Frost on the Green (The Green Girl sequel) ✓

Chapter 31

Alice’s POV

I groaned sleepily and turned around and away from the one who’d rapped me on my cheek. I heard the soft rustling of the sheets and the mattress barely declined under his weight as he moved in front of me to knock me with his paw again.

“Go away, Chess; it’d too early to get up,” I murmured through a yawn.

He omitted a quiet meow and his paw rested over my cheek once more.

“What do you want?” I asked, finally opening my eyes. “Are you hungry? It’s too early for your breakfast…”

I extended my arm and searched the surface of my nightstand for my phone. It wasn’t there.

“Where did it…” I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes. I looked around my room and eventually my eyes located the rectangular object on the floor.

“How did it get there?” I wondered aloud and leaned down to get it. Once I picked it up and look at the time I realized what must’ve happened: my alarm was off, even though it should’ve woke me up twenty minutes ago; I must’ve turned it off, knocked the phone down in the process and gone back to sleep.

“I guess it is time for breakfast after all,” I commented, stretching. “Come on,” I urged Chess as I was putting on a pair of jeans; in the mean time, the kitten had cuddled on my bed. I stepped in front of him and poked him lightly on the muzzle. He slightly opened one eye and meowed lazily.

“Not so much fun when it’s done to you, is it?” I teased him, although I realized that if he had not awoken me, I would’ve overslept.

I took him in my arms and headed for the kitchen. Even from the hallway, I smelled the aromas of toast and bacon and my stomach rumbled.

“Morning,” I greeted my aunts and mother as I walked in. I placed Chess on the floor and served myself some of the meal Flora had prepared, making sure first that my pet got his share of it.

“We were just about to wake you up, dear,” Rose stated, rearranging her reading glasses and turning the page of her newspaper. “We thought you might’ve overslept.”

“I did, but Chess woke me up.”

“Quite the clever animal you have,” Azalea noted and I smiled, remembering how much she disliked Cheshire at first and how she adored him now.

“I wish I could take him to Aberville,” I noted with a sigh. “Too bad they don’t allow animals in the building.”

“Management does have a reason for concern,” Elanor put in. “Not everyone cleans up after their pets as well as you do, Alice, not to mention they don’t bother taking them to a vet.”

“Speaking of which,” I placed another piece of bacon on my plate, “it’s almost time for Chess’s yearly vaccination.”

“I could take him,” my mother suggested casually.

I liked that she was taking interest in someone I cared about. And she was not even forcing herself to do so; since last night’s talk, things between us were much less tense.

“Thank you,” I said, with a smile to her. “You should take his passport with you; it’s in the drawer of my nightstand, under Linnea Green’s Diary.”

“Oh, yes, our very own book of witchcraft,” my mom commented.

“It’s just a diary; it’s not like there are any spells in it,” I noted.

“True, but for those times to keep a book on herbs and not be a doctor was suspicious. You know she’d been accused of witchcraft, don’t you, Alice?”