She followed my gaze. “You should have blanked me and gone for it. He’s hot.”
“He also seems to have a boyfriend,” I told her regretfully.
“The hot ones are always taken.”
“As someone who’s perennially single, thank you very much,” I said.
She flushed crimson. “Not—I mean—yousod,” she added when I grinned at her.
I had no delusions about my looks. I was hot enough never to sleep alone if I didn’t want to. Or easy enough. Depended on your point of view.
Mia examined Mortimer more closely and wrinkled her nose. “On second thoughts, he’s a bit old, isn’t he?”
I choked. He couldn’t be more than thirty. “Which makes me ancient, too?” Perhaps to a teenager, twenty-twowasold.
She looked me up and down, a lurking grin in her eyes. “Nah, you’ve still got a bit of shelf life left.”
I couldn’t work out if I loved her or hated her.
“So why doyouthink the Mortimers have called this meeting?” she asked. “I heard some drag—people talking earlier, and they said there’d been a falling out between the Mortimers and the Fortescues. Maybe Mortimer’s making sure we all know he’s still in charge if the usual order is unsettled.”
“Makes sense,” I agreed. “I’d like to know what he’s telling them in that meeting. D’you think your head of family will tell you?” I wasn’t sure how forthcoming Jack’s dad would be with me. He’d probably tell Jack everything, but I was beginning to understand there was an invisible wall between me and Jack now, and there probably always would be.
“He damn well better,” she declared, a martial light in her eyes. “He’s my brother.”
“So you’re next in line—” I checked myself. “Sorry. That’s none of my business.”
“No, you’re good. I guess you want to know why I’m here when I’m so young. It was Archer’s decision, and he’s always right.”
He was? He sounded insufferable. “I’m only along as light relief,” I confessed. “They needed someone at the last minute to make up numbers without causing a political nightmare and a possible rift in the family.”
Something flashed across her face, too fast to identify.
“I’m exaggerating,” I clarified quickly. “But there would have been some industrial-grade fireworks because the next in line to be invited are twins, and with only one of them able to be offered a place...”
“Oh,” Mia said. “That must be difficult.”
Difficult wasn’t the word I’d choose to describe Jack’s twin aunts. Dragonish would be more like it—swift to anger and slow to forgive.
“Winchester’s quite close to here, isn’t it?” I asked. “Do you know Avebury? I want to visit the standing stones while I’m here.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what the big deal is about them. Archer used to drag us up here for a fun, family day out”—the heavy sarcasm in her voice wavered slightly on family—“but they’re just stones. And a big ditch. The best part of it is the ice cream shop in the village.”
“Now you have my attention,” I told her, and as we headed into a conversation about the best ice cream we’d ever tasted—butterscotch for Mia, Cointreau that was about ninety-five per cent proof for me—I forgot all about dragon politics and Abimelech Mortimer’s cold eyes staring so threateningly at me. Maybe Mia would want to be my spa buddy later. This was turning out to be fun.
Chapter Three
ARCHER
Once everyone was seated, Abimelech Mortimer entered the room. I was watching the other dragons rather than him and noted how many of the looks he was attracting were filled with mistrust and dislike as he walked to his place. The only dragon present who didn’t look at him was the hulking dragon sitting at the Fortescue place. He kept his eyes firmly on the table before him. Interesting.
Mortimer informed us that he’d stationed guards at every approach to the room, meaning we could speak freely. He then confounded my expectations—instead of dominating proceedings, he made the briefest of introductions to Evelyn Berstow and invited her to speak.
She told us how her family had kept themselves cloistered from the rest of the dragon world, first for safety and latterly through habit. Feeling winded, I sank back in my chair when she finished, and a buzz of conversation broke out. Deep disappointment filled me that it wasn’t a family split, yet the actual tale was almost inconceivable. A whole family of dragons that none of us had known about. Could there be more hidden away? More importantly, why had the Berstows chosen now to come out of hiding? What did they want from us?
“Do you think there are other dragon families in hiding?” Paul Vane raised his voice above the hum of conversation, addressing Evelyn.
She tilted her head to one side and regarded him consideringly. “I can’t say for certain, but I doubt it. I believe my family would know if that were the case. You see, my family’s treasure is history and knowledge. Of dragonkind.”
