“This won’t take but a minute.” I took a few steps toward the side of the house. “Don’t budge.”
“I won’t,” he promised, closing his eyes.
“No closing your eyes.”
A slight curve in his lips warmed me as he opened them. “All right.”
Backing away while keeping an eye trained on him seemed like a good idea right up until I tripped over a rosebush and hit the lawn on my tailbone. Teeth gritted against the pain, I laid back in the cool grass and let the dew soak into my shirt for a moment.
“Okay over there?” Amelie craned her neck as far as she could see. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m good,” I groaned as Cletus materialized. “Did Linus send you to check on me?”
The billowing hood dipped, the cloak fluttering over me.
“Do me a solid and tell him I stubbed my toe. Let’s leave my tailbone out of this.”
Fingertips tapping absently, he drifted off to make his report. Hopefully in my favor.
“Where did you find the key?” I asked to buy me time to get back on my tired feet. “I looked everywhere for it when we cleared out the carriage house.”
Linus and I had searched the small home from top to bottom before we allowed her to move in.
“It was on the trim above the window that looks out onto the garden.” She stood in the doorway with the key in her fist. “It’s funny. That’s where I found it in the first place. I put it back there since it seemed like as good a spot as any. Guess you thought so too and just forgot.”
Except that’s not where I left it. I used it to retrieve the old-fashioned doctor’s bag Maud carried her supplies in from a pernickety steamer trunk, and then I tucked it beneath a loose brick on the fireplace in the carriage house’s living room.
As much as I wanted to blame the switcheroo on a third party relocating the key, it wouldn’t explain how they knew where she had originally found it. The key itself was a temperamental piece of work. I wouldn’t put it past the thing to have placed itself back above the window, and if Amelie hadn’t chosen that spot, it meant odds were high it had a mind of its own.
“Keep an eye out.” I accepted the key, its lukewarmth a comfort. “Let me know if you find another one.”
There were no more keys like this one, thankfully, but it still might return to its perch.
“I can do that.” She scuffed her bare foot on the welcome mat. “If I see you around.”
The cover story we concocted to explain her six-month absence from work and life in general while she was under house arrest at Woolly included a sudden move to Atlanta to pursue an internship. Outside of Low Society friends, who would be forbidden by their families to talk to her, none of her local human friends knew she was staying one house over from her childhood home.
Loneliness was a topic with which I was well acquainted. I had dragged Lethe in to join me for breakfast to keep from being alone, so I could sympathize. What I couldn’t do, until I finished healing the wounds she had inflicted on me, was be there for her.
“I’ll talk to Odette and see if she can swing by a few nights a week.” I flinched as her expression fell. “You can invite your brother over if you want,” I added, cementing my sucker status. “Just make sure he understands he’s not welcome at the main house, and he’s not allowed to loiter. He visits you, he goes home.”
“Thanks.” Her gaze panned the yard. “Will the gwyllgi hurt him?”
“As long as he follows the rules, he’ll be safe.” I jerked my chin toward the front of the house. “I can’t leave Linus out there forever. See you around.”
She let me reach the fence leading into the front yard before saying, “I was wrong about him.”
“Most people are,” I said, not unkindly. After all, he was wrong about himself too.
Linus had managed to keep his eyes open, but it was a near thing. “You’re back.”
“Made it back the same day I left,” I agreed, helping him stand. “Let’s get you upstairs.”
“I need to shower.”
“How about a bath instead?” I held him closer as we navigated the steps. “I can trust you not to fall in one of those.” I pictured him folded up in the antique tub where he used to play with his molded plastic army of fantastical creatures, acting out scenes from whatever book he was reading. “I don’t think I have to worry about you slipping under the water and drowning. It will be a miracle if we can fit your legs in with the rest of you.”
Up in his room, I parked him on the toilet after closing the lid and started running water.
A quick check of his cabinets produced the fancy-pants shampoo I used at his loft along with matching conditioner and body wash. “Bubbles? No bubbles?”
“No bubbles.”
I lined the items up on the floor beside the clawfoot tub. “Do you need help with your hair?”
While I was rooting around, he had slumped forward, his forearms braced on his knees. “I can manage.”
