With Everything I Am (The Three #2)(115)

And, lastly, even though it was a small village, it had no fewer than five pubs. Five!

Sonia would have liked the opportunity to peruse but this opportunity didn’t present itself.

Mainly because the other thing about the village was that it was busy with loads of people shopping or chatting on the sidewalks.

And all of them were Callum’s people, with clear eyes, long bodies, dark hair and beautiful faces.

And all of them, when they saw Sonia and Callum, looked surprised then delighted then they’d smile and start to drop to their knee.

And to all of them, Callum would say something like, “Keep your feet, Merriden, your queen doesn’t stand on ceremony.” Or, “Stand, Rhiannon, Queen Sonia isn’t big on formalities.”

Then they’d bow their head, grin a friendly grin at Sonia and chat with Sonia and Callum before letting them get on their way.

There were four things that surprised Sonia about this.

The first was that Callum knew all their names. Every last one.

The second was that he apparently wasn’t big on formalities either. She knew this because he chatted amiably with the villagers, his arm around Sonia’s shoulders, as if they were normal people, not a king and his new queen.

The third was that everyone was so welcoming, open, full of life and smiles and quick to laugh.

The last was that Callum acted to save her the discomfort of people bowing to her in the streets. People she had to live with and she wanted them to like her, not bow to her. She didn’t want to think that was a kindness he’d shown to her, having learned she didn’t like it the day before and thus stopping it from happening again. But she couldn’t help but think that it was.

They slowly made their way down one side of the street, stopping and chatting along the way as everyone else gazed at them frankly and speculatively. Then they slowly made their way down the other side of the street doing the same.

At the end of their journey, Callum led them into a pub, called “The Claw”. It, too, had diamond-paned windows but the glass was multi-colored in ambers, reds and greens and it had a furry paw with sharp claws painted on its suspended shingle.

The inside was inviting and warm after the cold of outside. There was a circular fireplace in the middle with a brass hood over it and a fire lit within. There were brass taps at the gleaming bar and a variety of cushioned seating. And there was another clawed paw etched in the mirror behind the bar.

Callum guided her directly to the bar and, when they stopped, he asked her, “Do you like cider?”

She gazed up at him and, figuring he wanted to warm her up with hot apple cider, though she would prefer hot cocoa but would request herbal tea, she asked, “Apple cider?”

He smiled and answered, “In a way, though not the way you’re used to.” Then he proclaimed, “You’ll try a cider.”

Then he turned to the bartender (who was named Ralph, by the way) and ordered their drinks and also two fish pies though he didn’t ask Sonia if she wanted fish pie, or anything to eat for that matter. He handed her a half pint glass of something cold and golden, told Ralph to, “Put it on Canis’s account,” and led them to a comfortable, curved couch by the fire.

He shrugged off the brown leather jacket she’d given him for Christmas. But he kept on the brown, burgundy and navy striped scarf wrapped around his throat over his thick, navy wool, cable-knit sweater (both of which Sonia had given him too). Sonia took his lead and divested herself of her own dusky-blue, woolen pea coat. Then Callum sat them close together.

Sonia tasted a sip of her cider and found it was brilliant, cool but refreshing.

She didn’t want to (she told herself) but she couldn’t help it. She liked the village. She liked the villagers. She liked being outside in the snowy cold. And she liked the cider.

“This is brilliant,” she told him as his arm slid around her and pulled her close.

“I’m glad you like it, honey.”

“I like the village too,” she added.

He made no response, just smiled down at her.

She didn’t want to (she told herself) but she couldn’t help it. She was just too curious to stop it.

“Have you lived here your whole life?”

He pulled her an inch closer and lifted his leg to rest the sole of his boot against the edge of the fireplace.

“A good part of it, yes. We spent some time in France, with my mother’s people. During a time of peace, when my father didn’t need me close, I lived in Canada for a while. And my father appointed me liaison to the British government for a brief period and I lived in London then.”

Well, that explained his accent.

“But you like it here?” she queried.

“I like it here.”

“The best?” she went on, Callum laughed and his hand gave her waist a squeeze.

“The best. Though I found it difficult leaving the Canadian Rockies. I’d been happy there,” he informed her.

This knowledge settled somewhere in Sonia (and, if she was honest, it was in the region of her heart) for she’d always been happiest in the American Rockies. And, she hated to admit it, but she really liked it right there.

Belatedly, she decided to find a different, less personal subject. One that couldn’t give Callum an opening through that guard around her heart.

Therefore, she enquired, “Liaison to the British government?”