Page 40 of Long Live the King

She laughed again. “Would you like more?”

“Tis possible? I daena want tae be a bother.”

“You are not a bother. I don’t see how you could possibly be.” She took the two steps tae the counter tae slice me another piece of pie.

I said, “Och nae, Ash, I can be a huge bother, ye ken, I am rarelynotbotherin’ my brothers, they hae tae find things tae keep me busy.”

“Like what?”

“Magnus makes me muck the stables when I am a’botherin’ him. Fraoch makes me fish, I tell ye, I hae had m’fill of fish. I ken I told ye I would take ye tae yer favorite restaurant, but I would like tae ask for it tae nae be fish, I greatly prefer a steak.”

She laughed. “I like steak too.”

“Ye hae a beautiful laugh, Mistress Ash.”

She said, “Do I? I sometimes think people don’t think I’m serious. When I enlisted everyone thought I was too cute to do anything. I had to work my butt off to prove I was more than cute and...”

“Ye hae a laugh that sounds like when tis a summer day and the waves are lappin’ against the planks of the dock on the lake in Maine and the bairns are runnin’ along on the lawn behind me, squealin’ in joy.”

“Bairns are children?”

“Aye.”

“Are you saying I sound like the squealing bairns?”

“Nae, ye sound like the summer day, yer laugh sounds like the feelin’ I get when there is warm sun on m’face and all is well in the family.”

She sank down in the chair across from me and put the new piece of pie in front of me. “I don’t know, Lochie, if anyone has ever said something so beautiful to me.”

I grinned. “If me comparing yer laugh, Mistress Ash, as bonny as ye are, tae a summer day, is the first good compliment ye hae been given, then ye are surroundin’ yerself with the wrong sort of people.”

She laughed again and said, “You can say that again, you met my ex, you’veseenmy wrong sort of people.”

I shoveled in a big bite of pie. “Och aye, he was an arse. He canna be yer choice of people.”

“He’s not, he just sort of happened, you know? Then I had to figure out how to make it not happen.”

“Aye, I ken, we used tae hae many such stories back at the, um...” I had almost said ‘castle’ and now I couldna think of what tae say instead so after an uncomfortable pause I finished, “When I was growin’ up, when young men and women are choosin’ each other, tis a time that is fraught.”

She raised her beer. “To a time that is fraught, and old, dumb exes and new friends.”

I clinked m’can tae her’s and said, “Slàinte!”

“What does that mean?”

“Tae good health!”

“Slàinte!” We clinked our cans again.

I finished eating my pie and pushed the plate away.

I drank some more beer, then asked, “What is your favorite thing tae do besides bakin’ delicious pies?”

“Well, let’s see, I love to go to the beach with a chair and a book and dig my feet down into the sand and sit and read.” She gestured toward the wall down near her bed, twas lined with books. “Those are just some of my favorites. I have stacks of books in boxes at my parents’ house, some in storage, I just can’t fit them all.”

“That is a great deal of books. What is the subject of them?”

“I read fantasy and dystopian, fairies, princes, the occasional dragon.”

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