“How are you, Edward?” Primrose said, all grace and poise. “As you can see, I am alive, well, and thoroughly exasperated. While I commend you for your diligence, I’m afraid you’ve wasted rather a lot of my time and I don’t appreciate being ordered to present myself on your say-so.” She sniffed. “Your work has been excellent in the past, so I will not make a formal complaint to your superiors, but let me be plain when I say that I will no longer be requiring your services or that of your firm.”

“What? But—”

“I’ll send a letter to the firm, of course. And you’ll forward all the paperwork to the house, naturally.”

Primrose’s manner of steamrolling someone was so polite and so utterly unfightable that Mika was not surprised to see even Ian eyeing her with respect bordering on awe.

It didn’t take long for her to usher Edward back into his car, press a pair of Ian’s snowman-shaped cookies into his hands, and speed him along with a queenly wave.

Even Mika, who had seen Primrose run roughshod over the most formidable of nannies, the most truculent of tutors, and the most opinionated of witches in just such a sweet, merciless way, was impressed.

“We cannot let Lillian linger in limbo forever,” Primrose announced, as they watched Edward’s car vanish through the gates. “I propose we give it two or three months, and then we’ll report that she had an accident abroad. I have a handful of acquaintances in other countries who would be happy to corroborate our story, and if Lillian’s remains have to be examined, we can use magic to mask their true age.”

“And her will?” asked Jamie, narrowing his eyes. “We can’t exactly enact it if we haven’t reported her death.”

“But we know what it says,” said Primrose. “At least, I have a very good idea of what it says and I’m sure there’s a copy in the house I can peruse.” She patted him gently on the shoulder. “Whether or not we report her death, I am legally responsible for the children in that house.”

“You could refuse to be,” said Mika. “If you did that, the kids’ guardianship will go to Jamie, which is where it should have gone in the first place.”

Primrose sighed. “Don’t make this difficult, Mika. You know they can’t live here together.”

But Mika knew no such thing.

The gorgon had fought the gargoyle, but Mika was going to fight the gorgon and, what was more, she was going to win.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Let me make something perfectly plain, Primrose,” Mika said calmly, even as her body locked up with nerves. “Those kids are staying right here, together, in their home, with their family.”