“Are you sure?” I bit the inside of my cheek, but the question was out there now.
“It depends.” He lifted his head a fraction. “Can I change my answer to bubbles?”
“If it will preserve your dignity, sure.” I snorted out a laugh and dumped in a healthy amount of body wash. “I seem to remember your orcs liked bubbles anyway. Or was it the elves? They’re the ones with all the silky hair, right?”
“They weren’t bubbles. They were quicksand.” His shoulders hitched with quiet laughter. “How do you know about that?”
“I went through a spy phase.” The old house groaned around us. “Don’t act all innocent. Who do you think tipped me off when the coast was clear?”
“What was worth spying on in my bathroom?”
“Um, you.” A frown gathered across my forehead. “I used to want to be just like you.” I had forgotten that until our current situation reminded me. “I wanted Maud to be proud of me the way she was proud of you.”
“She was.”
I rolled a shoulder, uninterested in going down that road again. “I’ll step out and let you get in.”
For his safety, I didn’t go far. I stood to one side of the doorway with my back against the wall. The sound of fabric hitting the tiles carried to me, so did his throaty groan when he hit the piping-hot water.
“I’m in.”
I stuck my head around the corner. “Bubbles at the ready?”
“I believe my modesty is sufficiently preserved.” He held up a mountain of froth. “However, I’m not sure you can rinse my hair with this water. It’s…slimy.”
“Oh, it’s not that bad.” I snagged the cup he used to hold his toothbrush off the counter by the sink and took position behind him. “I’m a pro at the perfect water-to-soap ratio.”
“Is that why Maud always made you mop the floors twice? Once with your perfect ratio and then with a bucket of water to get rid of the tacky feeling?”
“Um.” I pulled up short while deciding where it was safer to test the water for alleged sliminess. “You might have a point. There’s a reason I shower.”
The faucets cranked on again, and water glug, glug, glugged down the drain as Woolly took charge.
Linus’s hands shot to his lap as the waterline lowered. “Woolly, I need that plug.”
The house ignored him and kept dumping out the slick mixture while pumping in fresh water.
“Grier?” His eyes pleaded with me. “You’re going to have to step out if she drains much more.”
Already the dimples on either side of his spine above his hips were visible.
Eyes up, Grier. Sheesh.
“Woolly, cut the guy some slack.” I tapped my foot. “We can take it from here.”
With a huff from the nearest floor register, her presence exited the bathroom, leaving us alone.
“I got the drain plugged.” Linus exhaled. “That was more excitement than I signed up for.”
Hiding a smile, I moved to the middle of the tub. “I’m going to use the water from the faucet, okay?”
“All right.”
“Head forward or head back?”
“Forward.” He was already slumping, so that was an easy choice. “I’m not going to last much longer.”
Hands folded in his lap, Linus bowed his head. I poured cup after cup of water over him until the auburn strands clung to his skin like seaweed. There was nothing for it. He was as wet as he was going to get. It was time to put my hands on him.
“Let me know if I’m being too rough.” I squirted a dime-size amount of shampoo on top of his head that ended up more quarter-sized. Fine. Half-dollar. Oops. “I don’t have much in the way of fingernails, but I’m a vigorous scrubber.”
His low groan encouraged me to keep scratching his scalp and also discouraged me from twisting his hair into lengthy spikes just for giggles.
“Let’s get you rinsed.” The cup kept slipping through my hands, which made him laugh. I suspected he was aware more than the recommended amount of shampoo had made it onto his head. “Conditioner?”
“This is fine,” he said a little too fast. “I’ll deal with the tangles tomorrow.”
“You do have pretty hair,” I admitted while chasing foam with each pour. “Any particular reason why you grew it out?”
“I kept forgetting to cut it without Mother’s supervision when I moved away.” He reached up to check my handiwork. “I got so shaggy at one point I decided growing it out longer would be easier. I was wrong, it’s more work, but I enjoy it. She isn’t of the same opinion.”
“You little rebel, you.” I raked my fingers through the long ends. “I’m surprised at you, Mr. Lawson.”
“One of the many perks of living on your own, the ability to make decisions for oneself.”