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“I think you’re sitting in my chair,” Grant insisted.
Mouse looked at the other chairs while Chase rolled his eyes and took a seat beside me. “I don’t see your name on any of them. Maybe it’s on the one at the end.” Grant’s lips curved downward into a deep frown.
Ben gestured to the seat on the other side of Mouse. “I’m eager to hear how the race went, what of it you finished. If memory serves me, you were at the head of the pack.”
Ben’s curiosity quenched some of Grant’s irritation and he grudgingly took a seat. “I was, and I would have placed if not for that stroke of-” He clamped his mouth shut.
A playful smile slipped onto Mouse’s face as he held up a finger to his comrade. “Ah-ha! You were going to admit it!”
“I was going to admit nothing,” Grant insisted.
“Admit what?” I spoke up.
“That we need more lucky charms like my wood,” Mouse explained as he patted his vest where a noticeable bulge could be seen.
Chase rolled his eyes. “Do you have to bring that to the table?”
“Maybe it’ll keep me from choking to death,” Mouse argued.
“You mentioned some trouble at previous tracts where you needed your lucky charm,” Ben interrupted them as he nodded at the piece of wood. “What happened there?”
Grant shrugged. “Just some strange trouble, that’s all.”
Mouse scowled at him. “It wasn’t just strange trouble. It was a lot of strange trouble. I mean, who ever heard of thunders sinking into the mud holes on the last lap?”
“Where did that happen?” Ben asked him.
“At Enastros,” Chase spoke up as he pursed his lips. “And then there was the mess in the Werewald. Not only did this tyke almost get eaten by some werewolves, but there was a strange fire that popped up in the green underbrush close to the course. I’d never heard of anything burning through that notoriously wet forest before.”
“And there was no hint of foul play?” Ben wondered.
Grant shook his head. “Why would there be? It was all natural stuff. Strange, but natural.”
Ben leaned back in his chair and cupped his chin in his hand. “I don’t recall hearing about these incidents in the thunder records.”
“They wanted to keep them hush-hush,” Chase told him as he wrinkled his nose. “I suppose they can’t do much about today’s mishap, though. Not with half the best thunders out of the race.”
At that moment the swinging portal behind my chair swung open. Hannah swept into the room and through the door I glimpsed a large kitchen with a flagstone floor and a huge hearth at the far end of the room. She carried a huge domed platter in both hands and David hurried behind her with two wine bottles. The lad set them on Ben’s right while Hanna placed the covered dish on the table between all of us. She removed the lid with a flourish and revealed a soup tureen. A delicious aroma of herbs and spices floated up from the bubbling liquid. I could see chunks of fish and shrimp mixed with the homegrown potatoes. Slices of bread ringed the bottom of the tureen, and they glistened with butter mixed with specks of garlic.
Mouse licked his lips. “Yummy!”
Ben took up one of the wine bottles and popped the cork. “Does anyone desire some wine?”
“I’ll have a nip,” Chase spoke up as he passed his glass to me.
“I wouldn’t say no to some, either,” Grant chimed in.
Mouse grinned as he held out his wine glass to Ben. “Count me in.”
Ben poured the wine into all our glasses and lifted his own in the air. “A toast to good company and good food.”
“Aye!” we shouted in agreement before we each took a drink.
We dug into the meal and in half an hour even the appetites of the men were satiated. I had long ago leaned back and watched them finish off the entirety of the soup. Hannah came out of the kitchen and admired the empty tureen and platter with a satisfied smile.
“Now those are appetites I like to see,” she mused as she took up the empty platter. She nodded at Ben. “He hardly eats a bite when he’s here. I wonder if he isn’t trying to waste away.”
“My appetite isn’t always the best,” Ben admitted as he dabbed the sides of his mouth. “But today I made an exception, and I couldn’t eat another bite for a week.”
