Chapter Eight
In the Bed
Marguerite, still tense from the previous night, but feeling a bit more calm and clear-headed, stretched out her limps and sighed. Maybe she had been a bit harsh and judgmental. There was no evidence that Roxton had tampered with the shower except for his belief that she had placed the beetle in his drink. Sighing again, she pressed her feet into the mattress.
Something grazed across her right leg and she shrieked, leaping out of bed and tossing the covers aside. A black snake hissed at her, it's beady eyes enraged at her disturbing him. Marguerite screeched and dashed out of the room. "Roxton! Roxton, you little bastard!"
Roxton burst from their room. "What? What is it Marguerite?"
"First the mud yesterday and now this! What? You couldn't handle being alone? Wanted to pay me back for not sleeping in the same bed with you?"
"Enough!" Roxton marched over to her and grabbed her shoulders. "I don't know what the bloody hell you're talking about, Marguerite."
"The snake!" She shrugged out of his grasp, snatched one of his hands, and dragged him into her old bedroom. She pointed down at the reptilian. "Look! You see that ugly thing? I woke up with it crawling against my leg!"
Roxton yanked her back away from the bed. "Marguerite, darling, I swear I didn't put that snake there. I wouldn't have under any circumstances. That's a poisonous snake." He glanced her way. "Are you sure, darling, that you weren't bitten?"
"I think I would know whether or not I was bitten by a snake, John."
Roxton couldn't help but smile. She hadn't called him John the last couple of days and he had begun to miss the closeness it represented. Shoving aside his moment of happiness, he turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "Marguerite, go get one of Challenger's nets. I'll catch him and set him free."
"No, you'll catch him and kill him," she ordered, then ran off to get the net.
When she returned, Roxton carefully approached the bed, moving slowly as to not upset the dangerous creature. Marguerite looked on from the doorway, biting her lower lip from nerves. She gasped when the snack shot forward, striking at the net. Roxton leapt back then gingerly made his way closer. He draped the butterfly net over the snack and swung it around, entrapping the creature. The snack hissed and thrashed around.
Roxton hastily left the room and bounded down the stairs to Challenger's lab. "George, I've got something that may interest you."
Marguerite waited at the top of the steps and when Roxton returned a few minutes later, she threw her arms around his neck. "Oh, John, this is getting out of hand. Who do you suppose put that snack in my bed?"
"No one, darling," he chuckled. "Though, I'm sure at times Veronica wishes she could." He kissed the top of her head. "See, if you had been with me last night like you should have been, you would've been risk free."
"Well, I wouldn't have been in a different bed if you hadn't put mud in the shower."
He sighed. "We've been through this, Marguerite."
Marguerite stepped back, eyeing him coldly. "That doesn't mean I believe you."
"Well why should I believe you then? I think you lied about not putting the beetle in my drink."
"I didn't put the beetle in your drink!"
"You know what, I'm willing to admit the truth. The snake wasn't poisonous."
"What? You mean you did put that thing in my bed!"
"No, no, no, I didn't put it there, but I lied about it being poisonous. I figured it would be a good tease since you slept in there instead of in our room. In fact, that was a pretty gentle snake."
She growled and huffed off, screaming: "What am I going to do with you?"
End Chapter Eight
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