“I'm really sorry, Jess, but she's going to have to have your room.''My room?' exploded Jess. 'There's a perfectly good spare room upstairs!''Yes, but you see, darling, Granny can't manage stairs quite so easily anymore. Since Grandpa died and she had that fall, you know- well, her house is too much for her to manage on her own. [...] Granny has to be on the ground floor, love. She can use the groundfloor loo, and we'll convert the old coal shed at the back into a bathroom.'Jess was too furious to speak. No, wait, she wasn't. 'Where am I supposed to sleep then?' she snapped. 'Out on the pavement?”

“We'll see if she can rise to the occasion, do what needs to be done.""We'll see if she can manage not to kill her Liege and Master, especially if he continues talking about her like she's not in the room.”

“It had been too much for Edith to take and she had gone to her room so that her nieces wouldn't see her cry anymore.”

“Tell me Jesse, does she sigh when you kiss her too”

“Jess and Ric watched as a shifted Blayne chased the squirrel, caught the squirrel, toyed with the squirrel, let the squirrel go, only to go chasing after it again. Until she was distracted by the crow that she tried to catch in her mouth.“So…when are you due?”Jess winced at Ric’s question as Blayne ran into a tree, backed up, and went after the bird again.“Mid-March.”“And you’re having a—”“Yes. Yes, I’m having a wolfdog.”“Huh.”Blayne was turning in circles now, trying to catch her tail.“Blayne,” Jess called out. “Blayne!” The wolfdog immediately stopped and started to walk over to Jess and Ric. Too bad the dizziness got the best of her, though, because she stumbled sideways into another tree and slid down, panting.”

“Gran! Gran?' yelled Jess, racing upstairs. She looked everywhere. Nothing. No aged person. Only Rasputin, looking startled and disapproving. 'Where's Gran, Rasputin? For goodness' sake! Have you eaten her?' cried Jess. Rasputin looked shocked and innocent.”