Excerpt:

An unfortunate series of circumstances had plagued Evangeline Ferris since dawn that morning. Actually it had started well before dawn. The baby had been fussy all night and since Lucas had a meeting early in the morning it fell to her to be up more than half the night trying to ease whatever discomfort it was that little Jack was experiencing. “God really should have made babies with little computer screens on their bellies that told you what they need,” she thought out loud. “Little icons on deir bewwies would be ever so hewpful.” She lapsed into baby talk as she gently poked Jack's belly in various places. “A diaper here if you're wet. And a bwanket here if you're cold. And a booby right here if you're hungwy.”

Jack apparently wasn't hungry since the remains of his last feeding suddenly appeared all over his face and neck. “Ugghh,” she groaned. How many more messes could she clean up in one morning? She had hoped to have a clean house when Charity arrived with Pru, and they would be there any moment. She had already had to clean up after Lucas who left his dirty clothes on the bathroom floor, his whiskers in the sink, and his breakfast dishes on the table as he rushed out the door for his meeting.

Then Jacob and June, the four-year-old twins, had decided it was a good morning for a food fight – with their oatmeal. She tried to make them help her clean it up, but that only resulted in having to give them baths besides.

And then Ellie, her nine-year-old tomboy, thought the leaf blower would be an effective way to clean her room. Fortunately, before she got started blowing her room away, the dog distracted her by appearing in her line of vision at which point her thoughts changed to wondering if the dog would have fun being blown away by the leaf blower. Of course, this fortune turned out to be unfortunate when the dog, terrified out of its wits, began to run around the house peeing as it went. Every floor was peed on: the kitchen, the living room, the hallway, the dining room, even Ellie's bedroom. There had to be some kind of cosmic irony in there somewhere, but at 9 a.m. Evie was already too tired to puzzle it out.

Actually, that last mess was being cleaned up by Ellie herself (Evie wasn't too tired to recognize this as a fitting punishment) with the help of her older sister, Gen. Evie knew she would have to figure out a way to make it up to Gen later.

“Mama?” A timid voice spoke from behind her.

“Mmm?” She mumbled, her concentration on cleaning up Jack's mess while getting as little as possible on herself.

“Mama, I'm done cleaning up the pee now.”

Evie quickly wiped the spontaneous grin from her face before turning around to face Ellie. What was so funny about that sentence anyway?

Ellie stood in the doorway, her sleeves soaked up to the elbows, presumably in soapy water, and her knees almost black from kneeling on the floor. Was her floor really that dirty? She couldn't think about that right now.

“Okay sweetie, you can go take a shower now.” Ellie was gone before she even finished the sentence. She shouted after her, hoping she would hear, “And throw your dirty clothes in the washer! I don't want to see them on the floor!”

There was no response. Evie made a mental note to check the bathroom floor for a little girl's clothes before her guests arrived.

She had just finished cleaning up Jack when the doorbell rang, and five high-pitched voices called out almost in unison, “I'll get it!” followed by the trample of five pairs of feet making a mad dash to be the first one at the door. One would have thought she was raising a house full of elephants from the sound of it.

Ellie quickly threw a clean sweatshirt on over her t-shirt which had somehow gotten at least three stains on it since she put it on that morning. She picked up Jack, took a deep breath, and walked into the living room to greet her guests.

At first she couldn't see either Pru or Charity. The children had apparently not only let them in, but guided them to the couch (she hoped not too forcefully) where they were now seated. Five children stood clustered around them with Bobby asking questions as quickly as Pru could answer them. “What's New York City like?” “Do you like it there?” “Have you ever witnessed a murder?”

Evie heard in the answers a pleasant mid-toned voice with just a hint of a rasp to it. She thought it had a lot of character, like one of those blues-singers' voices – the kind where you could really tell they had experienced life, the good and the bad, and all the emotion of their lives came out when they sang. Pru's voice told her that she had experienced life – the good and the bad.

Evie cleared her throat, her instinctive sign to her children that she was there and they must heed her presence – in the quieter moments anyway. In the less quiet moments it took a bit more than a throat clearing to get their attention.

The children parted like the Red Sea in front of her and she caught her first glimpse of Prudence Jorgenson, the Queen of the Cooks. Her eyes behind her glasses were a bit wide, but she had a soft smile on her face. Evie hoped that meant that she was charmed by her children rather than being terrified by them.

“I see you've met the children. I hope they didn't overwhelm you.”

Pru stood to her feet now that there were no children standing almost on top of her anymore. She let the full effect of her smile light her face. “Not at all! I love them dearly already.”

“Well, you haven't met them all yet,” Evie replied. “Let's see. There's Genevieve. She's 14. And Bobby. My little inquisitor. He's 12. Then there's Eloise. (Call her Ellie or she'll pout all day.) She's indisposed at the moment but she'll be back. Oh, she's 9.” Evie took a breath and continued. “Then Isabella. She's the quiet one standing by Charity there. She's 7. Okay and the twins are … well they were here a minute ago. Oh! There they go through the kitchen. That's June and Jacob. They're my four-year-old terrors.” She looked around in search of the next one. “Um, well I'm not sure where the two-year-old is at the moment, but if you see him, that's Isaiah. And this little guy here is Jack.”

Bobby's piercing voice piped up. “His real name is Ocean, but we call him Jack.”

Evie thought she detected a raised eyebrow on Pru's face, but then she always saw raised eyebrows – whether real or imagined – on faces when she mentioned Jack's real name – or when she mentioned that she had eight children for that matter. “It's a long story.” Her standard disclaimer prevented her from having to explain for the moment.

She waded through the sea of children to get to Pru and gave her a hug, pulling away when Jack began to grunt. “Oops. Squishing the baby.” She laughed nervously. Anyway sorry for the mess. I tried to clean it up this morning, but it's nearly impossible to keep....”

Pru interrupted. “There is no need to be sorry. Your home is lovely. I find that a home is never as messy as it's mistress thinks it is. Besides, even if there is a mess, the children disguise it nicely.”

There was that smile again. It was both charming and a bit disarming. Evie realized she still didn't know where Isaiah was. “Bobby, go find your brother, okay?”

“Which one?”

Evie gave him the evil eye. “The one that's missing, silly.” As he ran off, she shouted after him, “Be sure to check my closet!” She turned to her guests. “He's taken to sitting in my closet lately and singing to himself. I think he likes the peace and quiet. Might try it myself sometime.” She laughed weakly.