Satin Sheets and Strawberries Read Online Free PDF Page B

said was don’t lock my doors."
    After she’d gone into her room, Logan stared at the empty stairs and frowned. All day long he’d been revising his opinion of Kelli SantaFe. He had berated himself for jumping down her throat yesterday and for insinuating she was loony. After talking to his uncle and aunt and seeing how happy they were here, he admitted he might have misjudged her. She seemed perfectly normal during dinner, and even her friend Josh was ordinary.
    Now all of a sudden she told him not to lock the doors because fairies roamed the house at will.
    He turned off the living room light and slowly made his way to his room. He closed his door and headed for the packed bookshelves. Little guys dressed in red caps and curly-toed slippers might be easier to handle than the unbalanced Fairy Queen sleeping in the next room.

     
     
     
     

Chapter Three
     
    "Good morning, Logan. Breakfast will be ready in a minute," his aunt sang out.
    "Thanks, Aunt Ruth, but you didn’t have to go to any trouble. I can fix my own."
    "Nonsense. I love to cook and Kelli’s never around to enjoy it." She piled a stack of French toast onto a plate and slid it in front of him.
    Logan reached for the maple syrup. "Speaking of Kelli, where is she?"
    "She just left to check on her swans."
    "Swans?"
    Ruth poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down. "Oh my, yes. A pair of trumpeter swans live at the pond. Kelli thinks they are going to have babies this spring. When they arrived last year, the male, Angus, had been hurt. Kelli took him to the vet. The vet removed a bullet from his wing, but he’ll never fly again. His mate is Caer, and they make a lovely pair. So graceful."
    "Are they named after fairies too?"
    "Yes. Angus was the son of the Dagda, High King of the Tuatha. Caer was the daughter of Ethal Anubal, who was King of the host of Connacht, and her mother was a fairy. Caer was a mortal woman one year, a swan the next. Angus so loved her that he gave up his mortal body and became a swan to be with her."
    Logan smiled as he listened to the story. Chalk another one up to Kelli. She had his once sensible aunt believing in this romantic drivel. "Where is the pond?"
    "Follow the creek until it forks. Take the path toward the right and it will lead you to it." A smile played at the corners of Ruth’s mouth as she finished her coffee. She watched Logan place his dirty dishes in the sink and reach for his coat.
    "Take it easy the rest of the morning," he ordered.
    "Easy? I haven’t done anything except hard-boil eggs for salad and make breakfast for you and Henry."
    "Who cleaned the living room? It wasn’t like that last night when I went to bed."
    Ruth stood and quickly started washing the few dishes in the sink. She looked uncomfortable. "I don’t know."
    Logan froze, one arm in his coat. "You don’t know?"
    A muffled "No" was heard above the rush of water filling the sink.
    Logan stared at his aunt’s back. There was a reasonable explanation. "Kelli must have cleaned it."
    Ruth started to scrub down the counters.
    "Was she up when you came in?" he asked.
    "No ... Henry and I came over around six-thirty. Kelli woke up about seven."
    "I went back downstairs at one in the morning to look for a book and the living room had newspapers piled on the floor and dust on the furniture. Are you trying to tell me they magically cleaned themselves?"
    "I’m not trying to tell you anything. I said I don’t know who cleaned them." Logan studied his aunt’s stubborn expression and shook his head. He knew from past experience that when she wore that look, she was impossible to budge. He didn’t believe that rooms automatically straighten themselves, and Ruth obviously wasn’t going to help him solve this mystery. But Kelli could and would answer his questions. "Okay. Let’s drop the subject. I’m going for a walk. Where’s Henry?"
    "He’s at the theater marking trees that have broken limbs or need to be taken down."
    "Does Henry use the chain