Page 21 of Kingston
“I do.”He watched her a bit more and smiled when her brow seemed to be making creases.“What have you found now?Something that I can help you with?Or is it something that you have to do on your own?”
“It says I need to have a nesting place for the egg or eggs.I never thought about me having morethan one baby before.Can you tell?”He said that he couldn’t, but maybe Lady Earth could tell.“I’ll have to ask her what she thinks.What’s a nesting place?”
“I honestly have no idea.”She just stared at him.“You have to remember that I’m an ancient and haven’t been around babies in longer than I can remember my childhood.”She told him she didn’t know babies either.“Well, together we’ll figure this out.We’ll just have to go with the flow of things and figure them out as we go.What do you think?”
“I think we might be in over our heads here.”He laughed, and she glared at him.“When this baby is born, you’re going to be helping me as much as I do.This will be our project that we learn from if you want to have any more than just the one.”
“I’ll be helpful.From what I’ve read, too, the faeries will be helpful as well.That is one of the reasons that they’ll be around is for any children that we have.”She asked what they could do; they were so tiny.“But there are a lot of them.And don’t forget they have magic as well.And when the babies start coming, they’ll have even more, so that they can protect him when we need them to.Sort of like a nanny with guns kind of thing.”
“I like that.Nannies with guns.I can almost see them standing guard over the crib with their guns out and their little wings flapping.I think someone coming to hurt the baby wouldn’t be able to stop laughing long enough to do any harm, and we’d be able to subdue them.What do you think?”He said that it would be a sight to see.“Do you think we’ll be good parents?I don’t have a great deal of role models on my side, and you don’t have it either.How about we just raise them in the opposite way that we were raised and hope for the best?”
“Is this what has you so sad?You don’t think you’re going to be a good parent?”She nodded, and her lower lip quivered some.“Oh, Skye, you’re going to be the best.Even if you don’t have the book with you, you’d do fine.I know it.Any baby would be lucky to have you as a mom.Just look at how good you’ve done with Trevor.I know he wasn’t a baby when you and he hooked up, but you’ve done a great job in keeping him safe and fed.”He turned in his chair to pat his lap.“Come here and let me hold you.”
She came across the room and sat on his lap.Holding her always made him feel better, too, and when she wrapped her arms around him, he felt like he could take on about anything and come out the winner.After a few minutes, he realized that she was asleep and continued to hold her in his arms while she rested.She hadn’t been sleeping well, and he knew that it had a lot to do with all the sex they were having.He was going to have to slow down or she’d be worn out to a nub before their first anniversary.Smiling to himself, he was ready to doze off when a faerie came into the room.
“Your lordship, may I have a word with you?It’s about the household staff.”He whispered that they had no household staff.“The other faeries.I do believe that there are too many of us for a house this size.We expected you to be living in a much larger space.”
“I had a much larger space, but I downsized to this one because I didn’t need all that extra.This house suits us both very well.I know that when the children come along, we’ll have to go bigger, but for now we’ll be living here.”He nodded and said that he understood.“What’s wrong with sending some of the pip back?”
“They wish only to serve, my lord.So I was wondering if you had an idea what to do with so many of us staying here with you.”He started to tell them that he had enough on his mind right now to deal with something else, but then he thought of something else.“They have been chosen to come to you and have been so proud of the fact that they can serve their king of dragons and his mistress.”
“Send them to my cousins so that I can be assured that they’re safe as well.It would be a great honor for me for some of them to go to their homes and make sure they have the same care that we have here.”The little wings on the faerie started fluttering faster.Hopefully, that was a good sign.“Tell them that it’s my wish to share this good omen with them so that they’ll be as happy as I am with my faeries.”
“That is most excellent, my lord.Yes, I’ll divide them up so that they’ll each have the perfect amount of them in each of their homes.”Nodding, he was trying his best not to be giddy with theexcitement of having one less thing that he had to worry about.“I will do that posthaste.If you will tell the others what a great gift you have given them, then we shall spread out today if possible.”
“I’ll take care of that now.”He hoped they would take it as it was meant, a gift to them so they’d have the same magic around as he did.Because the faeries really did have their own kind of magic, and it spilled over into their lives, too.“You just make sure that they all understand that this is something that I wanted so as to make my cousins feel as good as I do about having you guys around.”
“I will, my lord.I’ll make sure that they are aware of what a great gift you are sharing with them.”When he fluttered away, mumbling to himself, Kings adjusted Skye in his arms to hold her better.Before he got too comfy and fell asleep with her, he reached out to his cousins to tell them the good news.Or he hoped they’d think of it as good news.
