“Leave him outside with food enough to see him through.” Libby bent down and lifted the mite into her arms, laughing when the tabby tried to crawl onto her shoulder like a blasted parrot.

“You oughtn’t to let him do that. He’s trying to assert dominance over you.”

Libby lifted her brows, more curiosity than challenge in her expression. “Really? How do you know?”

Mabena scowled. “It’s what my mother always said. I don’t know. Seems logical, doesn’t it?”

Yet there the creature was, all but wrapped around Libby’s neck as she shrugged. “I rather thought it was just their instinct to find the highest place to perch. But then, cats aren’t my specialty. I’ll have to do some reading about it.”

And in the meantime, she apparently meant to wear the thing like a scarf. Mabena rolled her eyes and strode toward the bedrooms. “I’ll pack for us. You try to convince the little monster to go back outside.” Mabena had been trying for days, but the beastie wouldn’t cross that threshold again for anything, even the promise of more bacon. “And name it, will you, if you mean to keep it?”

Libby grinned, as if the request were a sign that Mabena was softening toward it. Which she wasn’t. She just knew that her companion would get cross eventually if she kept calling it “the little monster.” And much as a cross Libby sounded amusing in theory, she had a feeling it wouldn’t be half so fun in practice. One of them needed to be all sunshine, and it certainly wasn’t Mabena these days.

“I’m fairly certain it’s a tom, though it is rather difficult to tell on so small a kitten.”

“If you say so, my lady. I haven’t a clue.”

“In which case, I was thinking Darwin.”

Mabena paused. “Not after Charles Darwin.”

“Well, he was one of the greatest naturalists of the modern era.”

“There’s controversy around nearly all his theories.” Not that she’d known much about his theories until she started serving Libby, aside from the fact that most people on the isles considered them heretical.

“He was awarded the most prestigious scientific award in all of Britain! The Copley Medal isn’t handed out to just anyone.”

“Your mother would be appalled and think you were railing against the church.”

There, a crack in Libby’s smile. Though it brought Mabena no pleasure to widen it, not really. “Plenty of clergy thought his theories noble and not at all in opposition to biblical teachings.”

“And others—the voices that won the day—thought they demanded a polarization of science and theology.” Mabena shook her head. “You’ll find the people here far more given to theology than science, my lady. Some may find it offensive if you name it Darwin is all.”