“But don’t you think there are quite a few elements of dragon society that need dragging into the twenty-first century?” I continued, desperate to move the conversation away from what I’d said.
“You’re suggesting voting in a head? How long would they serve? How would you stop them offering bribes to get the position? And those are just off the top of my head.”
“It’s an awful lot of work and responsibility, so surely people who aren’t suited to the position wouldn’t want it.” Despite my friendship with Jack meaning I’d been in and out of the Shaws’ house my whole life, I’d never realised the responsibility a head of family carried until I’d come here and seen Archer at work.
“You’d be disappointed, Ollie. Most dragons see the status and have no idea about the duties that go with it. And others want the status and refuse to do the work. It’s all very well saying that you could simply vote out someone who proved to be no good, but what damage might have been done in the meantime? Other families would be swift to take advantage of weakness.”
“I think we’re supposed to be ensuring we’re less distrustful of other families,” I told him, pressing a kiss against his chest, the closest part of him I could reach without moving from where I was so comfortable in his warm hold. I knew he’d want to leave soon to do his usual sweep over the Court, and I’d taken to joining him each night on those. I loved that time alone with him in the night sky almost as much as I loved perching beside him on the tower. With everyone else asleep, it felt as if the world were ours.
He drew me even closer. “I love that you look at things from fresh perspectives, but I think you’re wrong on this one. How it is now isn’t fair, it isn’t democratic, and it’s far from perfect, but the alternatives are worse.”
“Unless we gave up on the whole family structure and dragons lived in a commune,” I murmured, already half-asleep and lost in a strange dream of hippie dragons.
“Go to sleep,” he said, and stroked my hair.
As I drifted off, I realised he’d said he loved the way I thought. He hadn’t said he lovedme,but surely it meant something. Didn’t it?
* * *
Head of family duties were onerous, with Archer visiting members of the family at least three times a week. He usually asked me to go with him so that I could spend time with his family. I would always have said yes because it meant time with him, but it was also a handy excuse to ward off June’s continuinginvitations. I hadnoidea why she was so determined to be my best friend, but already I’d been to an art exhibition and a piano recital with her when I hadn’t been able to think of an excuse quickly enough. It was nice of her to invite me, but they weren’t really my kind of thing.
“Lillian’s out of hospital now, so I’m going to visit her this evening,” Archer announced at the supper table, and both Mia and Tim groaned. “D’you want to come, Ollie?”
“Don’t,” Tim said. “She’ll talk your ear off about people you’ve never heard of and manage to insult you as she does so. It’s a real skill she has.” Tim had taken to joining the family meals, though there were still times he got riled over something Archer said. It was an improvement on how things had been, at least.
“True,” Archer said. “Maybe it’s better if you don’t come, Ollie. You’ll be bored.”
It took a lot to bore me, and whatever this Lillian was like, I’d be with Archer. No way was I turning this down.
“That’s okay, I’d like to come. But visiting the sick is more what a priest would do than a head of family, isn’t it?”
Mia choked on the juice she was drinking. “That’s the first time anyone’s compared Archer to a priest,” she informed me. “You evidently haven’t heard him when he’s burned himself on the forge.”
“But is it expected of a head of family?” I couldn’t remember Mr Shaw doing anything like that.
“It’s an Archer thing.” There was both resignation and admiration in Tim’s voice. “Like his surgeries.”
I cocked an eyebrow at Archer. “What, you perform operations now?”
“More like a politician-type surgery, where I sit in one of the family’s houses in the centre of the city once a month and anyone who has any issues or concerns knows where to find me.Even if all they want is to chew the cud or tell me off. They could always come here, but they got out of the habit years ago.” He closed his mouth firmly and sent me a warning look across the table.
He’d probably anticipated that I was about to ask, “Is that because your dad was so rubbish in his role?” Not exactly tactful, so I kept quiet, noting the way his jaw had tightened.
I realised how cautiously he navigated any conversation with Tim and Mia that referred to the past, always choosing his words with care. He’d never so much as hinted to them what he’d told me about his father being a bad leader. It was like he was holding together an ideal image for them, even at the cost of burying his own resentments and wounds.
His shoulders slumped slightly as we walked out to the car, as if he were weary beyond belief and could finally let it show, away from Mia and Tim.
“Thanks for not saying anything,” he said quietly as I did up my seatbelt. “I want them to have good memories of Dad.”
Yet another burden he carried alone. I leaned over and kissed his cheek, wishing I could lighten his load somehow.
“What was that for?” he asked, starting the engine.
“Just felt like it.”
I felt like kissing him more and more often. Not only sex kisses, and that was increasingly becoming a problem. He had grown to be so important to me and, sooner or later, I was going to have to go home.
ARCHER
