Hot as a hare, blind as a bat

[gardenplots]

Maggie sets her trowel on the ground and sits back on her heels. The Datura didn't need deadheading, yet the evidence lay before her eyes: small, precise cuts separating flowers and leaves from stem. The Heart rises to her feet in a smooth motion that belies her age and makes her way down the neat cutting beds. No mistake. Someone's come in with small sheers and pruned some of her more interesting plants. Foxglove, morning glory, monkshood, castor oil plant, someone's disturbed them all. Lovely.

"How very unwise of my uninvited guest," she murmurs to herself before turning back to the gate and inspecting the lock. An enterprising soul could hop the wall, but in this case, a close look reveals scratch marks around the mechanism. A short walk brings her to her Cannabis plot. Unmolested. She claims to grow the weed for medicinal reasons--indeed, she has a prescription for it. But truth be told, she enjoys the relaxation it brings her and never begrudges a few leaves here and there should anyone ask her. Yet the plants escaped this latest harvest. Clearly, her prowler hadn't cared about medicine.

"I suppose I'll need to reinstall the surveillance cameras. And let one of the Faces know so they can pass the word along. Bloody nuisance." 

Comments

[headfollowheart]

"I hope so," Zoe says, taking a drink of her tea.

"I can probably manage it the same way I manage my own," she adds. She'd received the same $500,000 when she'd been eighteen, and had grown it over the past three years with a mix of careful and judiciously risky ventures. Even without Victor's considerable savings, she was comfortably set.

Even without the Huntly funds Charlotte had cut her off from.

"I don't let him," she says, half-smiling at Maggie. "Sometimes I just don't want to get into it, though."

[gardenplots]

"A little of both, I expect. Herbal teas have their uses, but the ones sold there are a bit esoteric for my tastes."

[alwaysmessedup]

"What kind of uses, then?" He doesn't really see the point. "I mean, I don't get the regular tea thing, either."

[dum_spiro_servio]

"No m'lady." And it wasn't because of a hidden agenda to draw her back to the Spades' Castle. Or perhaps it was.

"There were Other Boxes, which no one has touched." They may not belong to her, but it would have been reasonable to assume that they did considering they were stacked together.

"Safer that you find the time to take a look."

[gardenplots]

"Good. Just checking. As for his inheritance, that's all you can do, really. You can't force him to take control of it if he doesn't want to. I suppose you could dump it all into an account under his name and forget about it."

[headfollowheart]

"Yeah, I suppose." It doesn't sit well with her to just have money lying there, honestly. "Maybe I'll ask Elisha to talk to him about it. He listens to him, I think."

[gardenplots]

"Then I hope you won't mind me walking back with you? I'm sure you could use the space they're taking up."

Time had passed. Very few of them were left from the old days. New young Spades were unlikely to know her or her past. Her reluctance to visit stems more from avoiding memories rather than fear.

[heneiddio]

"Dunna you be wasting a drop of Laphroaig on account of me, Ma'am Sinjin." A bit more her father's pronunciation than her husband's, but she's not certain she isn't pleased to sound more like her childhood home than her marital one these days. "Already more than kind t' have me here at all withou' taking your fine things."

[gardenplots]

She laughs. "I believe the easiest way to spot a newcomer from someone born here is by how much they enjoy tea. I'd say it runs in our veins if I hadn't had ample proof in the past it doesn't. Anyway, many medicines are derived from plants. It's not a stretch to mix up a blend that has similar properties.

"Between you and me, a lot of those properties are old wive's tales, but try telling that to some of the New Agers."

[alwaysmessedup]

"Wait..." gasp! "Are you telling me that that herbal tea Mrs. Moonsilver keeps making me drink won't really do anything for a rash down there?"

Oh, he's crushed, Maggie. Completely.

[gardenplots]

"Something like brownies, you mean? You can taste the marijuana unless you do it right. Fiddle with the recipes to find what works for you. I'm sure the internet has plenty of advice."

[gardenplots]

"No kindness. Pleasure. I seldom get a chance to have a natter with a woman who understands the world." She fills a generous three fingers in the glasses and returns to the table. "I'm afraid it shocks some of the young ones if they catch me drinking. Silly things. How are you settling in?"

[heartsofdarkgrey]

He nods. "I was thinking brownies and candies too actually. I've seen them but I would think the flavor of the plant would be harder to hide in candy unless the flavor of the candy was ridiculously strong." Grey comments, wondering if she, too, had tried or made them and if she had any tips or opinions to offer.

[heneiddio]

"Is the real understanding in knowin' you know so very little, then?"

That seemed to be the new prevailing wisdom of old age. Maybe partly to do with moving here, of course, although she's smiling as she sighs.

"Day by day, as you go." Her fingers rub unconsciously at her wrist, just a little tender. "It is good to see my clean and shining so happy. D'you know, he's acting such a child and refusing to let on he's started seeing a young lady?"

[dum_spiro_servio]

"Of course not." He hadn't expected that she would want to come along straightaway - she might, after all, be busy Persecuting Plant Vandals And Thieves Relentlessly - but an old Spade visiting their home was not something he would In Any Capacity hesitate to encourage.

[gardenplots]

Maggie splits and butters a scone. "If you think that's best. I wouldn't care for someone telling me what to do with what's mine, lover or not. But I'm a stubborn old woman set in her ways."

The money has been sitting around for years apparently. Another month or so, even another year, until Haydn was ready to deal with it wouldn't matter.

[headfollowheart]

With Hadyn and his stubbornness, they could all be dead before he decided to do anything with it. Zoe just sighed a little, though. "I'll think about it."

Later. It wasn't as if she didn't have enough to think about right now, anyway.

[gardenplots]

"Has he? Silly boy. They always think they're being sly. A mother always knows. You should invite her to dinner." It goes without saying her son can wait until he arrives to learn of the surprise guest.

[gardenplots]

"Best you make an appointment with our good king and get some antibiotics." Really. Did he think he could shock her?

[alwaysmessedup]

It was less of shocking and more just a stupid joke.

"I'd really rather not," he says, wrinkling his nose at the mention of Theo. "What the hell is a King doing being a doctor, anyway? Figure a King would be too busy for that shit."

[gardenplots]

"Try making a butter from ground up plant matter and remove as much of the plant waste as possible. Peanut butter or ginger also work well in recipes."

[gardenplots]

Maggie believes in facing unpleasant tasks head on and in getting them over with as soon as possible. Besides, it's quite likely her thieves come from her former Suit. There's absolutely no reason why she can't conduct a few discrete inquiries while at Spade Castle.

"And you can tell me how everyone is."

[heneiddio]

"Soon as I uncover which she is, aye." He couldn't quite tell which of the young lady Clubs he avoided discussing with her it might be. But Maggie's right; a mother always knows. She'll figure it soon enough. "Only hope he's gotten t' have better taste as he's grown up. Canna help but worry, can you."

[gardenplots]

"He was a doctor first. I imagine he enjoys it. Besides, there aren't many local doctors." Personally, Maggie thinks Theo should rein back his practice a bit. He can't possibly be giving 100 percent to either position, and neither one is the sort you can perform half way.

Something will give. If she'd learned nothing in her 57 years, she'd learned that. She smiles to herself. That and patience.

[gardenplots]

"A man ought to develop better taste as he ages. He's kept himself to himself. He'll be careful when he dips his feet."