Page 32 of Dragon Heir

He tried not to stumble when she released him. “Good evening, Hil. My apologies for the-”

“And you with that fine tongue of yours, too!” she guffawed as she clapped him on the back. Will was nearly sent sprawling but caught himself with his prodigious dragon speed. “You’re as sweet as a hive of honey!”

Will sheepishly smiled at her. “Thank you for the compliment, Hil, but there’s someone I’d like to introduce you to.” He grasped my hand and pulled me to his side where the woman looked me over. “I don’t believe you two have met. This is my bride.”

The woman held out her hand. “Never met her, but now’s as good a time as ever to greet ya. The name’s Hilda Den.”

“Rose, um, Thorn,” I replied as I accepted her hand.

I wasn’t ready for the grip and some of my bones crunched beneath her strong hand. I clamped my mouth shut to keep from crying out as Will clapped a steadying hand on my shoulder. His eyes twinkled at me. My evil husband knew my suffering and was laughing.

Hil finally released me and stepped back to take a long look at me. “You’re a sight for sore eyes around here, miss, and for that I’m sorry I missed yer visit last time you was here. It isn’t easy leaving this place even for a moment, especially when I was having to fetch fresh water from a spring three miles off with only a sorry nag to help me.”

I tucked my pulsing hand behind me and slapped a smile on my pain-filled face. “You don’t have to apologize. We weren’t here very long the last time, anyway.”

“Then you should stick around a little longer this time,” Hil insisted as she jerked her head over her shoulder. “There’s a crowd waiting in there for ya right now.”

“Friendly?” Will wondered.

She wrinkled her nose. “Well, there’s a bit of a mess around here lately so it isn’t as friendly as it should be. Still, they’re eager to hear what you have to say, My Lord, so you’d best come in and give ‘em what they want.”

She stepped aside and Will took my arm. He led me through the door and into the bright interior of the old pub. Smoky rafters hung above us and the dark paneled walls told a tale of countless pipes and hearth fires being burned in the large room that occupied the whole of the bottom floor. Two dozen tables of various shapes and sizes and a wild assortment of chairs crowded about the open floor. A huge chimney occupied much of the wall to the far left and a bright fire crackled away in its hearth. The early comers had taken up seats around the fire and many of them were men of advanced age with long gray beards and eyes that showed both wisdom and a touch of mischief. It was like looking into Will’s eyes but with more wrinkles.

A dozen such men and a few women occupied those chairs. The rest were taken by young men and women, but mostly families with children young and old. A few of the kids scampered about chasing one another through the maze of adults. Babies cried for bottles and men folk bounced a child on their knee.

We entered the room and almost every single pair of eyes fell on us.

Chapter Nineteen

Instinct told me to hide behind Will but I couldn’t do that. I was his bride and these were his people. I had to show them a good face, at least for this first meeting. Will guided me into their company as he smiled and inclined his head to them. I did the same and more than one little housewife leaned over and whispered to her feminine friend. I hoped it was words of compliment.

A single table in the middle of the room stood empty. Will led us over to that one and grasped the back of a chair where he pulled it out for me. I was glad to rest my trembling legs as he walked over to the other seat at the table but didn’t sit down. Instead, he draped an arm over the back and swept his bright eyes over the room.

“Good evening, people of the country,” he greeted them. “It’s been far too long since I came here to see you all.”

“Not nearly as long as the two summers fifty years ago when the fires wouldn’t stop raging,” one of the old-timers spoke up.

Another glared at him. “It was forty-nine years ago, you old fool!”

“What about the winter of thirty-two years past?” another chimed in. “His Lordship was gone for a spell during that fetching the cattle who got lost in the blizzard.”

The second one scoffed. “That was only for a few months.”

“I would like to introduce you to my bride,” Will spoke up, interrupting their bickering. He swept an arm toward me and his smile softened. “This is Rose, Lady of My Hall. I hope you all get to know her very well and love her as I do.”

One of the women at a nearby table stood and smiled at me. She clasped her hands in front of her and bowed her head to me. “We wish to extend to you a warm welcome, Lady Thorn, and hope you will visit our homes as often as you like.” A murmur of approval arose from all those present.

I stood and tried not to let my shaky legs collapse beneath me. “Thank you so much for that warm welcome. If you could, I’d like for you all to call me Rose. I-” I blushed and dropped my eyes to the floor, “-I don’t really know how to reply to titles, so I’d very much like to be called Rose.”

I risked a look up and watched more than one person bob their heads in approval. Their representative nodded. “Of course, Rose, and if it so pleases you, we would have you call us by our given names, as well.”

“Not me!” one of the curmudgeons at the hearth spoke up. He was an ancient specimen who wore a battered broad-brimmed hat, pants patched at the knees, and a plain plaid long-sleeved shirt. “She’ll call me by my last name or I’ll be damned!” His insistence raised a few eyebrows and earned a few guffaws.

Will himself smiled at him. “We will gladly make an exception for you, Mr. Ealdor, provided you refer to me as ‘Master Thorn.’” Laughter burst out of the crowd and more than one man slapped their knee.

Ealdor wrinkled his nose before he turned his back on us to face the fire. “Not on yer life. . .”

Will clapped his hands together and looked about the room. “Now then, what merriment have we in store tonight?” A pair of children scurried past him giggling. He scooped both of them up in his arms, frightening them at first before he spun them in a circle. They squealed and squirmed before he put them down on the floor where they shot off to their scolding parents. Will resumed his scouring of the room. “Or shall we have stories?”

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