“Why?” She would have thought he’d want the meal for himself. Or herself.

“Boone only receives shipments of pork and beef twice a month, and we’re all getting tired of venison and rabbit. We’re even getting tired of beef. So I asked Boone if he had any poultry for sale. He said he’d try to get some.”

“He did that,” Twyla said, looking out the screen door.

“I was hoping to buy a chicken, not a turkey the size of a minivan.”

An exaggeration, but it was a big bird—and looked bigger with the feet and feathers and everything else still attached.

Eve sagged against the doorframe. “What am I supposed to do with it?”

“Well, you can’t tell them you don’t want it—especially if they went out and caught it just for you.”

“I know that!”

A neighborhood cat, a big tom from the look of it, must have caught the scent of meat. Twyla wasn’t sure if the animal didn’t see her through the screen door or didn’t care. He sauntered toward the porch, too focused on the free meal to notice the Crows until they struck. Twyla wasn’t sure which of the Crowgard she enjoyed more, the one who flew in and grabbed the cat’s tail, giving it a yank before letting go and flying out of reach, or the one who flew over and dropped a rotten tomato on the cat’s head. Either way, she didn’t think that cat would be looking to scrounge a meal at Eve’s house anytime soon.

Having successfully routed the thief, the Crows returned to their sentry post.

“You have a roasting pan big enough to hold it?” Twyla asked.

“No,” Eve replied. “I don’t have an oven big enough to hold it either.”

Twyla nodded. “They have big pans at Meat-n-Greens, and big ovens too. So this is what we’ll do. After work, we’ll have one of the boys help us take the bird back to the Courtyard. There must be a place where they prepare some of the game they sell at the butcher shop. That would be the best place to deal with the turkey. And anything we would waste, the Others might be able to use. In the meantime, let’s put some newspapers or cardboard under that bird so you don’t have to do more than hose off your porch.”

“That bird is going to be the family’s meat quota for weeks,” Eve said after they tugged the turkey onto a pad of newspapers.

“No, it’s not. You’re going to supply the meat for a residents’ potluck. The rest of us who want to come will each bring a dish. You’ll invite Mr. Simon and Miss Meg so they can have the experience of this kind of meal with friends. Better invite the Wolf who brought the bird too.”

“Not sure who he is.”

“Mr. Simon will know. I’d best get back to work.”

“Twyla? I’m good with tools. I like working around the house. But I’ve never lived in a country hamlet or on a farm. I don’t know the first thing about plucking that bird or doing anything else that’s needed to get it ready to cook.”

She smiled. “Good thing for all of us that I know a bit about that. Best have Ruth and Merri Lee join us for this. They should learn too.”

Twyla hurried back to the consulate to help Katherine Debany with reorganizing the files. Throughout the morning, Elliot Wolfgard was uncharacteristically quiet about the amount of time she’d been gone on a personal errand. But just before her lunch break, he paused near the filing cabinets and said blandly, “At least, being human, you don’t have to pluck the damn thing with your teeth.”

CHAPTER 16

Watersday, Messis 18

Returning from Ferryman’s Landing, Kowalski pulled his car into the Courtyard’s customer parking lot and looked at Monty. “Did we just bend some rules or buy from the black market?”

“Neither,” Monty replied. “Ferryman’s Landing isn’t under human control. Butchers and grocers may be limited when it comes to selling foods that are grown outside our area, but there are no purchase limits for anything grown or produced on Great Island or the land used by the Intuits who grow crops around the mainland part of the village.”

Kowalski looked at the stuffed carry sacks in the backseat. “Even so.”

Monty nodded. “Even so.”

They’d gone to Ferryman’s Landing to purchase dinner rolls from Eamer’s Bakery since Nadine was busy making muffins and desserts as her contribution to the residents’ potluck, as well as making the pastries, muffins, and other food for A Little Bite to sell since Meat-n-Greens was closed to everyone else in order to host their private party. Ruthie had asked them to check at the open market for potatoes because the female pack didn’t have quite enough to make the mashed potatoes for the potluck and the potato salad Nadine wanted to make for the coffee shop.

After buying the rolls, they wandered around the open market, looking for the other items on the girls’ list. Somehow, in the course of explaining that they were buying ingredients needed for the turkey and potluck dinner that some Lakeside Wolves and humans were putting together, Monty noticed that the quarter pound of butter he’d asked for turned into a full pound so that there would be enough for the corn on the cob that would be served, a dozen eggs became two dozen, a pound of sugar ended up weighing more than a pound, and a five-pound bag of flour from a shipment fresh from the Midwest was added to their purchases when they weren’t looking. Vendors began calling out suggestions of dishes that would go well with turkey, even on a hot summer day.