“Do not change the subject,” Harry said. “That is a bad habit of yours, you know.”
“So is breaking other men’s noses.”
“You’ve done that already, Adam. When we were fifteen.”
“Then I’ll straighten it for you.”
“Did. We were sixteen.”
“Remind me again why you’re still here.” Adam leaned back again and stared into the fire.
Harry shrugged. “Someone has to slay the dragon.”
“And that would be me?” Adam asked dryly.
“Dragon. Lion. Ogre. Take your pick.”
“I am not an ogre.”
“You’ve convinced a lot people otherwise.”
“Idiots.”
“She wouldn’t be the first person to hide from you.”
“She? You mean Persephone?”
“I certainly don’t mean your mother,” Harry answered. “You could shoot a man dead in the drawing room, and she’d just smile indulgently and say, ‘My—”
“‘—poor boy,’” Adam finished with him. “The woman will still be calling me that when I’m eighty.”
“When you’re eighty, she’ll be dead.”
“Shut up, Harry.”
“So are you inviting the Lancaster clan for Christmas?” Harry asked. Why was the man suddenly so intent on unpredictable changes of topic?
“We will be buried under several feet of snow, remember?” Adam crossed his feet on the footstool.
“So have them come early.” Harry sounded quite enamored of the idea. “Then we can all be cozily snowed-in together.”
“I will not have hordes of people roaming around my house.” Adam tensed at the thought of the stares and the whispers, the noise and chaos. He preferred his days quiet and predictable. Harry was enough of a nuisance.
“Not even for your wife’s sake? I am certain she would—”
“I am not a monster keeping her prisoner here, forcing her to stay against her will.”
“I know that, Adam,” Harry said.
“She chose to accept me.”
“Yes, but without the benefit of the rather ingenious postscripts we composed last night,” Harry pointed out. “I’m not sure she realized—”
“You think I’ve made her miserable already?” Adam asked, piercing Harry with a disapproving look.
“I didn’t say that.” Harry held up his hands in a show of innocence. “Only that she seemed to take the farewells particularly hard. You ought to have insisted her family stay longer.”
“I didn’t make them go.”
