“Sssh!” Merry shot over her shoulder.
“Sorry,” Dorrie whispered back.
Warrick fell between his brothers in temperament. He was mostly like Dev, but he could charm like Cam when required. Not quite at his level or that of his friend Zach Deville, but he got by. How was it his charms left him when faced with Samantha?
Because she’s always been like a sister to you. And now, suddenly, she’s not.
“In the deep blue waters not far from here lives a colony for mermaids and mermen,” Mr. Rolland said.
“Colony or pod?” Wolf whispered.
“Pod,” Warwick heard Cam say.
“They swim and frolic all day long, and when we send word that we need their assistance, they send a mermaid to us for a visit.”
“Do mermaids and mermen speak English?” Kat asked.
“They do,” Mr. Rolland said.
“So you sent them a note?”
Mr. Rolland nodded.
“But how do they read beneath the water? Paper and ink would not work under the sea.”
Mr. Rolland got that pinched look on his face they had seen many times before.
“No more interruptions if you please!” he said loudly. “The show is about to begin.”
“Ooooh,”Merry shrieked as did some of the others.
Warwick looked at the older children, who had all been forced to attend. Most appeared bored.
“As luck would have it, a mermaid and merman arrived today to entertain you.”
“But—”
“Do you know, I’ve never seen a merman,” Dev interrupted Kat before she could ask another question.
“Nor I,” Eden added.
“In all my time coming here, of which there are many years, I have not seen a merman either,” Lilly said.
The children were now almost hysterical with excitement. A loud crash had Merry turning to press her face into his leg. Warwick bent and picked her up.
“It’s all right.” He patted her back. For all she was strong-willed, she was not brave when it came to loud noises.
He looked around Dorrie to where Samantha now stood. She held Daisy’s hand and her sister Fleur’s, and was bending to speak with them.
She was right that he’d never wanted her working for them. Samantha was a duke’s sister, and as the clerk for their investigative business she may have dealt with people who could have insulted her because of that.
But then his sisters worked there, and their brother was a baron, so that made no sense.
The problem was he’d always felt a need to protect Samantha.
“What did you say to her?” Dorrie whispered again.
“Who?”
