Three stops, and we piled out. The red carpet smelled like it had been freshly shampooed, a little like wet dog. I guess hotels had no choice but to constantly clean and paint. Fortunately, they hadn’t touched the inside of our room. It still smelled like our bouquet of roses. There was a new platter of goodies on the table: chocolate dipped strawberries, slices of pineapple on toothpicks, cherries, and red grapes, plus another big bowl of delicious apples. Traveling with Timothy was like having an Aladdin’s lamp. Imagine something wonderful, and there it suddenly was.
Timothy was watching me notice everything, his eyes crinkled with good humor again. “You are a joy, my darling. I love how you see the world, your enthusiasm, the freshness of each discovery. You make life new.”
Of course, I ran to embrace him for those kind words and then, although we probably smelled of zoo animals, we began kissing and stroking with abandon. I think it would have progressed nicely if a knock hadn’t sounded at the door.
“Yes?” Timothy responded, his voice thick with irritation as he glanced at the door.
“Boss, we have a problem,” Terry said.
Romance went out the window. Terry and Bob walked inside the room and sat down in the two guest chairs. Bob was eyeing the apples. I offered him one.
“What’s the problem?” Timothy barked at them.
“Bob walked downstairs to do a little surveillance and found that Peters has called the papers to announce a breaking story. He claims he has a lead in his investigative report of the supernatural.”
“You mean that old photo he showed us?” I said. “That’s hardly going to interest a crack team of reporters. They’ll laugh in his face.”
“I hope so,” Terry said. “No one may even show up, but I thought you should know.”
Timothy nodded. “There may be some stupid rag that’s interested in his kind of yellow journalism, but no one is going to get excited about vampires who eat scrambled eggs.”
“Is it time to disappear again?” I asked.
Timothy shook his head. “He can’t touch us, darling. This is all fluff. It will blow away. Only he’s becoming irritating. We may have to hand him over to . . .”
He glanced down at me, then walked closer, so he could drape his arms around me. “And if I had told you that we had to disappear, Penelope, would you have been willing to join me?”