" He had a steely edge to his voice, and I glanced from him to Mimi to observe if she blushed, or gave any other hint of her night with him."It sounds...from your tone of voice as if you slept badly, Jacques. I'm the same when not in my own bed." Chloe had come in from the kitchen with fresh baked croissants. "Eat these, and after we will take a walk around the estate, there are many things I want to show you."With freshly brewed coffee and newly baked croissants inside me my temper improved, and. “Not a lot. Just what you read in the press. They haven’t really been on the radar for any special attention from Inward Investment once it was agreed they’d set up manufacturing here.”“No, I suppose not. How’s it going for you with Inward Investment?”“I’m enjoying it. It’s my first ministerial position – I’ve been glad of the opportunity and I think we’ve been able to deliver some positives. You know the New Order political stance didn’t make it easy for us to make friends abroad for a while,. Naturally, he asked me, “How did they do that with the animals, Daddy?”Daddies are supposed to know things like that, but I had no clue. It didn’t seem possible how those animals talked and did the things they did. “I don’t know, Kev, was pretty neat, huh.” Then a thought struck me, “Maybe they just trained them.”Kev’s face lit up, “Did they? Can we have a pet chipmunk and train it, Daddy, please?”I laughed, wouldn’t it be nice. “I don’t think so, Kev, I don’t think they let you have pet. We called it a day and went home. Sarah was safe. Lonely, perhaps, but safe.Over our supper that evening I mentioned the house seemed a little empty.Connie shook her head sadly. "Yeah, I miss her too, more than I thought I would." Do you think she'll be okay?" I asked."I don't really know," she said. "It's out of our hands now."When we went to bed that night, I checked Sarah's room and found she'd made the bed. She'd also left us one of her stuffed animals, an orange kangaroo named Fred. Fred.