“All right.” Drying his hands, Keegan looked over at Breen. “Did you think she wouldn’t?”
“I couldn’t know until—”
“Didn’t you like it?”
“Yes, of course, but—”
“And you let Marco read it, and he’s a man of good judgment, and he liked it. Seems you fretted for nothing, but women will.”
“Oh, really?”
He just shrugged. “Now you’ve no reason left, and you’ll let me read it for myself. But not on the machine. I like the paper.”
“I haven’t—”
“I’ll print it out for you. And here comes Brian.” Marco carried the platter to the table, gave Breen a big, wide grin.
So she shot him one right back. “Marco’s writing a cookbook, and has a meeting with an agent in New York who wants to represent him.”
“Well done, Marco. It’s a generous thing to share your talent for cooking with others.”
“Still have to figure it all out. But meanwhile…” When Brian stepped in, Marco simply lit up. “Let’s eat.”
PART IIIMISNEACH
It is not the oath that makes us believe
the man, but the man the oath.
—Aeschylus
Courage is not simply one of the virtues,
but the form of every virtue at the testing point,
which means, at the point of highest reality.
—C. S. Lewis
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It didn’t completely surprise her to find Keegan in the kitchen staring holes through the coffee maker in the morning. While most days he left to do what he did before she came down, occasionally he started later.
“You want coffee?”
“I dislike this machine a great deal, but I have a need.”
“I’ll take care of it.” She let Bollocks out first, then dealt with coffee. “No morning milking for you?”
“I took the evening, and have other duties.”
“Didn’t you sleep well?”
“Well enough, not long enough. After our… vigorous mating,” he said, and made her snicker, “you went out fast and full, so I thought to read a bit of your book, thanks to Marco and not so much to you.”
She said, “Hmm,” and handed him a mug.
“I read later into the night than I planned. I had a taste before, when I saw some papers you left sitting out. But this was more, and from the start of it. I saw home in what you painted, and you used strong colors for it.”