Eli helped Great-Aunt Muriel into a chair and then stood against a wall with his arms crossed.
Great-Aunt Muriel’s chin wobbled a bit, and her hands shook as she rested her cane in her lap. But her voice was hardened and forceful.
“You have all been staring at me with open mouths since I arrived. How many flies do you expect to catch?”
Almost in unison, everyone clamped their mouths shut. Except Aunt Zoe.
“Great-Aunt Muriel,” she said, taking a tiny step forward. “I’m sorry to point this out, but we thought . . .” She gestured vaguely at Great-Aunt Muriel’s fragile form. Then she turned to Uncle Deke.
“We received letters stating that you had passed away,” he supplied.
“I’m aware,” said Great-Aunt Muriel. “I’m the one who sent them.”
“But why?” asked Mom.
Great-Aunt Muriel raised a white eyebrow. “If anyone in this room should be asking questions, do you really think it’s you?” She raised her cane and pointed the tip of it at me. “You.” She swung the cane toward Angel. “And you. Come here.”
Angel made a tiny whimpering noise and stepped forward. I took a deep breath and did the same. Angel scooted as close to me as possible without actually melding her body with mine.
“That’s sweet,” Great-Aunt Muriel said with a stony expression. “You sidle up to the one you betrayed. Is that why you sabotaged her? Because of your boundless respect?”
Angel’s face crinkled, and she burst into tears.
Great-Aunt Muriel sighed and reached for a tissue box, holding it with one shaky hand. “My dear,” she said, “tears are for tragedies. And this is not one.”
Nevertheless, Angel kept crying and intermittently apologizing through a mixture of snot and waterworks. Great-Aunt Muriel just watched.
“Imagine,” she said, “if we could consider the consequences of our actions before we took them.” She turned to me. “Although I expect you already knew. You disobeyed the rules anyway. Why?” Her eyes narrowed. “And if you say ‘for love,’ I will feed you to Charity. She bit another horse once and has developed a taste for flesh.”
I swallowed hard. “Because Caleb and I have so much in common. I don’t really connect with anyone my age.”
Great-Aunt Muriel leaned forward on her cane. “What do you have in common?”
“We both like school, we both work hard, and . . .” I blushed, feeling guilty for what I was about to say. “We both come from families that are struggling with money, and we wish we could do more to help.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Eli shift against the wall. I chanced a glimpse back at Mom, who smiled with moist eyes.
“Also, we’re not into all the trendy, popular stuff like most kids.”
Great-Aunt Muriel rolled her eyes. “People who follow trends are as preposterous as the trends themselves. I prefer you the way you are.”
A warm glow filled my chest. “Really? But you hardly know anything about me.”
“I know plenty,” she said. “I’ve been watching all of you throughout this contest.”
I gasped and snapped my fingers. “That was your video camera I found in the tree!”
She nodded. “I was afraid someone would figure that out, and luckily it was Elias.” She gave Eli an approving smile. “And he was quick and clever enough to distract the rest of you with a witch trial.”
Eli stood a little taller and prouder, and I couldn’t help regarding him with more respect.
“To get back to the matter at hand,” said Great-Aunt Muriel, “Victoria, you possess a fiery determination that I admire. You were given several opportunities to cheat, yet you never did. Such integrity is rare in a world where people will do anything to get ahead.”
Angel cleared her throat and studied the carpet. “Like me.”
I was afraid Great-Aunt Muriel might scold her again, but instead she said, “Though I don’t condone your acts of sabotage, Angel, they were clever, and managing to convince even adults to assume the wrong culprit was nothing short of genius.”
Great-Aunt Muriel curled a finger at Angel to beckon her closer. When Angel was within a foot of her chair, Great-Aunt Muriel winked at her.
“But I believe you will get further in life if you are truthful with your parents . . . and yourself. Do you understand?”
Angel nodded, tears filling her eyes again. She opened her mouth to speak, but Great-Aunt Muriel held up a hand.
“You have apologized enough to cover yourself and every prisoner in Sing Sing. I simply ask for honesty.”
Mom, who had been silent up until this point, finally spoke. “If it’s not too much to ask, maybe we could get a little honesty now?”
Great-Aunt Muriel leaned around Angel and me to look at Mom.
“I see where your daughter gets her doggedness. Very well. Elias, will you fetch us some tea and biscuits from my private collection? I find they go best with jaw-dropping revelations.” She gestured to the rest of us. “Sit if you wish to stay. My neck has enough difficulty supporting my head without having to stare up at you behemoths.”
“You make it sound like you’re a newborn baby,” I said, settling on the carpet in front of her chair.
She smirked. “I suppose that’s an accurate analogy. My muscles are underdeveloped, my motor skills are poor, and soon I’ll be eating soft foods and muttering incomprehensible things.”
