Chapter Thirteen

OLLIE

Tim's place remained empty at supper, but no one commented on that fact. Afterwards, the three of us moved to the sitting room. I didn't think I'd ever get used to the wonderful scent of the open woodfire, though when I said so to Mia, she assured me I'd change my mind once I had to clean out the grate every morning.

Archer sat in an armchair, scrolling on his phone. He said nothing, yet his presence dominated the room.

"Doesn't the house get damp with a moat around it?" I asked Mia.

"Only in the cellar. We have to run a dehumidifier constantly down there."

"You have a cellar?" That sounded romantic.

"Dungeon, really. It's where we stash visitors when we're sick of them," she said with a grin.

"Mia." Archer's voice was soft but the warning was clear.

Her shoulders drooped slightly.

"Hey, I was thinking." I said the first thing that came into my mind, wanting to cheer her up. "Do you think tomorrow, after I've looked around the gardens, I could polish the silver candlesticks in the dining room?"

Mia's surprise disappeared as she looked at the silver cuff on my wrist and evidently understood. "I don't know if we've got any polish," she said, wrinkling her nose. "It might need to go on the shopping list. But yeah, fondle them to your heart's content. I guess we're going to have to search you when you leave."

"Mia." Archer's tone was much sharper, and I winced. How he conveyed so much disapproval and discipline with one word was beyond me. Mia was being playful. It wasn't her fault she was still a little young and evidently didn't understand that the one thing dragons never joked about was their treasure.

"Tell me about the donkeys," I said in another change of subject, surely safe this time.

She did, and showed me some photos. "Donkeys are hardcore, Sally says. In some countries, they're used as guard animals for flocks of sheep. They've even chased off wolves."

"So a dragon or two shouldn't faze them too much," I interpreted. "Sorry, who's Sally?"

"Oh, she owns them. That's a point, actually—if you see a stray human woman around, it's likely to be Sally."

"Anyone else I should be aware of?"

"No," Mia said. "It's just us. Me, Tim and Archer."

"And approximately fifty million loudly quacking ducks," I pointed out, and the sadness that had shown on her face disappeared as she laughed at me.

ARCHER

I'd taught Mia better than that. I could understand how Ollie's enthusiasm and liveliness might cause her to ignore stuffy-seeming rules. But Ollie would be going home, back to his family, and although I didn't think he'd be malicious about us, a little questioning would elicit a torrent of information from him. If they learned that I wasn't in complete control even of my immediate family, that would be a weakness they could exploit against me.

I didn't know why we were always looking for weaknesses in other families to take advantage of. Did human families do the same, or was this a dragon thing? We'd kept separate for so many years now that we all assumed hostile intent. Perhaps Margaret's idea about closer integration would change things.

I put my phone to one side and watched Ollie and Mia. They were giggling together over something. I was glad that it was Ollie who had come to stay with us. He and Mia appeared capable of entertaining one another endlessly despite the age difference, meaning I wouldn't have to take too much time away from my work.

We were finally on a more or less even keel financially. Dad's debts had died with him—he hadn't been able to secure them against the Court, thank God, because it was tied up in a trust. But he'd drained the accounts he'd inherited, and it had taken me years to get to a point where every waking hour wasn't worrying about paying the bills. Things were no longer that tough, but I still had to work every hour I could.

Mia's phone sounded, and she looked at Ollie with laughing eyes. "Apparently, you've broken Nick's heart by not flirting with him."

"What's that?" My fingers dug into the arms of my chair, my dragon sounding in my voice. Mine echoed deep inside me.

Ollie's eyes widened as he stared at me, his cheeks flushing. "Just some guy," he said. "I thought he was being friendly. Guess I missed the bit where he was flirting."

I felt he wasn't being honest with me, and my anger flared. But I had no claim on Ollie, and that was the way it should be. If I were to make a move on him, how could he refuse the head of family he'd been forced to stay with? Even if something were to happen between us—and for an instant, I let myself think about his face turned up to mine, that smile aimed at me and me alone—it would destroy what I was so drawn to in him. There was no room for joy in my life, and if Ollie were to be with me, it would slowly be sucked out of him, leaving him a bitter shell like me.

My silent disapproval changed the atmosphere in the room. When the silliness and the laughter stopped, I realised I'd actually quite liked it, so I left to go and make hot chocolate for us all. Maybe in my absence, they'd start having fun again.

By the time I returned with their chocolate, they were laughing. Although I'd wanted that, it hurt that they couldn't do that with me there, even as it reinforced how wrong I was for Ollie.

I took mine to the dining room to work in peace and found myself listening for Ollie's laugh, clear and bright, wondering how it had the power to make the house feel warmer and more alive.

It didn't matter. He was only here for three months. Any change would be temporary.

OLLIE

Safely tucked up in an almost-warm bed later, I messaged Jack and told him about the Talbots I'd met. Having had a chance to think about the visit to Chris and June, I'd decided not to mention the strange relationship between them and Archer. I didn't have anything concrete to tell him, and it felt like gossiping about Archer behind his back.

With that decision made, I didn't have much to pass on except a string of names, but I wanted to talk to Jack. At the end of my first full day here, I wasn't sure how the next three months were going to go.

Archer's anger earlier when he'd heard about Nick had been scary. It had also turned me on like nothing I'd known. It made no sense for me to have reacted like that because I didn't like getting in trouble. Getting in trouble with Archer Talbot was, apparently, a different matter.

I was still grappling with understanding him. He'd shown a slightly softer side a couple of times, but tonight, he'd been uncompromising in correcting Mia. I knew how it felt to be found wanting, although in my case it was usually my parents who told me off. I always fell short of whatever undefined goal I was supposed to be reaching.

Time to distract myself.

I swear, I feel like Jane Eyre , I sent to Jack. Remember, we had to read it for A level? Well, I'm the poor governess who's come to a huge old house full of secrets—I haven't found the attic yet but they have a priest hole and a dungeon—and it's all ruled over by stern, dark, brooding Mr Rochester . Who Jane Eyre ended up marrying, if I remembered rightly. And for the first time, I felt a bit sorry for her. Rochester had been hot as hell, but overbearing, autocratic, and anything but easy company. Or was that Archer I was thinking about?

Don't go starting any fires and blinding your host, Jack said . And please, Ollie, don't bang him, even if he is tall, dark and brooding.

I know why I'm here. I'll behave.

And I really, really intended to.