Heaven Sent Read Online Free PDF Page B

fireplace rug. “This is a beautiful
room, Becky. It’s the prettiest room I’ve ever seen.”
    “ Do you like it?”
    “ I love it.”
    The eagerness on the pert, pretty face
made Callie’s heart ache. The tyke was astoundingly anxious to
please. Callie chalked it up to her trying so hard to please her
father for so long.
    “ Say, Becky, I have
something here that might interest you,” Callie said as she walked
over to the fireplace where odd grumbling noises could be heard
issuing from the wicker basket. “But you’d probably better sit in
that chair over there.” She pointed to an ornately carved,
straight-backed chair with a gorgeous embroidered silk cushion,
shoved into the kneehole of a matching writing desk. She adopted a
mysterious mien and waggled her eyebrows. “You never know what
might pop out of this basket.”
    Becky’s eyes went as round as pie
plates. “You don’t?”
    Because the little girl looked a
trifle worried, Callie dropped the mysterious stuff and grinned at
her. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. It’s nothing bad. But it might be a
little”— she paused while she attempted to come up with a good word
to describe an irate Monster—“um, bouncy.” She supposed that was as
good as any.
    Her uneasiness assuaged, Becky trotted
over to the desk, pulled out the chair, and climbed up onto the
seat. She looked tiny and sweet, and Callie watched her with a
swelling in her heart. How could anyone not positively dote on such
a pretty, well-behaved, darling of a girl? Again she longed to get
Aubrey’s attention—the thought of beating him with a stick appealed
to her—and forcing him to focus on his daughter.
    As if remembering lessons imparted by
her late, lamented mother, Becky straightened her skirts and folded
her hands in her lap. Callie thought her heart would burst with
love and pity for this very proper, sober child. She asked softly,
“All ready?”
    Becky nodded. She looked extremely
serious. “All ready.”
    “ All right now. Hold on to
your seat.” She didn’t realize until after she’d untied the rope
ties and lifted the lid of the basket that Becky had taken her
literally and unfolded her hands to grip the chair seat.
    The emergence of Monster with a hiss
and a spit was simultaneous with a gasp from his seated audience.
He leaped out of the basket as if his legs were attached to
springs.
    “ Oh, Miss Prophet!” Becky,
unable to restrain herself, clapped.
    Monster didn’t like the clapping noise
one teensy bit. He stopped dead still, arched his back, and looked
for a second like a twenty-pound, jet-black and very furry
porcupine with every single one of his multitudinous hairs
abristle.
    Callie said, “Oh, stop it,
Monster.”
    “ Monster?” The word was a
breathless gasp.
    Walking across the room, Callie held
out both hands to Becky. She smiled her most comforting and
charming smile.
    “ It’ll be Mister Monster to you,
Becky love. Until he gets to know you. We have to maintain our
decorum, after all.” She laughed to let the little girl know she
was joshing.
    “ Oh, Miss Prophet.” Her eyes
still wide, Becky gripped Callie’s hand. “Oh, Miss Prophet, he’s
beautiful!”
    The breathless quality of
Becky’s voice captured Callie’s attention. She watched the little
face with interest. She’d never seen the child’s eyes so huge or so
fascinated. Good ,
she decided. The poor little thing needed to have something besides
her loss to occupy her mind.
    Speaking softly so as to disturb
neither cat nor child, Callie said, “I hope you and he will like
each other.”
    “ I like him
already.”
    Callie grinned. “Good. Believe it or
not, he really likes to play. I have a ball he bats around like a
baseball player.”
    Becky giggled. “Why’s he called
Monster?”
    “ It is sort of an
undignified name, isn’t it?”
    Becky nodded.
    “ It’s because he’s so big.
And also because when he came to live with me, I already had an
elderly lady cat named Miss