a smile. “You’re not the complete slacker then, are ya? Maybe yer a licky bum bum?”
“Only with the hot girl teachers,” I said, smiling back.
She laughed before glancing at the doorway where the middle-aged female professor had just entered.
“Oh, this one looks about right for ya then,” she said of the glasses-wearing, gray and black-haired woman wearing a brown sweater and brown corduroy slacks.
The teacher introduced herself to the class before I could answer and I had to concede the verbal sparring match to the young lady from Ireland.
It turned out that our professor was animated and lively, with a quick sense of humor that kept the entire class entertained as she outlined what we could expect from the curriculum. We would be reading as much as we would be writing, and she immediately listed a whole slew of classic and modern books to choose from, pretty much including every genre known to man.
“It’s surprising, but this jest might end up to be a savage class,” Ryanne said at the end of the hour and a half.
“What are you going to read first?” I asked as we walked down the old staircase to the first floor.
“I’ve always had a hankerin’ ta read The Call of the Wild. About as far from life in Ireland as ya could get, and a fella with the name of London should know a bit about writing. What’s yer pick, then?”
“Dead Witch Walking, by Kim Harrison.”
“Yer going to read a tale about witches? Really? Living it ain’t enough?” she asked.
“What the hell; it’ll be fun to read about someone else’s idea of magic,” I said.
“Holy shite, its feckin’ cold out here. How do ye stand it?” she asked, shivering as we hit the outside air. The wind was blowing up the hill from Lake Champlain and the wind chill was wicked.
“You get used to it.”
“It’s goin’ to suck fierce walking down to Arcane. Right into the teeth of the wind, it is,” she muttered.
“Ah, I drove. Want a ride?” I asked.
“Now yer feckin’ talking, O’Carroll. Let’s go,” she said, hunkering down even further into her coat.
Beast was just a short walk away and soon enough, I had the engine running. The ride back to Arcane was short and the heater had only just started to pump out warm air when we were back to our home away from home.
“Goddess bless you, D. I think I would have froze me blasted ass clear off if I’d had to hoof it,” she said.
“So you’re saying I saved your ass?” I asked as deadpanned as possible.
“Just so, O’Carroll, just so. These leggin’s are comfy as hell but a bit too sheer to be warm in this cursed cold,” she said, pinching her gray tights along her hip with a finger and thumb. Her motion brought my attention to the aforementioned body part that I was credited with saving. Somebody should give me a friggin’ medal.
We got to the doors, flashed our ID’s at the guards, and slipped into the shocking warmth of the building.
“Right then, tanks fer the lift,” she said, standing very close. A cell phone ringtone started to play the beginning strains of a song.
“‘Galway Girl?’” I asked as she scrambled in her parka pocket for her smartphone.
“It’s me sister, Gael… the flirty redhead?” I nodded, instantly remembering her sexy, fiddle-playing sister. “Me sisters always call me their very own Galway Girl on account of all this,” she said, waving a circle around her face and head.
“What do ye want, ye chancer?” she answered, back on the phone. “It’s all jest fine, not counting all the international calls from you fockers.
“The bobs? There are some. Got a savage one right here wit me now. Say hello to Declan.” She held up the phone and I heard Gael’s soft voice: “Hey there, Declan. ‘Ow’s it going, then?”
“Oh it’s brilliant, it is,” I answered in my best brogue, which isn’t half bad.
Ryanne frowned, a cute little furrow forming between her eyes.
“Enough flirting wit me friends, ya poacher,” she said into the phone before bringing it back to her ear. She gave me a wave and a smile as she turned, heading for the stairwell to her floor. I would have headed up to my own room but I spotted Mack coming around the corner from the dining room.
“Hey, you already at dinner?” I asked.
“Yeah, your girlfriend got hungry so we just came down. She thought you’d be turning up about now,” he said. “I was just heading to