“You said Kit has lived all over the world and now he’s in government service,” Kathy said. “My guess is that’s the reason he was there. He was planning to go on his first mission, wasn’t he?”
“You’re right,” Olivia said, “but he would have died before telling anyone that. Country was first to him. I just thought he was an exhibitionist. And a predator and a—” She waved her hand. “Everything bad.”
“You hated him but were fascinated by him,” Kathy said.
Olivia scooped ice cream into bowls. “That’s exactly what I was. And after I heard him speak, I was even more angry.”
Kathy and Elise waited for her to continue.
“You ever hear a voice that sent chills down your spine? Made your hair stand on end? Revved up your heart so it was pounding?” Olivia asked.
Elise grimaced. “Does my dad yelling at me when I was six and broke a Tiffany vase count?”
“Definitely not.” Olivia turned to Kathy.
“Don’t look at me! Ray’s voice makes me wonder what else he wants me to do.”
Olivia paused as she thought about what Kathy had said. According to Ray, his wife lived for him. But Kathy complained about the lack of passion. “Did Ray—?”
“Go on with your story,” Elise said. “You were borrowing a cookbook and making shields.”
“Not just ‘a cookbook,’” Kathy said. “The cookbook.”
“Right,” Olivia said. “Me, who didn’t know how to make a meat loaf, was saying I was going to cook French cuisine. Of course, I wasn’t really thinking about doing that. I was just so angry at the smirks of those old men that I would have said anything to make them shut up.
“And him! That boy! I was already sick of hearing how fabulous he was. I just wanted to be better than he was. At anything.”
“So what did you do?” Kathy asked.
“Nearly killed myself—and him.” Olivia gave a little laugh. “Kit and I had three weeks of a competition that should go down in history as the roughest, toughest...” She grinned. “The very stupidest war there ever was.”
“Okay,” Elise said, “start at the beginning. Did the cookbook or the magnolia tree come first?”
Olivia took a bite of mocha ice cream. “First came the shields. I am embarrassed to admit that in the time I’d been there I’d been so angry that I’d ignored the children. But back then you just shooed kids outside and let them entertain themselves. Parents didn’t need to supervise every second of their kids’ lives.”
“But you’d seen Kit playing with them,” Kathy said.
“Yes, and I was quite jealous. Anyway, I took a big cardboard box, some shears, string, tape, and foil out under the tree. The kids trailed behind me like baby ducks. It didn’t occur to me that I was doing everything outside so that worthless boy could see what I was doing.”
She paused. “It took me a couple of hours to make the two worst shields ever created. They were flimsy and the string handles I taped on the back came off, and the foil tore. The kids were nice about it, but they knew the shields were awful.”
“What did Kit do?” Kathy had a hint of disgust in her voice. “If it had been Ray, he would have shown up with some hand-crafted masterpiece just so he could win.”
“That’s sort of what happened.” Olivia was looking at Kathy in speculation. “I was trying to tape some tree branches onto the back of the shields to make them stronger, when he pulled up on the tractor.”
“The modern equivalent of the charging horse,” Elise said. “My personal fantasy.”
“I didn’t know it but that morning the children had asked him to make shields for them. He’d already glued up three sheets of heavy cardboard. After lunch, he used the old band saw to cut out shield shapes.”
“Is that fair? You didn’t have any tools,” Kathy said.
“That’s what I thought too. On the back he’d bolted two wooden handles, but vertical. Beside them he’d used shoelaces to tie on wide pieces of leather.”
“Ah.” Kathy nodded. “So they could slip their forearms through.”
“Yes,” Olivia said. “They were truly magnificent shields and the children were awed by them—and by Kit. They flung themselves at him and he held both of them.” Olivia shook her head. “I was so jealous! My wimpy shields were on the ground, bent and already coming apart, while his were strong and—” She waved her hand.
“What did Kit say?” Elise asked.