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“Backing up, for Spence.” Jamie cleared his throat as if he were about to recite some big speech. “As you know, Starlight Harbor is where a collection of clans from several small coastal villages of Scotland escaped to rebuild their communities during the British assaults and such. So, from one rocky coastal fishing culture to another. They found this land, nowhere near anything else, and settled in. Insulated themselves as much as they could. Really, it was only in the last few generations that we even became accessible to the outsiders.”
“Like me,” Spence threw in.
“And me.” Noah reached out to give him a fist bump of brotherhood.
“Right, outsiders unite… If I could continue?” Jamie waited until he was center stage again and went on. “So, the clans came here, secluded themselves—which was nothing new since where they’d come from was a remote coast, difficult to get to—and basically remade their lives just as they’d been. That meant that even though it had been several villages, they had to become one town. Obviously, each clan still turned to its own leaders. And so the lairds formed a sort of panel, for lack of a better word, to handle things democratically.”
“I’m sure that always went well.” Noah’s eyes rolled so far back that Cam thought he might pass out. “I mean, Starlight Harbor is pretty much a drama-free zone.”
“Noah, please hold your sarcasm until the end of my tale.”
“My bad.”
“Thank you.As I was saying,since then, the town has really been run by the lairds.”
“Except for that whole 'selectmen and women and the town manager' thing.”
Cam glanced around, kind of holding his breath because, even though it was generally accepted, this was something that just wasn’t discussed.
“When the town incorporated, the state demanded they have a more typical town governance citing things like the history of hereditary tyranny most cultures left their home countries to avoid when forming this one. Blah, blah, blah.”
“Really? Democracy is nowblah, blah, blah?”
“Noah.” Jamie gave a deep, put-upon sigh. “If you would like to use your wit and charm to tell the story, I’m more than willing to give up the floor.”
“Yeah, right.” Vivian snorted a bit of tea out her nose at that, then glared at everyone, warning them with a look not to even mention it.
Cam silently reached across the table to snag her a napkin and finally got his smile.
Take that, Mr. Pulls Out the Chair.
“Anyway, the town obviously did what they had to do to remain US citizens, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still looking to the lairds for their leadership. Most generations accept this. There’s always people who don’t. But things are changing here, so maybe that will too.”
He sounded a little sad at the idea and Cam had to admit he liked their quirky little "back hall" way of running things.
“Which brings us to… Noah.”
Oh, yeah.
“What did the lairds want?”
“Wait, I still have questions, so very many questions.” Spence all but pulled out a notebook and everyone was a bit horrified he was already planning his next Starlight Harbor exposé.
“Honey, no.” Lyra did the hand-pat thing again, but this time it didn’t seem quite as reassuring.
With that, everyone turned back to Noah, dismissing the next great article about their town since Lyra would handle it.
“They’re concerned about a lot of things. Of course, they are less than happy about the sleigh. They’d figured the town would take care of that, assumed everyone would be on the same page.” Noah got up, went into the house, and came back with two hands filled with beer bottles. “Also, Ms. Angie. She is not going to like where they come down on this.”
“Are those all for you?” Jamie asked as he reached for one.
Noah slid one his way. “But honest to goodness, those guys could drive even Lyra to drink.”
“No, thanks.” She grinned at him and refilled her tea. “But tell me more about Ms. Angie.”
“If I lived anywhere else, I wouldn’t believe it.” Noah laughed, then leaned forward. “Ms. Angie is losing her car for two weeks. It was being impounded while the meeting was going on—that’s why she wasn’t there.”
“Oh, these guys are crafty.”
