Page 39 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

"I'll cover for her." Bill looked happy. "This is more important. And if you've got it under control by the family reunion, you can tell everybody there!"

"You want me to tell like nine hundred people at once?" Penny asked faintly. "That sounds terrifying."

"We're very nice," Bill promised. "Just large. Let me go cover for Ashley, and I promise, it's all going to be fine."

CHAPTER 21

Ashley hadn't argued very much when Bill appeared at the pub and told her to bring Penny up into the mountains so her mate could practice shifting. Shehadsaid, "I'm not shirking my responsibilities," a little defensively, and her cousin had hauled her into what could only be described as a bear hug.

"You never would," he promised her. "I know that. But this is important, Ash. More important than the pub. Besides, you probably want your folks to meet her before the rest of the Torben crush, right? I said Gwen should go with you," he added, putting her back on her feet. "Mostly because they've known each other a long time and Penny could probably use the stability of having an old friend around. If you think that's a bad idea?—"

"No, it sounds smart," Ashley admitted. "How'd Gwen take it?"

"She's thrilled," Bill said happily. "Congrats, Ash. I'm really happy for you. Now get going. Gwen and Penny are waiting for you out in the car."

Ashley had gotten going, and a little to her amazement, had been entertained on the 45 minute drive out to her folks' houseby an a cappella, two-womanSixty Pixconcert, broken up by Gwen's giggles over her own terrible puns, and occasionally by Penny's wail of despair at her partridge.

It'll be fine, right? she asked her bear as she drove the last mile or so through the snowy woods out to the secluded house.Poor Penny will get used to it? Or Bill's right and her partridge will mature?

The bear, usually so reassuring and calm, gave a great languid shrug.Penny will be all right, but…prey animals.It gave another shrug, as if saying, 'what can you do?'

A moment later they were pulling up to her parents' house, so Ashley let it go as first her mom, then her dad, came out of the log cabin nestled up against the mountainside. Ashley couldn't help smiling as she waved a greeting, loving the way warm light glowed out the windows, making the house look like a welcoming beacon in the dark. "Ash?" her mom yelled. "Everything okay, baby?"

"It's fine, Mom, I've just got somebody for you to meet!"

Her mother said, "Oh my God, Jeff," to her dad. "She's finally met somebody."

"I'm twenty-eight," Ashley yelled. "That is not old to meet somebody!" More quietly, to Penny, she said, "I'm sorry in advance."

Penny, bundling out of the car, laughed. "It'll be fine, as long as they—no,they arenotgoing to hunt you even if theyarebears! They're bears, right?"

"They are. Both of them. I'm surprised they're awake, honestly. They keep threatening to go down for a nap in mid-December and not get up again until March. Mom says it's a great diet plan. Not only sleep through the holiday food extravaganza, but also burn off all the body fat she padded on during the rest of the year."

"That would be so amazingly unhealthy if they were human," Penny muttered. Ashley laughed an agreement, then walked her and Gwen up to the door to meet her parents.

"Mom, Dad, this is Penny and Gwen. Penny—" She hesitated, suddenly shy about revealing the truth, since Penny had been through so much in the past day.

Penny, though, offered a hand to her mom and said, "It turns out I'm Ashley's mate, which would be enough of a surprise, but yesterday I didn't even know I was a shifter, so we were hoping I could just sort of practice in your yard for a while."

Ashley's mom shrieked gleefully and threw her arms around Penny with such enthusiasm that it nearly knocked the drummer over. Ashley's bear gave a warning grumble, but Penny wasn't really in danger, just staggering a bit. "I'm Holly," Ashley's mom all but yelled in Penny's ear. "I'm so happy to meet you! This is Jeff! How could you not know you were a shifter? Come in, come in, tell us everything and have some dinner and then yes, of course, practice all you want. I'm Holly," she repeated to Gwen. "And you're Bill's mate, aren't you? He said you were striking."

Ashley's dad herded them inside with an apologetic glance at Gwen, who was beaming cheerfully. "Don't mind me," she told him. "I'm loving all of this. And I love your house."

"Thank you. Holly and I built it."

"No way!" Gwen's jaw dropped and she slowed down, exclaiming over the log wall exterior and the huge, triple-paned windows that let so much light glow onto the snow outside. The inside was just as cozy, with plastered walls and open-beamed ceilings, and wood floors littered with rugs. Ashley mostly didn't notice any of that anymore, but as kids, she and her brothers had loved hitting those rugs at a run, shifting as they did so, and skidding down the hallways while their mother yelled at them.

Her mom had tucked her arm through Penny's and was getting all the details, complete with dismayed cooing sounds as Penny explained her partridge's half-wittedness. Ashley drifted along in their wake, listening to Penny and her mom, and to Gwen and her dad, feeling an unbelievable sense of contentedness rising up inside herself. She had so many ambitions, but she thought of them as being centered around the pub, around making the business she'd taken over a success. It hadn't occurred to her that she had as-powerful ambitions to build a satisfactorylifefor herself, one with friends and lovers and family, but right now, in the midst of all that, she could recognize the ambition as beginning to be satisfied.

She might not even be annoyed at the last-minute family reunion, looking at it that way. The idea made her chuckle as her parents led them into the big, bright kitchen that was the heart of their home.

Ashley loved that space. The cabinetry was hand-built and wooden, with glass-fronted doors that made it easy to see what was where. It had extra-deep counters, giving her dad, who liked to bake, two feet of workspaceplusthe space needed to store canisters and crockery against the red-tile backsplash. Most of the appliances were red, making striking accents to the cream-colored counters and golden wood cabinets. There was a big island with a secondary sink in it, bar stools around it, and, at the moment, a gloriously fluffy-looking lemon meringue pie sitting smack in the middle of it.

Ashley laughed, seeing it. "You were about to each eat an entire half of a lemon meringue pie, weren't you?"

Her mother didn't even look guilty. "They're best the day they were made. You're lucky you didn't get here ten minutes later."

Penny, awed, said, "Youmadea lemon meringue pie? I don't even think I knew that could be done. I thought they only got made in restaurants, or something."

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