Page 12 of Raven in Midwinter

“That’s right.”

“And thus far, he hasn’t tried to speak to either of us.”

“Nope.”

“And also, he can’t come into the house without an invitation, like a vampire.”

“Most things can’t enter without being invited.”

“Which is why welcome mats are bad.”

“So very, very bad. It’s like leaving your front door open for all manner of paranormal creatures and entities.”

“That’s actually really comforting that he can’t come in.”

“If Giles is here, he won’t stay long. He never does. From everything I’ve read about him, he’s a wanderer.”

“That sounds like what hedge-riders do, right?”

“No. They normally have families or covens, lending their talents and learning to a specific place.”

“But because Giles learned to do more, he’s not tied to any one place.”

“That’s correct.”

“What if he wants something?”

I shrugged. “Well, there’s nothing I can do about that if he doesn’t want to talk. Hopefully, the fact that you’re the one seeing him, means he doesn’t need to speak to me and will therefore be on his way soon.”

“I really want that to be true because the skulking around is creepy as hell.”

I couldn’t very well argue.

TWO

When Lorne left Boston, he had done it to move James, his brother, and Cassidy, his niece, away from where they had lost a wife and mother. It had been somewhat abrupt, and there were friends of James and his late wife, Ellen, that had not seen them since their departure. Their friends traveled together often, antiquing for fun, and after spending the holidays in Quebec, had decided to spend a long weekend, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with James and Cass.

I thought it sounded really nice and was especially touched that James had included Lorne and me for dinner the second night they were there.

“It’s thoughtful of his friends to want to see you too,” I expressed to Lorne.

“I never liked any of them. They’re all rich and conceited, all doctors and lawyers, and they’re the kind of people who ship their kids off to boarding schools. Cass was the only one who went to public school and lived year-round with her parents.”

“You can’t judge them for that. Maybe their kids love the opportunity of going to a school that’s academically rigorous.”

He groaned. “Just stop. You’ll see, they’re all so fake. They were all actually Ellen’s friends from college. They had all gone to prep school before Harvard.”

“Did Ellen come from a wealthy family?”

“Oh yeah. When Cass turns twenty-one, she’ll have quite the trust fund.”

I absorbed that information while my husband sat beside me in his Jeep, not putting it in drive, hesitant, it seemed, to leave our home. “Are we going?”

“Is it safe to leave Corvus?”

“We’re already outside, love.”

“Yeah, but we can go back inside and stay home.”