Page 45 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

Ashley burped horribly, eyes watering, and whispered, "Oh, God, I think I need to run to the bathroom. I'm sorry, Pen, I don't mean to abandon you to this crew."

"I'll manage," Penny promised. "Go, feel better."

Ashley nodded, then bolted for the bathrooms.

CHAPTER 24

Penny worked her way through the crowd once Ashley left, greeting people, accepting congratulations, and forgetting names as soon as she was introduced. Everybody wanted to meet her, and nobody seemed to mind she couldn't remember who most of them were. They were even decent enough to let her go stand at the bar once she'd gotten through them all, and to give her a few minutes to recombobulate.

They were nice, thank goodness. There were just so many of them.

"It's totally overwhelming, isn't it?" A woman who wasn't a shifter came to stand next to Penny companionably. She was in her late fifties, curvy, and dressed rather gorgeously in Christmasy colors that flattered her skin tones. "I'm Pam. My husband is Richard, the big one over there with the good hair."

"That describes every man in the room," Penny said dryly.

Pam laughed. "I know, but let's be real, you wouldn't remember which one he was anyway, would you?"

"I probably will eventually!"

"Yeah. Eventually." Pam smiled at her. "For now, just let it all rush over you like?—"

GIANT STOMPING ELEPHANT FEET!

"How do you even know what an elephant is?" Penny asked under her breath.

The partridge looked offended.Youknow what an elephant is.

I know what a Christmas tree light and a ceramic haystack in a manger are too, but that doesn't seem to have made any impression on you!

The partridge drew itself up into as regal a stance as a small brown bird with red markings could manage.Elephants,it said with dignity,can stomp you.

That was difficult to argue with, although Penny had the urge to try. Pam distracted her, though, with a tentative, "They're saying you just recently discovered you were a shifter?"

Penny squinched her face but couldn't help a laugh. "And here Ashley had been trying to convince me theyweren'tall talking about me. Yes, just a few days ago. Ashley's been helping me through it."

"What's it like?" Pam asked with a mix of curiosity and longing.

That sent a piercing thread of compassion through Penny. "It's a lot, isn't it?" she asked softly. "Not being a shifter in a room like this? How long ago did you meet Richard?"

"A little over thirty years. My whole life has been surrounded by shifters ever since. I gather it's not quite as crazy for people whose mates don't have enormous families, but it does make you feel a little left out sometimes. What does it feel like?"

"Weird. Annoying. Kind of cool. I think it would just feel ordinary, though, if I'd grown up this way. It feels—" Penny hesitated, considering it. "It does feel like a question has been answered, kind of. Like I was missing something that I didn't knowwasmissing. But for what it's worth, if I'd never found out about it, I'm not sure I would have felt like I was missinganything. It's just this sort of additional weird thing about me, not the answer to everything about who I am. I was already that person. I just have a worried partridge in my head now."

Pam laughed, then tipped her head thoughtfully. "Thank you. Itisordinary for all of them, so I could never ask, but the rest of us who aren't shifters have always wondered amongst ourselves. Whether…"

"Whether you were less than they were?" Penny asked quietly. "You're not. A little different, that's all. I've spent my whole life hiding so well that not even I knew I was a shifter, and now that I know, I still have to hide. I don't think either is better, true human or shifter. There are just different constraints that come along with both of them."

"That's what Rich always says, but it's different, hearing it from someone who spent their whole life being human up until now." Pam leaned her shoulder into Penny's in a friendly way. "Thank you. So," she added more brightly, "how's fated-matedness treating you?"

"Pretty great," Penny admitted dippily. "Ashley's…she's everything."

Pam beamed at her. "Good. Hold on to that, and enjoy your happily ever after. That's the best thing about it all. Knowing, without a doubt, that they're the right choice for you. The best one in the whole world, for you. And speaking of fate…"

A tall, handsome Torben man came up to bow theatrically and offer his hand. "Would you care to dance, Mrs Torben?"

"I would be delighted, Mr Torben." Pam put her hand into the man's, smiled at Penny, and went off to join a floor full of joyfully, if not elegantly, dancing shifters.

Ashley reappeared as Pam left, and slid her hands around Penny's waist. "You want to dance?"

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