Read Cupid's Confederates for Free Online Page B

please… “Anything else we need this minute?”
    “Just a few things,” Elizabeth beamed delightedly as Bett brought in the last stack of boxes. “You can open them all later, Brittany, but just peek at that first one.”
    Bett dutifully opened the first box. A bright green blouse with zigzaggy stripes and ruffles. She stared blankly.
    “I thought it would make you look a little bustier, darling, no offense—you do like it?”
    “It’s lovely.” Bett tried to sound enthusiastic.
    “You don’t like it.” Elizabeth sounded hurt.
    “Honestly, Mom, I love it.” Bett swept back her hair again, swallowing a sigh. She tugged off the sopping yellow slicker. “Let’s get you a cup of tea, now, shall we?” Quickly, she whisked the cat away from the birds again, nervously aware that her mother’s critical eye was sweeping over the house. “Mom, since we weren’t expecting you for another couple of days—”
    “You think I’ve never seen a little dirt in my life?” Elizabeth naturally migrated toward the kitchen, Bett following. “This way I have something to do right off the bat. If I’d come later you’d have had the house spotless, now wouldn’t you have?”
    “Um, yes.” If one didn’t look in corners—which Elizabeth always did. “Mom, since you are early, I wasn’t really sure which room you’d rather stay in. I know you usually stay in the spare room for a weekend, but for a longer stay I think you’d really be more comfortable on the main floor. Zach’s study has a couch that opens into a really comfortable bed; there’s a good closet, and it would be quieter for you…” And more private for everyone, though Bett would never have said it.
    “Brittany. I wouldn’t take Zach’s study in a thousand years.” Elizabeth bent down to reach under the sink. “You just go get out of those wet clothes, honey. I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about me for a minute!”
    “ Mom. What are you doing? ”
    Elizabeth chuckled as she pulled out wastebasket, scouring powder, cleanser and spare grocery bags from under the sink. “I might as well start by giving this floor a little lick and a promise. Won’t take me a minute. Where’s your toothbrush for the corners? I could have sworn I gave you a dozen last year.”
    Bett mentally counted to ten, skipping half the numbers. Not that she was in any way getting upset. She was going to start out by getting Elizabeth happily settled in and relaxed if it killed her. “Look, you just got here,” Bett said cheerfully. “Couldn’t we sit down for a minute? You’ve had such a long ride—”
    “Brittany, I am happy. Although…” Elizabeth’s lips pursed as she surveyed the kitchen. “I don’t know that I can move the refrigerator alone. You know, your father always fitted our appliances with casters. I used to have terrible dreams about germs that multiplied—”
    “Mom.”
    “—under stoves and refrigerators. Nightmares. These invading armies of germs marching, marching, marching, threatening an entire family of little children…” She poured steaming tap water into a pail, then paused to frown at her daughter’s choice of cleanser. “… babies. They could have died from those germs. I poured bleach on them in the dream. Gallons of it.” She smiled blissfully at Bett. “I love a dirty floor. Yours is filthy, Brittany. I’m going to have such a good time here. Thank goodness Zach is different from your father, though; Chet would have had a fit if I kept a floor like this. Have you given up those wretched bees yet, sweetheart?”
    “No,” Bett said helplessly. Her mother had been here all of fifteen minutes and already she felt undermined. Guilty for the state of the house, for her inadequate figure, for her kitchen floor. And in disgrace because of the bees.
    “And we’ll have it all done before Zach comes in to dinner. He’ll be pleased. Brittany, it is not necessary for you to help. Honestly, I am perfectly happy—”
    “I know