"Willow's Tail" 22

Perfidia walked over and looked at the card with her name on it sitting by Gloria’s entry.

“Did you switch them?” she asked Gloria, but not with accusation.

“No.”

“Then it must be someone who likes to play games,” Perfidia mumbled as she picked up her card.

“But why ours…?” Gloria asked bewildered, not expecting an answer and surprised when she got one.

“I don’t know, but I believe it wasn’t you.”

Gloria hadn’t expected that admission either and, only because it was said with a hint of sympathy, replied.

“I would never do that and just to be clear, I never stole Jon from you either. He left on his own because he loved you, and you didn’t love him.”

“What?” Perfidia’s eyes glazed over, unsure if she’d heard what she’d just heard.

Gloria took a fortifying breath and continued with sharp conviction.

“Jon loved you Perfidia and he only hung out with me to talk about you but ultimately, he couldn’t stay here, knowing you cared very little for him, so he left.”

“How little I cared? I loved him Gloria.”

“Then why didn’t you tell him?”

“I…I..,” Perfidia’s voice trailed off. She thought back to one of their last dates. It was after a romantic dinner at her favorite restaurant. They’d walked through the park heading back to her house and it began to rain lightly so they stopped by a beautiful maple just as the sun set. Jon took her in his arms and kissed her and…she swallowed hard with the unearthed memory, because Jon had whispered he loved her and she had laughed, nervously and uncomfortably, because it had been so unexpected. She hadn’t been prepared to bear her soul to him, but she did love him; he should have known that.

Perfidia’s heart fluttered with pain at the idea it could be true, that she’d been the catalyst in sending Jon away but she couldn’t deal with that truth…or with Gloria knowing it.

“I don’t know what you’re taking about Gloria. Jon didn’t leave because of me,” she said with false bravado and turned and walked away.

 

Perfidia stood by her orchid fighting tears as she wrote a two word description of her entry, Black Orchid. She wanted to write it was the clear winner too but didn’t. She was not so confident of anything she believed anymore; not after hearing Gloria’s opinion of why Jon left.

Martha walked up to her and Perfidia put on a bright smile, fake but passable.

“I see we’ve had another havoc by our unseen friend,” Martha whispered.

“Friend? Bite your tongue,” Perfidia scoffed sourly,” I don’t know what his end game is but I don’t like being a pawn in it.”

“Nor do I, so let’s win these contests and have our day with him, out of those shadows.”

“Yes please,” Perfidia agreed with ferocity, “I want to see him squirm.”

At that moment, the judge stepped back to the microphone and announced the first elimination would be rescheduled for tomorrow.

“Sounds like a good time to get a nice strawberry smoothie,” Perfidia said placing her card down in front of the black orchid.

“Haven’t you had your fill of sweets yet Perfidia?” Martha asked with amazement.

“Apparently not,” she said with a shrug.

Martha and Perfidia left the contest tent and headed towards the food vendors.

 

The shadowed figure of a man and cat watched the two as they walked into the fair grounds.

“Just a few more twists should do it Max,” the man whispered with a chuckle.

The cat nodding in understanding then titled his head, flicked his ears and the festival went dark.

 

“A black out now…?” Perfidia fumed, “I was just about to get my smoothie.”

Martha wasn’t concerned with the lack of a frothy drink; she thought she‘d seen a shadowy figure lurking near the flower tent just before the lights went out.

“Come on let’s go back and check on your Orchid, I have a bad feeling.”

Perfidia immediately forgot about her strawberry delight and hurried with Martha back to the venue.

Willow ran ahead and slipped into the tent first.

The festival lights had come back on just as Martha and Perfidia entered the tent and both stared at the empty spot on the table where the black orchid had been.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Perfidia sighed.

Willow sniffed the air and caught the scent of that cat and knew the culprit was not far away. She ran back out of the flower tent, hot on the thief's trail.

