Nothing was funny at that particular moment, however.
We walked in the front door and they walked me down a long, wide hal way that was made of stone with a plush, red carpet runner down the middle of it. Every once in awhile, on the wal , there was a light fashioned to look like a torch.
There were also two ful sets of armor and a bunch of crests and crossed swords on the wal .
We turned right into a big room, then right again into what looked like a den, then left into what was a study.
There was more of the medieval castle décor there with a big, heavily carved desk, leather upholstered chairs and pennants flying from brass rods at the ceiling.
A man stood there. He was younger than I expected the king of the castle to be and very good looking. If I saw him on the street, I’d give him a second glance: tal , dark with serious blue eyes that were, somehow, frightening, like he’d seen it al , done it al and wasn’t scared of any of it.
His eyes moved the length of me and something flickered in them when he took in my Smithie’s uniform. He hid it quickly.
“Take a seat,” he said.
I immediately did as I was told and sat in one of the chairs facing the desk. Louie and Vince stood behind me.
The man sat across from me.
“You Jet McAlister?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Ray’s daughter?” he went on.
I nodded again. Even though I knew this had to be about Dad, I stil felt my heart die a little bit knowing he was the cause of yet another disaster for me.
“I’m looking for Ray,” he told me.
I nodded, not sure what to say and too scared to speak anyway.
“You seen him?”
I shook my head.
His eyes moved from me to Louie and Vince, then back to me.
“It’s important I find him. Do you know where he’d be?” he asked.
“I…” There was a frog in my throat so I cleared it and said, “I’m looking for him too. He’s not real good at sticking around when things get… difficult,” I finished.
His face tightened at that and the scary part of his eyes escalated to such a point where I was pretty certain I was going to pee my pants.
I’d never met anyone like him before, his menace vibrated off him like a physical touch.
I wanted to run but I felt rooted to the spot. I had the feeling that this man was going to hurt me, or he was going to let Vince hurt me, and I didn’t want either of those things to happen.
“Honey Bunch? What’re you doin’ up so… oh my, we have company.”
I turned at this new voice, a female voice with a deep country twang. My mouth dropped open at what I saw.
Dol y Parton, or a fair impersonation of her, was standing in the doorway, big blonde hair, tiny body, enormous knockers, wearing a pink negligee set, complete with marabou feathers, even on the high-heeled slippers she wore. I realized she wasn’t Dol y because she had to be my age or maybe a year or two older.
I don’t know what propel ed me out of the chair but I stood and turned toward her.
She peeked around Louie and her blue eyes got huge.
Then she looked at the man behind the desk and they narrowed.