"Why would you want to marry my sister?"

"Don't you think I would be a great brother-in-law?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Why do you want to marry my sister?"

"Because...why not? Why can't I? Or do you prefer that 'se quedara a vestir santos?'"

"I still don't think she'll marry you. You'll probably have to marry all ten of them, because I don't think they will separate, even to get married."

"Someday they'll have to. Or go into a convent."

"I think they'll prefer the convent. At least there, they can all be together. They are inseparable, you know. You are aware they even sleep together."

That was true. This had been quite hard when they had lived at the Xavier Institute. There wasn't a room big enough for them there. They compromised by sleeping in the rooms that were next to each other, and sleeping only next to the wall. The dectuplets always slept in the same room. They occupied the largest room in the house, which had been their nursery when they were younger. It was all decorated with cats, tigers, lions, pillows embroidered with cats on them, realistic paintings and statues of cats. In the room were ten day beds, with the comforters, and pillows all having cats on them. The furniture was also painted, with cats, too, and the shelves, all held statues of cats, or porcelain dolls. There were also ten dolls' houses, all complete with furniture, and everything, that it seemed they were actually a miniature neighborhood. And everything was in lilacs, pinks, or baby blues.

This was not going at all the way he had planned. He had imagined that Lance would be happy, and that if he agreed, then Ma.Xamila would have no choice but to marry him. It looked like he would have to convince her, and then she would convince her brother.

Sissy was listening to this conversation, while pretending to be asleep in a chair. She got up quickly, and ran out of the room, to find the dectuplets. She knew, of course, where she would find them. In the dining room, where else, complaining that they didn't like weekends, because the time went by so slowly. When they were back in their room, the dectuplets listened to Sissy scold them.

"You know I wouldn't marry him, anyway, Sissy. I couldn't. If I get married, what will happen to my sisters?"

"Exactly. Besides, you should know he's probably only after your money."

"Do you think, Sissy?"

"I don't 'think'. I know. Well, at least you know why you should refuse him. You should never be separated. You are as strong as you are united, as weak as you are divided. Besides, you are not ordinary people, any more than I am an ordinary cat."

"Yes, Sissy."

Ma.Xamila got up.

"Now, we should start go and buy the yarn to start working on those quilts."she told her sisters. "Are you coming with us, Maru?"

"No, I'll stay here. I have to finish this embroidery before next week., so I can start the other one."

"That was kind of odd, wasn't it, Fool?"Jesus was asking Arthur.

"I want to go to the lake."said Guillermo.

"Get the dectuplets to take you. We're going to visit Adrian."

"Can I come."

"No. Go tell Mama Teta to play Memory with you, and leave us alone!"

"She doesn't want to play. She said later."

"Well, then, go play with Rebeca."

"She's listening to music."

"Tell the dectuplets to take you to the lake."

"They went to town."

"Well, too bad."

Guillermo sat sadly in Mama Teta's favorite chair.

"Why are you sitting in my chair? Move out of the way, Mi'jo, so I can sit down. Go sit in the other one. This one's closer to the door, and this leg won't take me all the way to the sofa."

"Arthur and Jesus won't take me with them."

"They're going somewhere you can't go."

Kitty walked outside, around the house. She was so bored, she almost wished she hadn't asked that Juanita stopped trailing her. Not that Juanita was very good company, but at least she had someone there to help her. Being in charge of the entire hacienda was a hard job. She had never thought it would be so difficult. Everyone asked her how things should be done. Every morning, she had to tell the cook what to serve for lunch and dinner, and everyone also complained to her if there were problem. If there was a shortage of something, they immediately went to her, and expected her to sort it out. She had to keep track of what was in the bodega, and so forth, so as to not run out of anything, and order more before it ran out.

If only she had known that the dectuplets were going to town, she would've gone with them. Ma.Eugenia was too busy to be much company, too. Once she had picked up her knitting, she wouldn't pay much attention to what was going on around her. She wondered down the road that led to the gardens, when she met a man. He was tall, with gray hair, and seemed very well dressed. He spoke to her in Spanish.

"No creo habermela encontrado aqui antes."he commented.

Kitty could speak a little Spanish when she got here. She hadn't really taken the time to learn before that. She had taken French in high school. The dectuplets spend their spare time teaching her, and sometimes Juanita, so she could understand and speak it a little better now.

"Yo no salgo mucho."

"Debe ser usted una de las huespedes de las hermanas de nuevo patron, verdad? Mi amigo, yo soy muy amigo de Benigno, me comento algo. Vino a atender a la boda de su patron, verdad?"

She didn't get a chance to answer, because at that moment, the dectuplets appeared on their way back to the house, and seeing to whom she was speaking to, started yelling at him, and they pulled Kitty away.

"What do you think you are doing, talking to that man?"asked Ma.Ximena.

