the village, but his garden was truly his pride and joy.
When there was still silence, Ella called out again, opening the back door. Then she paused, breathing in the scents of orange and lilac. “Oh my!”
“Ella!” her father called, poking his head up from behind one of the rose bushes. “You’re home!” and he pushed his hat back on his head as he shuffled out from behind the bushes. With open arms, he hurried over to Ella, wrapping her into a hug that was warm and reassuring. “Oh, it’s good to see you!” he gushed. Pulling back, he looked down into her eyes, his fatherly gaze making sure that she was whole and healthy. “You look wonderful, honey,” he told her sincerely.
“So do you, Dad,” she returned his hug with interest. “I missed you!”
He laughed and threw an arm over her shoulder. “I missed you too! Tell me where you’ve been over the past few weeks. I lost track of you when you headed out to Mozambique.”
They settled in the kitchen with the ancient appliances that still worked due to her father’s ability to fix any and everything. If it had an engine, he could make it purr like a kitten. He grabbed a pitcher of iced tea and poured them tall glasses, then sat down at the beaten kitchen table to listen and talk. They laughed about her travels and his garden while Ella felt the tension ease out of her shoulders.
“I saw Malcolm Reynolds yesterday,” she said, after taking a long swallow of her iced tea.
“You saw his lordship?” Tom asked, none of the animosity in his voice that Ella had conveyed yesterday. “How is he?”
She shrugged, nibbling a cookie. “Pompous as ever. He interrupted my lunch with Cassy and Naya.”
His furry eyebrows lowered. “Now, Ella, that doesn’t sound very polite,” he admonished, topping off their glasses. “Besides, he’s a lord. You should treat him with respect.”
Ella laughed softly, shaking her head. “Right. Not gonna happen, Dad. His family treated Mom horribly. I am only returning the favor.”
Tom sighed heavily. “How are your friends?” he asked, changing the subject. “I see their pictures in the papers occasionally. They become more beautiful every year.”
Ella smiled, ignoring the pinch of jealousy at the thought of her friends’ happiness. “They’re doing really well,” she replied.
“Do you ever hear from those other three girls from high school?” he asked. “What were their names? Tamara and…?”
Ella groaned. “We were just talking about them yesterday. And no,” she grimaced. “I don’t hear from Tamara, Willow, or Lana. Why would I? We might have lived across the hallway from each other, but we weren’t really friends. Acquaintances at best.”
Tom shook his head. “I never understood why. It seemed as if all of you girls had something in common. I remember meeting them during parent’s week and they seemed nice.”
“They came from a different background, Dad,” Ella explained, even though she’d explained this several times to her father. “They were all incredibly wealthy and could buy just about anything they wanted. What could we have had in common?”
“Seems like your commonality was school and living so far away from your families, but maybe that’s just me.” He stood up and started taking food out of the fridge to make dinner for the two of them. “So, what are you working on now? Any deep mystery happening out in the world?”
This was a subject she felt more comfortable talking about. “Yes!” she said eagerly. “Remember when Mom came home from cleaning the house after those big, secret parties on the estate?” she asked.
“Sure!” he chuckled. “Nothing irritated your mother more than not knowing what was going on. She loved walking through the neighborhoods at night in the fall, so she could see into everyone’s windows.”
Ella laughed at the memory, relieved that it didn’t hurt anymore to think of her mother. Instead, there was simply a soft, warm feeling. “Well, I remember one time she showed me a small, gold pin, the kind that men wear on their lapels.”
Her father tilted his head slightly, thinking back to that day. A moment later, he nodded as he spread mustard on fresh bread. “I remember that. Something about a hand and…” he shook his head. “I can’t remember what else. But she talked about it for days after that party, thinking that she’d stumbled onto a secret society or something.”
Ella’s eyes sharpened as the spark of curiosity leapt up inside of her. “A flame coming out of the palm of