Page 79 of The Duke's Wicked Widow
“Which tooth is it, lassie—Nay, dinnae stick yer finger in there again. Just tell me. It’s the same one ye’ve been talking about?”
“I havethreeloose teeth!” Merida declared proudly. “But thith one ith the loothest.”
Apparently she’d decided using her tongue to point was polite enough.
Fawkes nodded. “Ye want for me to pull it out?”
“What?” Ellie gasped, as Merida reared back and slapped her hand over her mouth.
“I mean, yecouldwait for it to fall out on its own, but I used to pull mine myself. Or have my mother do it. So I could get a coin all the faster.”
Merida narrowed her eyes and lowered her hand. “Yousoldyour tooth?”
“Nay, lass, I’d put the tooth under my pillow, and the Tooth Mice would come and take it away. They’d give me a coin or a piece of mint cake in its place.”
The lass was now staring, mouth agape.
Ellie’s hands were folded primly in her lap. “I suppose the candy you were given made it all the more likely another tooth would fall out.”
“I think it’sveryuntidy,” announced Merida primly. “All these teeth falling out of your head. And imagine! Giving them tomice? Yuck.”
Fawkes finally allowed himself to grin. “What? Ye’d rather a—afairycome and fetch it? A wee fairy, with wee wings and a sparkly tutu, flitting about yer room, fumbling under yer pillow with her fairy hands? I think it’s far more realistic that there’d be mice living in the baseboards, popping out to trade ye a coin for yer tooth.”
Ellie sniffed, although there was a hint of a smile around her lips. “Micein general seem untidy to me, teeth aside.”
“Mark my words, when that tooth falls out, lassie, ye’re going to be ready for a visit from the Tooth Mice.” Fawkes threw his arm over the back of the bench. “Since ye’ll be in Scotland.”
“Are there a lot of mice in Scotland?” Ellie asked, sounding a bit alarmed.
Merida shrugged. “Actually, I don’t mind mice that much. They’re rather cute, with their little nosies. I’ll bet Tramp likes mice too—he likely wants to chase them! Perhaps, if any live in the baseboards of Fawkes’s house, I shall make friends with them, and they can bring me candy without having to take any of my teeth. What other animals live in your house, Fawkes?”
He doubted he’d ever get used to the way the lassie’s mind worked, jumping from one thought to another, but how he smiled. “Noneinthe house, but the estate where my mother lives—Hangcok Hill—has the usual barns and outbuildings, and there’s prime hunting in the summer.”
“Hunting!” Merida gasped. “Do you hunt mice?”
“Och, nay.” This chatter was easing the band of anger he’d been carrying in his chest since receiving the news of his father’s death. “And I dinnae even hunt, truthfully. But when I was a lad, I could sit for hours and watch the beavers building their dams.”
“Beavers live in the water! They get wet!”
“Ah…” Fawkes felt his neck warming, and knew if Thorne was here, the man would make some jokes aboutwet beavers. “Aye, they do. The beavers get wet…while they look for wood.”
“Big wood?” the girl clarified.
Fawkes heard Ellie make a noise which sounded suspiciously like a snort, but he knew he couldn’t risk a glance at her, or he might break into laughter himself. “Aye, Merida. The wet beavers like to find big, thick wood.”
From the corner of his eye, he saw Ellie clamp a hand to her mouth and turn to the window.
“Maybe I can see them in the summer!” the girl announced. “But I can visit the barn animals now, right? You said they’re cozy in the barn. I read about them. Sheep and goats and cows and chickens and big black cocks.”
Big blackwhat?
Ellie’s shoulders were shaking now.
“Regular cocks, too,” Fawkes managed to strangle out. “White cocks, black cocks, all types of cocks. And hens too.”
Merida nodded firmly. “I like to eat chicken. I’m hungry now, do we have chicken?”
Facing the window, Ellie cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders. “No, love,” she announced firmly as she turned about, her eyes glistening with scandalized humor, as she reached for the hamper they’d purchased before they’d boarded, “but we have ham and cheese.”
