No, it's time for your sneaky catboy to return with the goods

You feel that telltale tickling sensation from your wards. Excellent, he's back and he's almost a day ahead of schedule. You signal Harmony before heading downstairs to your study so she and Sandra can make excuses and follow you. From there you grab Sendrey, Chloe and Calista and head out to the secret entrance with time to spare.

"Oh, I see how it is," Patrick says, laughing, when he finds the four of you eating some sausage slices, cheese and crackers for lunch. "I'm out there doing such backbreaking work and you three are just lazing around."

"We brought some for you," Sendrey tells him. "And once you hear what I've been up to with Emilie you'll shut your trap."

"Oh? Do tell."

"Nah," she says, stretching out on the set of crates she's perched on, "getting accused of laziness just put me in the wrong mood. You'll have to butter me up if..." She gets interrupted as Patrick dashes up to her and lifts her into his arms.

"Cat got your tongue?" he asks, then he pulls her in for a long, sensual kiss before Sendrey can reply.

"He is a charmer, isn't he?" says Chloe, tail flicking. Sendrey told the two former noblewomen to stay back slightly so they could surprise Patrick, an idea they both took to.

"Whoa!" he cries, dancing backward and nearly dropping Sendrey, who starts laughing her ass off.

"Who the, and - ha," he straightens up and gets his thoughts together before finally saying, "Oh, very funny. I'm going to tickle your toes till you pass out."

Sendrey is so busy laughing she can't get away and Patrick does go for the very sensitive pads of her feet, causing her to cry and squirm. He doesn't do it too long, just enough to make up for her little joke. It's proof of how in sync these two are that he instantly knew who organized that little scare.

Then he takes a longer look at the two new catgirls. "Hey, you're ladies Siggra and Ekaterina."

"And you are the man who knocked us out with a cloud of sickly sweet yellow vapor and dragged us off to a mage's dungeon," replies Siggra. " Also it's now Chloe," she touches a hand to her chest, "and Calista," she gestures gracefully to her companion. Calista, for her part, stays quiet but does offer a slight curtsey toward the newcomer.

"Wow. I've only been gone a week and a half."

"We've only been catgirls for a day."

"Well, uh, I didn't think I'd have to apologize for that, but sorry about the ****."

"Is that all you're going to say as an apology?" asks Calista, speaking for the first time.

"I get the feeling there's not all that much I can say right now to improve things," answers Patrick, turning on the charm. "Especially as I'm arriving with a cart full of **** girls - so I can't exactly tell you I've mended my ways. Hopefully Sendrey, Sandra and Harmony all took my side and told you about how the terrible, evil mage made me do it."

Chloe crosses her arms and her eyes bore into him. He gives her a disarming, somewhat innocent smile as he affectionately rubs Sendrey's ears. Finally Chloe shakes her head. "He is good, isn't he?" Then she points a finger at him. "As you can probably guess we did talk this over with 'the terrible, evil mage' and the other catgirls, so your hide is safe. But I'm still not ready for any kind of forgiveness or suchlike. I don't entirely know how I feel about this, but we are going to work with you. Just don't get any ideas about me or Calista, otherwise you'll need the mage's help to glue your balls back on."

"Ok, fine, I can deal with that," says Patrick.

He looks like his smart mouth is about to say something else, but Sendrey wisely reaches up and pinches his lips shut, giving him a shake of her head.

With that little situation dealt with, Chloe turns toward you and asks, "So, what did you send our local reprobate out for?"

"At least use my name, it's a good one," Patrick calls out as he skips over to the featherwagon. "Come, let me introduce you to our new guests." Calista and Chloe follow the rest of you to the wagon. This is the first time they've had a chance to see this illusion and they are both stunned into silence.

"I didn't manage to get everyone on the list, but that was to be expected - you need just the right circumstances. But the old, 'gold for some alone time' worked on most of these girls." He holds his arm out, pointing with an open hand at a slight, blonde girl who's sleeping peacefully. "May I present Miss Violet, Enarra's younger sister."

Without pausing for long he moves in further, pointing at a tall, thin girl with long brown locks. "Miss Prudence, Victoria's much taller younger sister. Despite the name she wound up in the same line of work as her sister."

Stopping next to a pair of small brunettes wrapped together in a single blanket he says, "Over here we have a real treat. The lovely Kendra and Kiska, cousins of Deline. They're not actually twins, but they're so close I bet a certain mage could make them twins if he wanted to."

"Not a bad idea," you muse. "We don't get nearly enough twins for the number catgirls should produce."

"Mmmm, indeed. That's why I also picked these girls up," he says, yanking away a blanket with a flourish. "Meet Maeve, Marian and Melanya - triplets I found in a performer's show in the city. Easiest bunch to collect of the lot, they were all **** to get a fat load of gold so they could get out of the business. Guess I'm delivering on that front."

"Natural triplets?" asks Calista. "How rare is that? Oh, and their poor mother."

"Don't spare too much thought for her," Patrick tells her. "She's the one who got them into performing even though two of them hated it. She also took all their earnings and drank them."

"Ugh," says Chloe. "They're honestly better off here."

"This is Jade," Patrick says, continuing on. "If her eyes were open you'd see why her parents named her that. Her younger sister Nadia wound up a nun, but Jade definitely chose a different path. A bit more of a surprise was her daughter, Amber." He pulls back the blanket covering Jade to reveal a girl who's perhaps five or six. "Jade must have had her when she was still quite young."

"Oh yes, and here's Cornelia," he says, pulling the blanket from a tall, gorgeous blonde. "I seem to have a talent for finding these hot barmaids who want to 'help a weary traveler'. But with her looks I could hardly resist. She'll probably end up even hotter as a catgirl."

He pulls off another blanket, one that covers the last **** form in the wagon. She's small, blonde, and bears a close resemblance to Cornelia. "Since I was supposed to be collecting family I happened to notice one of the helpers at the inn looked like Cornelia, so I asked her about it. This is Avone, her niece."

"Eleven new catgirls," says Sandra. "Oh, this will be so much fun. And Misha and the young catgirls will have a new girl to play with."

Harmony says, "I'm wondering about Avone. She looks like she's about fifteen, maybe sixteen? Most girls are pretty rebellious around then. It should be fun to see what a catgirl that age is like. Something I'd like to know about before I have to deal with it myself," she adds while holding a hand to her stomach.