Much Ado About Muffin by Victoria Hamilton

feel responsible for Lizzie, since she and her mother lived at the castle for a while.”
    â€œThe castle,” Minnie said darkly. “You open up your place to all kinds of weirdos, don’t you?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œNothing,” she said as the phone rang. “Just . . . nothing. I gotta take this.”
    I left mystified and concerned.
    *   *   *
    Over the next couple of days I slowly got back in the swing of things, even though Roma Toscano, who seemed to take up every waking minute of Pish’s time, filled my castle with chaos. I’m not sure how that was possible, but her stuff was everywhere, and
she
was everywhere, every time I turned around. Plucking at my sleeve, asking questions to which I had no answers, asking me where Pish was, what there was to eat, if I had any wine left, and where, by the way, the key to the wine cellar was. I kept that hidden because the woman could drink us all under the table, and did, the second evening I was home, when I saw Pish sloshed for the first time in years.
    The only safe spot was my own bedroom, the beautiful turret room I had taken back after our spring visitors left. Even with Roma ensconced, it was good to be home. I slept in late the first couple of days, spoke to my estate lawyer, Andrew Silvio, on the phone—we were close to tying up the inheritance, finally—and got reorganized. My schedule got back to normal, somewhat, though I felt like something was missing.
    For one thing, Becket had not come back, and I was worried. Also, Virgil was being evasive. His schedule seemed to be completely full, and Gogi told me, when I called her, that he had taken on numerous volunteer coaching jobs after I left. She implied it was to fill his time so he wouldn’t feel lonely, but I thought maybe he was avoiding me.
    And for another, though I had seen almost everyone, I had not connected with my best and oldest friend. I had stopped by Jack and Shilo’s home on my way out of town, the day I started my apology tour, but no one was there. The place looked abandoned, the grass unkempt and the flowers wilted.
    I called and called but got no answer. Not to be defeated, three days after getting home I finally tracked down Jackand found out that he and Shilo had recently bought another house in an older section of town. Pish had been so taken up with Roma that I guess he didn’t know, and no one else had told me. They probably thought given how close I was to Shilo, I’d already know.
    The midcentury ranch he owned when they wed wasn’t her, Jack explained. Shilo is fey and creative, wildly imaginative and special in so many ways; a tract home was too staid. Sniffing an opportunity, he had put in an offer on an empty home in the old section of town and bought it at a ridiculously low price. They had partially moved in so they could renovate while living in it, with the revitalized Turner Construction doing some of the heavy work. The ranch home had been rented out to tenants who hadn’t moved to town yet.
    He gave me the new address. Unwilling to beat around the bush with something so important to me, I asked him, was Shilo angry at me, as others were, for staying away so long and being so distant?
    He was silent for a few moments. “I don’t think so.” He sighed heavily. “Something is bugging her, but she won’t tell me what. I’m out of town today, but she’s at the new house. Go see her, Merry. You’re her oldest friend. Help me figure it out.”
    I hung up, feeling a cold chill race through me. When I first met Shilo she was a skinny, scared teenaged model living in a modeling agency apartment with several other skinny, scared teenage models. She didn’t talk much about her family, and I didn’t push her, because I observed that when you pushed Shilo about her past, she pulled away or cut you off. Over the years we had become best friends, but I