to be a party pooper, but five a.m. is a little too early for me.”
I was an early riser on account of the bakery, but after experiencing night owl Maverick this morning, I understood my grandmother far more. “Do you want me to talk to the manager about it?”
God, I felt like a real internet meme after saying that out loud.
“No, Piper, it’s fine. I’ve requested a new room, away from the yard.”
I frowned. “There aren’t any available rooms, are there?”
“No, but if Mabel and Agatha want that rooster so badly, they can live closer to him. Mabel has a huge room on the other side of the building and doesn’t understand how noisy Cluck Norris is.”
I tilted my head to the side. “You want to swap?”
“I don’t want to hear that blasted rooster singing the song of his people at an excruciatingly early time,” Grandma replied. “And if Mabel wants to keep the blasted thing, Mabel can listen to his blasted concert every day!”
Oh, dear.
She was getting very agitated.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, finishing my cup of tea.
I didn’t even like tea.
I just drank it because she made me.
“Yes, please do. Your brother is blasted useless and ignores me!”
“Grandma, maybe you should go inside and calm down. You’re getting very upset.”
“I’m fine, Piper, I’m just very annoyed that nobody listens to me. This isn’t Mabel’s personal farm, and I don’t understand why she’s the authority on everything here! I’d like a dahlia bed, but does anyone care? No. Dahlias are my favorite flowers, but I was told because Mabel’s blasted animals will eat them. I just want some gorgeous flowers. I miss gardening. I wish your mother had listened to me when I told her I wanted to keep my house.”
Yep, she was upset. She knew as well as I did that her house was unmanageable for her because of her hip.
I held up both my hands then leaned forward and clasped hers. “Grandma, I understand. What you’d like is not unreasonable, and I’ll see if I can make that happen for you, okay?”
Her eyes were actually sparkling with tears, and it broke my heart. She’d never much been one for vegetable gardening, but flowers had been her jam for years. Dahlias were her absolute favorite, and I believed my parents had cuttings of all her beloved flowers before she’d sold her house.
“Grandma, let me get you some more tea. Are you hungry?”
She shook her head. “More tea would be lovely, Pipey.”
I touched her shoulder briefly before picking up the teapot and heading back inside. My heart was heavy—my grandmother was clearly unhappy, and that didn’t make me happy.
I’d spent many years away from her while my brother had been right here. Did she keep her feelings to herself? Did Josh know? Was my brother aware of how unhappy she was right now?
Were our parents? Who were currently living it up in the Caribbean?
At least I thought that’s where they were…
I filled Grandma’s teapot just the way she liked it and grabbed someone to take it out to her with the excuse that I had a call I had to take. There was obviously no call, but I just needed a moment to breathe.
