A Will and a Way

convinced they were doing their duty. Both servants felt justified when they heard laughter drift through the house.
    Michael wasn’t sure there had been another time in his life when he’d been so content. He was, in essence, playing house, something he’d never had the time or inclination for. He would write for hours, closed off in his office, wrapped up in plots and characters and what-ifs. Then he could break away and reality was the scent of cooking or furniture polish. He had a home, a woman, and was determined to keep them.
    Late in the afternoon, he always laid a fire in the parlor. After dinner they had coffee there, sometimes quietly, sometimes during a hard-fought game of rummy. It seemed ordinary, Michael admitted. It was ordinary, unless you added Pandora. He was just setting fire to the kindling when Bruno raced into the room and upset a table. Knickknacks went flying.
    “We’re going to have to send you to charm school,” Michael declared as he rose to deal with the rubble. Though it had been just over a month, Bruno had nearly doubled in size already. He was, without a doubt, going to grow into his paws. After righting the table, he saw the dog wiggling its way under a sofa. “What’ve you got there?”
    Besides being large, Bruno had already earned a reputation as a clever thief. Just the day before, they’d lost a slab of pork chops. “All right, you devil, if that’s tonight’s chicken, you’re going into solitary confinement in the garage.” Getting down on all fours, Michael looked under the couch. It wasn’t chicken the dog was gnawing noisily on, but Michael’s shoe.
    “Damn!” Michael made a grab but the dog backed out of reach and kept on chewing. “That shoe’s worth five times what you are, you overgrown mutt. Give it here.” Flattening, Michael scooted halfway under the sofa. Bruno merely dragged the shoe away again, enjoying the game.
    “Oh, how sweet.” Pandora walked into the parlor and eyed Michael from the waist down. He did, she decided, indeed have some redeeming qualities. “Are you playing with the dog, Michael, or dusting under the sofa?”
    “I’m going to make a rug out of him.”
    “Dear, dear, we sound a little cross this evening. Bruno, here baby.” Carrying the shoe like a trophy, Bruno squirmed out from under the couch and pranced over to her. “Is this what you were after?” Pandora held up the shoe while petting Bruno with her other hand. “How clever of you to teach Bruno to fetch.”
    Michael pulled himself up, then yanked the shoe out of herhand. It was unfortunately wet and covered with teeth marks. “That’s the second shoe he’s ruined. And he didn’t even have the courtesy to take both from one pair.”
    She looked down at what had been creamy Italian leather. “You never wear anything but tennis shoes or boots anyway.”
    Michael slapped the shoe against his palm. Bruno, tongue lolling, grinned up at him. “Obedience school.”
    “Oh, Michael, we can’t send our child away.” She patted his cheek. “It’s just a phase.”
    “This phase has cost me two pairs of shoes, my dinner and we never did find that sweater he dragged off.”
    “You shouldn’t drop your clothes on the floor,” Pandora said easily. “And that sweater was already ratty. I’m sure Bruno thought it was a rag.”
    “He never chews up anything of yours.”
    Pandora smiled. “No, he doesn’t, does he?”
    Michael gave her a long look. “Just what’re you so happy about?”
    “I had a phone call this afternoon.”
    Michael saw the excitement in her eyes and decided the issue of the shoe could wait. “And?”
    “From Jacob Morison.”
    “The producer?”
    “ The producer,” Pandora repeated. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t overreact, but the excitement threatened to burst inside her. “He’s going to be filming a new movie. Jessica Wainwright’s starring.”
    Jessica Wainwright, Michael mused. Grande dame of thetheater and the screen. Eccentric and brilliant, her career had spanned two generations. “She’s retired. Wainwright hasn’t made a film in five years.”
    “She’s making this one. Billy Mitchell’s directing.”
    Michael tilted his head in consideration as he studied Pandora’s face. It made him think of the cat and the canary. “Sounds like they’re pulling out all the stops.”
    “She plays a half-mad reclusive countess who’s dragged back to reality by a visit from her granddaughter. Cass Barkley’s on the