“I love adventures,”her dragon said with a happy sigh.“Let’s set this table thing.”
It surprised Sasha her dragon didn’t mutter disdainfully about servant’s work. It seemed she was ready to embrace this turn their life had taken. “Noel can help me if I get things wrong.”
Max’s smile when he turned to her was brilliant and full of approval. “Noel enjoys helping.”
Sasha inclined her head and turned to Noel. “What should we do first, Noel?”
“Soup,” he said helpfully. His nose had turned red, and his cheeks were pinker than when she’d first found him.
“How long did you walk?” she asked Noel while she opened the first of the drawers. “Did you get hot?”
Noel bobbed his head up and down, his round face solemn.
Sunburn. He required a tincture of aloe to calm his reddened skin. She’d search the garden later to check if Max had the plants necessary for her to make the sunburn cure. She set three placemats on the table and hesitated, unsure of what to do with them. In the end, Sasha shunted them toward Noel and turned away to gather the cutlery. She opened the drawer and slid it out to stare at the contents. The sheer number of implements had a slight sweat forming on her skin.
“Which ones do we require for soup?”she asked her dragon.
“Ask. We’ll learn more about Max’s character by his reaction. If he snaps or belittles us for our lack of knowledge, we’ll know that underneath his smiles, there lurks a human who resembles Bruceous.”
“You are wise.”
“And beautiful. Don’t forget stunningly beautiful.”
Sasha tried not to laugh, but it burst from her in a wave of amusement and love of her dragon half.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oops.”Sasha thought fast. “My brothers refuse to cook and would tease each other mercilessly if one of them wore an apron covered with rabbits.”
His eyes twinkled, but he put on an offended expression. “There is nothing wrong with my apron. It’s Noel’s favorite.”
There was a considerable age gap between the brothers, and while they had the same blue eyes and black hair, their faces were different shapes. Aware she was drifting into rude with her staring, she focused on the contents of the drawer. “Which implements do we require?”
“The soup spoons and a knife each.”
Sasha picked up three knives and dithered between two spoon shapes—one round and the other more elongated.
“Pick the round one. There is more space in which to see our reflection,”her dragon suggested.
Sasha bit back her hoot of laughter this time and picked up the rounder spoon. She took them over to the table.
“Placemats like this,” Noel said and placed one in front of him and one opposite where he sat. He frowned at the third one.
“How ’bout we put that one here?” Sasha placed a knife and a spoon with each placemat. Noel immediately rearranged them, and she took notes for next time. “Great job,” she said.
Max set a plate of soup down for Noel and another in the third space. He added a plate covered with singed pieces of bread and bubbling cheese. “The cheese is hot, Noel. Let it cool before you try to eat some.”
“Let’s try the soup. Smells wonderful,”her dragon said.“I’m hungry.”
“Shush. I need to concentrate on correct behavior. We must appear as much like a human as we can manage.”
“I can’t place your accent,” Max said. “Where do you live?”
“A small village on Perfume Isle,” Sasha said.
Max frowned. “I’ve traveled a fair bit in Europe, but I’ve never heard of Perfume Isle.”
“As I said, a small place. We couldn’t wait to leave. I mean,Icouldn’t wait to leave. My brothers and I.”
