Look what the cat dragged in! | OTA

[gardenplots]

Maggie hadn't phoned. Hadn't called. Didn't want to make a fuss. Briefly, she toyed with the idea of not coming back. But then Sebastian had been utterly sweet and utterly unreasonable and asked her to marry him.

Poor dear. She thought he'd understood.

Then news came of Itchy, and Maggie knew she was needed at home. She packed her bags, patted

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[uncutclarity]

Avery definitely does not have to go grocery shopping anymore. When Maggie had left, she'd still be a Nine, and her appearances at the store had involved pointing at the products Diamond Castle needed in bulk with a clerk following behind her scribbling things down. Now she only had to stock her own kitchen and Isaac and Gwendolyn usually saw to that too.

So it was more like she was browsing the chocolate aisle, really, when she looks up to see a familiar face and her face lights. "Maggie! You're back."

[gardenplots]

"Hello, Avery, Dear." Maggie pecks the younger woman on the cheek. Her market bag already contains a tin of Dutch processed cocoa. "You caught me. I'd planned to call on every one, but, naturally, I arrived and realized I hadn't a thing at the house--not even tea! First things first."

[uncutclarity]

Maggie gets a warm hug in return, and then the Jack of Diamonds wrinkles her nose. "No tea at all? Well, I suppose that's one advantage of Castle living. I'm convinced Isaac would hurtle himself from the ramparts before allowing us to run out of tea." But she hadn't grown up in the Castle either - any of them. In fact, her parents' little cottage wasn't all that far from Maggie's villa.

[gardenplots]

"True, true, but you know me, Love. I adore my garden. It's so nice to have my morning cuppa and look over it. Couldn't do that in the Castle."

And too much sugar is bad for one.

"I hear congratulations are in order?"

[uncutclarity]

She understands that completely. She always did, even if no one else thought she'd be a good fit in the sharp red Suit.

"I challenged Miss Farraday for Ten, and a week later Rachel made me Jack," she says. "It was a Valentine's surprise."

[gardenplots]

"Between you and me and the food aisle, Dear, you'll make a far better Jack than Helena."

Sugar is next into the basket. "I was sorry to hear about Lindsey. This has been a hard year for the Deck."

[uncutclarity]

Avery's lips twitch a little. Helena: sweet girl, should have stayed at Seven or Eight where she could be a sweet girl. "I'm certainly planning to be," she says. "Cadogan's a huge help. Silas, too."

Avery picks up a box of dark brown sugar and sighs. "Chicken pox of all things. He'd been king most of my life." Not always the best of them, she had to admit; Rachel and Säde had carried the Suit. But he'd been their king.

[gardenplots]

It's a pity Cadogan never stood the chance to be promoted. He'd been a fixture for awhile now. She really did not understand Diamonds.

"Good men, both. You'll see more of that, I'm afraid. The Spades and Diamonds both are on the third king of the ones I remember."

[uncutclarity]

Rachel's prejudices got them into the problem they're in now, with the low number of upper Cards - because the men couldn't get past Seven.

"Ceiro, at least is young. And so is Ashley. It's hard to tell with Alexander." And she wouldn't be entirely surprised if the Club King met an unexpected end. He wasn't exactly popular.

[gardenplots]

"My dear, if you have yet to notice, Deck men are like lions. The young and strong kill the old and weak to make room for new regimes."

Women fared somewhat better.

[uncutclarity]

"I've noticed." It was hard not to, with Andrew's death. David, she figured, was protected by his paranoia - and the fact that his network was so all-encompassing. "I wonder what the reaction would be if I suggested elections."

If there was a regime change in the Diamonds, she thinks, it would be Rachel who would die. Rachel and Säde, and Avery likely wouldn't survive it either. But the Diamonds were different.

[gardenplots]

"You mean after the laughter died away? The Deck is ingrained in its ways. I have a hard time imagining us being any other way. Then again, I'm an old woman.

"Certainly competence should be better rewarded, though every Suit has its methods of dispensing with the inept." Some involved more blood, to be certain.

[uncutclarity]

"No," Avery says thoughtfully, shaking her head. "I think you're right. It would take a lot more people from Outside to push the system in a different direction. And it...does work, for the most part."

It's just that sometimes she wishes some of the problems were a little easier to deal with.

"They do," she agrees. "Just sometimes not as effectively as one might wish."