Eventually, Ben headed upstairs to hurry the girls along, since they’d have to leave for school soon. Zion drifted over to me.

“I’m having a hard time getting her scent. What I’m sensing seems human to me. Has another adult female been living here?”

“Not so far as I know. No, Ben would’ve mentioned it to me.”

“I need to visit her bedroom. That’s where her scent will be strongest.”

“Okay. Let me offer to stay here with the youngest while Ben takes the other three to school.”

Zion’s eyes widened and darted toward the stairs.

“She has children? Why didn’t you tell me that?”

“I’m sorry,” I said sweetly, “I assumed you’d been fully briefed.”

She glowered at me. “They may well be Nolanders. If so, they’ll see through my disguise. I’ll have to hide.”

The thought of Ben’s girls being like me came as a shock. I guess it made sense — if Justine was a Second, her kids would be half. They might’ve inherited some weirdness. It just hadn’t occurred to me.

I headed up the stairs and told Ben I could stay with Madisyn while he took the others to school. That pleased him, since Madisyn, whose preschool started later, was still in her PJs and steadfastly ignoring the order to get dressed.

When she saw me, her face lit up.

“Aunt Beth! Nanny Hansen’s doggie says you can find Mommy! Daddy said I couldn’t tell you. But now I did. So can you?”

I glanced at Ben, who was rubbing his forehead. Actually, he was rubbing his eyes.

“Oh, Ben,” I said, and put my arms around him.

We stood there for a good while with Madisyn looking up at us and occasionally tugging on my pant leg and saying “doggie” in a loud whisper. The other kids gathered at the door and peeked in, looking sad and a little scared. Finally Ben pulled away from me and throatily told Tiff, Jazzy, and Lia to go get in the car. He followed them out without speaking to me. I didn’t hear any shrieks from downstairs, so apparently Zion had gone unnoticed.

Once I heard the car pull out, I knelt down in front of Madisyn.

“Sweetie, do you think I should meet Nanny Hansen’s dog?”

“Yeah!”

She took my hand and led me downstairs and out into the back yard. She looked around carefully, then crossed over to the fence separating Ben’s yard from the neighbor’s to the west.