CHAPTER FIFTY Practically by rote at this point, as soon as Penelope finished draining her current bottle dry, Richard tossed it over his shoulder to join the rapidly growing pile, pulled up the points catalogue with a sigh, and purchased yet another standard milk ration. Managing to hold onto the baby bottle for all of two whole seconds this time, before she’d latched onto the teet—nearly wrestling it from his hands.Richard watched the greedy little monster attack the milk ration with a mixture of fondness and exasperation. He then glanced over his shoulder at the mountain of emptied bottles that’d almost grown as tall as he was, and nearly had an aneurism. His eye twitched.“You know, you’re going to eat me out of house and home one of these days,” Richard said—trying, and failing, to smooth out her unruly hair.In lieu of a response, the glutton continued to drain the bottle with an almost concerning degree of seriousness. Richard sighed.“You’re just lucky you’re so darn cute,” he muttered, the words coming from his mouth unbidden.He suddenly started, whipping his head around, fearful he’d been overheard. Nope, as it so happened, the others were far too busy with their own “activities” to pay him any mind.Phew! Thank Opon for that!He couldn’t have them thinking he was going soft after all. A tiny hand reached up and tugged at his face, hard.“Yes dear…” he mumbled.Without even looking, Richard chucked the empty bottle aside, and quickly replaced it with a brand new one.“I swear there has to be a way to order on an industrial scale. I refuse to believe this isn’t a more common problem.”Richard (...)