“My many thanks unto you.”
Mae went across and hitched a hold on to the female’s arm. “Sit down over here. I don’t want you to pass out again.”
As she settled Tallah into an armchair, Sahvage started pulling shutters into place on his way to the kitchen, locking the rolling panels into hooks mounted on the sills. The fact that dust flew from the drapes as he pushed them aside made Mae realize that the safety precautions for the sun hadn’t been getting pulled and raised on a regular basis for a while.
So Tallah had been spending her days in the basement, alone, without being protected if she had to come upstairs. If there was a fire. If there was a problem.
“Stay here,” Mae said as her heart broke.
Rushing into the kitchen, she tugged the sets of shutters down and clipped them securely—over the sink, by the table, even the little ones in the pantry and the loo off to the side.
When she came out of the bathroom, she stopped dead.
Sahvage was pulling another of his snatch-and-grabs, this time with the refrigerator. And he might as well have been moving a toaster oven across a counter for all the effort he seemed to be putting in.
“Wait! The plug!”
Just as the cord stretched tight, Mae lunged for the outlet and yanked things free so that the prongs weren’t bent or worse, snapped off.
“Thanks,” he said casually.
To avoid staring at the size of his back and shoulders, she focused on the footprint of dust and grime that had accumulated under the Frigidaire.
“My kingdom for an industrial-strength Roomba,” she muttered.
“How about upstairs?”
Pivoting, she found him clapping his palms again, and as she measured that torso, and those legs and those arms, she resented how handy it could be to have a hunk of muscle like that in the house. Especially when, you know, something that was out of this world came at you on the front damn lawn.
Mae glanced to the table where the remnants of teatime were still on display—along with the ingredients of the summoning spell as well as the empty silver dish.
What had they called to the cottage? she wondered with fear.
“I’ll do her resting room on this floor,” she said. “And get us an extension cord for the fridge.”
“Any problems with me going upstairs?”
“No.”
She meant to get moving as Sahvage headed to the front for the staircase. Instead, she looked back at the table. The vinegar bottle, the salt basin, and the crushed lemon, along with that paring knife and the silver dish, were an all-wrong she wished she could undo.
In Tallah’s ground floor quarters, Mae closed the shutters—and as she heard Sahvage moving around upstairs, the fact that sawdust filtered down from the floorboards overhead made her think she should move the elderly female in with her and Rhoger. For one, there was an obvious concern if Tallah didn’t remember, or didn’t have the energy, to maintain her safety shutters for the daylight hours. But for another, unless there was some serious investment in the cottage, she was worried about its structural integrity—
Tallah appeared in the doorway, her cane bracing her weight, her face downcast. “I know what you’re thinking. I meant to put the shutters down for the day last night. I really did. I just got tired.”
“It’s all right.” Even though it wasn’t. “I just, well, we’ll talk about it later.”
“I like him, by the way.” The older female looked up at the ceiling as more of the heavy footfalls reverberated down. “He’s very handsome. Where did he come from?”
The gates of Dhunhd, Mae thought. To torture me.
“Tinder,” she muttered.
“You met him in a ring of fire?”
“Something like that.” Mae rubbed her aching head and then focused on the elderly female. “You look tired—”
“I am sorry that the spell did not work.” Tallah switched her cane to the other side. “And as for being tired, after a certain age, one gets exhausted with one’s failures in life. It’s not just about sleep, my dear.”
“You haven’t failed me.”
“I thought the summoning spell would work.”
“I know you did, and I’m grateful we tried.”
As Tallah put her hand on the doorjamb to steady herself, Mae went over. “How about a proper nap downstairs. I’ll keep an eye on things up here.”
“You’ll have that male stay with us, then? He’s very strong. And so handsome, too.”
Mae made a noise in the back of her throat. Which was what happened when you swallowed two f-bombs with a sonofabitch chaser.
“We’re strong enough on our own, you and I,” she said as she took the female’s arm. “Come on, let’s get you to your bed. You have a rest while I figure out everything.”
Tallah refused to budge. “What was in my yard?”
“Just a coyote.”
“It didn’t sound like a coyote.”
“Would you like me to bring you down some warm milk?” Mae asked in a pleasant way while steering Tallah toward the basement door.