Queen Bee (Lowcountry Tales #12)(32)

The water pans in my apiary were empty. I turned on the spigot and filled a watering can. Then I put it on the ground and went to my shed to put on my beekeeper suit. As much as I loved my bees, I wasn’t taking any chances. If they got a whiff of my pheromones that morning, they might panic and swarm.

Archie was a lost cause as the object of my affection, but the boys weren’t. Still, if and when he did marry Sharon, it might be awkward to try and maintain the frequency of my encounters with them. Besides, the decent thing to do was to give her the chance to endear herself to them. She wouldn’t be able to do that if I was around all the time. I owed them all some space and time.

I told my bees the whole story of Leslie and Archie and Sharon, and waggle dancing ensued once again. They were telling each other something, but it seemed different than usual.

There were so many interesting things about bee communication within the colony. In the morning, they send out scouts for food sources. On finding it, they drink a bunch of nectar and return to the hive. On reentering the hive, the scout walks straight in, shakes her tummy like mad, and makes a buzzing sound with her wings. The duration of the dancing and shaking and flapping of her wings tells the others how far away the food source is. Next the scout regurgitates the nectar and it’s gobbled up by other bees, sort of like a wine tasting. I’d read somewhere that the scouts are also covered in the scent of the flower, which helps the bees know which flowers are the grand crus in the garden. It all makes perfect sense. In fact, life seemed to make more sense in the world of honey bees than in ours.

“What am I to do?” I asked them. “She’s a truly dreadful woman of biblical proportions. I’m not kidding. She’s so definitely the wrong queen for their hive. I know I only met her once, but she’s so wrong for Archie and she’s going to absolutely ruin what’s left of the boys’ childhood. Wasn’t it bad enough to lose their mother? A stepmother should be a buoy, a source of strength, but also a chance for those little fellows to have more joy in their lives. Sharon is anything but joyous. The only consolation is that at least they’re just next door, so I can still keep an eye on things. But don’t worry. I’m going to be very careful around her. I’ve got to be. She would shut me out if she thought I was doing the least thing to undermine her position. I know that. What do y’all think?”

They just buzzed all around me and then left me to forage. There seemed to be no solution.

Momma had her appointment with Sharon that afternoon. Leslie drove her there, and because Sharon did not know Leslie or Momma from Adam’s housecat, she wouldn’t have recognized either one of them. I was coming home from work just about the same time they were returning from the city.

“I’m going to make us a pitcher of iced tea,” Momma said.

“Perfect!” Leslie said. “I’ll cut us a slice of cake.”

“I’m starving,” the queen said.

“Espionage is completely exhausting,” I said, thinking I was pretty clever for once. “How did it go?”

The changes in Momma were remarkable. Since Leslie’s return, Momma had not fallen out of bed once. Even more remarkable, she was out of bed and dressed appropriately. Now she was making tea. Her life force had begun to flow in her veins again. She was in exceptional humor. Well, I knew why, of course. Since Leslie married and left home, Momma had been in mourning for Leslie, her clone. She had been depressed. Here’s the weird part. I didn’t mind Momma’s turnaround one iota. I’d much rather have her this way than how she had been in Leslie’s absence. God, we were such a peculiar family. Now we were engaged in sabotage like the Snoop Sisters. But hey, every family needs a project.

I cut a lemon into wedges and took glasses from the cabinet. Within a few minutes we were recapping the afternoon.

“So what did you think of her?” I asked them.

“She’s an imperious so-and-so and I didn’t like her one bit,” Momma said. “She wanted to put veneers on all my teeth and give me a Hollywood smile. When I told her I didn’t need a Hollywood smile, she said, then, I should at least bleach my teeth, and I said what for?”

“She’s not telling you the best nugget,” Leslie said. “She asked her if she had children and Sharon said, ‘That’s one pain in my neck I’ll never have.’ Nice, right?”

“Oh, God, she doesn’t want children?” I said. “Don’t you think Archie needs to know that?”

“Absolutely,” Leslie said. “But how are you going to tell him something like that?”

“Leslie’s right,” Momma said. “But surely, he’s going to ask her how she feels about the boys at some point, don’t you think?”

“You would think so,” I said. “You would think so. But I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“It’s true,” Leslie said. “The whole world seems like it’s gone mad.”

“Are you talking about Charlie or Archie?” Momma said.

“Momma,” Leslie said, “Charlie isn’t mad, he’s just too odd for me. People should be free to do what they want.”

“I know that, but he promised to love, honor, and cherish you in front of every last person I know on this island,” Momma said. “He should’ve told you.”