“I hope it’s to discuss the tapioca banana pie I asked Fergus to make for dinner,” Kathryn said, smacking her lips.

“We’ll ask, dear,” Myra called over her shoulder. To Annie she said, “I don’t think Charles has ever made a tapioca banana pie before.”

“That’s why Fergus is making it.” Annie laughed. “He makes the best pies in the whole world. The crust just melts in your mouth. What do you think Abner wants? It’s not like him to summon us to the war room. As in you and me specifically.”

“I guess we’ll find out when we get there. I don’t think we should worry until we hear what he has to say.”

“I always worry, Myra, you know that. The minute I get a feeling something is not quite right, my worry button kicks on. I think I was born to worry.” To prove her point, Annie jabbed at the rosette carved into the mantel that would open the secret door that led to the dungeons and the war room under the house.

“Is there a problem, Abner?” both women asked breathlessly as they bolted into the war room.

“Depends. Take a look at this,” Abner said, holding out a stack of printouts.

“What is it?” Myra asked.

“Everything you ever wanted to know about the company called La Natural that Lincoln Moss took from virtual bankruptcy and turned into a billion-dollar juggernaut.”

“Oh my,” was all Myra could think of to say. “I really don’t understand all of this, can you just tell us, you know, a summary?”

“The short answer is the company is going down the drain. The decline started, I guess you could say, when Amalie lit out. I’ve been at this for the last two days, and I finally have it all together. He bought this run-of-the-mill company that as near as I can figure out, catered to cosmetics that teenage girls bought in drugstores. In other words, cheap stuff. He hired some top marketing guns and some wizard chemists, and suddenly the company is right up there, marketing-wise, with Chanel and La Prairie. He had it all repackaged, put in new machinery, renamed the company, and hired and married Amalie Laurent, a gorgeous French model who was starting to make a name for herself in the modeling world to be the new face of La Natural. He then quadrupled the price of the brand to go with the packaging and suddenly the whole world stood in line to buy the products he was producing. The only thing he didn’t do was change the actual product. It was the same product all those teenage girls were buying in drugstores.