Page 73 of Baking and Angels

“I missed a call. It must have come through when we were in the elevator.” She pressed her device to her ear and waited, listening. A second later her eyebrows popped up. “We can go back to my house now.”

My house.

She continued. “That was the BDI. They are giving us the go-ahead to go home. Oh, huzzah!” She grinned; her excitement renewed. “This day just gets better and better.”

He didn’t say anything to that; he simply spun around and went to set their suitcases on the bed. Clearly the maid had come in at some point during the day while they had been gone, as the bed was madeup fresh.

“It seems a shame not to stay one more night,” Helena said as she followed him in, scooping dirty clothes piled to the side of the room. “The agency will have to pay for it either way, but I also just really want to shower in my own shower and sleep in my own bed,you know?”

She dumped the load into the nearly empty side of her suitcase, stuffing it down so she could zip it behind a panel. “It’s lucky, too, really. We were going to need to do laundry again, and my work clothes are dry clean only.”

“Whatever it takes to win the game,” Rafferty muttered as he turned on his heel to fetch the toiletries bag they were sharing, stuffing the brushes of various sorts into it, along with the other necessities of this modern life.

“Rafferty? What’s wrong?” she called after him. “You don’t seem alright. Why aren’t you happy?”

“Why should I be happy?” he shot back, the internal anger bleeding intohis words.

That took Helena back a half step. “Well, for one, you just won your first cooking competition, and for some pretty amazingly high stakes,” she said, following him into the bathroom and leaning into the shower to retrieve the soap they had been using.

He took the opportunity to leave the small room where she was too close to him. “No,I didn’t.”

“What the hell do you mean? Of course, you did!” she cried, chasing after. He worked at stuffing the toiletries bag into his suitcase, but it wasn’t fitting correctly, which led him to jamming and jamming it some more until her hands stopped his. “Will you please look at me and talk to me!”

The second he did, however, the anger retreated back into its cozy cave in his stomach. He didn’t want to have this fight now. He didn’t even really understand what the fight was about, so how could hetell her?

She bit her lower lip, clearly worried about his behavior, and he didn’tblame her.

Forcing a breath in, he blew it out. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” He looked into her beautiful gray eyes, begging him to give her answers she could understand. “I’m not mad at you,” he lied.

“Was it Richard Tirrell? I was wondering if he wasn’t triggering something in you,” she offered, and heaccepted.

“He reminded me so much of the nobles I used to serve,” Rafferty agreed.

“Oh, I was thinking he would be like the masters who used to summon and use you,”she said.

“That, too.”

She nodded, calmer now, more reassured by his explanation. “Well, let’s get out of here and go home. Get as far away from anything to do with that pompous jerk.”

He nodded, and they continued with their hasty packing. Helena kept talking the whole time, going over the events of the competition in detail. He listened and nodded or agreed when needed, but he wasn’t really listening. Instead, a feeling of dread settled over him. One that seemed like it would stretch on and on for the rest of his life. At least, the rest of his life with Helena.

“Oh, dear Lord,” she said as they entered through her front door and snapped on the light. After a second, she added, “Well, I guess it could have been worse.”

It was clear that people had been in her house. Everything was slightly moved out of place, for one thing. As Helena rolled her bag through the door, she paused by one of her pictures onthewall and adjusted it back to straight. Then she turned a vase that to Rafferty didn’t look like it mattered which way it pointed, but to her, it looked better.Then she shoved on the front of her couch with her knees, pushing it back an inch until it was back againstthe wall.

“If I wasn’t sobusy, I wish I could just take tomorrow off and straighten everything up, make sure nothing is missing. Not that I think they really would take anything, butyou know.”

“I will do it,” Rafferty declared, shutting the door behind them.

“Oh, you don’t have to,” Helena said, waving her hands as if that would wipe away the suggestion. “You’re not a servantanymore.”

“I don’t see it like that,” heanswered.

“Oh! And I need to let the BDI’s Pet Care know that we’re home, and I can come get Pooka back!” She grabbed her phone to dojust that.

A doorbell interrupted whatever she was going to say next, and he wasgrateful.

Annoyed, Helena looked up from her phone. “Oh, come on!” But the bell rang again, so she pocketed the phone and went to open it.

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