“You make old age sound like a dream,” said Mom.
Everyone laughed.
“There are benefits, to be certain,” said Great-Aunt Muriel. “For example, I can speak however I choose, and people simply attribute it to old age instead of my personality.”
Everyone laughed again.
I nudged Mom, who was sitting beside me. “We should try telling people you’re old next time you flip out at a buffet.”
“Why can’t I put a slice of cake back and get one with more frosting?” she demanded.
“You can . . . if you haven’t taken a bite out of it yet!” I said.
Great-Aunt Muriel watched us, fascinated. “How the two of you are still alive and not missing limbs is a mystery.”
Eli returned, wheeling a cart laden with a tea set. Felicity followed with a platter containing cookies and two items wrapped in paper.
“I thought the girls might be a little hungry after their wilderness adventure,” she said, handing a package to each of us. I reached for mine, and she held on to it for a second, meeting my eye before letting go. Everyone else was too focused on the tea service to notice.
“Thank you,” I said, opening the sandwich wrapper. When I lifted out a half, I noticed something scribbled on the paper underneath. I quickly tilted it so nobody else could see, stuffing one part of the sandwich in my mouth and lifting out the other.
Tori, I’m really, really, REALLY, sorry. I hope you aren’t in too much trouble. If you don’t hate me, please meet me at the barn so I can apologize in person.
Caleb
Mom nudged me. “What’s so fascinating about that sandwich?”
I was about to say, “Nothing.” But then I realized she deserved better than that. So I held the wrapper where she could see.
Mom’s eyes flitted from side to side as she read. Then they closed entirely.
“Tori,” she said with a sigh.
“I didn’t say I was going,” I whispered.
“Porter Family?” Eli towered over us, holding out two cups of tea with sugar cubes and spoons resting on their saucers.
“Thank you,” said Mom, reaching up to take them.
Eli started to move on, but I grabbed his pant leg.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Eli glanced down in surprise.
“I’m sorry we let you down.”
For the first time ever, Eli’s face softened. “I shouldn’t be so hard on you. You are young, ruled more by your hearts than your heads. And my son has been very happy since your arrival.”
I beamed up at him. “He has?”
Eli nodded. “I assumed it was excitement for the contest, but . . . as I say, youth is ruled by the heart.” He smiled and moved on, and again I felt a warm glow inside me.
Once the tinkling of spoons in teacups had stopped and everyone was settled comfortably, Great-Aunt Muriel took a long sip and began.
“It is true, I’m not dead, as is evidenced by my presence, but you all seem to be wondering why not. The fact of the matter is, I’m not dead, but I am dying. The doctors give me approximately one month to live.” Great-Aunt Muriel’s face remained passive, as if she’d already accepted this truth.
“What are you dying from?” I asked.
“You don’t assume it’s because I’m old?” she asked with a wry smile.
“From the stories we hear, you seem pretty indestructible,” said Angel.
“The Unsinkable Muriel Archibald, eh?” She chuckled. “If you must know, I’m dying from a combination of old age, asbestos, and uranium.”
“Uranium?” asked Uncle Deke. “When would you have come into contact with nuclear materials?”
She pressed her lips together. “I have not been entirely forthright about my past. It is true I worked in the steel industry, but it wasn’t for a privately funded company.”
“For who, then?” asked Mom.
“The US government,” said Great-Aunt Muriel. “My white-collar job was a cover for my work in counterespionage.”
“Espionage,” I repeated. “You were a spy?”
“That’s so cool!” said Angel. “Did you have a grappling gun?”
She and I were now both leaning forward, food forgotten.
Great-Aunt Muriel’s shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. “Before you imagine me slinking about in a black jumpsuit, I can assure you my life was not so exciting. My duties were to gather overseas intelligence on those who were spying on us.”
“That explains how you seem to know so much about our lives,” said Mom with a smirk.
Great-Aunt Muriel tapped the side of her nose and pointed to Mom. “I’ve had decades of experience.”
“And you couldn’t think of even one family member to give your estate to?” Mom asked.
Great-Aunt Muriel took another sip of tea. “When I was a young girl, my family lived in abject poverty. My parents had five children, as you know, and I was the youngest. I was also the sickest and the weakest. There was never enough food to go around, and I got what little was left after my brothers and sisters had their fill.”
I looked down at my sandwich, tempted to give it to Great-Aunt Muriel.
“One winter,” she continued, “I caught a particularly bad case of pneumonia, but my parents couldn’t afford to feed the family and get me a doctor.”
“Oh,” said Aunt Zoe, covering her mouth with her hand.
“And so they hoped that I would recover but focused their attention on their children who were still thriving.”
I hugged my knees to my chest. Mom sidled closer and put an arm around me.
