Page 120 of Dragon Her Heels

“Injury, genetic disorders, and things of that nature. There are a few cognitive disorders in cattle that leave their meat sound but they can no longer live healthy, happy lives—most of your young cattle will suffer from those. There will be a few breaks, and you will accept their fate because you brought them into your home knowing in advance they would not live long.”

I could work around—and live with—that. “All right. I will set up a pasture just for them, and it seems I’m going to need another cattle barn for my freeloaders.”

“I will procure an annex for your homestead as soon as the opportunity arises. It will be soon. And I will handle the matter of Isaac’s property, as this stew will guarantee he will be staying close to your home because of the nodes.”

Right. That reminded me: I needed to venture to Tennessee to handle the node there. “After I have my share of the stew and clean my dutch oven, we should go on that field trip. I am going to have a permanent guest in my personal chambers within a week or two, and I wish for that unfinished business to be handled before then. I will be busy for at least a week upon the acquisition of my permanent guest. Then I have to worry about the races, conning Mr. Noran into batting for my team, and otherwise preparing to take over the horse world.”

“I will see if I can make arrangements for Mr. Noran to meet with you in Tennessee, and I will escort you there myself. Yuless, I trust you can handle matters here while we’re gone? I’ll bring her back in two to three days.”

Yuless scowled. “Fine.”

“You’ll have your woman back soon, so try not to worry much. Why don’t you go browbeat that idiot dragon in the lake for a while? You can make certain he gives Crystal sufficient time to recover. The work she is about to do in Tennessee will be tiring, and when I bring her back, she will want nothing more than her personal furnace and good rest. You can work on baking her a pie, perhaps?”

“We have plans to bake pie together,” Yuless grumbled.

“You can still do that,” the Devil replied with a grin. “But while you wait, see what you can do. You can also start looking into what makes the perfect kitchen. I recommend you start with the second floor kitchen and think about how it can be improved. You can surprise her with a kitchen floor plan that will make you both quite pleased to rule the fourth floor together.”

Sneaky Lucifer, listening in on our discussions. “Just go with it, Yuless. He’ll nag you to a near death state otherwise. We best polish off the rest of the stew, because I don’t want to throw any of it out, nor do I want to find out what will happen should anyone else get a hold of any.”

“A most excellent suggestion,” the Devil replied before strolling out of the kitchen. The instant he turned the corner, something popped.

“Interesting. I wonder why he waited until he was out of sight to teleport.”

“The flash of light betrays which plane of existence he’s traveling to,” Yuless explained. “He is doing something sneaky. What? That I can’t tell you. But he’s being sneaky.”

“He’s Lucifer. That’s what Lucifer does. Let’s just eat this before someone tries to take any and gets an unpleasant surprise.”