Drawing a deep breath, I began, “Kit planned the whole thing in Stagcross. Have you been there?”
Thoma shook his head.
“It’s the most incredible place,” I gushed. “They had reindeer, and drinking chocolate, and colored glass, and an art store…” The awareness of my satchel reminded me of its contents. “Oh! I got new pencils! Hold on.”
I opened my arm to let Nutmeg leap down and retrieve her feather stick, and I followed her to the floor. Kneeling, I opened my bag and dug out my sketchbook and the roll of colored pencils to spread out for Thoma’s inspection.
While I unfurled the bundle of pencils and flipped to the newer pages in my book, Thoma and Kit carried on overhead.
“Congratulations,” Thoma said.
Kit responded with a warm, “Thank you.”
“Look at the colors,” I gushed, almost as enamored as I’d been the first time I saw them. I touched my finger to the page where I'd tested shades of green, then scooped up a few of the pencils and offered them to Thoma. “Do you want to try them?”
He snickered. “I can’t tell if you’re more excited about this or the proposal.” He knelt beside me while I stretched out onto mystomach and grabbed a pencil with a fiery orange lead. Thoma scribbled beside me, first powdery blue then iris purple, then a brown that looked exactly like pecan shells.
I had barely begun when he set them aside and looked at Kit, who stood back, watching.
“You did well, Kit,” Thoma told him.
Kit huffed a laugh. “Lucky for me, he’s easy to please.”
I rolled onto my side to pin him with a narrow look. “Nothing about that was easy!” I exclaimed, then turned to explain to Thoma. “It was the grandest thing anyone's ever done for me. You should'veseenthe inn. And the bed…”
Kit let out a choked sound that brought my rambling to a halt. “I think I'll put some dinner on.” His booted feet clunked by on his way to the kitchen, where he paused. “Thoma, have you eaten?”
Thoma pushed to standing and held up his hands. “I shouldn't impose. I’m sure you’re tired and eager to get settled in.”
“And I'm sure Pen is eager for a bit of company besides mine,” Kit replied. “It's rather hard to impress me with the tales of our travels, seeing as I was there.”
I snorted and carried on coloring while Kit began rifling the kitchen cabinets for something to turn into dinner. Thoma lingered on his feet a few seconds before Nutmeg returned with the feather stick and Ember in tow. Convinced by the cats if nothing else, Thoma dropped to sit cross-legged beside me. He took up the stick and began tempting the kittens with it, sending them skittering this way and that in a tandem chase.
“Well,” Thoma said at length. “It all sounds far more interesting than anything going on here. Though, Rosie and I have been spreading the word about the resistance.”
Kit's clattering in the kitchen ceased, and I glanced up to see him looking our way with an uneasy frown.
Thoma had his back to that room, so he didn't see Kit's visible discomfort as he carried on.
“I say busy, but it's rather slow going if I'm honest. Safer that way.”
That assurance earned an exaggerated nod from Kit, who had retrieved our kettle to fill with water for coffee. I chuckled to myself. The man was predictable since the day I met him. Nothing in this house happened before or without coffee.
The sink was still running when I heard a knock at the front door. Setting my pencil in the center of my sketchbook, I stood and called toward the kitchen, “I'll get it!”
The words had barely left me when Kit reentered the living area, wiping his hands on his trousers as he brushed past me.
“You just relax, sweetheart,” he said. “And maybe talk about something else for a bit.”
If I hadn't known better, I would have thought he was expecting someone. Perhaps he was. If I'd learned anything in the past few days, it was that he was willing and able to surprise me. With that in mind, I might have been excited by an unexpected visit, but I felt disquieted instead, and stayed on my feet.
Neither Thoma nor I talked about anything as Kit swung the door inward to expose a pair of cloaked Sentinels on the stoop.
My heart leaped into my throat as the first sentinel spoke.
“Mister Koesters, your presence is requested in the Ossuary.”
Kit cast a fleeting glance over his shoulder at Thoma and me.
