Page 4 of Hallow Hill at Halloween: Part One

Before I had a chance to agree, Keir came up from behind, encircled me with his arms, and whispered in my ear. “I have something special in mind for later. Just to two of us with candlelight and dogs on the other side of the bedroom door.”

The possibilities sent a little spark of arousal between my legs. Oh my. My smile must have given away what my spouse was talking about.

“Stop it, you two!” Evie said. “I’d tell you to get a room, but you can do that after.”

“After what?” I asked.

The little crowd began drifting to sit at tables. Evie took me by the arm and guided me toward the honoree table set for eight.

“After American pot roast. Sit here,” she said as she pointed to the end. “Diarmuid will sit at the other end. It’s a king thing, you know.”

I nodded and smiled at Diarmuid who was already seated at the other end. All things considered, in spite of the erratic beginnings of our relationship, I liked Diarmuid and thought he was in the five-star lot when it came to sons-in-law.

She leaned in and lowered her voice. “I’m putting Maggie on one side of you and Lochlan on the other because you know anything else would create much ado.”

“Keir’s good with that?” I asked.

“Uh-huh. We talked about it.”

“Okay then.”

There were two other places at the table. Esme sat at one, but the chair next to Lochlan was empty.

“Where’s Ivy?” I asked Lochlan as I sat down.

“Oh, she’ll be along,” he said, noncommittally.

Far be it for me to pry, but there are always options. Like a glance at Esme. Sure enough, the gleam in her eye spoke volumes. Something was up with Ivy’s absence.

“Esme,” I said, “you look like you have a secret.”

She replied with a bawdy laugh that warmed the room and suggested too many pitchers of ale. “It’s a fair guess since you know I always have secrets.”

That was true.

“Mom!” Evie’s voice called from the other end of the table. “You better do something about those scallywags.”

At first, I couldn’t imagine what she meant. I’d never heard her use the word “scallywag”, but she was always picking up new fae vocabulary. I tracked her gaze to see what she meant.

“Oh no,” I said pushing the chair back as I stood. My dogs had becomefartoo interested in the American-style pot roast that was being served. “YOU TWO!” I shouted.

They acted like they’d gone suddenly, inexplicably deaf. Maybe they’d heard that thing about not making eye contact with auto drivers when you want to cross the street. In any case, they refused to acknowledge my authority until I had hold of their collars.

Once on the other side of Molly’s entrance, I gave them a good, stiff scolding ending with, “Maybe I’ll send you to that Valkyrie, Sigrid, for training. She wouldn’t put up with this for a minute. There’s no telling what she’d do.” They responded appropriately with sheepish expressions. “I don’t trust you to go home by yourselves, so you’re gonna have to just sit here and wait.”

The door opened behind me. “I’ll take them,” Keir said. “You go on back to your party. I’ll just be a minute.”

He set off at a jog with dogs joyfully leading the way. They’d already forgotten about both the pot roastandmy rant.

I made a mental note to add this kindness to a long list of things I loved about him.

So far as the dogs were concerned, I know that the care, feeding, and control of magical beings is quite different, as you would expect, but I felt like my approach was going south. I made another mental note to talk to Lochlan about it.

Everybody stopped talking, laughing, and eating and stared when I reentered. I smiled. “Nothing to see here. How’s the pot roast?”

There were nods and collective murmurs in reply. Alrighty then.

When I was reseated, Esme raised a question from mid table. “So how old are you, Magistrate?”

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