Piper (Queen's Birds of Prey 4)

me to the house for dinner tonight anyway. You should come too. That way, if they have any questions, you’ll be able to answer. It will be fun to have someone other than all those women around.”

“I don’t know, kid. What if they don’t want strangers around?” Abe said he wasn’t a stranger, that he knew his sister and mom both. “But they still might not like it. You should probably get permission first for me to just show up.”

He nodded then smiled at him. “I asked. Mom said the more, the merrier, and that your mom should come too. Tracy had so much fun at your mom’s shop the other day that she has talked of nothing much else. Please say you’re coming. I will have someone to talk to while the women talk about dresses and stuff.” He made a gagging sound, then looked up at Grant. “It’s not that bad. I promise. I love having all my family around all the time. Especially at meal times. They’re fun.”

“I have to ask my mom too.” Abe told him if she couldn’t make it, he could still come. “You’re an all right kid. I think I might like having you hanging around with me.”

“My Aunt Piper calls me kid too. I don’t think it’s because she doesn’t know my name, but she just thinks of me as a kid. I don’t annoy her, I don’t think. We had dinner together the other night. Just her and me.” The kid had a serious crush on his aunt if Grant didn’t miss his bet. “She’s the phoenix. The scariest of all of them, I think. My mom is an eagle. So is Dad.”

In the end, it was just him that was going to dinner at the castle. His mom wanted to go, he could tell, but she’d already made plans to go over to Ms. Sanders’ home and help her with her legs. Abe told her that if she got done early to come on up. He’d love to have her sitting with them too. The kid was a charmer. He could tell that right away.

When it was time for him to head up to dinner, his mom actually going, after all, he thought about what he should wear. When he came out of his room in a pair of jeans and a white shirt and tie, his mom fussed at him for not dressing up more.

“Mom, if he would have told me to dress more, I would have. But he said they just wore what they had on. Just in case he was a little too casual about the dress, I’m wearing a tie.” She told him he needed to shave. Also that his hair was too long. “Mom, you being nervous isn’t helping me much, just so you know.”

“I don’t want to make a terrible impression.” He pointed out that they’d met them before. “I know, but we were working. That’s different.”

Rolling his eyes, he went out onto the porch to wait for her to come out so they could leave. Getting into the car for the short drive, Grant knew they’d be stopped several times before they made it out of the town, and that would delay them a great deal.

As they made their way to the castle, talking to their neighbors as they went, Grant realized how much his mom meant to these people. He would also bet his mom would tell him they were just being nice. No, he thought, they loved her. As much as he did. His mom was the best there was as far as he was concerned.

Grant also knew people would come to her about things too. Her opinion meant a great deal to each and every one of the townspeople. Even the mayor came to her about things he wasn’t sure were going to work. Grant had to laugh. He knew she’d have an opinion about whatever it was.

“Oh, my goodness.” He looked where his mom was looking and stopped the car. The castle was finished. The scaffolding had been taken down sometime over the last few days. In addition, the drawbridge, as old as the castle itself, had been installed. “It looks so much like it did when you were born, Grant. With the exception of the dirt and smoke.”

“The smell too. It doesn’t smell of pigs or sewage.” She nodded as she stared at the place. “Mom? Are you ready to go on?”

“Aye, I am. My goodness, the queen would surely be proud of her boy. Not just in taking care that the castle was restored, but how all of us are still here, as safe as the day she had us moved.” She laughed a little and turned to him while he still had the car in park. “You were so sick on that trip we took. If not for everything going on down below us, you might well have not spewed your breakfast and lunch.”

“Yes. You kept telling me not to look down. But I’d never been that high before.” He thought of that day, and it still terrified him to think just how high they had been. “If I remember correctly, the bird that took us was the owl. She was as gentle as she could be, too, I remember.”

