Page 90 of Grave Humor

“I can’t tell you that. I can tell you that she lived during a time of war and plague. There were still horses, but there were also odd horseless carriages. I cannot tell you much beyond that.”

“That sounds like World War I. A bad flu happened at the very end of the war, and when the soldiers all came home, they brought the illness with them. A lot of people died.” I couldn’t remember if magic had yet swept through the world or not then. Magic had changed everything, but some things remained the same—including humanity’s need to kill each other for money, power, and position.

“Yes, she had a soldier. He had returned home to her broken. If the disease hadn’t killed her, he would have. I get the feeling she believed, right up to the bitter end, she could fix him. Perhaps she could have. War ruins people. It changes them. But love can be a very powerful thing. She did not live long enough to find out.”

I grimaced. Even in small, backwater Sunset, violence infected some homes much like a disease. In a way, I’d been lucky. My parents’ abuses hadn’t extended to physical violence. They’d found other ways to torment me.

Perhaps her hope he’d improve had been why she’d stayed—and influenza had spared her from a long and bitter road.

I hurt for them both. “That’s so sad.”

“Before the war, he had been kind and gentle.”

“That makes it even sadder.”

Eoghan nodded. “She hadn’t screamed when she died. She’d been too tired. Hers is a gentle soul by its nature.”

It amazed me he could sense so much from the seed. “Will I be able to do the same as you can?”

“In time, I’m sure. It took me a thousand years to sense the seeds at all. You’re seeing them right away. Perhaps in time you can learn parts of my magic, just as I have learned parts of yours.”

“And Azrael?”

With a huff, Eoghan shrugged. “I don’t want to talk about him right now.”

“What do you want to talk about, then?” I closed my hand around the woman’s seed and returned her to my pocket. “I’ll figure out what to do with her later.”

“Generally, if you want the seed to go away, just ignore it for a while. It’ll go where needed. If you want to keep it around, you need to express the intent to keep it. Most put the seeds they want to keep in a box to symbolize their intent to keep it. The seeds are mostly inanimate, so once someone has laid a claim, they tend to stick around because they’re not really intelligent enough to wander off despite being capable of doing so.”

Life was truly complicated. “Okay. I’m just going to drive us to the house and deal with this another day.

Eoghan chuckled. “That’s one way to handle the situation. If that makes you happy, then we shall do that.”

I gave myself a few minutes to think over my situation, focusing on my odd relationship with Eoghan, my unrelenting attraction to the egotistical antique, and my utter lack of experience with men. “I’ve been told you’re going to be challenging to seduce, which is accurate, as I’ve never even attempted to seduce a man before.”

“I already told you before, all you have to do is beg,” he replied in an amused tone. “You seem quite stubborn, so I expect this will take you a very long time.”

I considered that. How did he define beg? Would a simple please work? Saying please sounded like begging to me. I’d be willing to say please. I’d even pull out a thank you afterwards, as I had some manners and even knew how to use them. “I don’t like begging, but I will say please. I’ll even put on something pretty when I say please. I’ll have to go buy something pretty, but you’re paying me good money to stick around, so I can afford to buy pretty things. We’ll have to take a field trip to the city for that, because there aren’t many good stores here. If you’re really nice to me, I’ll let you help pick out the pretty things.”

“You’re already beautiful. You do not need to try to make yourself pretty.”

I smiled at that. “But pretty would be very lacy.”

Eoghan’s eyes narrowed. “May I take that back? I seem to have developed an interest in you making yourself pretty alongside you being naturally beautiful.”

Love, I supposed, was truly blind, as I’d never thought of myself as anything other than plain and somewhat boring. I’d seen beautiful women before. I wasn’t one of them. With enough work and makeup, I could make myself somewhat fit society’s expectations for women.

I’d never liked the results—or the money required to hide my actual face beneath several layers of product.

“I will say please once and only once,” I stated, starting Lady Luck’s engine.

“I find it amusing you are attempting to negotiate. I see I have much to teach you on what it means to beg. I look forward to slowly and meticulously educating you on this subject. It seems only fair, as you need to teach me your language.”

I backed my truck out of the driveway, at a loss of what I was supposed to say, do, or think. “Should I be concerned?”

“You’ll enjoy it, so no. Beyond a lack of sleep, you have nothing to be concerned about. As what I have planned for you will take a great deal of time, you’ll have to wait until our home is properly built. We wouldn’t want to disturb your neighbors. That would be rude.”

“I’m not exactly a loud person.”