Benjamin needed attention, and Jane was not going to be available for either frank conversation or physical activity for a couple of hours, so my big ...oy and I went for a walk.As we walked off the front porch, Penny fell in beside us. I had temporarily forgotten about her, but she apparently remembered me, because it seemed like Ben and I wouldn't be taking any unaccompanied trips without protection. When she hopped down off the porch to join us, I noticed she was packing. The sidearm was tidy,. "Goriander smiled. "But who is to know? And of course there is the matter of a suitable reward for unfolding thy treasures fully unto me." A small gleaming ingot lay in the open palm of his hand.She hesitated, then nodded. "Come," she said."You are a trader in certain rarities then?" Yes, my fair Astara, and the rarest of all rarities is knowledge, the knowing of the means by which to accomplish certain difficult tasks." Such as?" Such as, for example, separating that which glitters from its. Beth preferred to believe the first viewpoint, though it hardly mattered a damn to her, she thought as she hung up the phone. There was enough imaginative heat inspiring her for the both of them... and this time she wasn't about to louse it up.Through the Venetian blind of his study window, Jay Durke focused and re-focused his field glasses to bring closer the tiny yellow bikini bottoms covering Sara Wilson's taut full buttocks until he could imagine them damned near sitting on the end of his. The small child suddenly grabbed her milk off the counter, scaring the Mom half out of her mind, and started drinking. When the little girl finally cleared her snack from her mouth she said, "Mom, I almost forgot." And she rushed off to her abandoned backpack, dropped by the kitchen door upon entry. I have a note from Mrs. Perkins for you.Dread filled Mom's stomach as she imagined the worse. "What did this precious little child do that was so terrible that it warranted a "note"? was the first.