Willow found the two companionable shadows easily enough and had no trouble following the pair as they walked thorough the fair grounds and out to the parking lot. She followed closely with stealth and hidden in dark shadows of her own.

The man and cat walked up to a low slung sports car. The man opened the car door to let the cat jump into the car's back seat and a streetlight reflected off of a silver crested ring on the pinky of the man’s left hand as he closed the car door.

Willow’s laser focused eyes captured the design and she gave a low, triumphant meow as she turned to race back to her human with the newest clue.

 

“I thought you said your Orchid could protect itself?” Perfidia queried in frustration.

“It can. So it has to still be here.”

“Well if its here, where is it?” Perfidia complained looking around the tables.

“Keep looking,” Martha told her.

Since everyone had run outside when the blackout occurred they were the only two in the room and that emptiness helped their line of vision.

‘I am looking and it’s not here.” Perfidia insisted with annoyance.

Martha sighed and shook her head but then she spotted a small curtained room at the back and she walked over to it. 

She slipped inside the curtained area and saw the tiny space held extra potting materials, gardening tools, orchid plant food and, tucked under a potting table, exactly what she'd been searching for, her orchid. It’d been left there to wither. She called out to Perfidia.

Perfidia stepped behind the curtain and smiled with relief at what Martha had found. She picked up the sun box and thanked her.

“I’m glad we came back. The Orchid might not have survived the night,” Perfidia said as she walked the orchid back to the empty spot on the table. “Do you think we have to sleep here to protect it?”

“No, I don’t think they’ll come back tonight; they’ve done their mischief for today,” Martha predicted.

“How can you be so sure?”

At that moment Willow trotted into the tent and gave a guttural meow alerting her human that she’d found a clue.

“What is it?” Martha asked.

Willow turned and ran from the tent.

“Where is she going?” Perfidia asked as she straightened her entry card in front of the orchid.

“I don’t know, but we need to follow her.” Martha said and they walked from the tent in pursuit of the feline.

 

Willow stopped by a patch of dirt in the middle of a small grove of trees that stood near the parking lot and waited for her human.

“What have you discovered?” Martha asked as she and Perfidia stepped into the grove.

Willow lowered her head; her eyes glowed golden as the design of the ring appeared, etched into the ground.

Perfidia and Martha stared at what Willow had drawn.

What is that?” Perfidia asked bewildered.

Martha was unsure what it was until she walked around it for a different perspective. When she saw it right side up her breath lodged in her throat as she identified the image.

“It’s the Goodfellow family crest," she managed to choke out.

“What's that now?”

“The dove and raven, with a laurel between them, standing in a scrolled circle is the crest of the Goodfellows,” Martha explained to Perfidia and then turned to Willow, “Was this ring on the shadowed man's hand?”

Willow gave her human a slight nod.

Martha's eyes clouded over while Perfidia's gleamed with triumph.

“So that means our nemesis is Percival,” Perfidia accused, “And he’s only been pretending to be innocent.”

“No,” Martha shook her head, “This isn’t Percival’s ring; he never wore one.”

Perfidia's triumph dimmed.

“But you said it was the Goodfellow's family crest. So who would it be if not Percival? Do you have any idea who it could be?”

“Unfortunately, I do.”

“Great, tell me who it is and I'll prepare a special havoc for them,” Perfidia insisted with a gleam in her eye.

Martha sighed, not wanting to say anything more, but there was no way out of what she knew. The discovery even clarified the question she’d had about the charm she’d found; it too had the familiar scroll work encircling the name Max; it too had been a clue.

“I think the ring might belong to Percival's twin brother, Dillon,” Martha offered in a detached tone.

Perfidia’s eyes narrowed with interest. “I didn’t know Percival had a twin brother.”

“There was a time I didn’t know that either.” Martha admitted with a cynical laugh. She continued to stare at the image on the ground feeling the past rushing towards her, enfolding her in claustrophobic, unwanted thoughts. Here was the real reason she’d left her home; the only reason she hadn’t returned, and she’d never told anyone.

