Later.... elsewhere

The recipients of Leonora's emails were not pleased with them.

Mark read her resignation mail, and shrugged his shoulders. He would speak to her in the morning about it.

He was actually more worried about the sudden appearance of Leonora's alleged cousin, and her willingness to go gadding off to Morocco with him for three weeks. Not that Mark was hugely suspicious but it did seem a bit odd.

"Come on Sheba, off to bed," he said. Sheba dutifully followed him into the bedroom and curled round on her rug next to his bed.

She usually stayed there most of the night, but sometimes she would wander round the house in the early hours, checking everything was all right, and maybe snooze for a while near the main door. Sheba took her role as Top Guard Dog very seriously. After all she was a GSD, which as everyone knows is really short for a Guard and Sentry Dog.

Leonard read Leonora's email three times. He couldn't believe it. Even when he had read it through the third time, he thought he was mis-reading it.

Only Leonora, but only Leonora, would ask him to be totally honest and then victimise him for it. He might as well have lied to her in the first place. Flippin' woman. He didn't know whether he wanted to shake her or slap her. She was such a child.

Leonard also decided not to reply. He looked round at Tata. There was only one thing for it.

"Fancy a night cache Tata?" he asked.

"Ruff, ruff," she answered. Tata was always up for it.

Why weren't women more like Tata, mused Leonard.

Off they went in Tata's Land Rover, to grope around in the dark countryside looking for little tiny pots of treasure.

Leonard put Leonora out of his head, and concentrated on the challenge ahead of him. He didn't even put any horrid music on, much to Tata's relief.

Tata and Leonard hunted for the cache in the peace and quiet of the night. They thoroughly enjoyed the walk, but only located the cache through the clue. There were only five reflectors present and there was quite a distance between the last reflector and the cache area. They took a travel bug and a coin.

Tata sat happily for her picture and pulled a silly face at the camera.

"Ruff ruff ruff?" she asked Leonard.

"Of course, we'll put it on the geocaching site as soon as we get back," he replied.

"Aruff ruff?" she barked.

"Leonora? Well I don't know. She just sent me a nasty email, so I'm not too keen on mailing her just now," said Leonard.

But then he saw the disappointed look on Tata's face, and said quickly:

"I could just send her your image though, telling her about our cache, I'm sure she will like that."

Tata smiled again. She'd realised Leonard had not been happy with the email from Leonora, and thought the situation needed a bit of help.

Although Leonora was not part of the household, Tata considered her to be extended family and a sort of semi-permanent member, so she needed to be managed just like everyone else.

Nobody could ever fall out about Tata. She smirked as they walked back to her Land Rover, and she climbed elegantly in the back.

When they arrived home, Leonard dutifully loaded up the images onto the caching site and then sent the one of Tata to Leonora.



"Hi Leonora

"Just been out caching with Tata for a special night time one involving reflectors. It wasn't easy to find, but we got there in the end. Tata did a special pose for you. I'll reply to your other mail later.

"Leonard."

He sat back and read it again. Leonard was pleased with himself. He was always so diplomatic with Leonora when she threw her tantrums. Really she didn't deserve it, but he was fond of her and he didn't want to fall out with her.

Tata sighed her approval and decided it was time for a snooze. The house was quiet and Leonard spent the next hour or so flitting between forums, and watching the news.

He wondered how to tackle Leonora, but decided that was best left for later. He didn't feel like thinking about it right now, but at least he had offered an olive branch.