Page 23 of Mistletoe

“I do not,” Emma protested, but the accusation gave her pause. It made no sense. Her most dangerous associate was the cat, Clover.

“The orc.”

Nowit made sense. The separation. The uncomfortable cell. Being chaperoned by the sheriff personally yet ignored for hours. Nina waited to interrogate Emma, making sure she was properly motivated to be talkative, which just made Emma angry.

“What’s an orc?” Emma asked.

Nina’s eyes narrowed, clearly not amused. “Stop wasting my time, De Lacey. Mrs. Fairfax reported seeing a large green man the night after the winter solstice.”

“That’s it? She saw someone?” Emma knew the woman who made the report. Isabella Fairfax was her closest neighbor and a busybody.

“Someone green. Disfigured. Excessive teeth.”

None of which was a crime or a particularly helpful description.

Insulting, though.

“Isabella Fairfax is old enough to know that existing near her property is not a crime.” Emma pointed a finger for dramatic emphasis. “She should be arrested for wasting your time.”

“Reporting a monster sighting is the duty of every citizen. Now, what do you know about the orc?”

“Literally nothing.”

The sheriff took a step toward the cell, holding her gaze. Emma stared back, refusing to be intimidated by such obvious tactics. Nina said, “When the orc burst through the window, everyone was surprised except you.”

“I was stunned, which is the expected reaction.”

“You licked your lips.”

Emma glanced away, breaking eye contact. She had been stunned, but not by Hal’s dramatic entrance. Her attraction to him was what shook her. Not many people caught her eye. In her younger years, a few fellows came courting, but nowadays, she was far too abrasive and caustic to entertain gentler emotions. She was thirty and a spinster. The town would laugh at her if she bothered to woo anyone, let alone a monster.

Wooing a monster, could you even imagine?

But Hal’s smile made her warm inside. It wasn’t gentle or refined, but fierce. It called to her.

“You’re blushing,” Nina said.

Emma pressed her hands to her blazing hot face, mortified to find she was indeed blushing. “That’s indignation, not anything unseemly.”

Excellent. The sheriff would surely never detectthatlie.

“Explain this.” Nina thrust the blanket toward Emma, displaying the embroidery of white berries and green leaves in the corner.

Mistletoe.

Emma took the blanket, brushing her thumb over the uneven stitches. “This is my handiwork. I was a girl when I did this. My technique has not improved, sadly.”

“I know the blanket came from your farm,” Nina said. “You have a prior relationship with the orc.”

“A blanket does not establish a relationship. He could have stolen it from the barn,” she said.

Emma held the blanket out for Nina to take. She made a dismissive gesture, implying that Emma should keep it. She wrapped it around her shoulders, resisting the urge to sniff it.

“Refusing to tell me what you know is obstruction.”

Emma really did not think that was how the law worked. She should demand a lawyer and refuse to utter another word.

“I found the orc in the barn two nights ago.”

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