Chapter 6 Prudence, Fair Ladies & Noble Knights
PRUDENCE, FAIR LADIES I just prefer possum. Mostly because every time I say opossum, I half expect her to request a pint of Guinness and to quote Yeats. Or Joyce? Both of them wrote equally gorgeous poetry, which would sound equally awkward in her interpretation.”
His laughter boomed.
“Way to incorporate Irish stereotypes in there and make them funny. Seeing as she is a romantic soul, she’d probably go with Yeats. Tell me more about this fascinating queen.”
“Well, Patience Petunia being her government name. And the name she hears when she messes up. Like just before you entered the store.”
He looked back to the entrance and then smiled.
“Ah, Patience Petunia lass, I do beg your pardon, however, I was not entirely wrong when I dared to imply that she is somewhat of a trash panda, even if those are indeed raccoons. She has been sneaking garbage into the Atelier next door and for some reason piling it on and around the places where the lady of the house is present most frequently.”
Pru lifted her eyebrows. Seeing her reaction, the gentle giant immediately amended his previous statement.
“Oh, you misunderstood. Boleyn the cat is the royalty of that house. Rhiannon and I are mere mortals at her service. And now I am at yours. Lachlan Vesely, of the Vesely clan hailing from Odessa, Ukraine by way of Galway, Ireland.”
Pru could not hold back the grin anymore.
“Hence the Lachlan, I assume. And the deep knowledge of Irish poetry and stereotypes?”
He extended his hand and bowed low. They were finally of the same height, and it made Pru giggle.
“Prudence Fowler. Human of Patches, owner of Book Nest, and apparently your next-door neighbor. You and Rhiannon…” Pru faltered, unsure of what she was about to ask. Except that was a lie. She knew exactly what she wanted to ask. How to ask it was an entirely different matter.
Because suddenly a distinct probability that had never occurred to her became a glaring possibility.
Was this man Rhiannon’s partner? He was much taller than her and Pru suspected a bit younger, but then Rhiannon was a stunningly beautiful woman and could really have her pick of pretty much any gender.
She tasted bile. Why had it never occurred to her? She’d been watching this woman for weeks and only now did her being straight, or at least bisexual, cross her mind?
Lachlan watched her entire thought process with a curious expression she couldn’t decipher.
“I think I can spare you some of the agony written all over your face by disclosing that while me and my fiancé recently parted ways, my darling was very much a man. And that I am—despite your flattery, as I choose to take your assumption that I could ever be with Rhiannon Crowhart as pure unadulterated compliment—a very, very gay man.”
Pru let out a breath. She had been aware she was holding it throughout his speech and was very glad she could exhale. He watched her expectantly. Pru looked up, all the way up to where his sparkling-with-mischief eyes were, and bit her lip.
“I plead the fifth?”
This time his laugh boomed and Pru was certain a book or two fell off their shelves. She didn’t care. It felt like she had just made a friend. A new friend, and wasn’t that wonderful?
He leaned conspiratorially closer to her and whispered, “Your secret is safe with me.”
Pru sighed, feeling both that it was true and not actually so, but not really caring.
Whatever was happening between her and Rhiannon Crowhart—and no, nothing Pru had wanted to happen, more of the inexplicable things that she desperately wanted to talk about to someone, preferably Rhiannon herself—was not something that Pru would be able to hide.
“You have a beautiful face, Prudence, one that is cursed with the truth,” her father always told her. She had learned to live with it. She couldn’t control it. And she was fairly certain Rhiannon had learned to live with people just tumbling all over themselves around her. So what was one more?
What was one indeed, when they had an entire mystery surrounding them? Her palm was still tingly and warm. And there were so many questions to be untangled.
“If you’re going to ask me whether or not I know what brought Her Majesty here, I shall sadly say that as her trusty knight and Jack-of-all-trades personal assistant, I don’t have an answer to that and it’s entirely embarrassing.
We took over the Atelier and that is that.
Why? I do not know. We had quite a business in California. ”