"Nobody saw you, did they?"asked Ma.Xaviera.

"Why?"

"Because, sweetheart, if Mother finds out, you won't be able to rid yourself of Juanita's or anybody's supervision."

"Oh, no, but why?"

"He's a very, very bad man."

"He said he was a friend of Benigno's."

"I will skin him this minute. I will make certain that he is fired, if it's the last thing I ever do. I don't know if you've noticed, Benigno isn't a very good person."

Someone had seen Kitty talking to this man, because when they went back into the house, Francisca was in distressed.

"Have you lost your mind, honey? And what exactly was he doing here, on my property?! What were you thinking of? I knew I should've insisted that about Juanita, but that's just the trouble with me. I give in too easily. That won't happen anymore. In your condition, and talking to...He is the most terrible person. You should know why he was well dressed. Well, you don't want to know. You must never speak to that man again. He is not a good person. If only the authorities had gotten enough proof to hang him! We wouldn't be in this mess, then! I will see to Benigno's dismissal myself this minute! I don't care how efficient he is. He will be dismissed."

Francisca ran out of the room.

"We told you."

"He's a criminal."

"Yes, he is."

"What happened?"asked Ma.Eugenia. "I just saw my godmother running out of the room. What happened?"

"What happened was that...never mind. Everything will be fine now."

"No, it won't."said Kitty.

"Don't worry. That was probably just because she was mad. When she cools down, she'll change your mind. When my mother is like that, she says and threatens to do a lot of things she doesn't mean. You'll see. That's why it's so much fun to upset her. That's how we became such tattletales. We loved to see our parents get mad. And we still do. You gotta admit, it was kind of funny."

"Yeah. It was."

The dectuplets knew what they were talking about. By suppertime, Francisca had forgotten there had ever been any problem. She was back to her old self, because Pietro had 'generously' helped her convince Lance to dismiss Benigno that same day. Not only that, but he had convinced him to not give him any money, on his dismissal, or a recommendation letter. He also volunteered to take over Benigno's place, without any salary, and to see that no one came into the hacienda, if they were unpleasant. This had raised him very highly in Francisca's eyes.

Pietro was not exactly happy at what he had done. Now, he would have to spend his days in the fields on the back of a horse, and making sure that the workers did what was expected of them. Luckily, for him, Francisca insisted that he not occupy the overseer's house, but stay here, since he had so generously helped her with the unpleasant business, and taken it upon himself to take over Benigno's place. He knew that this would help him a lot, though. He had to convince Francisca that he would be the best husband for her daughter. If all went well, maybe she would even ask him to marry one of her daughters. Now, he didn't care which one. Any one.

The other members of the Brotherhood hadn't said anything to him about it. During mealtimes, Toad and Blob were more interested in the food than the conversation, and Lance just listened to his mother as she praised Pietro.

"I do hope everyone here will appreciate what a good person this boy is."she said, looking at everyone.

"Yes, we do appreciate it."answered Arthur.

"I just can't see him doing it."Ma.Eugenia was whispering to the dectuplets.

"Neither can we."

"Why did he volunteer, though. I always thought he was just, well, you know, that he never cared about anyone. You've also seen the way he dresses. It's going to ruin all his clothes."

"Well,"said Ma.Xamila, giggling. "I see that he's definitely changing. Becoming a better person." She looked down the table, to where Pietro sat. He did not look very happy.

"What' so funny about that?"

"Oh, nothing, it's not that. I was just giggling because of when Aaron pretended to be saying to Piedad, 'asi con que las mellizas estan bien' when Mariza walked in the room. I don't know why I found that funny, I just did."

Ma.Eugenia nodded.

"Speaking of changes,"spoke Ma.Xosefina. "What do you think about...you know who."

"Nothing."Ma.Eugenia said quickly.

"Something must've changed."

"Well, it didn't. Besides, what would Sevundo say if he found out I ever forgave him, then he wouldn't forgive me."

"Surely you don't care what people think?"Arthur asked her.

Ma.Eugenia shrugged.

"You're behind all of this, aren't you?"asked Ma.Xiomara, later.

"Behind what?"

"Behind all that about Maru and her father."

"Suppose I am."

"Are you?"

"Why?"

"Just tell us."

"Yes."

"Then we should help you."

se quedara a vestir santos

stayed to dress saints, well, it's a saying, that means you stay an old maid, you know, never marry

No creo habermela encontrado aqui antes

I don't believe I've seen you here before"

Yo no salgo mucho.

I don't get out much

Debe ser usted una de las huespedes de las hermanas de nuevo patron, verdad? Mi amigo, yo soy muy amigo de Benigno, me comento algo. Vino a atender a la boda de su patron, verdad

You should be one the new patron's sister's guests, right? My friend, Benigno commented something. You came to attend his wedding, right?

asi con que las mellizas estan bien'

So the twins are all right