“Charmed ones,” I said drily.
“I don’t want to keep you from tea with your wife, but I will be wanting to hear more about this.”
He nodded. “Of course.”
“How soon do you think you can get protections lifted for me? Special dispensation, did you say?”
“Soon. Perhaps tomorrow.”
“Okay. Thanks for stopping. Tell Ivy I said hi. And Happy Yule.”
His smile returned. “Happy Yule.”
A hot soak in my dream bath never failed to make me feel pampered. That dip was no exception, but it was somewhat less relaxing because I was preoccupied with thoughts about the Wild Hunt. I supposed learning that it was knowledge forbidden to humans made it all the more intriguing because… I almost laughed out loud. Human nature.
I was pulling on fresh French terry pants when I heard Romeo’s door. A couple of minutes later, I saw Keir’s opaque image through the fogged over mirror in front of me.
“You don’t look ready to go to pub,” he said.
“How’d you find things?”
“All’s well.” He dipped his chin. “But I have news.”
I wiped a swath of steam away from the glass then gathered by the sparkle I saw in his eyes that it was juicy.
“You have the look of gossip. Really good gossip,” I added.
“That’s because it is,” he teased.
“What do you know? Spill. I hate manufactured dramatic tension.”
He chuckled as he leaned his back against the door. “You know that tempts me to want to drag this out. I’m very partial to watching you squirm.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
I let out a half-shout of exasperation. “You lummox!”
He lowered his chin. “I love it when you talk dirty.”
“I’M NOT TALKING DIRTY! I’M INSULTING YOU!” He laughed. “Fine. I’ll go ask Lochlan.” I moved toward the closet to get thick socks and shoes that would withstand snow. And clothes to go with them, of course.
Keir just looked at his nails. “Okay. But I doubt that he knows yet. You could say it’s breaking news. Too soon to have gotten round.”
“Molly?” He shook his head. “Maggie?”
“Too early. She’ll undoubtedly hear later if she has errands tonight.”
By that he meant if she’d be called upon to wail an approaching death here or there.
Deciding to change tactics, I tried pleading with puppy dog eyes. Bingo. I could see the second he caved. “Great Paddy’s piddle,” he said under his breath. “You win. Are you ready for this?”
“TELL ME ALREADY!” I was shamelessly breathless.
“Keep your pants on.” His eyes traveled downward. “On second thought…”
“KEIR!”
His chuckle told me he was having way too much fun torturing me by withholding info.
“Very well, Magistrate. Rumor has it that Maeve is stepping aside, giving her crown over to Diarmuid.”
I frowned, not sure that was welcome news. Dealing with Maeve could be tricky. She was powerful, petulant and seemed to have an unhealthy fixation on Keir; meaning that she might be a touch jealous of moi. If I was right about that, it was a little messed up. Like a reverse Oedipal complex. But that aside, I’d encountered Diarmuid in my first court meet and knew him to be every bit as arrogant as one would expect of Maeve’s fair-haired and favorite heir.
“It’s a political bombshell.”
“Well put. Let’s go to dinner.”
“I thought we’d stay in tonight. As it turns out, that might be just as well. Since you’ll be conveying all the ins and outs of the ‘breaking news’.”
“Staying in? Am I cooking?”
I chuckled. “We could toss a coin. Or I could make grilled cheese sandwiches. And heat up tomato soup.”
“Yes to grilled cheese. No to tomato soup.”
“Just as well. You can’t have it if you can’t say it.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the way I say tomato. Americans didn’t invent the word, you know. There’s a valid reason why the language is called English.”
I mulled that over long enough to know when I’d been bested. There was no worthy argument. So, I let it go with a shrug and a sigh.
“I saw your wet moose slippers by the front door. I guess you discovered they’re not snowshoes?” he asked.
Caught.
“I noticed Lochlan coming home, ran out to catch him, and, well, yeah, you saw the result. He agrees that I need to have the brain fog lifted so I can understand the Wild Hunt.”
“I’d tell you, but at present I suppose it would bypass your conscious mind.”
I finished towel drying my hair, stabbed at it with fingers until it looked as wild as the eighties, and turned to face him. “Well, now we have to establish that there’s something I know that you don’t. To re-establish the balance.”
“What do you know that I don’t?”
“If I told you, then you’d know, too.”
He reached out and pulled me toward his body by catching hold of the little silk tie at my waist.
“Perhaps you could show me.”
“Perhaps I…” He smothered the rest of that sentence with a kiss.
My body was primed to be welcoming of his intentions by being warm, clean, and relaxed. I pulled back and said, “What will you have, sir? Dinner or delight?” He grunted. “Never mind. Here’s a proposal. I’ll make dinner. You feed the dogs. Then you’ll tell me what this change of regime means to me personally and professionally.” Realizing how that sounded, I added, “Not that it’s all about me.”
“Of course not,” he deadpanned.
“Then we’ll make it an early night.”
His responding grin said he wholeheartedly approved of the plan.
I stopped at the door and turned around, “Have you, um, been on one of these Wild Hunt things?”
He nodded. “I have.”
“Is it fun?”
His face went through a series of expressions, some almost contorted. I’d never seen him have trouble deciding what to say to me.
“Gosh. If it’s that hard to figure out whether it’s fun or not, I’ve got to go with not fun.”
“It’s just that, if I say yes, and you disapprove when you have full knowledge, I don’t want you to think…”
“You’re afraid I’ll judge you?”
“Are you being funny?”
I shook my head. “For once, no.”
“Then the answer is yes. I suppose I’m concerned that you’ll like me less.”
“Ridiculous.”
“No. It’s not. You have perspectives about various things that are quite different from those of magic kind.”
“Well, I like you just fine right now. So, let’s not borrow trouble.”
After a brief pause, he said, “Brilliant,” in a decisive way, as if that concluded the matter. “I’ll have six.”
“Six what?”
“Grilled cheese sandwiches.”
One of the things I’ve learned is that magic kind are not big on conversational segues. They see no reason to ease into a change of topic.