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"Ah, yes, the Enchanted Cottage’s new Bottoe to convert the old-fashioned and invisible brownie and pixie helpers that came with the place into a host of personal Red Carpet stylists?"

"Your estate spy cameras are worthy of Excess Hollywood"

"I am always the auteur, my dear, the director rites his own scripts But, sohtful corners, far beyond my hun than I have also realized your potential"

"Great" I turned on et that I protect my interests, to the hilt"

"And to the last man Yes, I know"

NIGHTWINE’S MAN GODFREY aiting outside the door, as usual

His pencil-thin htly receding dark hairline Still, his white tie and tails were always a swooningly crisp black and white If you’d ever wanted to glide across the dance floor with a larger, wryer Fred Astaire, Godfrey was your ht," Godfrey told erous duty in the dark lately"

"Godfrey, you eavesdrop?"

"Religiously"

I followed him and his button-down black tails down the Sunset Roadon the uncarpeted wood

In a moment the click of nails joined our percussive procession The back stairs were narrow and turned like a ballerina on a music box At the bottom, Quicksilver had come to heel at

We faced Godfrey

"Quick ith me on thoseout there on the desert"

"Of course," Godfrey said "My … cousin at the Inferno Bar, Nick Charles, well knows the co Who aic? But we CinSims are all merely motion picture phantasms in a way, Miss Delilah and Master Quicksilver We are dancing with the dead, the resurrected bodies that serve as our sturdy immortal canvas, ever soflesh, either"

"But you are as dear," I said, brushing ainst his black sleeve CinSims were solid, but I hesitated to touch a phantas Ric to the Karnak vampires, I’d become a real softie

"Part of the service," Godfrey said, a pre-Technicolor twinkle in his gray eyes "I was not a "

Well, Willia character actor, really, but I’d always had a weakness for character over flash

"Sometimes, Godfrey," I told him, "you make me feel like Dorothy on a road trip with one of her trio of cool dudes"

He shrugged modestly "You’d better follow the yellow brick road to the Strip, Miss Delilah, as the Wizard of Sunset Road suggested Mr Nightwine has an infallible eye for thetoo"

I curtsied and alstone path to the Enchanted Cottage, so very glad I wasn’t in Kansas anymore