The Earl's Childe (14 page)

“I can make that happen.” Sharing a good “trust me” smile, she hugged me with one arm and ran down the stairs.

My sister's plans to get me some alone time with Mum
were absolute rubbish
. She must've hardly had to try, too, because basically, Mum decided to go with Dad's rubbish idea of the two of us going shopping.

Like I said,
rubbish
.

Ermie was trotting along the fence line as I approached.
You seem even more happy and cheerful today than you were yesterday
.

I stopped and glared as hard as I had ever glared at anything in my life.

He stopped and licked his lips.

I've noticed your sister often amuses you with sarcasm when you are angry, and you usually appreciate that
.

I gave him a grand sigh and headed into his stable, where he met me with his head hanging over his stall door.

Will you please tell me what is worse today than yesterday?

“Everything!” I groaned, hefting new buckets of stinky fresh fish and squid into his trough.

Has someone in your family been attacked? Are
you
ill and hiding it? Is the castle under attack?
He ignored his food and circled.

“No.” I lowered my head. Okay, things could, in fact, be even worse. “Just Joe…his family, they…” I kept myself from thinking too hard about my idea last night about how maybe Ermie could help, but I didn't want to present it to him without talking to Mum first.

The human royals? By Faerie?
He reared in a circle, tail up and swishing.

“Not by Faerie…just…”

Just
what?!

I couldn't help but feel bad. His mouth was frothing, and I could see his eyes wide and bugging. And he was ignoring his food.

“I want to talk to Mum first before I talk to you because I don't want to get anyone else in any more trouble or accidentally hurt, so please, just…just…I don't know. Just, be patient?”

The kelpie stopped circling and snorted, hard and with nostrils flared, at me.
Are
. We.
In. Danger?

I sighed. “Not us. I don't think. We didn't get in touch with Lady Fana and Lord Cadmus last night, though.”

He snorted and grunted again, but this time less aggressively. After another circle, he moved to his food. Just before he lowered his head into the trough, he stopped and stared at me again.
Would you tell me if we were in danger?

I stopped and stared at him for a moment. Was he actually starting to care about us?

I clearly hadn't guarded that thought because he tossed his head and chuffed.
I have already told you, I fear death now, thanks to you. And I fear not knowing what death or harm to
you
would do to
me.

I clenched my teeth so hard my whole jaw hurt. Throwing up an angry wall that I kind of hoped did hurt Ermie's head a little—but only just a little, because I was
not
going to turn evil!—I turned on my heel and marched out of the stable.

Shopping, away from this whole castle and all the issues, took on just the teensiest tiniest little glimmer of something I might, possibly, maybe, be okay with right then.

That little teensy, tiny glimmer of “might be okay” fizzled out before we even left the long, windy castle road. Right about when Mum said, “I think we'll start at Mrs. MacTavish's shop and see what she thinks about starting you on a bra—”

“ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?” I sat up so fast the damned seatbelt snapped me back like we were in a car accident or something. The rest of my words got caught in my throat in a fit of coughing.

“Heather Marie—”

“No! Really! Joe's on the other side of the freaking world and I don't know if he's hurt o-or worse and there are evil faerie who want to kill or enslave us and we can't reach out to the not-as-evil faerie who might help us and Dad's going off the deep end with his meds and it's my fault because I thought we could ‘save' the evil killer kelpie and
you want to take me bra shopping? Really
, Mum?”

Mum sighed, and the car was quiet for a few moments as I rasped breaths after that whole shout-fest. Finally, she said, “Sometimes, when everything is going wrong, you
have
to do something stupid and normal. Because if you don't, you get stuck in a bad headspace and just make things worse. Which is what is happening with your dad. It's
not
your fault, Heather. We've told you that—”

“I
know
what you told me. But even Dad admits that the kelpie could be making him worse, and the only reason the kelpie is here is ‘cos I caught him! And said kelpie doesn't even really care what happens to us!”

“Heather, listen to me. Please?”

I grumbled a non-committal non-word in her direction.

“What if you didn't capture the kelpie? What if he was still around, killing kids? And how do you think Dad would feel if you actually let him kill it, and killing it did, in fact, hurt
you?
Do you think he'd be any better?”

I looked at my arm. It looked like a week-old sunburn now, hardly noticeable. I
knew
Dad was totally crushed about that, and the injury, itself, was almost nothing.

“I dunno,” I mumbled.

“I do,” she said firmly. “I've never seen him more upset than when he thinks he's hurt one of you children. And he's
not
good with violence; he's
not
a killer, not of anything. He didn't want to talk to me after I shot a deer—just a deer— with my uncles back home. If he had even gotten close to Ehrwnmyr before you put the bridle on him, your dad would have hesitated—just half a second—and…and…” Mum bit her lip with a soft hiccough and stared at the road. I saw a glimmer in her eye.

