Recklessly Royal(93)

More than anything she could have said tonight, that was the one thing that would make me seriously consider this craziness. From the look in her eyes, she knew it too. I was being maneuvered. I didn’t like it, but at the same time, she made a good case. And I knew about merlins. They were amazing birds.

“I need to think about this.” I picked up my fork and pushed the potatoes on my plate.

“Of course.” Rose smiled and I caught a hint of victory in it. “Like I said, I will be here for a few more days. And if you decide to come, we can push it back a little so you can accomplish any tasks you’d need to do first. I’m sure you will want to speak with your father, as well.”

“Thank you, but I’m not sure I’ll be going.” I took another sip of wine. And then another. Oh good God. What would Dad say?

“I hope he will be able to come for the ceremony.” Rose sipped from her wine. “If you decide to take up the mantle, of course.”

If I decided, of course. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be that easy to say no.

“If you come out, you’ll have to go hunting with me.” Alex nodded toward me.

“I’m not much of a hunter.” I racked my brain, wondering why he would think I would want to go hunting, but found it a little difficult to get past the fact he had asked me to do something with him at all. “I’ve only shot a gun a few times.”

He chuckled, and the sound sent a wave of goose bumps down my arms. “No, I meant with birds. I own several hawks that are excellent hunters.”

“Oh.” That made much more sense. I scooped some of the food into my mouth, enjoying the flavors. Despite the crappy—or inappropriate?—service, the Parallel’s food had lived up to the hype. “I’ve been a few times, but don’t have a bird of my own.”

“I’d be happy to lend you one of my birds. I’ve been away for a while, so it would be good to have help exercising them.” The corners of my mouth pulled up a little. He was being nice. There was no way he didn’t have a gamekeeper to help him take care of the birds while he was away.

“What do you have?” I pulled apart some of the bread I had asked the waitress to butter.

“Three Harris hawks.”

“Alex is a bird advocate, as was his father.” Rose tilted her glass toward her nephew. “He presented his first bill to the Lilarian council when he was twelve. He called for stricter punishments for the purposeful deaths of raptors and endangered birds.”

I looked over at Alex and felt my first true smile of the night. “That’s a pretty big proposal. Good for you.”

“Didn’t do it for me.” Alex sipped from his glass and grinned.