Merry
Here's a health to the company…"
I knew the words so well by this point in the Renn Faire season, I could have sung them in my sleep. So I really can't blame the ale for my sudden stutter when an all-too-familiar velvet voice picked up the next line: "...and one to my lass." That voice continued blithely on as a finely-gloved hand touched its fingers to my ale glass. "Let's drink and be merry all out of one glass."
So what do you do when the Faerie villain-heartthrob of your teenage years appears next to you out of the blue at a Renn Faire and starts singing suggestive lyrics in your general direction?
Clearly, you join in that singing, because he has a damned fine voice. "Let's drink and be merry, all grief to refrain. For we may or might never all meet here again." Our voices twined in delightful counterpoint as the chorus wound to a close.
I turned to look at him, and he was just as breathtaking I remembered. Sunlight hair, patrician features, lean sculpted limbs, check. The period garb was new, but not too different from some of the things I'd seen him in before. Leather pants were definitely a check. I dragged my eyes up to his with some effort and tried for nonchalance. "Fancy meeting you here?"
His smile was devilry incarnate. "I did, so I am."
I blinked at that. "You don't write, you don't call, and now you want to meet up so we can, uh...drink and be merry all out of one glass?"
He shrugged. "Is that a problem?"
"Well...we didn't exactly part on the best of terms."
Another shrug. "It's been a decade. You invite all my subjects over on a regular basis." He waved a hand to stop my stumbling apology. "I'm not here for recrimination. All grief to refrain, Sarah."
"So you're here to, what, patch things up between us?"
"It was a thought." His fingers ran across the top of my hand. "We should get off on a better foot, don't you think? I've always liked you, Sarah Williams."
I swallowed hard at the shiver that ran through me at his touch. "Well, let's just see how much I like you these days, shall we?"
His smile promised so many things. "Do very much let's."
