“Thank you.” It wasn’t often she encouraged me to be a dissenter. Make that ever.

Tara showed me her cell phone. “Look! Mom says it’s okay.”

“What’s okay?” my mother asked.

“I’m taking Tara to a concert for her birthday,” I said.

“Correction,” Tara said. “You and Sal are taking me-if you hurry up and buy those tickets.”

“Who’s Sal?” Mom asked.

I gave Tara a fierce scowl. “You are notgoing to call Marco Sal… or Dreamy Eyes, or Hot Pockets, or any other silly name.”

“So…” She gave my mom a sly smile. “Uncle Marco, then?”

With my materials boxed, I slipped on my navy peacoat, wrapped a green and blue plaid scarf around my neck, and put on my Kelly green wool beret, which Marco said brought out the Irish in my eyes. “Okay, I’m ready. Who wants to carry the flower arrangement?”

My mom was standing across the aisle with Tara, completely absorbed in a display of garden decorations.

“Hello. We need to get out of here,” I called, glancing at my watch.

“How about a birdbath for the backyard?” Tara asked, pointing to one of the items.

Mom shook her head. “Too common.”

I picked up the vase of flowers. “Let’s get going before the guards come back.”

“I like bright and cheerful and fun,” Mom continued, oblivious to my warning.

“Tara, will you grab my book bag?” I asked.

My niece turned around. “What?”

“The canvas book bag with the petition inside. Isn’t anyone listening?”

“Sorry,” Tara said, springing into action. She came to a sudden stop and pointed at my beret. “What is that-thing- on your hat?”

“A brooch,” I said, trying to juggle the vase and the box.

“A brooch?” she chortled. “You’re wearing a brooch on your hat? Are you, like, the Queen of England or something?”

“May I slip in a reminder here?” I said. “I haven’t bought those concert tickets yet.”

“Seriously, Aunt Abby, promise me you won’t wear that nasty thing to the concert. I’d die of embarrassment.”

“Wear what nasty thing?” Mom asked, turning at last.

“Uh-oh,” Tara said with an intake of breath. “Darth Vader approaching, stage right, and he’s brought the storm troopers.”

I glanced up the aisle and saw Nils Raand, accompanied by a half dozen security guards, bearing down on us.

“Let’s move it, people,” I called. “Time to blow this planet.”

CHAPTER THREE

We didn’t stop running until we reached my bright yellow car, where we paused to catch our breath, making white plumes in the frosty air.

“That was cool,” Tara said. “We escaped just in the nick of time, like in the movies.”

“They wouldn’t have dared to touch us,” I assured her. “It was all for show.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Mom said as we stowed the supplies in my tiny trunk.

“Trust me, Mom, this isn’t the first time Uniworld has tried to unnerve me.”

“You never told me they tried to unnerve you,” Mom said, a frown creasing her brow.

“Because I knew you’d worry.”

“Thank you. Now I’m worried.”

“Nothing bad’s going to happen. PAR is behind me-Protectors of Animal Rights. Remember when I protested Dermacol Laboratory’s use of animals to test their cosmetics last summer? I did that with PAR’s help. We closed down a puppy mill last winter. And other PAR groups prevented two Uniworld farm factories from opening last year by rallying local citizens. No one got hurt either time.”

“Is PAR organizing the protests here in New Chapel?”

“That’s my responsibility.”

“But they’re here in town working with you?”

“No, but a very competent PAR representative is advising me. Naturally, Uniworld wants to stop the protests, but I refuse to let a few threatening letters scare me off.”

Mom gasped. “They’ve actually threatened you?”

Why didn’t I learn to keep my mouth shut? “In a polite way, like, ‘please cease and desist.’ I’m not dealing with gangsters, you know.”

“Can we go now?” Tara asked. “It’s, like, zero degrees out here.”

“In a minute, Tara,” Mom said. “Abigail, I’ve changed my mind. Let someone else try to stop that farm from opening. You have your whole life ahead of you. I don’t want to read in the newspaper one morning that your car was pushed into a ditch.”

No matter what the threat was, in her imagination, I always ended up in a ditch.

“That’s the problem with our society, Mom. ‘Let someone else do it. I’m too busy. I don’t want to be bothered.’ If everyone said that, we’d have huge, horrible problems, like drugs in our water supply, poisons in our plastic bottles, pesticides in our vegetables-”

“But we do have those problems,” she said.

“Exactly. Look, if it helps you worry less, all I’m planning to do for the moment is collect more signatures so I can take my petition to court and ask for an injunction. And what is Uniworld going to do about that? Shoot me?”

“I’m freezing here,” Tara called, rubbing her arms.

“What does Marco say about your protesting?” Mom asked.

“He’s behind me one hundred percent.” Although that figure might be subject to change when I finally got around to telling him about the threats. I gave Mom a hug. “Don’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Can’t. Move,” Tara said through tightly squeezed lips. “Frozen. Solid.”

“You should have said something earlier,” Mom said, and pushed the button on her remote. Across the lot, her headlights flashed. “Go sit in the van. I’ll be right there.”

Tara still pretended to be frozen into a Popsicle. Mom turned to give me a hug, then held me at arm’s distance. “Be careful.”

I held up my hand. “Promise.”

“You promised to get engaged, but that hasn’t happened yet, has it?”

“It won’t happen any sooner because you keep asking, either.”

We locked gazes, glaring stubbornly. Then her gaze moved upward, landing on my beret. “Is that what Tara was talking about earlier?”

“Mm-hmm,” Tara managed.

“How pretty,” Mom said, our dispute put aside. “Is it an antique?”

“I don’t know,” I said, fingering the brooch. “I found it in a shipment of flowers from Hawaii. I called the supplier, but he had no idea how it got in the box, so he said to keep it unless someone contacts him about it.”

“May I see it?” As I removed my hat, Mom took her reading glasses out of her purse for a closer look at the brooch. “Is it a lily?”

“Anthurium,” I said. “You can tell by the heart-shaped leaf and the long yellow spadix.”

“Spadix?” Tara repeated with a snicker, her lips apparently thawed. “Is that another name for a guy’s-?”

“Tara!” my mom said.

“Well, that’s what it looks like!” she cried.

Mom tapped the back with her fingernail. “It could be made out of wood, or some type of pottery. I’ll bet it wouldn’t be hard to copy.”

As I put my beret back on, I caught a familiar gleam in her eye. I had a feeling she’d found her inspiration.

“Hey, Buttercup, you’re back early. How was the show?” Marco asked, getting up from his desk to come around and greet me. He was in his office catching up on paperwork, and as usual, looking so yummy it was all I could do to not devour him then and there. Fortunately, I can suppress my appetite.

Marco had on a black T-shirt with a Down the Hatch logo on the front, close-fitting blue jeans, and scuffed black boots. There wasn’t anything extraordinary about the outfit, but the male inside it was a different story. How lucky was I to have found a guy who was not only brave, educated, and street-smart, but also honest, and with a dry wit that never failed to amuse me? Throw in a hard-bellied body, sexy voice, thick, wavy dark hair, and dark eyebrows over soulful, deep brown eyes, and he was one heck of a man.