" She kissed him again rather more forcefully. "Thanks, dearest Dad."They drew apart and smiled at each other fondly.'She really is a sweet girl, ' th...ught Jerry, 'but she's a funny mix; all adult, intelligent and assured but emotionally still an adolescent. I hope I got that right.'It appeared that he had. She went and chatted with Emma and seemed to the latter to be totally relaxed. She joined Emma in the garden to do some desultory tidying and dead-heading of roses.Jerry and the dogs. She laid them on the bed as and went to the dresser and pulled out matching pink lace bra and panty set. She smiled as she got dressed for the day and left her bedroom and headed for the kitchen and grabbed a cup of coffee and a bagel.Across town....George was out for his morning jog and stopped for coffee on his way back to his house. He walked into the empty house. He never realized how empty it was with his youngest daughter gone off to college. He walked upstairs and stripped off his. " I stand delighted, M'lord," I smiled demurely. God, did I hate thismedieval speak! It was bad enough having to use it during officialTerran gatherings!Once we were comfortably seated, he helped Alexandra back onto herhorse."Empress, why do they talk so funny?" Yuuka asked as she sat on theplush leather bench opposite Alex, Cami, Jacki, and I, with her headcocked to the side."Alexandra of Covington, you too are regarded as Empress of yourrealm?" Lord Byron asked as he returned to his horse."As. But Aunt Gene had gone to deliver some specially commissioned items and Aunt Annie had been called to assist with a difficult birth; she was also a licensed midwife. So that left me to run both stores and manage the girls until one or the other of them returned.Three days had passed since we'd all returned to Murdoc and it seemed that, thanks to Camilla and Hunter, the hunt had been successfully halted. Marcus and Talon were still behaving cautiously, like they didn't believe the ordeal was.