The Unexpected Everything - Morgan Matson Page 0,182

paying attention to any of this, and certainly not the looks Lady Hannah was sending him, was Sir Wylen, who was, as usual, strumming the lute he seemed to carry with him everywhere.

“No,” a voice at his side said, dripping with disgust. He turned and saw Lady Andrea, who had insisted for the past week she was coming along, until he’d finally stopped arguing. “I’m not coming unless you get him to stop playing that thing. I cannot abide it. I’ll break it up myself and use it for kindling.”

Jack felt himself smile, and prayed he wasn’t blushing, or he knew he’d never hear the end of it from Sabrine and Hannah. But he couldn’t help it—he’d been in love with her from the moment he’d seen her, when she’d stormed into his court and demanded to know what idiot claimed to be running the kingdom.

Rather than risk her seeing him blush, Jack knelt down to rub the ears of Bernie, the huge dog that seemed to follow her everywhere and which he had a suspicion was actually part wolf. “I’ll leave that to you,” he said, backing away slightly when the dog bared inch-long fangs at him. “I think you can handle it.”

“We’re going to have to be careful,” Lady Sabrine said, as she stood and pulled Lady Hannah up, ignoring Wylen, who’d reached out his hand to help her. “I’ve heard rumors that the assassin Margery is unaccounted for. And for a prize such as you, my lord, I doubt she’d have to settle for the lowest bidder.”

“Who?” Wylen asked, frowning.

“I have an idea!” Thomas said, standing up as well and clapping his hands together. “What if we leave later tonight? Then I can get the evening performance in, and—”

“No,” Hannah and Sabrine said in unison.

“It’ll be dark soon,” Lady Andrea said, sheathing her dagger and taking a step toward the woods, dog at her heels. “We should get started.”

Jack took a breath, then let it out as he looked west, toward Haverhall, where they would journey. “Well, then,” he said, looking around at the assembled group. “Let’s begin.”

—C. B. McCallister, “The Coin of the Realm.” Hightower & Jax, New York.

Advance reader’s copy. Not for review or quotation.

Chapter TWENTY

I took a sip of my latte and looked across the table at Flask’s. I’d switched to hot lattes at the end of September, when it officially got too cold for iced drinks, and now that we were getting close to Halloween, the leaves outside the coffee shop window had all turned color and started to cover the ground. “How are you not done yet?” I asked, shaking my head.

Toby glanced up from where she was currently doctoring her caramel pumpkin latte with sugar packets and cinnamon sprinkles, as she had been doing for, I was pretty sure, the last twenty minutes.

“You can’t rush these things,” she said, dropping in a very precise amount of sugar, giving it a stir, tasting it, then nodding and looking back at me. “Perfect. What were we talking about?”

“I don’t know. It was ten years ago, and I’ve forgotten.” I looked automatically to the chair next to Toby—the one that was sitting empty. This was when Bri would have chimed in, defending Toby or making a joke. But silence just fell between us, and we both took a sip of our drinks in unison.

“So,” she said, before the pause could grow uncomfortable. “How’s it going with the DMV thing?”

“You mean DVM?”

“Sure,” Toby said with a wave of her hand. “If you say so.”

I smiled. I was pretty sure Toby actually knew what it was called and was just doing this to tease me. But there was a chance that she was actually still getting used to it—the change had taken me by surprise as well. In the last month I had switched my focus from premed to veterinary medicine. Now, whenever my dad and I went through my college options, narrowing down where to apply, we were focusing solely on schools that had good veterinary programs. I wasn’t sure if the idea had taken root during the night of Bertie and the chocolate, but by the end of the summer, I’d come to my decision. Maya was thrilled.

Even though I was no longer working full-time, I was still doing weekend walks for Maya and Dave. Folding a dog into my regular routine seemed like good practice for the winter. Because now my dad and I were spending far too much time on pet rescue