Love Comes in Three

Chapter Forty-Seven "Finding Alice"

            Seamus opened the door and let me walk in first, there were a couple of pens filled with spaniel pups, "Oh, which one is she?" I cooed as I walked to the closest pen and reached inside to feel the soft fur.

            "Why don't you guess?" Lord Edgehill said nudging Seamus, "which puppy do you think is my Alice?"

            I turned and screwed up my face, "All right, I will play your silly game." I moved around each pen, watching as the pups followed me, tails wagging.

            After my first turn around the room and inspecting the puppies in each pen, I turned back to look at Lord Edgehill and Seamus as they stood off to the side. The five dogs from our entourage having come in to join in the fun, "Well?" Lord Edgehill taunted, "Do you have a guess?"

            "Don't look at me," Seamus chortled, "this is your game!"

            I walked to the pen furthest into the room, leaned over and dropped my hand inside and six chocolate brown pups waddled over to me, "She's not in here," I said, "These puppies are still too young to leave their mother."

            "Ha!" Seamus laughed and jabbed Lord Edgehill in the ribs, "She's right about that!"

            "Yeah, yeah," Lord Edgehill patted his friend's shoulder, "but she hasn't found Alice yet."

            That left two other pens. The first pen had puppies that were white with chocolate brown markings while the second pen had puppies that were white with tan markings, "If I'm right, both of these litters are about the same age."

            "You're right about that too, Missy!" Seamus hollered and when I smiled back I noticed that Lord Edgehill had his hand on the water spaniel, giving it a gentle scratch on the head. I walked to the pen of tan puppies and leaned over the wall, the five puppies in there all swarmed towards me.

            "Being that you already named her, Alice," I stood with the two female pups in my arms, "she has to be one of these."

            "You think you're so clever," Lord Edgehill goaded as Seamus covered his mouth to hold in his laughter, "tell me which one is Alice."

            I walked towards the gentlemen, still cradling the two puppies in my arms and looking down on their sweet fuzzy faces, "Well," I started as I looked up at Lord Edgehill and he was doing his best to remain stoic. "This is Alice," I said handing the one puppy that had a smattering of tan colored freckles on her muzzle to Lord Edgehill.

            "How . . . how'd you know?" Seamus asked flabbergasted as I handed the other puppy to him.

            I smiled widely, "She has character," and I started to laugh as Alice climbed close to Lord Edgehill's face and began licking him.

            "Well, I'll be," Seamus clucked as he returned the other female pup to her brothers, "I would not have believed it . . . look at all of these puppies an' you picked out the right one!" he continued talking even though I had returned to the pen with the white and chocolate colored pups. "What about you, Miss, surely you'd like a puppy of your own!"

            "Oh, I couldn't . . . my sister is allergic," I started.

            "And you won't be with her forever, Miss Woodbridge," Lord Edgehill said moving towards me with Alice, "look at this face. You know you can't say no to her."

            "But Patience would never . . . "

            "Then keep her with us," Lord Edgehill urged, "and once you're ready to have her with you at your home, wherever that may be, I will bring her to you."