Piper (Queen's Birds of Prey #4) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,18

she’d be the first to go to a home that had a dying relative, holding their hands when grief would be too much for them.

“I wish I could have known her.” He looked around when someone said she did as well. “You must be Tracy. I’ve heard a great deal about the beautiful teenagers here now. How do you like living in a castle?”

“It’s wonderful. You must be Grant. Your mom told one of us to come out and get you. She seems to think you’re off your noodle. I myself think that if anyone can stop and enjoy a beautiful scene such as this one, there can’t be too much wrong with them.” He looked back out over the inlet. There were boats on the water even now. “Someday, I’d like to be able to ride the seas. My mom did. She said that being a pirate with her sisters was one of the most fun times she can remember.”

“I would imagine.” He thought about this young slip of a woman being a pirate. “I bet in her day it was very profitable too. Men would have gladly turned over anything to a pretty face. I was a pirate, too, for a while. For me, it was a good way to make some money to send home to my mom. It certainly did stave off the boredom for a while.”

They talked about his stint as a pirate. Also, when he’d been other things in his life. As soon as he entered the large double doors, Grant felt warmed. Not by the room, but by the feelings that came from it. The part of him that was fae told him this would be a good place to feel welcomed no matter what sort of day you were having.

Grant bowed to the woman he knew to be his queen.

“Oh, please don’t do that. I nearly had to kick your mother up from the floor when she did the same thing. Get up.” He did and grinned at the pretty woman in front of him. “I might be your queen and Duncan, your king, but as friends, as I’m hoping you’ll be, we’re just people having friends over for dinner.”

“I doubt very much that you’ll get my mom to do anything but bow or curtsy in front of you.” Jude, he’d been asked to call her, laughed. “You’ve done so much to the castle. I could swear that other than a few things, such as smell, you’ve done it exactly as it was all those centuries ago.”

“Yes. I remember the smell.” She laughed with him. “Isn’t it funny how you can remember a lot of good things about a place, but when someone brings up the bad part, it floods your memory with all sorts of other things? Like the smell of cooking meat. The smokehouse too. My goodness. I’d forgotten about those. Dante did try and make it cleaner, but there wasn’t the sort of equipment we have now. Come in, Grant. Your mom is now trying to have a conversation with my husband, and I don’t think it’s going well.”

He was led to a large living room space. Whoever had designed it had taken into account that many people might gather in the room. Three massive couches faced the now cooled fireplace. The armor around it gave testament to the wars that had been fought. There were chairs set about in pairs with small tables between them. He found his mom in one of those little areas, trying her best to blend into the chair while sitting across from Duncan, their king.

“Your mother seems to think she is beneath me, Grant. I’m trying to tell her I don’t recognize such stations in life anymore. I can and will be king when it’s necessary, but we’re friends here today.” Grant shook hands with the other man and felt a surge of magic transferred between the two of them. “Ah. Fae, faerie, and brownie. I think there is a bit of wolf there as well. As well as a little magic from my mom. I’ve read about you, Grant. My mother had such plans for you.”

“I’m sorry. What?”

Duncan just laughed and turned when three women came into the room with them. They were beautiful beyond compare, but Grant thought all women were beautiful. Once he was introduced to them, shaking all their offered hands, he started to join his mom. She’d taken the opportunity to escape from the chair she’d been in