Home > Midlife Mojo (Not Too Late #3)(9)

Midlife Mojo (Not Too Late #3)(9)
Author: Victoria Danann

“Well then. Come have dinner with us. It’s simple fare but Keir knows his way around a spatula.”

“If you’re certain it’s not an imposition.”

“Nothing of the kind,” I assured him and meant it.

I didn’t know how the extent of our ability to churn out grilled cheese sandwiches, but assumed it was limited. Keir might have to eat four instead of six and supplement his epic appetite with something else. I was pretty sure there was a berry pie in the freezer column.

As we approached the kitchen, I could hear Maggie talking to Keir.

“Stop right there,” I said. “Say nothing more if I’m not in the room. I don’t want to miss anything.” Turning to Lochlan, “You’re welcome to hang your jacket on the cloak hooks in the mudroom.” To Keir I said, “Four for dinner.”

We exchanged a look, but neither of our guests noticed.

I set the table for four while Keir opened the refrigerator. After looking inside for a minute, he said, “Perhaps a salad would complement the evening’s fare?”

“What a wonderful thought!” I agreed.

 

Fifteen minutes later the four of us sat down to a humble but satisfying supper.

“So, who wants to go first?” I asked. Lochlan, Maggie, and Keir all began talking at the same time. I held up a hand. “Want to draw straws?” When no response was forthcoming, I said, “Keir and I had already begun a conversation. I gather on the same topic. So, please,” I looked at him across the table, “continue. Tell me what’s happened and why it’s causing such a stir. Don’t make any assumptions about my understanding of this event. Treat me like a child.”

Both our guests looked toward Keir, who took the task every bit as seriously as I’d come to expect. He proved that by opening with, “Go to your room. The adults are talking.”

“Ha. Ha. More precisely then. Treat me like a human.”

“Very well. As I said earlier, I have it on loose authority that Maeve is passing ye olde sceptre to Diarmuid.” Maggie and Lochlan both nodded. “So far as why that’s causing a stir? If true, that will make him the most powerful figure in faerie.” He decided to clarify further, no doubt for my benefit. “In all of magic kind really. Since he was already leader of the Wild Hunt, he’d become the Di Anu, the masculine embodiment of Irish faerie. More than king. God, almost.”

Lochlan and Maggie both looked at me, possibly for a reaction. “Would he still be subject to decisions made by the court?” When no one answered, I began to feel anxious. “You don’t know? Or you don’t want to tell me.”

Lochlan cleared his throat. “The last time there was a living Di Anu was before Merle the Mathemagician’s grand experiment. It’s a question that hasn’t been answered because it hasn’t come up.”

“Are you saying that he could also be the embodiment of anarchy? Not accountable to anyone in any way?”

Keir took a deep breath.

Lochlan swallowed the bite of sandwich in his mouth and said, “That is one possibility. We need to proceed carefully and diplomatically.”

“I’ll be tellin’ ye this though,” Maggie put in. “Of the lot of them, Diarmuid’s my pick for likeliest to be seein’ reason.”

I looked at Keir. “You’re an insider. Do you concur with Maggie?”

Sitting back with arms folded over his torso, Keir said, “I’m not as much an insider as you might think. But I agree he’s the most levelheaded in the family.”

“Pass the soup,” Lochlan said.

Since our original plans had expanded to included company for dinner, Keir had heated up all the tomato soup in the refrigerator and transferred it to a Jan Barboglio tureen. Jan Barboglio might seem out of place in Hallow Hill to some, but it worked for me.

“You started by saying it’s a rumor. Has it been confirmed?” I was looking at Keir, but would’ve accepted an answer from anybody qualified to say.

That was Lochlan. “No formal announcement as of yet, but our sources are reliable.”

“What else?” My question was answered by silence. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing the kelpie snafu was decided before this, huh?”

Lochlan looked thoughtful. “I don’t see Diarmuid being the sort to choose to undermine the underpinnings of a system that’s working. I suspect the case involving his brother would go much the same. Not a lot of love lost there.”

“He represented Niall in court,” I said. “Even mounted a farfetched defense about kelpies being the same as domesticated horses. As I remember, it seemed like he was playing to the crowd; what Americans would call grandstanding.”

“Well, that’s just it, isn’t it?” Keir said. “It was farfetched. Everybody who was present knew it. He was basically paying lip service to having his clan’s back, while at the same time manipulating the outcome he ultimately wanted. Which was to free the kelpies and put the incident behind the house of Bayune.”

I stared at Keir for a few beats. “You’re saying he’s the most dangerous sort of political operative. Machiavellian.”

Keir pursed his lips before saying, “Cunning and manipulative like Machiavelli? Could be. Unscrupulous? Remains to be seen. This is not necessarily bad news. He might be a better ruler than Maeve.”

“Yes,” Lochlan agreed, nodding his head. “He’s been touched by the hand of fate. No doubt about it.”

“Before today I didn’t even know a kingship was on the table. I mean all the current rulers are queens, right?” I asked Lochlan.

“Indeed, queens are traditionally heads of state because they’re the creative arm of faerie. In essence, what’s more divine than creativity? Nothing. That’s how all religious stories begin. With an introduction to the all-powerful describing how he or she created the world.”

“The queens create the faerie mounds,” I said, “but don’t call themselves gods.”

“Exactly so,” Maggie jumped in. “We would no’ stand for that kind of…”

“Hubris?” Lochlan asked.

“Aye. That!” Maggie nodded, pointing at Lochlan.

Keir laughed. “What are you talking about? The royals are nothing but hubris.” Our guests both turned to Keir. “There’re no guardrails on their behavior. Never have been.” He flicked a glance at me. “Unless somebody hauls them into court, they do what they want. Even then, before Rita became magistrate, they’d just a pay a meaningless fine and go on about doing as they please.”

That was a conversation stopper, and it wasn’t easy to render Lochlan, Maggie, or myself speechless.

“Is there anything about this that will affect the upcoming court meet?” I asked.

Though Lochlan already knew the answer to the question, he ventured forth with a pointed look. “Are there any cases involving House of Bayune?”

“You know the answer is not only yes but fires of Hades yes. The kind of big, honking case that would be the sensational blowout feature of any magistrate’s journal.”

Lochlan sighed. “Though I only understood half of what was just said, I believe I’ve absorbed the gist.”

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