“You know, Uruk, if my plan succeeds, you’ll be exiled from the bedroom again,” she told the cat. “As it is, I’m just adding to my growing spinster image by talking to my cat, but since nobody is here to hear it, it’s fine.”
Uruk blinked a few times, then her eyes stayed wide open as she glared at her mistress. “I know,” Lea said, bribing the cat with a tummy rub. “You don’t like being moved around in the middle of the night when you’re fast asleep. I’m sorry. But I needed to talk.”
The apology was sufficient. Uruk’s eyes closed and purring commenced again. She squirmed around to better accommodate the tummy rub and stretched out a paw to gently draw a claw over Lea’s wrist.
“Did I do the right thing, do you think?” Lea whispered. “It’s pretty unlike me to approach a stranger like that. He probably thinks I’m nuts. I mean, I think I’m nuts to have done that.”
What had induced her to be so impulsive? Excitement of the moment, probably. Compared to the stunt Thomas had pulled in the restaurant, it hadn’t seemed so far out to enlist his help. Not until she’d seen the astonished—and alarmed—look on his face when she’d told him what she needed.
She could feel Uruk’s body vibrate with the purring. The fluffy white fur on her belly was softer than anything in the world. Except perhaps a baby’s downy hair.
“Sometimes, Uruk,” she whispered, “a woman has to do what a woman has to do. We have a mission, and we’re going to get there. And anyway, it doesn’t matter what Thomas thinks of me, does it? Not at all. He doesn’t matter at all, does he? He’s just the means to an end.”
The cat purred on and refused to take sides. Lea sighed and rolled on her back, staring up at the ceiling.
If only his eyes weren’t quite so blue.
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