“Miniature,” I corrected automatically, and he grinned at me, so wide and bright and looking so pleased I realised he’d done that on purpose to draw me from my thoughts. I hadn’t thought anything could lift the heaviness Tim’s words had left on my heart, but Ollie’s chatter had done it.
“When do your lessons start again, Mia?” I knew the answer, but it was a harmless subject that would keep conversation flowing.
The two of them rambled on as I watched Ollie. He had a keen emotional intelligence, as well as having been the only one to spot what Abimelech had been up to at the moot. I wasn’t sure why he hid his intelligence behind such a frivolous exterior.
As if he’d read my thoughts, he glanced at me. “I was thinking earlier about this whole situation with dragons having to host a stranger and how half-arsed the planning was. I can see that by springing it on us all, it meant families were far more likely to go along with it. But…” He trailed off, as if checking whether I wanted him to continue.
“But?” I encouraged, intrigued as to where he was going with this.
“I wondered if there was another reason for doing it this way. I’m not the sort of dragon that would ever normally represent their family, but can you imagine what it would be like to have someone who was good at this stuff staying with you? Someone like Jack or my brothers, who are really brightand would have their own agenda? That could cause all sorts of upheavals, if not outright conflict. Upheavals that meant every family would be concentrating on themselves and not on whatever Abimelech Mortimer might be up to.”
“Fuck.” I sat back, winded suddenly.
“But there’s that old saying, never attribute to malice what could be due to incompetence,” Ollie added.
“Also true. But the possibility of malice is definitely worth bearing in mind. And Ollie,” I said, “you’re a damn fine representative of your family.”
His cheeks flared red, and he wouldn’t look at me.
Mia nudged his arm. “Archer doesn’t flatter anyone, which is kind of depressing when you come down the stairs in your party dress and ask him how it looks. So he means that.”
Ollie kept his head down. I stood to make coffee, giving him space for whatever it was he was thinking. I’d have expected him to laugh off my compliment. But as I thought about it, I realised I hadn’t complimented him before, so I didn’t know how he would react.
Mia had been joking about the flattery, but I had the nasty feeling it hadn’t been a complete joke. Certainly, I couldn’t remember the last time I complimented her to her face, let alone Tim. I just expected them to know what I thought about them.
Perhaps I could start putting that right. “Supper was delicious, thanks,” I said, as I put the kettle on.
Mia got up and held her hand to my forehead, checking for fever. “Who are you, and what have you done with my brother?”
She was teasing, but the underlying message hit home hard. I’d been concentrating so much on keeping things together that I hadn’t noticed how distant I’d become, how rarely I shared what I felt. Praising her cooking and complimenting Ollie felt strangely right, as if I were peeling back layers that had grown over the person I used to be.
I bumped her away with my hip so I could get to the mug cupboard. “Love you, kiddo,” I said quietly.
I’d expected an eye roll from my teenage sister at such soppiness. It didn’t happen. Her face paled as she drew in a shocked breath. “Are you ill?” she demanded.
God, the alarm in her eyes. Her childhood of loss and sudden change had left its mark.
“No, I’m trying out actuallytellingyou what I’m thinking. How’s it going for me?”
“Now I know that’s what you’re doing, I love it, but don’t scare me like that again.” She reached up to kiss my cheek. “Love you. Forget the coffee—I’ve got things to do.”
It was an unsubtle way of leaving me and Ollie alone. I couldn’t say I minded.
OLLIE
Archer’s words about me were still resounding in my head. He’d meant them, Mia had said, and I believed her. I didn’t think Archer would sayanythinghe didn’t mean. But he only thought I was good because there wasn’t anyone else from my family to compare me with.
Comforted by the realisation, which stopped me having to dig further into why his words were so unsettling, I became aware that Mia had left us alone. That gave me a chance to find out what had made Archer so quiet and his eyes so sad when he’d come in for supper.
He put a mug of coffee in front of me, white with one sugar, the way I liked it.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as he sat beside me.
“Nothing. D’you want a biscuit with your coffee?”
Maybe I’d have believed nothing was wrong if he hadn’t tried to redirect my thoughts like that. “Between leaving me at the car and coming in for supper, something changed.”
He looked at me. “You know, most people don’t ask what’s wrong. They ask if everything’s okay. They want you to say yes so they can carry on with their lives none the wiser. You would make a good interrogator. You know the right questions to ask, and with your disarming ways, no one would see the trick question coming.”