He thought of all the changes that had occurred in his lifetime. There wasn’t a day that went by that something new wasn’t discovered. A patch of land that was quickly turned into one of the best herb gardens ever. Everyone kept it cleaned of weeds, and it was used by all. The running stream that seemed to be warmer in the colder months. He remembered taking baths in the stream with a great many other boys his age. Each house had water piped in. Wood used for cooking and heat was chopped and stacked in the summer and used up through the winter. Any need they were lacking in did not matter either. Someone was there to work out a solution. When one of their own died, they all worked together to take care of the family left behind. The casket would be made for them as well.

When they pulled up in front of the castle, Grant wondered what would have happened to them had not the queen of the castle provided for them. Even now, she had made sure there was plenty to go around. He thought that if Dante were alive today, she’d be working the fields with them if necessary. She’d be helping dig graves, a new well or whatever was necessary.

While he’d never met her person to person, everyone knew who she was. It was nothing, when they were all living in the keep, for her to be seen grooming horses or playing with the children she came across. Also, she’d be the first to go to a home that had a dying relative, holding their hands when grief would be too much for them.

“I wish I could have known her.” He looked around when someone said she did as well. “You must be Tracy. I’ve heard a great deal about the beautiful teenagers here now. How do you like living in a castle?”

“It’s wonderful. You must be Grant. Your mom told one of us to come out and get you. She seems to think you’re off your noodle. I myself think that if anyone can stop and enjoy a beautiful scene such as this one, there can’t be too much wrong with them.” He looked back out over the inlet. There were boats on the water even now. “Someday, I’d like to be able to ride the seas. My mom did. She said that being a pirate with her sisters was one of the most fun times she can remember.”

“I would imagine.” He thought about this young slip of a woman being a pirate. “I bet in her day it was very profitable too. Men would have gladly turned over anything to a pretty face. I was a pirate, too, for a while. For me, it was a good way to make some money to send home to my mom. It certainly did stave off the boredom for a while.”

They talked about his stint as a pirate. Also, when he’d been other things in his life. As soon as he entered the large double doors, Grant felt warmed. Not by the room, but by the feelings that came from it. The part of him that was fae told him this would be a good place to feel welcomed no matter what sort of day you were having.

Grant bowed to the woman he knew to be his queen.

“Oh, please don’t do that. I nearly had to kick your mother up from the floor when she did the same thing. Get up.” He did and grinned at the pretty woman in front of him. “I might be your queen and Duncan, your king, but as friends, as I’m hoping you’ll be, we’re just people having friends over for dinner.”

“I doubt very much that you’ll get my mom to do anything but bow or curtsy in front of you.” Jude, he’d been asked to call her, laughed. “You’ve done so much to the castle. I could swear that other than a few things, such as smell, you’ve done it exactly as it was all those centuries ago.”

“Yes. I remember the smell.” She laughed with him. “Isn’t it funny how you can remember a lot of good things about a place, but when someone brings up the bad part, it floods your memory w

ith all sorts of other things? Like the smell of cooking meat. The smokehouse too. My goodness. I’d forgotten about those. Dante did try and make it cleaner, but there wasn’t the sort of equipment we have now. Come in, Grant. Your mom is now trying to have a conversation with my husband, and I don’t think it’s going well.”

He was led to a large living room space. Whoever had designed it had taken into account that many people might gather in the room. Three massive couches faced the now cooled fireplace. The armor around it gave testament to the wars that had been fought. There were chairs set about in pairs with small tables between them. He found his mom in one of those little areas, trying her best to blend into the chair while sitting across from Duncan, their king.

“Your mother seems to think she is beneath me, Grant. I’m trying to tell her I don’t recognize such stations in life anymore. I can and will be king when it’s necessary, but we’re friends here today.” Grant shook hands with the other man and felt a surge of magic transferred between the two of them. “Ah. Fae, faerie, and brownie. I think there is a bit of wolf there as well. As well as a little magic from my mom. I’ve read about you, Grant. My mother had such plans for you.”