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Julius stuck by Leigh&039;s side as she hurried up the hall to answer the doorbell&039;s suratefully as she reached the door Her recent experiences had made her somewhat nervous, and she appreciated whatever support she could get
Leigh shifted the curtain aside and peered out Toured blonde who couldn&039;t have been more than twenty or so, and a thin, older woray The redhead was reaching to press the doorbell again, but paused when she spotted Leigh looking out and offered an encouraging sreeted her as soon as the door swung open "I&039;m Linda and this is Andrea We&039;re froeneau called to have someone sent out to clean up the house"
"I&039;lancing uncertainly back up the hall to the closed library door Should she wake Lucian up?
"Oh" The redhead&039;s voice drew her gaze back "Is Mr Argeneau in, then?"
Leigh bit her lip and briefly considered the matter, then stepped back out of the doorway for them to enter and explained, "He&039;s asleep in the library at the moment and I&039;d rather not wake hih"
"Well, that&039;s all right then" The redheaded Linda led the younger Andrea into the house "He told our dispatcher that he wanted -- " She stopped abruptly as she spotted Julius Her eyes widened at the size of hih assured her, reaching out to slip her hand under the dog&039;s collar just to be sure
Both women nodded, but she couldn&039;t help but notice they didn&039;t look all that convinced
"I&039;ll just take Julius in the living rooot in there with the garbage so you probably don&039;t have to clean that rooed a glance
"Yes I&039;e and tore it apart He soed it through the house," she explained, frowning as the woht," she said quickly "Lucian cleaned up the worst of it I think he just expects you to go over what he&039;s done"
When the woestured to the hall floor, which wasn&039;t as streaky as the kitchen floor but showed signs of a less than perfect cleanup job "He already washed the floors and picked up the garbage, as you can see It all just needs a proper going over"
"Okay," Linda said, looking a little h hesitated, then asked, "Didn&039;t he say when he called?"
"He said a coht, well then that&039;s what you should do," she said with a nod, then added, "Just bypass the library until he wakes up"
"All right, if you&039;ll point us toward the kitchen, we&039;ll get started"
After a hesitation, Leigh opened the door beside her It led into a gaed Julius inside She&039;d just leave hiot the women started, then find so the door closed, Leigh started to move past the women to show them to the kitchen, but slowed as she slid by the older wo so close, she could s to a stop and inhaling deeply It was intoxicating
Realizing Linda was staring at her wide-eyed, Leigh flushed and said, "Sorry, but that&039;s a lovely perfu perfuhtrouble concentrating on rew fuzzy and she found herself leaning forward, inhaling again as her stoer For some reason the redhead&039;s perfume made her think of food
"Uh, hts "Ma&039;ah blinked as she beca, she straightened away fro woman and peered around with confusion, then moved to the phone on the hall table
"The kitchen&039;s through that door," she said distractedly as she picked up the phone
"Leigh?" a man said as she watched the women move off into the kitchen
"Yes?" She frowned at the receiver, not recognizing the voice "Who&039;s this?"
"Bastien"
"Oh" Leigh relaxed and even sotten "I&039;nize your voice"
"That&039;s all right I just called to let you know that everything has been taken care of"
"Already?" she asked with surprise "Surely you couldn&039;t get fro this quickly?"
"No," Bastien said "I&039;m still in New York I had one of our men in the area do it My man went to see Milly and the others at your restaurant He altered their memories As far as everyone there is concerned, Donny quit work a week ago and you&039;re on a well-earned vacation in Canada"
"Oh, I see," Leigh said
"He handled the police, too He got your purse back, re to you and Donny, and completely erased the two of you from their memory As far as they&039;re concerned, they&039;ve never heard of either of you"
"Wow," Leigh breathed, i with thesince she&039;d called hiital face of the phone and she saith surprise that it had actually been almost three hours since they&039;d talked, then she recalled that she&039;d been on the phone with Milly for ht for a good while as Julius ran about outside The ti your purse couriered to you," Bastien infor My man says there are a couple of credit cards and even cash in the wallet, so he doesn&039;t think anything was taken before it was handed in to the police"
"Oh good, thank you" Leigh twisted the phone cord around her finger, her gaze drifting to the kitchen door She could hear the tap running; the wo to work
"He said your ID appears to all be there as well, but if there&039;s so your stay, he can use your keys and go to your house and collect it before he sends you your purse"
Leigh briefly considered asking to have some clothes packed and sent up, but the idea of soh her closet and panty draasn&039;t an appealing one She&039;d rather go shopping toh, for offering"
"Okay" There was a pause, then Bastien said, "I heard you talking to someone as you picked up the phone Is h explained
"The cleaners?" Bastien asked, and much to her surprise, he sounded concerned
"Yes Julius broke open a garbage bag and dragged it through the house Lucian cleaned up the worst of it, but called a service to have soh cleanup job," she explained
"My uncle cleaned?" Bastien sounded stunned Leigh smiled faintly at his reaction She opened her mouth to respond, then paused as he said, "Er wait Uncle Lucian is sleeping?"
"Yes"
"And there are cleaners there with you?" he asked carefully
Leigh&039;s eyebrows rose His tone seeh she couldn&039;t think why They seemed a perfectly nice pair of women and hardly a threat
"Maybe you should wake up Uncle Lucian," Bastien suggested, and a disbelieving laugh slipped from her lips at the idea
"There&039;s no reason to wake Lucian I&039; woh I suppose I&039;ll have to wake hiements he made to pay them" She frowned as she considered that, then added, "But I see no reason to wake him up before then I don&039;t think he&039;s had a lot of sleep in the last couple of days"
"Yes, but -- "
"Bastien, I appreciate your helping out with the police and Milly and I&039;m quite impressed with how quickly and efficiently you handled it, but please don&039;tI&039;m some defenseless little tho needs to be sheltered and taken care of I&039; women on my own I&039;m also safe Linda and Andrea seem perfectly nice, and even if it turns out they aren&039;t, Julius is here with me and Lucian is only a shout away"
"Yes, but -- "
"No buts," Leigh interrupted fir is fine and I thank you very o back to sleep I knooke you up when I called the first ti to eat I&039;s like crazy"
"Oh, dah -- "
"&039;Bye, Bastien" She hung up and shook her head with led amusement and exasperation While it was nice of him to worry, she&039;d taken care of herself, and even run a business, for years all on her own This experience had temporarily left her off kilter, but that was to be expected Being kidnapped, bitten, force-fed blood, and then finding out you&039;d been turned into a vaht was mythical in nature -- would knock anyone off balance However, she was starting to feel ht it was probably the second phone call to Milly that had done it Talking shop and giving instructions had returned some of her self-confidence and made the world feel more its old self It had reht to beco, independent wo away from the phone, she headed for the kitchen in the hopes that another look around would turn up soerator were bare of anything edible, but she hadn&039;t checked the freezer and was hoping there would be so in there, even if only a microwavable meal Otherwise, she would be forced to do what she could with the flour and sugar and other staples in the cupboard andNot a very wholesoh to stop the cramps in her stomach, she hoped
The blonde, Andrea, was on her knees scrubbing the kitchen floor when Leigh entered, but Linda was nowhere to be seen Leigh supposed the redhead had gone upstairs to start cleaning there She&039;d apparently been so distracted with her telephone call fro Leigh hoped she hadn&039;t been saying anything the woht have found questionable when she&039;d passed
"Sorry," Leigh said when the blonde glanced her way as she entered "I&039;ry Actually, I&039;h "I wanted to see if there was anything in the freezer to heat up"
"Go ahead," the girl said with a smile "I&039;ll just do this side of the kitchen floor until you&039;re done"