‘I know, darlin’,’ he replied, draping his arm over her waist under the blanket. ‘Our home is full and ever’thing feels right. It’s good t...o have Julie here again.’ Emma’s face lit up at the mention of his stepsister. Julie had arrived home at the farm only this morning. They’d all looked forward to her visit when classes let out for the semester. Emma had planned an old fashioned family Christmas — the first one since her mother had died when she was a child. In truth, Jude figured he was even. Experience told me this was true, although I had no idea whether it was universally true, or just something I'd noticed in my limited travels. All I really knew was that the islands off Ft. Meyers, on the Gulf side of Florida, were lousy with shells, and that I'd never seen anything like it, anywhere on the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Florida.Kim would enjoy it over on Sanibel, or Captiva Island.By 10 p.m., we were all drunk on fresh air and gin and tonics, and were off to bed.It turned out. It is my belief that having failed to persuade my wife to have sex with him he had decided to rape her."PC Strong looked up from his notebook and eyed him steadily for a few seconds. "Thank you, sir," he said. "Would you be kind enough to ask Brian to come in and have a word?"Tom did so.PC Strong smiled at Brian when he entered the room. "Hello, Brian," he said. "You haven't been involved in a criminal investigation for quite a while as far as I'm aware."Brian smiled back. "No, Jim, just the. Switching back to my humanaspect, I pleaded: "Please get up, it's just me, Fiona. I'm a girl, amutant just like you. I'm not a Goddess of War, or anything like that,please get up...."Reaching down, I pulled them to their feet. Although they flinched atmy touch, they finally returned to sitting on the bed, and I pointedout: "You both hate religion, you made that perfectly clear duringdinner, and now you are ready to fall down and worship the first shape-shifter you see?"Achmed put it together.