"You sure you're ready for the position of Alpha's mate?" Nelda said, with a look of fake concern at Valerie's pale face. "You seem a mite peaked, dear."
Chapter Thirteen
The cell phone connection was crackly, and Valerie felt a sharp stab of loneliness as she spoke to her grandmother. She was sitting in Morgan's enormous living room all by herself, and her grandparents were in upstate New York, a thousand miles away.
"So everything is all right?" Gam-gam asked her for the millionth time.
"Of course. Why wouldn't it be?" Valerie lied through her teeth.
"I don't know. You just sound kind of down." Gam-gam's tone became indignant. "I hope that boss of yours isn't working you too hard. It's Christmas, for heaven's sake. Is he making you work too much? Do I need to come up there and give him a piece of my mind? I'll wallop him with my rolling pin, that's what I'll do." She was working herself up into a snit.
Valerie couldn't help but smile at the thought of her four-foot-ten human grandma lighting into a wolf shifter almost two feet taller than her. She'd do it, too.
Then she glanced up toward the second floor, where Morgan was locked away in his home office, working, and her smile faded.
"No, he's being quite reasonable," she said.
"All right, if you say so," her grandmother said, mollified. "I do wish we could come out there. I can't believe we have to miss seeing you on Christmas. It's just all this work we're getting now … "
"No, no, I'm delighted that you have so much work coming in."
With the infusion of cash from their new "business partner", her grandparents had purchased a fancy new embroidery machine, and they were swamped with last-minute Christmas orders. They were putting in long hours, making bucketsful of money, and well on their way back to being financially solvent.
And besides, if they were to visit right now, she'd have to lie to them and pretend she was really mated with Morgan. Right now, they didn't even know about this rather important, and completely fictional, development in her life.
"I'll talk to you soon, and don't worry about me. Everything's perfectly quiet around here," Valerie said to her grandmother.
She was telling the truth.
That was the problem.
Ever since they'd come back from their three-day jaunt, things had been painfully awkward between Valerie and Morgan.
Morgan was being annoyingly polite and formal. He and Valerie slept in different beds in his suite of rooms. The two of them went into work together early every morning and stayed late, to avoid family awkwardness – but they rode silently in the car together, and once they got to work, Morgan spent most of the day on the job site or locked in his office.
It was enough to make Valerie miss the days of shouted curses, threats of firing, and hurled pieces of furniture.
It wasn't just Morgan who was acting strangely. The closer they got to Christmas, the further Nelda and her children retreated into themselves. Honoria and Homer were getting quiet and sad, and Nelda and Elmira looked at each other with barely concealed loathing and only communicated through their servants.
Valerie heaved a sigh. Enough wallowing in self-pity. She had an invitation from the Ladies Benevolent Society to deliver.
She went to the kitchen, where she'd seen Nelda head a few minutes earlier.
As she walked in, she saw Nelda standing by the big eight-burner gas oven, shoulders hunched, talking on her cell phone.
"There must be some loophole. No, I don't know if she's infertile, but I've got no reason to think so, unfortunately. Well, keep looking. We've got to find something," she was saying in low, urgent tones. But not low enough.
Valerie let the kitchen door shut with a bang. Nelda started, then turned to face her.
"Oh, there you are," she said to Valerie, quickly hanging up and stuffing her cell phone in her pink quilted Coach purse.
"Yes, here I am." Valerie favored Nelda with a pleasant smile that said that Nelda wasn't fooling her at all. "I got a call a little while ago saying that the Ladies Benevolent Society wants to hold an appreciation dinner in your honor tomorrow. They said that you purchased a whole bunch of decorations yourself, and you sent in a rush delivery of new overcoats and winter boots to everyone in the shanty town. That was kind of you." She looked at Nelda suspiciously. What was her angle, anyhow? It was unlikely she was trying to win the humans over. For that to be her goal, Nelda would actually have to care what they thought.
"That wasn't kindness; it was desperation," Nelda said indignantly. "Their decorations were hideous, and we couldn't make enough nice ones ourselves in the time we had. And as for their clothing, they show no signs of wanting to bring in a decent tailor or cobbler, and I couldn't bear to look at their shabbiness any longer. I have delicate sensibilities, and it was giving me a headache."
Ah, of course.
"Well, anyway, they've invited you and all of your family to dinner at the rec center tomorrow."
"The whole family?" she exclaimed in dismay. "I really don't know that I can tolerate Elmira and her flea-bitten hoodlum offspring right now."
What about CoraBelle and Hud? Valerie wondered.
"You can sit at separate tables, but I think that everyone should go," Valerie said. "It would be considered a gesture of goodwill. Morgan's hotels are located in human territory, so it doesn't hurt to foster good relations with them."
Nelda made a face of distaste. "Fine. I'd better be seated far away from Elmira," she said grudgingly, pursing her lips. "And I'm taking my own silverware." She turned and stalked off.
"Don't forget your fingerbowl," Valerie called out after her.
"Well, obviously," Nelda said, pausing for long enough to flick a look of disbelief at her.
* * * * *
Valerie had to admit, Nelda had done an amazing job with the decorations. The rec center consisted of two old trailers connected by a hallway, but somehow, under Nelda's touch, the interior had been transformed from sad and dingy into cheery and homey-looking. It was festooned with wreaths and garlands of evergreen boughs, adorned with red ornaments that looked like holly berries. Nelda had even purchased curtains, white and embroidered with holly leaves. Each table was laid out with elaborate Christmas-themed tablescapes, and pine-scented candles perfumed the air with their wintry fragrance.
"Very nice," Valerie said, nodding approvingly as she looked around the room.
"Isn't it lovely?" gushed Maria Lopes, the president of the Benevolent Society. She was walking around with her husband, Jesus, carrying trays of cocktails. She held one out to Nelda, who shook her head. Maria nodded, and she and her husband moved off through the crowd. There were dozens of people there, from both the Benevolent Society and the shanty town.
"Bit understated, isn't it?" CoraBelle said to her husband.
"Dear, if we're going by your makeup, you'd consider the Whore of Babylon understated," Nelda said coolly. "And don't get me started on your perfume."
Morgan exchanged an amused glance with Valerie, who covered her mouth to hide her smile.
"Well I never," CoraBelle snapped, eyes sparking with anger. She and her husband stalked off to their table.
"I'm going to go grab some appetizers," Morgan said to Valerie, and he headed off into the crowd.
Great. Valerie was stuck with Nelda. Not awkward at all.
Maria set down her tray of cocktails, and her husband seized her hand. The two of them drifted through the crowd together, chatting with the partygoers and each other, looking like teenagers on their first date.
"Aren't they adorable? Married thirty years," Valerie said with a sigh of envy. What must it feel like to be so in love after all that time?"
"It's embarrassing, is what it is. Completely undignified," Nelda snapped. She glanced off to the right, and Valerie followed her gaze. Arthur.
Hmm. Good looking guy for his age. Pack member. Single. Seemed to spend a lot of time hovering around wherever Nelda was.
"Nelda, have you ever considered dating?" Valerie asked.
"Dating?" Nelda looked at her as if she'd asked if Nelda had ever considered street-corner prostitution.
Great. A mortally offended Nelda. "I mean, you're stunning, you're stylish, you're single … why not?" Valerie said hastily. All of that was true, and a great way to take the wind out of Nelda's sails before she could go off on a tirade.
Before Nelda could answer, Teddy walked up and began pulling sharply on her coat. "Stop that," Nelda said, yanking her coat away.