Vic looked at her warily. “Maybe,” she said. “We all have to mitigate risk.”
Alex folded her arms, cloak shifting. “So, if I, thereigning monarch, wish to kiss my wife in my own castle,” she said, “I must… consult your timetable?”
“When you say it like that it sounds bad,” Vic said.
“How else is there to say it?” Julia asked.
“Okay, fine,” Vic said, exhaling. “It’s a guideline, not a law. A… strongly worded guideline. Just until we get through the next twenty-four hours without anyone dying or setting anything on fire. Please. For my sanity.”
There was a pause.
Alex exchanged a look with Erin. Something unspoken passed between them—one of those long-practised conversations made entirely of eyebrows and tiny shifts of mouth.
Finally, Alex said, “All right. For your sanity.”
Vic sagged in relief. “Thank you,” she said. “See? This is teamwork. This is how we win Christmas.”
“But I reserve the right,” Alex added, “to ignore your little rule if circumstances become… compelling.”
“Compelling affection is scheduled between the hours of eight and ten p.m.,” Vic said. “Everything else is strictly platonic.”
“You are absurd,” Julia said. “I love you, but you are absurd.”
“You love me because I’m absurd,” Vic said.
“True,” Julia said, and kissed her quickly, just at the corner of her mouth.
Vic pointed at her. “That was scheduled,” she said. “That was on the agenda. Spontaneous spousal reassurances are always allowed.”
“You’re making this up as you go along,” Erin said.
“Obviously,” Vic said. “But with commitment. That’s the important part.”
They got the reindeer settled eventually.
With Erin’s help and Jarmo’s coaxing and Alex’s quiet,soothing presence, Vesa and his compatriots were led to the stables, away from the pad and anything else expensive.
The children were shepherded back inside with promises of hot chocolate and a chance to “draw their tactical reindeer plans.” Hyzenthlay drifted along, pausing just long enough to pat one of the animals’ flanks and murmur something that made it snort and relax. Vic pretended not to be unnerved.
Vic was so confident handling horses, but these reindeer, they just seemedveryhighly strung.
By the time the handlers were satisfied and been directed to their accommodation and the courtyard had been restored to something resembling order, Vic’s fingers were numb and her nose felt like it belonged to a different person.
“Right,” she said, stamping her feet for warmth. “I’m going to go update the schedule before it updates itself via catastrophe. Then I need to negotiate with Mrs. MacLeod about pigs in blankets. Pray for me.”
“Always,” Julia said, rubbing her gloved hand along Vic’s arm briefly before heading back toward the warmth of the house.
Erin and Alex lingered for a moment by the archway, talking quietly. Vic saw the way Alex tilted her face up, the way Erin’s hand hovered at her back as if pulled by gravity.
Instinct kicked in.
“Hey!” Vic called, brandishing her clipboard. “Remember the rule! No unscheduled affection in operational zones!”
Erin’s hand dropped as if she’d been caught shoplifting.
Alex closed her eyes briefly, lips pressing together around a smile that looked about ten percent murderous and ninety percent resigned amusement.
“You are not seriously enforcing this,” Erin said.
