1.5: "A Toast!"

Just as the last party of human clan members (those who worked in New Orleans and had driven out to the estate for the big celebration) had hustled into the ballroom and been introduced, a human girl with a flour smudge on her nose came out of the kitchen grinning, loudly ringing a triangle and announcing, "Dinner is ready for serving; time to get the tables ready!"

While Adam had been introducing the last few people, those who had already been introduced had been quietly working on the other side of the ballroom, setting up long tables, benches and folding chairs. Now that introductions were over, everyone fell to work with a will and in short order, the ballroom was converted into a dining hall. A long 'bucket brigade' of workers passed out plates and silverware from cabinets set on one side of the room, setting dozens of tables in minutes flat; Goliath made appreciative murmurs about their excellent coordination and efficiency, before Adam gestured for the clan to follow him and take their seats.

Once they were all seated, the servers (over half of them hatchlings, who were admittedly adorable as they balanced their trays with extreme caution) began bringing the food out and pouring drinks for everyone. Once the last glass was filled and Martha had scurried in to take her seat, Adam stood up again and raised his glass high to say, "A toast, everyone, to our honored guests, the Manhattan Clan!"

They were all duly toasted, gargoyles and humans alike, as they sat at their places of honor. Though not a word was said about it, no one doubted that the seating arrangement had been deliberately planned for maximum exposure of the new males to the unmated females.

The humans from Manhattan were seated at the far end of the head table from Adam and his mate Elizabeth, while the gargoyles from Manhattan were in the middle. Goliath sat on the corner to Adam's right, while Brooklyn sat next to him; then came Hudson, Broadway, Lexington and Angela… except Angela had smoothly, swiftly and very pointedly exchanged seats with Lexington as they were sitting down, so she was seated next to Broadway. Lexington shrugged and took Angela's seat, next to Elisa at the far end.

On the other side of the table, instead of the clan's honored elders as might have been expected, the unmated ladies were seated. Rebecca sat directly across from Goliath, and Marie next to her and across from Brooklyn. Then came Yvette, Isabel and Martha, who sat across from Lexington. Stephen, the dark green gargoyle who had been introduced to them as the clan's second-in-command, was indeed sitting at the table, but down at the end next to Fox instead of next to Elizabeth.

Seated across from Fox and several seats away from her husband, Elisa silently fumed and told herself that Goliath was going to be in deep kimchee later on, for letting this go on for so long. Jealous fear and fury gripped her heart as she couldn't help wondering if Goliath, now faced with such obviously gorgeous and single young females, was having second thoughts about their marriage after all.

When the toast was finished, Goliath stood up and said, "On behalf of my clan, I thank you all. The news of your existence has given us great joy; when we were awakened from our millennium-long slumber to this present age, we had thought we were the last of our kind, and only recently did we learn otherwise. Knowing you exist has given us more hope that the gargoyle race will indeed survive and flourish, into the next millennium."

As he spoke, he casually moved down the table, from his seat of honor next to Adam to near where Elisa was sitting. Then he turned back to Adam and said with a smile, "And knowing that your clan leader, in particular, is alive and well gives me, personally, even greater joy…" He turned back to Elisa and drew her out of her seat with a loving expression as he finished, "Knowing half-human hybrids are possible gives us hope… that my mate and I may have a child together someday."

Knowing that was her cue, Elisa said with her most sickening-sweet smile (and mischief dancing in her eyes, to match the mischief lurking deep in Goliath's eyes), "Yes, darling, there's hope for us now!"

All over the dining hall, jaws nearly bounced off the tables. Brooklyn had both hands wrapped around his beak to keep from bursting out laughing, as he looked at the utterly appalled expressions on Yvette and Marie in particular. Marie even burst out with a wailing, "Nooo!"

Goliath eyed her sternly as he walked back up to the head of the table with Elisa on his arm. "Is there a problem, Marie?"

Marie froze and blushed an even brighter shade of pink. Everyone knew she didn't dare say a word, not while seated at the same table as her half-human clan leader. On her other side, Isabel gave a feral grin as she said aloud, "I think she was just protesting about my having accidentally stepped on her tail! How terribly clumsy of me; so sorry, Marie..."

Standing next to Brooklyn's seat, Goliath said mildly, "Brooklyn, would you mind…?"

"Hey, no problem!" Brooklyn said with a grin as he hastily scrambled up from his seat and grabbed his plate and glass. He trotted down the table to sit in Elisa's old spot, and her plate and glass were passed up to where he had been sitting, as Goliath decorously seated her next to himself.

Adam gave Goliath a dirty look and muttered quietly, "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

Goliath gave him an innocent look and whispered back, "You didn't ask."

Seated next to Adam, the lovely lavender gargoyle with shining white tresses that had been introduced to them as Elizabeth, Adam's mate, gave both Elisa and Goliath a smile and a wink. Elisa had the feeling that, as much as Elizabeth surely felt sorry for the remaining females (whose choices had just been reduced by one), she admired Goliath's timing and his flair for the dramatic. After Marie's faux pas and its obvious-to-all smoothing over, no one would dare try to suggest now that he might be better off with a gargoyle for a mate. Elisa smiled back at Elizabeth, before turning to Goliath and asking her Big Guy to please pass the gravy and pepper.

To Be Continued…