Above all else, Mungojerrie was a male with the thought that seemed to be universal with toms and men: She's so cute when she's angry. He watched with an appreciative grin as Rumpleteazer huffed back inside Macavity's lair, tail erect and stiff in her indignation as a striped candy stick.
She and a defeated Demeter went together to a far corner and turned their glares on the felon-host's heir apparent.
Mewing and shifting from the sleeping animals around them were all he heard as he made his way over to them. Teazer jerked her head in the other direction and plopped down with her back to him.
"I'm sorry, Teazer," he said in a raspy whisper with a hint of his alley cat accent. Standing behind her, he inclined his head to her ear. "It was a mistake to bring you here."
"Hmph," she answered, trying to ignore his musky scent and the tingling she felt at his closeness, "Whether you brought me here or not, it was bound to happen sooner or later that I'd learn where your loyalties were, who you really cared about."
She exhaled her hurt and raised her head to the low ceiling. The light from the room above them blurred liquid with her angry tears, reminding her of the milk that awaited her in Victoria Grove. She swiped a paw across her face to clear the vision, hoping Mungo didn't notice.
Demeter sat in the corner and began bathing the city's grime from her fur, allowing the couple as much privacy as she could.
Mungo let his claws comb gently over Rumpleteazer's unyielding back. "I care about you," he crooned. "I'm doing this for you."
Teazer closed her eyes and sighed at his touch before flinching away. "Ha, how is this for me?"
He crept in front of her. "If you left, especially with Demeter, Mac would want you found. He would send an army for you, an army that included dogs."
"So," she pouted, turning her head to the side, "I can take care of myself against dogs."
Mungo shook his head. "I don't mean pups smaller than you, like Pekes and Pols, but Dobes, Rots and Bulls. I won't have big, vicious dogs coming after you."
Big dogs? Demeter stopped mid-lick and perked up her black and gold ears. Macavity used dogs as enforcers?
She recalled Old Deuteronomy's birthday last year when Rumpuscat had come and Munkustrap had recounted The Awful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles. Looking for Scat later, she'd seen him and Munk under the willow tree. Through its green veil, she'd heard their conversation—something about dogs...but Rumpleteazer interrupted her train of thought.
The pretty tigress ran her tongue across her mouth and looked into the handsome tiger's tawny eyes. "That's why you want to keep me here?" she asked. "To protect me, not to impress your father?"
"Of course that's why," he answered in the raspy whisper. "I don't care about impressing anyone but you."
Demeter saw him slide a paw forward to touch the little mollie's and say, "I love you, Marchessa Rumpleteazer Philomena Kate."
Teazer giggled at his pronouncement with her full pedigree and responded, "I love you, Mungo...jerrie."
Watching them made Demeter wistful. Munkustrap—sweet, dependable and heartbeat-raising Munkustrap. What had he said that night as she crept closer?
"Keep an eye on him, Scat. Bones is getting old. He won't be able to control him and his killer hounds much longer."
"It would help if you'd come back," Rumpuscat had said.
She'd seen Munkustrap shake his head. "No, I'm happy here; I'm needed. As long as he doesn't feel like he's being challenged for his position, everyone should be safe."
She'd heard Scat sigh. "Very well, then. You stay here and enjoy your garden and all it has to offer..."
Just at that moment Jenny had called her and Demeter had hurried away before the toms saw her.
Bones...Demeter glanced toward the old brindle cat snoring raggedly on the other side of the room. Had they been talking about Griddlebones? If so, did Munkustrap know Macavity? Over all of the distance between here and the vicarage where the big grey waited, had he given her the means to escape?
She approached the young lovers in their furry foreplay. "Excuse me, but I have an idea how we might be able to get out of here without worrying about the dogs."
"What do you have in mind," Mungo asked, tearing his attention away from his Teazer.
Demeter smiled, her whiskers curling up for the first time since she'd enter the ugly lair. "We'll make him want us to leave."