Peony

“Welcome, little flower, no mother with you tonight?”

The General doesn’t look surprised in the least to see me standing alone on his doorstep.

“She’s caught up at work but on her way,” I reply, swallowing my nerves down thickly. “She said to bring this round.”

I hold out the wine and he takes it, smiling knowingly at me.

“There was me thinking you’d pinched it from your mother’s wine rack, you naughty girl.” He winks. It’s like a cold shower of sleaze washing over me and it makes me shudder. “Come in, you must be cold.”

He barely moves from the doorway to let me in and I have to squeeze past him. His scent makes me gag. I feel itchy under his scrutiny as he watches me remove my shoes. When I’m done, he still stares.

“Is Mrs Montgomery cooking?” I ask hopefully. I know she won’t be. I don’t think she’s ever cooked a meal in her life, but I desperately want to break the tension and get his seedy eyes off me.

“No. Tonight is a catered event.”

“Oh. Is it a big dinner then?”

“Just you.”

“And mum.”

“When she gets here. If she gets here.”

“And Mrs Montgomery of course.”

“Ah, no. Like your mother, my wife seems to have been held up this evening. I’m not sure when, or even if, she’ll make it. So it looks like it’s just you and me.”

His smile is all wolf.

I know I’m in serious shit.