“He would've gotten killed?” I whispered.

Mum gave one sharp nod.

“What if he did, though, kill…Erwnmyr?”

“If he did and that did anything,
anything
, to hurt you, he'd never forgive himself. The guilt would eat him up to nothing.” Mum scanned the road, and then turned her head to look at me. “I know your Dad like no one else, and that is what would happen. You saving the kelpie, being willing to save him, is really and truly the best thing that could have happened. Do you understand me, Heather?”

I stared at my hands in my lap for a moment, replaying everything she'd just told me in my head, rearranging it, thinking about it. Mum's stare was so intense I could
feel
it when she glanced from the road to me. After a moment, I bit my lip and nodded.

I understood what she was saying, and I understood something else, too—how much Mum loved Dad. I didn't have to worry about her leaving Dad, no matter how bad their arguments got.

All of a sudden, I felt I could breathe. I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, enjoying the feel and wondering how long I'd been not-breathing-all-the-way. Probably all day. Probably most of yesterday, even. I let myself lean back in my seat.

“Your dad and I also have our phones set to alert us to anything regarding Joe and his family.” She frowned, passing me her phone. “Not much of anything. The whole coverage has died down since last night…which, really, isn't all that surprising. They wouldn't
want
coverage,
any
coverage. You know how they are.”

I sighed, flipping through the email that she'd left open. I recognized all the same basic titles I'd seen last night. “About that…I had an idea.”

“Yeah?”

I took another deep breath. “Ehrwnmyr's gotta do what I tell him, so what if I told him to go and bring them back?”

Mum turned to look at me so fast we veered a little off the road. With a curse, she straightened out, and then found a place to pull over and put her flashers on. I could see the turnoff for Eyemouth just ahead. She didn't say anything for a few minutes.

“Mum?” I asked tentatively.

She blew out a “Fffffffffffffsshhhhhttttt” through pursed lips, then sucked air back in over her tongue before she said, “Heather…I…I don't know.”

My heart pounded even harder. Mum didn't know? Mum didn't say no! Maybe? I mean, she was worried, too. She was close friends with Princess Maryan. Could we do this?

A horn honked, making us jump. Mum looked in the rearview mirror to see a car stopped behind us, and Mr. Pravda, who ran my parents' favorite Indian restaurant in Eyemouth, was getting out.

“Crap,” Mum muttered, but put on a bright smile and rolled down her window. “Hi, Amir! What's up?”

“Are you two ladies all right? Do you need a ride or help or anything?” His sparkling brown eyes looked concerned.

“Goodness, no,” Mum chuckled. “We're just having some mother-daughter time. But thank you for looking in on us.”

“Mother-daughter time on the side of the road? That is most unusual. Are you sure you are all right?”

Mum gave him a big belly laugh. “Oh, my mom had to pull over God knows how many times to give a good talk to me or my sister or the two of us on plenty of occasions. We just came up with the craziest stuff, and she wanted to give us her full attention. I promise, we're fine. We're just heading into town to pick up a few things before camp starts.”

“All right. As long as you are okay…”

When he finally left, assured of our okay-ness, Mum flipped her right blinker on and pulled back out in the road. “Heather, let me think about using Ermie…to see if we could even…do that. Let me think on that, okay?”

I nodded. “Hey, Mum?”

“Yeah?”

“Did Bachi really pull over and talk to you when you were growing up?”

Mum erupted with another round of belly laughs. When she finally could speak, she said, “Oh,
God
yes! Especially when we were driving down to visit our uncles. Granted, usually, it was because she was trying to keep the two of us from killing each other or something…but sometimes it was because she just
knew
something was up. But, yeah.” She chuckled a little more, then offered me a smile as we pulled into the road leading into the only thing that counted as a “town” for the area. “Think you can handle trying to be a normal eleven-year-old for a while?”

I scowled again, but didn't really mean it. “I don't see
why
we need to get me a bra. Everyone at school says I look like a boy, anyway.”

Mum arched an eyebrow at me. “Honey, you already know I think just about everyone at your old school is an idiot anyway.”

I closed my eyes and couldn't repress my smile this time. Sometimes my mum could be pretty cool.

CHAPTER

7

Being social and other things I need as much as a killer fairy horse. Right
.

I
was
feeling better by the time we headed home. In addition to clothes I needed (or that Mum felt I needed), she also got me sparkling blue riding gloves, jeans with embroidery and rhinestones down the outside seams, and a shiny new pair of field boots…which I realized I also needed because, when I tried them on, my toes didn't hurt at all.