“Kitty!” she shrieked with pure joy.
“Oh dear,” Isabella repeated.
Prentice put Sally on her feet as Annie came forward with the cat. Then his gaze cut to Isabella.
At the look in his eyes, Isabella went directly on the defensive. “I didn’t know anything about the cat. I swear.”
He straightened and turned to her. “The party?”
Isabella bit her lip but decided it best not to answer.
“The cake?” he went on.
Isabella hugged her middle and cupped her elbows with her hands. She’d snuck down to the kitchen in the wee hours of the night to make the cake on the sly.
She didn’t explain this. Instead, again, she decided not to answer.
“Christ,” he muttered under his breath.
Sally was on her knees, Annie in a crouch in front of her. The kitty was jumping excitedly around Sally as Sally tried to stroke it with her good hand and Annie was doing her best to keep the cat from overwhelming the just knocked over by a car little girl.
Sally tilted her head back to Prentice and requested loudly, “Can I keep her, Daddy? Can I, can I, can I?”
“Sorry, mate,” Dougal murmured and Isabella saw that he’d sidled close to Prentice’s side, “you know Annie.”
Annie grinned up at Prentice, completely unrepentant.
“I vote we push her off a cliff,” Isabella said in a soft whisper and then felt the blood drain out of her face because she meant to think it not to say it.
Dougal and Prentice’s heads turned to Isabella.
Isabella’s hands released her elbows and clenched into fists.
Dougal burst out laughing.
Prentice didn’t laugh but his face changed. He stared at her as if he’d never seen her before. Then his eyes dropped to her hands and she forced her fists to uncurl.
He quickly guarded his expression and looked down at his daughter.
“You can keep her, baby.”
“Hurrah!” Sally shouted.
Prentice bent down and picked up Sally, carrying her to the couch. “But you’ve got to rest. You’re just out of hospital.”
“Can I have cake?” Sally asked.
“In a minute,” Prentice answered.
“Hurrah!” Sally repeated.
The partygoers closed in on Prentice and Sally. Jason and his cousins claimed the attention of the cat. Annie got close to Isabella.
“I need to talk to you,” Annie said out of the corner of her mouth, being cloak and dagger.
Isabella looked at her friend, knowing Annie’s cloak and dagger was never a good thing but she had other, more pressing things on her mind.
“And I need to talk to you,” her look turned severe, “Annie, a cat?”