Page 6 of The Teacup Dragon Sanctuary

Above the door there was a ventilation panel. It looked far too thin a gap for Jade to have escaped through but Great-Aunt Iris used to say that a teacup dragon could slip through the eye of a needle if there was food in it for them. Affectionately.

Portia didn’t feel particularly affectionate right now. The wind was getting up as night fell. If Jade found a way outside she could be blown away. She had no experience of anything beyond the hellish company of Virginia and the dark carrying case in which she was kept. The world at large would chew her up and spit her out.

Portia opened the door. ‘Jade?’ she called. She tried whistling, making her way through the inn, downstairs and out the back into the yard where the wind whipped her hair into her face. There was no sign of her dragon anywhere. This wasn’t happening. Couldn’t be happening. Iris would never forgive her if she lost the very creature she had risked her whole career to save. Portia would never forgive herself.

She asked some of the staff but no one had seen anything. The other guests stared at her, this frantic woman with hair all over the place, whistling and ducking down to look in every dark space.

This was no good. She needed help. Actual help. David would aid her, surely.

The captain, she was told, was greeting guests for dinner.

There was a man talking earnestly to David as she approached the entrance to the dining room, tall, broad shouldered, with soft brown hair creeping over his collar. Portia paused, hoping he would move on but to her horror, David’s gaze caught hers and he smiled.

‘Please, Dr Turner, allow me to introduce Lady⁠—’

The man turned, a man far too attractive for his own good, who was glaring at her as if she had personally insulted him on several fronts.

‘Is she the reason I’m sleeping above the stables now?’ he asked. It might have been a joke. But then again, maybe not.

Before Portia had a chance to answer that – and from the guilty frown that passed over David’s brow yes, she very much was the reason – there was a crash from the far side of the door and someone cried out in alarm. It was followed by a flutter of wings, a screech, the deafening clatter of shattering crockery. All at once Portia had a perfectly good idea where Jade had got to.

The shouts started. ‘Someone catch it before it⁠—’

Another crash came from inside and before either David or Dr Turner could say anything else to her, Portia rushed through the doors and into yet another scene of chaos with Jade at the centre of it.

This couldn’t be happening. Not again. It was like the Academy all over again.

Portia tried the whistle again but Jade was having too much fun now, clearly. She soared across the dining room, swooping from table to table, stamping her footprints in the butter as she landed, and leaping into the air again, licking it off her toes with her long pink tongue. She flew chaotically from point to point, rolling through the open space, apparently having the time of her life.

‘Jade,’ Portia hissed, frantically, trying to look for something that would tempt her to land. Oh, her appetite had returned, all right. There was far too much food all over the room, and no one thing was going to appease the dragon at the moment. Her cries were all of delight and pure joy and she dipped and dived towards the tables and flew off again. In any other circumstances it would be wonderful to hear. But right now? It was mortifying.

‘Yours?’ asked Dr Turner, his tone scathing. He was right behind her, disapproval radiating from every pore.

‘Yes.’ Portia tried to push her dishevelled hair out of her face. ‘Sort of. It’s a new situation and a very long story. Can you step back? You’re going to frighten her.’

To be honest, he was half frightening Portia the way he glowered at her. He was far too tall. Not that she was going to be frightened by a mere man.

He turned that glare from her to Jade. ‘That is not a frightened dragon. Have you been starving her? That, madam, is a dragon that is in a frenzy of hunger.’

Portia scowled. She certainly didn’t need him to explain dragons to her. ‘Yes, I am well aware of that. Give me a moment to get her to calm down and I will not bother you again.’

She let out the whistle again, but Jade ignored her, perching up on a high beam above them all and stretching her wings out to either side victoriously. She threw back her head and crowed her triumph. She was loving this, her belly full of sugar and fat, able to fly free. The attendant chaos was probably an added bonus.

‘How could you let her get in such a state?’ the man muttered. He hadn’t moved away. Typical. ‘Honestly, some people shouldn’t be allowed to⁠—’

Portia didn’t hang around to hear what he thought some people shouldn’t be allowed to do. She’d had quite enough of him. Stalking forward, she looked around for something to tempt Jade.

And then, from behind her, there was another noise, something between a bark and a roar with a trill of notes in it like a song. She almost jumped out of her skin, twisting around in alarm, but as she moved, so did Jade, gliding down to land daintily on the outstretched hand of Dr Turner where she cooed and preened herself, showing off. He stroked her back gently and Jade, the little traitor, rubbed herself against his fingertips. Deftly he fished something out of his pocket.

Jesses, Portia realised. He fastened them to Jade’s hind legs and held them securely. The dragon didn’t fight him or show any signs of distress. She was still crooning that odd little song at him. He half smiled and made the same noise back at her, softer now. Gentle.

Portia stared at the man.

‘What was that?’

He had the audacity to grin at her. ‘There are other attractions besides food.’

‘Did you just use a mating call?’