Page 18 of Partridge in a Bear Tree

"No, not yet—hey, wait!" Gwen made sounds of protest as Penny peeled off, heading toward the pub, then sighed and yelled, "Well, don't forget to come back to the party!" after her.

"I won't!" Penny just wanted to make sure Ashley would be there. Celebrity pro wrestlers were cool, but not the person Penny was interested in seeing. Even if Ash hadn't had the chance to dress up, maybe they could still make it a date.

Another tall blond came out of the pub, her hair swept up in intricate braids that put Laurie's to shame, wearing a high-collared green gown so elegant that Penny didn't recognize her as Ashley for a few seconds. She lookedregal, like there should be an emerald crown in her hair. The gown was lined in thin strands of silver, making her look even taller and more slender than she was, and Penny couldn't help a despairing laugh. She was a hobbit who had fallen for an elf. A small, roundish, brightly-colored hobbit. It was impossible.

CHAPTER 11

There were hundreds of people at the charity event already, and somehow, through all the noise and the irregular lighting and crowds, Ashley still heard Penny's laugh through it all. She turned that direction, looking for the petite redhead, and found her in the first glance.

Her mate looked a little confused and overwhelmed and uncertain. All of those things, and alsoincrediblybeautiful. A smile crashed across Ashley's face and she pushed through the crowd, going the wrong way until she broke through at Penny's side and grabbed her hands, beaming at her. "Oh my God, look at you! Where did you—you got this from Karina down in the Looking Glass shop.Lookat you!"

Penny brushed a nervous hand down the gown and nodded. "She was so nice. I rented it, I could never afford it, but it's so pretty…?" She glanced up at Ashley like she actually needed the reassurance.

Ashley spluttered. "Gorgeous. Perfect. Incredible. Beautiful. Look at you!" she said again.

The gown didn't, actually, clash with Penny's hair. In fact, it couldn't have been more suited to Penny's red hair and golden undertones if Karina had made it for her on purpose.It had an autumn motif, an uncountable number of individual soft embroidered leaves trimmed with gold and copper and layered on top of each other in playful lines, like they'd really been caught from a falling tree. There were glimpses of still-rich summer green, and hints of clear autumn yellow, and it all flowed like the wind was catching it even when the air was still. It clung to her curves without overwhelming her, and she'd had her jaw-length hair done in short Vikings-style braids that skimmed the sides of her head and gave the top of her hair height. But they weren't smooth: they were wild and ragged, woven with leaves and twigs, until the drummer looked like she'd stepped out of an autumn windstorm.

"You look like a dryad," Ashley said joyfully. "Like a wood sprite who's justdaringa woodcutter to chop down her trees! Oh my God, no wonder Laurie told me I had to get dressed up. I should have done better than this, though, this is just, like…me, but Ren Faire."

"You're an elf princess," Penny blurted disbelievingly. "You look like an actual real life elf princess. I don't know why your ears aren't pointed. If this is just you, then you must be made completely of magic."

We are,Ashley's bear said happily.You should tell her.

Ashley almost wanted to, but the middle of a party was just about the worst place she could think to do that. She shook her head, still beaming stupidly at Penny. "No, I'm just me. This isn't anything new or special."

"It's new and special for me to see you in it!"

"Oh, well." Her smile got even dumber, if that was possible. "Okay, I guess when you put it that way. Penny, you must have spent all afternoon getting ready for this. You're incredible. I don't even care if the whole thing is a terrible disaster now."

Penny laughed. "Yes, you do. But yes, I did, and yes, I am, so let's go enjoy it and make sure it's not a terrible disaster andshow off our efforts, okay? Gwen's over there talking to Maggie Ross, who is even taller than you are. How many women have you met who are taller than you are?"

"Um." Ashley let Penny take her hand and draw her across the increasingly-crowded venue while she thought about that. "In the grand scheme of things, hardly any, I guess. I can think of quite a few right now but there obviously aren't nearly as many of them as there are women who are shorter than me. Oh gosh." Ashley stopped dead several feet from the professional wrestler, so suddenly and completely that Penny sort of bounced at the end of her arm and sprang back to Ashley's side.

"I told you she was tall," Penny whispered with a kind of triumph.

It was true. Maggie Ross was at least four inches taller than Ashley, even though Ashley was still wearing the thick-soled clogs she'd had on at work. The professional wrestler towered above everybody in the room except Ashley's cousin Bill, who, with his pompadour, almost matched her height. She was so blonde her hair, worn in a loose braid down her back, was nearly white, and her pale skin was pink from cold where her long, hippie-style fringed leather coat didn't protect her from the winter air. She didn't dress anything like what Ashley imagined a professional wrestler would. All her clothes had a definite hippie vibe, and were pastels and soft fabrics that looked comfortable and lovely.

But above and beyond all that, Maggie Ross was ashifter. And so was the slight, wolfish man at her side who gazed up at her with absolute adoration. Ashley sort of recognized him: Conri Lyell, the head of the All-Arena Entertainment group. He was clearly a predator, probably a wolf, from the lean look of him, but Maggie…

Ashley had absolutely no idea what she was, except whatever it was, was huge. She didn't feel like a polar bear or any otherarctic predator Ashley could think of, but the female shifter's presence was so enormous that Ashley couldn't imagine Maggie was anythingbuta predator. She could knock somebody down just by looking at them!

Maggie turned her head to meet Ashley's eyes with her own cool blue gaze, and the ruff on her bear's neck stood straight up.Do we fight?

The answer to that was obviously no. Ashley was still having a hard time tellingherself, never mind herbear, that, when Maggie Ross grinned, a huge bright welcoming smile, and winked at Ashley. "You must be another Torben," she said over the heads of almost everybody standing between them, including her own husband. "Apparently you're the only family that grows them life-sized around here."

A huge rush of tension fizzled out of Ashley in a breath, and when Maggie just basically reached out above everybody else's head to shake her hand, Ashley took it. "Hi. Yes, I'm Ashley Torben, and this is my—friend—Penny. It's great to meet you, Ms. Ross."

"Maggie," the other tall woman said cheerfully. "This is my husband Conri. We understand you came to the rescue when the original event venue burned down, so thank you. I was looking forward to this. Swans are a pet project of mine."

There was no way this woman, six foot eight in heels, was a swan part of the time. That, Ashley thought, would be absolutely terrifying. "I really didn't do anything. It was my cousin Laurie's idea, and then Penny had everything to make it work. She's the one who saved the day."

Maggie stepped through the crowd effortlessly to find Penny and offer her a hand, too. "Well, thanks to you, then. You…" Her incredibly pale eyebrows drew down as she examined Penny, who was literally fifteen inches shorter than she was. "We, ah,we don't run in the same circles, do we? Mile high club sorts of things?"

Penny's eyebrows flew up. "Um! No! I don't think so! It's a very nice offer but you're married and I'm dating Ashley here!"

The tall shifter blinked, then burst out laughing. "Right, yes, sorry. Excuse me. Don't know what I was thinking. Anyway, it's really nice to meet you, and seriously, thanks for rescuing this event. Thanks. Usually we go to all these boring business meetings for stuff Conri does. This is much more my speed."

"Yes," Conri said from somewhere behind her, "you have such a difficult time lying on the beach while I sit around in stuffy buildings trying to get people to agree to non-exorbitant rates for hotels and arenas."

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