Copper Ravens Read Free Page B

couldn’t very well have a band of scruffy beasts trolling about the Otherworld, claiming that they had seen a Fairy Queen living in the Whispering Dell, and one who should have been long since dead, at that.
    With a sigh, I eyed the evidence of Max’s latest revels. The front door had several long scrapes in it, the atrium was trashed, and there was mud on the ceiling. The ceiling . At least we hadn’t found any boggarts, or other beasties, hiding in the corners or under a chair. Yet.
    And where was the one responsible for this mess? Max, true to form, was snoring away on the couch, muddy boots propped up on the cushions, while Shep directed the silvery cleanup crew. I looked on in awe, amazed that my brother was such a jerk. A filthy, inconsiderate jerk. I mean, he could at least have the common decency to look ashamed. Awake and ashamed.
    Although the way Mom had described Dad’s younger days, I was fathered by the very same sort of jerk. Intrigued, I left Sadie with the silverkin and went in search of Mom. She’d come in from the gardens and was taking her tea in the kitchen, oblivious to the chaos in the front of the manor. I sat beside her and grabbed a scone.
    â€œWas Dad ever as bad as Max?” I began. Mom nearly blew out her tea.
    â€œOh, Beau was much worse,” Mom replied. “Give Max time, though. He’s still new at raising hell.” I smiled as I worried at my scone, reducing its tasty goodness to a heap of crumbs.
    â€œWhat if…what if you find a man who isn’t so fiery?” I asked.
    â€œLike Micah?” Mom asked. Okay, I know I was being obvious, but she could have let me beat around the bush a little. “I think Micah is a fine man. Don’t you?”
    â€œI do.”
    â€œThen, what’s troubling you about him?”
    â€œHe’s not troubling me,” I clarified. “He wants a baby. I don’t—not yet, anyway—but I want to be more than a useless consort.”
    â€œDo not make the mistake of seeing consorts as useless,” Mom said. “Many have shaped our world from the bedchamber.”
    â€œI don’t want to shape a world! I just…” I shoved the plate away and sent crumbs flying. A silverkin was there in an instant to sweep them up. “Why do I have to be obviously pregnant before I’m Lady Silverstrand?”
    â€œAh. You don’t feel that consorts are useless; you feel useless as one.”
    â€œOf course I do,” I grumbled, now pouring my own cup of tea. “No one pays any attention to me; no one cares what I do or say.”
    â€œMicah does.”
    â€œAll they do is stare at my stomach, looking for bulges.” I dumped too much sugar in my tea, stirred it a few times, and pushed it away. “So? Why do I have to be pregnant?”
    â€œTo prove that your relationship has been consummated,” Mom replied. “In the old days, a bride was held in a tower from her wedding night until she was heavy with child. That way, no one could dispute who’d fathered the babe.”
    Well, that was pragmatic. “I hope Micah doesn’t stick me in a tower,” I mumbled.
    â€œCome, now. It wouldn’t be so bad.”
    â€œMom!”
    â€œThat was the original intent of the honeymoon,” she continued, undeterred. “To drink sweet mead and come away with a babe for your troubles.”
    â€œIs that what you and Dad did?” I sneered.
    â€œCareful, or I’ll tell you,” she warned. She watched me squirm for a few moments before she continued. “As to your first question, Max will be fine. For all that he’s of metal, there’s fire in his blood, and he’s never gotten a chance to feel it. Let him burn a bit.”
    I nodded, gazing past my mother to the heavy mantel above the kitchen hearth. Since the kitchen was always the heart of the home, it’s where we’d put the one of the few mementos we had from the