“Why would Percival's brother, who I've never met, want to throw all this havoc at us?" 

"I have no idea,” Martha said tightly.

"But you're positive it’s him."

"I'm only positive of the crest, I don't know if it's Dillon who was wearing the ring Willow saw."

“But you recognized it so now at least we know there’s a connection to Percival and that's interesting-."

“No, it isn’t,” Martha cut off her words.

“Oh…isn’t it though? Martha this is the lead we've waited for. How do we find this twin brother, Dillon? Where's his home?”

“I have no idea,” Martha said coldly, brooking no further discussion, “Willow, erase that image. We need to go home; I've tea leaves to blend and a contest to win," she commanded as she walked out of the grove and towards the parking lot.

Perfidia’s mind went into overdrive with the need for details and watching Martha withdraw from the discussion and her angry strides away from them, she knew there had to be an intriguing story behind that anger. And no, she wasn’t at all deterred by Martha’s shut down; she was going to get the whole story; yes she was.

 Perfidia looked down at the feline.

“Did you know there was a twin?”

Willow gave her what looked to be a feline shrug as she flicked her tail and the image in the dirt disappeared.

“So, she didn’t tell you either?” Perfidia teased, then laughed at the sour cat face Willow turned to her as they walked from the grove to follow Martha to her car.

 *

The drive had been uncomfortably silent and Perfidia understood, by Martha's death grip on the steering wheel, it was not a good time to bring up the subject of that crest. She'd have to let Martha get over whatever initial anger she'd experienced from the discovery before she could question her about Percival's twin brother.

"I know we were planning to eat at the festival but since we left early…how about I call for a Pizza?” Perfidia offered when they stepped inside her house.  

“I’m not very hungry,” Martha mumbled thinking of heading to her room and stewing over this night's revelation.

“Martha, it isn’t a good idea to skip a meal and I know how much you love Hawaiian pizza.”

Martha did like it, and she hadn’t had Hawaiian pizza since her college days. It brought a fond memory and she did need a happy thought to cling to at the moment.

“Do you have a pizza place that knows how to make it, and has fresh ingredients?”

“Absolutely.”

“Hmmm,” Martha considered it, then smiled, “Okay, then yes, order it and would you mind letting me know when it arrives. I’m going to relax in my room until it gets here.”

“Sure, I’ll let you know.” Perfidia promised as Martha headed to her room. Perfidia was anxious for answers but she could see Martha was not in the mood for questions. Maybe after some rest, and a hearty meal and some of her potent wine, Martha would relax and be ready to tell her what she was holding back.

Willow gave out a loud, hungry meow and Perfidia looked down at the feline just as Martha’s voice flowed back to them.

“Oh, and can you feed Willow for me?”

Perfidia gave the cat a curious look.

“Why don’t you flick your tail and feed yourself?”

The low guttural sound was not a pleasant thing so Perfidia quickly amended her words.

“Fine, I’ll get it for you, your majesty.” She gave a stilted bow of her head.

Willow snickered, in her cat way, and walked regally over to her food bowl to wait to be served.

Perfidia gave the pampered feline an exasperated look.

“Does her majesty wish for her usual dinner tonight or would she like a request from the restaurant’s menu?”

Willow’s eyes lit with cat delight and in the flick of a tail the red headed human held a menu for the pizzeria restaurant and one menu item was boldly circled in dark red marker.

Perfidia looked at the menu that had appeared in her hand and chuckled as she read the circled item.

“Poached fish and hold the sauce, got it!” she said then walked over to her phone and called the restaurant.

Willow’s cat grin was something to see, even Perfidia was impressed.

She placed the order for an extra large Hawaiian Pizza and Willow’s requested fish dinner. 

“They’ll be here in an hour; can you wait?” She teased the feline as she hung up the phone.

Willow gave her a slight nod then curled up on her soft down cat bed to take an hour’s nap and dream of that fish dinner.