Page 23 of Wild Scottish Rose

“He needs to keep up.”

“Keep up for what? Wait. Stop, stop, stop.” I waved my hands in the air as the front row of hedgehogs ground to a stop and the others ran into them, tumbling over each other like bowling pins being knocked down. Eugene stayed on his feet, wisely having taken up the rear. “What is this?”

“Your hedgehog army, of course.” The gnome sniffed, crossing his arms over his chest, and shook his head in disgust as the hedgies extracted themselves from the pile and shook their wee round bodies.

“My … what? My hedgehog army?” My voice rose on a high note, and I was dangerously close to laughing, but the stern expression on the gnome’s face prevented me from doing so. “And why is it that I’ll be needing an army of hedgies?”

“You’ve accepted your power. This is part of it.”He knows? Already?

“Is it though?” I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes at the gnome. “Because I can’t recall a single word being mentioned about a hedgehog army in all of the information I was given today.”

“Maybe I took creative license.” The gnome shrugged.

“Creative…” I trailed off, shaking my head. “Let’s back up just a moment. First of all, do you have a name? Or should I just call you Grumpy?”

The gnome shifted, pulling his shoulders back, and scoured me with a look that would be terrifying if he wasn’t the size of a kitten.

“The name is Gnorman. The G’s silent.”

I paused, mentally working out the spelling.

“Gah-Norman?” I smirked. “Gnorman the Gnome?”

“The G’s silent, lass. You know, they never mentioned that my garden witch would be lacking intelligence.”

My eyebrows rose to my hairline. Sassy little shite, wasn’t he?

“Yourgarden witch?” I said in disbelief.

“Yes,mygarden witch.” Gnorman parroted my tone, tilting his head to match my stance. Oh, boy, this wee lad was in for it if he kept poking at me. I briefly imagined punting Gnorman over the fence.

“Wouldn’t it be the other way around? Doesn’t the witch have a familiar? That would make you my gnome, if I’m correct.”

“It’s open to interpretation,” Gnorman assured me.

Headlights sliced through the darkness and Gnorman hissed.

“For fern’s sake. He’s home. Disperse. Disperse!” Gnorman ordered.

The hedgies turned in all different directions at once, running into each other and toppling over, their little legs waving in the air.

“Damn it,move. Go on, lads,” Gnorman hissed, craning his head to look for the car.

Crouching, I righted a few of the hedgies that were having a more difficult time of it and tapped wee Eugene on the forehead. He grinned up at me, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, and I beamed. Gnorman may be a jerk, but his hedgehog army was endearing.

“Don’t let him badger you,” I warned Eugene. His eyes widened a bit, and he looked hurriedly around. I realized I had scared him. “No, no, no. There’s no badger here. I’m just saying don’t let the gnome tell you what to do.”

Eugene froze as the car door slammed, and footsteps crunched in the gravel.

“What are you doing?” Owen asked at my back, and Eugene took flight, his wee legs scurrying as fast as they could across the grass. “Holy…whatisthat?”

“Uh…” I straightened to see Gnorman in his resting gnome face and realized that Owen was staring after Eugene. “Oh, the hedgie?”

“A hedgehog?” Owen’s voice lifted in excitement, and I caught myself staring at his handsome face.

“Yes? Don’t you have hedgies at home?”

“Nope. Maybe. But I’ve never seen one.”

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