~*~
“What the hell am I supposed to do with a bunch of faeries?”Cassian didn’t like that Kings was laughing.“I just got my house situated, and now you’re going to share this great bounty that I’ve heard nothing but complaints from you about them, too.Why are you really doing this?”
“Seriously, I didn’t want to hurt their feelings.And you guys could use a little help nowand then with your houses.Did I mention that they clean up after you, no matter how messy you’ve been in the kitchen?That’s a plus right there if you ask me.”
“No one asked you anything.You’re doing this to become more friendly with the faeries while making enemies with us.I see how you are.You’re just trying to make our lives more difficult.”Kings told him if he didn’t want them there, then tell them when they arrive.“Oh yeah, make me the bad guy in this.What if I told you that you’re not to send them?What would you do then?”
“They’re coming.Probably on their way right now.”Cassian listened as his brother Brenin complained about having the extra help around the house.“It’ll be just fine, you’ll see.And I didn’t complain about them that much.It’s just that there are so many of them.You’ve been here.Just think.You’ll only have about one-sixth of what I had in my house.That should count for something for you.”
The others weren’t complaining as much as he thought they might, and he figured that since it seemed like it was a done deal, then he should just deal with it.It would be nice to have a few extra hands around the place when he was vegging in front of the television at night and left himself a mess for in the morning.Also, he hated to dust.Maybe they’d take that over, too.Not to mention the windows being washed when they needed it.He was starting to warm up to the idea, but wasn’t going to tell Kings.Instead, he was going to let him think that he was doing him a favor by taking on the faeries.It might get him a bonus later down the line, like a favor that he could ask for and get from the big dragon.
“I’ll take them, but you’re going to owe me.”Kings said that he was all right with that, too.“Good.I want you to remember that, too.That we did you a favor in taking on—how do you pay them?I mean, they get paid for being around us, don’t they?”
“We gave them a place to put their homes in the house.Not all of them, because that would be just too much, but the few that are staying.Also, you need to put out fresh flowers when you can get them; they eat the blooms.And sugar cubes too.Not too many of those, or they’ll get sick.They don’t seem to have any kind of cutoff when it comes to sugar.They’ll eat it until they get sick.”Cassian asked about money, how they paid them.“That’s all they want.To be treated well, of course, and not to be yelled at.I never raised my voice to any of them, and to do what I said with the flowers and sugar.They’re just happy to be working for dragons.”
“I have to give them something.”He told him that he should ask them.“I’m sure that they can’t take our money and use it, but what of things that I find around the place for them?I read once in a book that they enjoyed colorful glass and beads.”
“As I said, I don’t know about that, but ask them.Someone will be in charge of the group.And they’ll tell you who they are.I’ve forgotten the name of the little creature that comes to me; I’ll have to get better at that.But now that I think about it, I have been known to give them some things that I might find while I’m out.They like bits of cloth they can use.Believe it or not, they like those old-fashioned pop lids, you remember the kind I’m talking about.They use things like that in their homes.But ask.That’s the best way to treat them right and havethem wanting to help you.”He’d think of something to do.And Kings was right, asking them would cause no confusion about what they might want.“Also, you might want to give them a room that they can go to when they have time off.Skye set up one of the rooms with lots of windows in it so they can have the sunlight.I’d forgotten about that.”
After closing the connection with Kings and the others, he wondered how they would get into his place without knocking at the door.Almost as soon as that thought entered his head, he heard a small whisper of a sound at the front door.Going to see who it was, he wasn’t surprised to find a sole faerie with the biggest smile on her face.He stepped back to allow her entrance, and she came in and told him why she was there.
“I wanted to make sure you’re ready for us.”He said that he was and showed her the room that would be theirs when they lived with him.“Oh, good.So many windows, too.This will be perfect.If you were to leave a window open a small bit for us to come and go, then we’ll not bother you again about where we will be staying.This is perfect.”
As soon as he opened the window about an inch or two, they started arriving.Not as a horde as he thought, but a few at a time, and they would thank him as they moved by him.Moving back to the door, he stayed out of their way while they got settled.The first faerie that came to him, her name was Buttercup, said that she would be his go-to faerie and that she would be there for the others to make sure they didn’t do anything to upset him.
“I was wondering what I need to do to pay you for your time.”She shook her head and told him they were pleased to be able to serve him.“But surely there is something that I can repay you with that would make your lives better for doing the same for me.”
“I’ll ask around.We do like flowers to eat and sometimes, not often, sugar cubes.Also, a bit of water in a dish wouldn’t be remiss either.”He said he could do that for them.“Good.If there is anything else, then I’ll tell you.”
