The Harriet Bean 3-Book Omnibus by Alexander McCall Smith Page B

exciting than that.
    “Look at the toes,” said Aunt Thessalonika grimly. “Count them.”
    I counted out the number of dents in the plaster where the toes had been. Six!
    “Precisely!” said Aunt Japonica. “Six. What do you make of that?”
    “I don’t know,” I replied truthfully.
    “Neither do we,” said Aunt Thessalonika. “But we will certainly make it our business to find out!”
    Suddenly Aunt Japonica looked at her watch.
    “My goodness,” she said. “Time is flying past. We have work to do, I’m afraid. You can sit in that chair over there and read a book until it’s time for us to go to join the others.”
    So I sat in the chair and read. Or rather, I tried to read, but my concentration kept slipping, and I sneaked glances at what my two aunts were doing. They were fussing over their desks, fiddling with microscopes and magnifying glasses, and whispering to one another. I tried hard to hear what they were saying, but it was impossible. So I gave up in the end and just waited until they were ready to go.
    At last they packed up their work, locked the office behind them, and drove me off totheir house. There in the backyard was the trailer, with the table set with tea, sandwiches, and cakes, and Majolica bossing all the others around, getting things ready on time. I felt tremendously proud of myself. It had taken a little time, but at last I had assembled all my aunts in one place.
    There was only one thing left to do. Now that I had found my five aunts, it was time to take them all back to show my father. Then, if only I managed to find a painter, we could have the painting finished. Not only that, of course, but the family that had been so unhappily split up so many years ago would be together again.
    We traveled back that day. It was very hard work for Aunt Veronica, pedaling the trailer with all those aunts in the back, but she managed. Every few miles I would pass her a chocolate bar, which she would swallow almost in one gulp. This seemed to keep her strength up.
    At last we drew up to our house. I left theaunts in the trailer while I went in the front door. There was my father, sitting in his usual chair with his slippers on, doing a crossword puzzle.
    “Hello,” he said. “I see you’re back.”
    “I am,” I replied.
    “Did you have a good time?” he asked, hardly raising his eyes from the puzzle.
    “Yes,” I said. It was clear to me that he had forgotten all about my search for the aunts, so I slipped outside and signaled for the aunts to come in.
    My father looked up from his puzzle and turned quite pale. For a moment I thought he was going to faint, but then, with a sound somewhere between a groan and a gasp, he rose to his feet.
    “Harold!” said Aunt Majolica. “Look at the state of your slippers! When did you clean them last?”
    Before my father had the opportunity to answer, all five aunts dashed across the room to give him a hug. Unfortunately, they knocked him back into his chair, and AuntsThessalonika and Japonica ended up sprawled all over him.
    When they untangled each other, the aunts all stood around him, kissing him on the cheek and patting his shoulders. They were talking so much that nobody could hear what anybody else was saying. My father, however, seemed to be happy to see all his sisters, so I left them together and went up to my room.
    I had left the painting behind my wardrobe, safely covered with an old sheet. Now I took it out and carried it downstairs, still draped in its sheet. My aunts were all so busy talking when I entered the room that at first nobody paid much attention to me. Then, one by one, they began to notice the large covered object that I was holding, and they fell silent.
    “What on earth is that?” asked Aunt Majolica.
    “It’s something I very much want to show you all,” I began. “In fact, it’s the reason why I started to look for you in the first place.”
    “What can she mean?” asked Aunt Veronica, looking puzzled.
    “I