CHAPTER SIX

Jealousy

Virginia didn't notice the change in temperature as she went back into the castle. If it was warmer inside, she couldn't feel it. But she certainly heard the banging and clanging of the new heating system as the hot water moved through the new pipes in the walls and the new radiators in the hallways. She could also smell that funny dry smell of heat coming up. Flippantly, she wondered how her father expected to get everything working in only a few hours. Boilers had never been one of his specialties.

When she got to her room, she opened the door sharply and slammed it behind her. The heavy wooden door shook to its hinges. A couple of talking mice in the walls were startled and ran off to one of the upper floors.

"Can you believe the noise around here lately?" the fat mouse said to the skinny one.

"No!" the skinny one answered, scurrying faster. "Things certainly aren't as they used to be. I might enjoy the warmer walls. But not if they're going to be this loud!"

Of course Virginia didn't hear any of their conversation because it was inside the walls. But if she had, it would have made her slam the door again to make them run faster.

Wolf would have loved to run too, but he couldn't. This was his room and his wife. And though he'd been hoping to stay out of it, it was beginning to look as if there was no escape. "Oh," he said, trying to sound offhanded. "You're back."

"Dad makes me so angry sometimes."

"How about a snack? I know it's not long before dinner, but we missed lunch. I thought it might be nice to have something hot before the fire. See. I tried to make it all look romantic." Wolf rolled the "r" in romantic, hoping to get a smile from his wife.

Virginia didn't notice the romantic lighting or the sweet little indoor picnic that Wolf had arranged in front of the fire. She was far too busy pacing the floor from one side to the other, her shadow looming large behind her in the firelight. "I'm only thinking of him. That's all."

"I ordered each of us a hot rare roast beef sandwich on a roll with extra gravy and a big mug of hot chocolate."

Virginia came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the floor and started ripping off her winter coat. "He barely knows this…this fairy. And he wants to marry her? Mom just died. How can he even think of such a thing?"

Marriage huh, Wolf thought to himself. It must be really serious. Out loud he said, "I couldn't wait for you. I was much too hungry. But I saved yours. Come sit by the fire and eat."

Virginia flung her coat onto the bed. Her freckles looked as if they might pop off her face. "Can't he see that he should wait a while? Can't he see how different they are from each other?"

"Everything always looks better on a full stomach," Wolf said, patting the spot on the floor next to him.

"I don't want food! I just want to make Dad understand. I don't want him to be alone forever. But he should wait for a bit."

"You mean like we did?"

"That was different. We sort of had to get married."

Wolf shook his head firmly. "Not according to the customs in your world. While we were there I watched plenty of television. Women in your dimension have babies on their own all the time. On purpose even. You didn't marry me because of the baby. It just speeded things up. Now, you come over here and tell me what happened while you eat." Wolf got up from the floor and firmly guided his wife to the fireplace.

Virginia held back for a moment. Then she let herself be pulled along. "I'm not hungry," she said.

"Sure you are. You're just too angry to realize it. Now I've been very good in not eating your sandwich. Don't be ungrateful."

Virginia fell into a heap in front of the fireplace but still wouldn't eat. "I just want what's best for him, that's all. Doesn't he understand that?"

"Huff-puff. I certainly hope you're not going to browbeat our son like this."

"What?"

"You sound like you're talking about a child."

"Well, Dad is sort of a child."

"Maybe he was when I met you, but Tony's gotten a lot more self-sufficient since then."

"But he still shouldn't rush into things. Don't you agree?" Again it wasn't a question, it was a proclamation. She was demanding that he agree.

Wolf turned away and gazed into the fire, his eyebrows hightailing it up toward the widow's peak on his forehead. "Hmm. Now how would my self-help books tell me to answer that one?"

"Wolf!"

"All right, all right. I know you think you're suggesting he wait because you think it's for his own good. Or, maybe you think it's out of respect for your mother's memory. But the truth is you're jealous."

"Jealous?" Virginia said with surprise.

"Your father went through the same thing when we got together, remember? I've tried not to say anything about it, because I thought you'd get over it like he has. But since you ask, I think you're jealous." Wolf picked up the large ceramic mug that had once held his hot chocolate and licked off a stray bit of whipped cream.

"Jealous. Of Matilde?"

"One part of you really wants your father to be happy," Wolf said, dangling his mug with one finger. "Another part is conflicted about your feelings about your mother. But mostly, you don't like the idea of somebody else being first in your father's life. And you resent Tony for not needing you as much anymore. Even though you'd be really irritated if you still had to do everything for him."

"Back in New York my father couldn't do a thing for himself. He couldn't run the house or handle parking tickets or anything."

"I don't pretend to understand what Queen Matilde sees in your father, but he has changed an awful lot since he's come here. He's a respected war hero and a great inventor." The clanging from the freshly painted radiator near the door of their room interrupted Wolf briefly. "He's even putting in a heating system that will make Wendell's castle the envy of every royal personage and peasant in the Kingdoms."

"Too bad it's so noisy," Virginia said, her mouth falling into a pout.

"He'll get that fixed."

"You think?"

"It's time you stopped treating your father like a wayward cub and let him grow up. He'll always be a little strange, I grant you that. But it's time to let go. You need to concentrate on our growing family. Let Matilde worry about him from now on. It's not like you're losing him. You're just gaining a new pack mate. To wolves, a larger pack is always better than a small one. The larger the pack, the greater the power. And think what an advantage it will be for our cub to have a long-lived powerful queen for a grandmother. You just need to get past your jealousy. Now are you going to eat that sandwich or not? Because if you're not, I really want it."

"Fine. Then take it." Virginia jumped up from the floor with as much grace as her expanding middle and long skirt would allow. "I thought husbands were supposed to agree with their wives."

"Not when they're wrong," Wolf said honestly.

Of course that was not the answer Virginia wanted to hear. She growled with aggravation and stomped toward the door in four very big, very loud steps. She didn't slam the door behind her with quite as much venom this time. But there was still enough force to make some plaster fall loose from inside the walls.

"Boy," Wolf said, exchanging his empty mug for his wife's full one. "For such a small woman, she sure makes a lotta noise."