Great-Aunt Muriel watched us with a keen eye. “I’ve never quite understood the emphasis people place on family. Mine didn’t make me a priority.”
Her voice sounded almost wistful, and she reached over to put her teacup on a side table. It rattled in its saucer as she struggled to hold it.
“Let me get that,” said Uncle Deke, taking it from her. She studied him.
“You’re one of my sister Susanna’s grandsons. Deke.”
“That’s right,” he said with a smile.
“A name whose origin means ‘servant,’ ” she continued. “How fitting that you offered to clear my dishware.”
Uncle Deke dropped the smile.
I cleared my throat. “Maybe it would be easier to connect with family if you didn’t give them reasons to disconnect?”
Great-Aunt Muriel looked at me. “If the man can’t take a joke, it’s a problem with his upbringing, not mine.”
“It’s fine,” Uncle Deke told me. He turned his attention back to her. “So, if you don’t feel close to any of your family, why bother offering an inheritance at all? Why not donate the estate to a historical society?”
Great-Aunt Muriel leaned forward on her cane. “Because as little as I believe in family, a tiny piece of me still does. Plus, I enjoy being amused, and hosting a contest is far more fascinating than anything on television. Have you seen what is deemed entertainment these days? Who cares what housewives anywhere are doing?”
Everyone laughed.
“Just how many cameras have you had on us?” asked Aunt Zoe. “I haven’t noticed any other than the one Tori found.” She squirmed uncomfortably. “And have they been watching everything?”
“I assure you, they were only placed in the common areas,” said Great-Aunt Muriel, “and competition locales.”
I frowned. “If you could see all that, then you must’ve seen Angel sabotaging my mom and me.”
She tilted her hand from side to side. “As I said, she was cleverly subtle in her actions, and though I had a hunch she was up to something, I couldn’t confirm it. I decided to leave it up to her competitors to spot.”
Angel perked up. “Then since you don’t really care, does that mean I’m not in trouble?”
Great-Aunt Muriel barked a laugh. “I never said I didn’t care. You wouldn’t be in this room if that were the case. No, you will be punished, as will Miss Porter.”
“Really?” My shoulders slumped.
She regarded me with disbelief. “Well intended or not, deceit is deceit.”
“So what is their punishment?” asked Mom, gripping my shoulder tighter.
“You needn’t act as if I’m going to grind her up for chicken feed,” said Great-Aunt Muriel. “I will simply disqualify both of them.”
She said it so matter-of-factly that for a moment we all just continued to stare at her.
“Sorry,” said Uncle Deke. “Disqualified?”
“Yes,” said Great-Aunt Muriel. “Your children have been disqualified from the competition.” She raised her voice over the sound of Angel and me protesting. “Since the adults are still eligible, the children may remain on the property in separate bedrooms. I feel that’s a generous allowance.”
“Or you could not disqualify me!” I said. “Seriously? Just because I talked to a guy?”
“Victoria,” Mom said in a warning tone. “Don’t press your luck.”
Great-Aunt Muriel held up a hand. “It’s all right. The fact of the matter is that she broke one of the main rules of this competition. No fraternizing with employees in case of unfair advantage.”
“But I didn’t have an unfair advantage!” I said. “Haven’t you been watching me and my mom? We suck!”
“Hey,” said Mom with a frown.
“I swear I didn’t get any help,” I continued. “You said so yourself; I had plenty of chances to cheat, and I didn’t.”
“Victoria,” said Great-Aunt Muriel in a much calmer voice than mine, “this decision is not up for debate.”
“But my mom can’t make it on her own!” I protested.
“Enough!” shouted Mom.
Everyone jumped, including Great-Aunt Muriel.
“I’ve taken as much of this as I can stand,” said Mom, slamming her saucer and teacup on a table.
“Careful!” said Great-Aunt Muriel. “That’s . . .”
Mom glared at her. “You can’t take it with you, Muriel!” Then she pointed at me. “Ever since you found out we’re in debt, you’ve seen nothing but the bad in all I do. You doubt me at every step. If there’s one person in the world I hoped would trust me, it would be you.”
I got to my feet. “Mom, I do trust—”
“You just said I can’t make it on my own!” she bellowed.
“I meant . . .” I wrung my hands together.
She was right. Even after our conversation at the edge of the woods, I still didn’t trust her to win for us. So many little things had gone wrong.
“Well?” She held her arms open while everyone else looked on. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I . . . well . . .” I turned to Great-Aunt Muriel. “Is the final challenge something related to shopping or celebrities?”
There was a bump to my shoulder as Mom pushed past me to leave the room. “Good night, Tori. I’ll leave your belongings in the hallway.”
“Night,” I said with a sigh.
Mom was furious and I was disqualified. But at least I wasn’t sleeping in the barn.