Page 15 of Crossroads Magic
“Twelve dollars,” I answered. “It must be extraordinary liquor.”
“It’s pretty damn good, but that’s the tourist price.” Benedict Marcus looked at the barman with a pained expression. “You shouldn’t be charging her at all, Hirom.”
“Drinks gotta be paid for,” Hirom said flatly. “I like my job.”
Benedict shook his head, the corner of his mouth lifting. “You’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, you idiot. This is Anna Crackstone, Thamina’s daughter, and your new employer.”
Hirom’s arms unfolded. His mouth popped open, as he looked from Benedict Marcus to me, and back.
“Well, I don’t know about the employer part,” I protested. “That’s—”
Hirom looked at me with a pained expression. “You shoulda told me up front.”
“And maybe she’s flying under the radar to measure your worth, Hirom,” Benedict said.
“I’m not,” I said quickly. “Really, this is…can I go out and come back in again?”
Hirom crossed his arms again, making the muscles bulge. “Cat’s out, now.”
I sighed and put away my wallet. I hadn’t touched the drink yet, anyway. “Seriously, I was just trying to find Mr. Marcus, here.”
“And now you have,” Benedict Marcus said. “Hirom, it was a joke, and you should know better. When was the last time two women tourists travelling on their own came in here?”
Hirom gave an almighty sniff. “Can’t remember it ever happening,” he said gruffly. “Doesn’t mean it can’t, though.”
“Tourists asking for me by name?” Benedict responded. “Put the rot gut away and pour some of the good stuff, huh?”
The drink he’d been about to charge me eight dollars for wasn’t the good stuff? I absorbed that while Hirom carefully poured the drink back into the bottle, then reached under the bar and brought out a dark brown bottle, this one also without a label, that he uncorked and poured a thick finger’s worth of the clear liquid into a fresh glass. He moved it across the bar and presented it to me with a little flourish of his thick fingers. “Enjoy.”
I nodded and picked up the glass and sipped. It felt polite to do so. And I wanted to walk back some of the resentment I’d unintentionally stirred in Hirom.
I savored the small mouthful of liquid. I wasn’t anywhere close to a liquor connoisseur. I can tell between a good Scotch and a bad one, but beyond that, I did not get excited about the after taste and I didn’t leave it sitting on my tongue while I inhaled fumes. I just drank.
But this was averygood…something. I had no idea what it was. Gin? I’d have to find out later. For now, I enjoyed the mellowness of the flavor on my tongue. The subtleness of it. Then I swallowed. “That is amazingly good,” I admitted, putting the glass back on the bar.
“One of Hirom’s best,” Benedict Marcus said.
“Youmadeit?” I asked Hirom.
“That and the beer,” Hirom said. His tone was gruff, but he looked pleased. He waved to one side, and I glanced at the short end of the bar, six feet away. Four actual barrels, each about two feet across, sat on their sides on the counter, with taps emerging from them.
That was why there were no beer pulls. The containers holding the beer weren’t in the basement. They were right here on the bar. From barrel to mug in one step.
It was…quaint. But it fit with theolde worldefeeling the entire building imparted.
I turned to Benedict Marcus. “If it is possible, I would like to see my mother now.”
The tiny uptick in the corner of his mouth faded. “Yes, of course. Come with me.” And he waved toward the door we’d just come through.
Chapter Five
Benedict Marcus moved just ahead of us and I realized he wasn’t leading us, but getting ahead so he could hold the curtain aside. No man has held a door open for me, or held something aside for me in decades. I tried hard to not let it impress me now. I’m capable of opening my own doors. I’ve been doing it for years.
But it did feel kinda nice in a squishy, weak way. I tried to nod my appreciation andnotlook impressed as I moved through the doorway, back into the hall where the stairs began.
“Was your flight smooth?” Marcus asked, heading for the stairs.
“Smooth enough,” I replied. My heart was thudding again. “Just far too long.” It had seemed to take a small ice age.
