Page 58 of Earth-Bound

Although, if I believed in magic, maybe Iwasweird. I was just weird with other people.

I paused.

That was a new thing for me.

I’d never had anyone I could be weirdwithbefore. Nobody else ever believed in the stuff I did. I’d had to learn to conceal it, keep it secret. It felt strange to suddenly be able to speak openly about it.

I cleared my throat, which had felt tight with emotion.

“I suppose I’d better get on with my job, if I’m staying.”

I’d been planting a range of things in the garden that would flower at different times of the year so that Randall and Broadmire could always look out of their windows and see beautiful colours and blooms. As I turned towards the garden, Terrund’s fingers brushed against mine and I hesitated a secondbefore threading them together. I was holding hands. For the first time in my life, I was holding hands with my lover.

“Can I come with you?” he asked.

“Yes.”

His shoulders relaxed and I felt bad for saying ‘no’ before, for pushing him away. I’d just thought- never mind, we’d sorted it all out now.

I gripped his hand tighter and pulled him after me. We walked all the way back to the house like that and I didn’t think of a single other thing. Only the feel of Terrund’s fingers in mine.

As we went, Dee shouted after us, “And don’t start fucking behind the house.”

Dum added, “Yeah, we’ve got really good hearing.”

“We’ll know.”

“We’ll smell it.”

“Yeah, because we’ve got a really good sense of smell, too.”

“Dragons are the best, aren’t they, Dee?”

“Yes, we are. Except for dryads.”

“And witches.”

“And witches, of course.”

I smiled as I went into the garden and looked at the patch at the back of the house which I’d cleared over the last week.

Still clutching Terrund’s hand, I said, “I thought I’d plant Randall a herb garden here, since he’s such a good cook. I thought he could pick his own herbs, fresh out of the garden.”

“That’s a beautiful thought.”

I knew enough about the normal varieties of herbs – the sort of thing most people grew, like rosemary, basil and coriander – but I wanted to talk to Terrund and it didn’t really matter what we talked about. So I asked, “Do you know anything about herbs?”

He shot me a disbelieving look. “I’m an earth spirit.”

“Is that a yes or a no?”

“It’s a yes.”

“What do you think we should have here, then?” I pointed to the spot nearest the door, and Terrund crouched down to touch the soil where I’d turned it over a couple of days before. He didn’t let go of my hand to do it, which meant he basically dragged me down beside him. I was happy with that. At least he was holding me and, I had to admit, it was really sexy to see him study the ground as though he knew the secrets it contained.

Turned out, Terrund knew alotabout herbs.

We decided on mint nearest to the door, with oregano, thyme and sage, to begin with. I was just doing my job, exactly as I had for weeks, and I already liked my job. Doing it with Terrund, though? It was the best day of my life. I never wanted it to end.

---