The Royal Hunter Part 10

term you want to use. Are you satisfied now?" She stormed to the door, but his voice stayed her.

"I'm sorry, Talia. For many things."

She didn't turn. "I don't want your pity. I am quite happy with my life. Or I was."

"Then I apologize for our intrusion into that happy life. But make no mistake, this is the life you were destined for. And it would have found you, one way or another. Trust that it is far better that I am your guide."

She turned around then. Something in his voice... "You know who sent Jimmy here, don't you?"

He nodded. "He is the only one more powerful than I. I don't know why he chose to find you, but then, his reasons are usually unfathomable to anyone other than himself."

"Does this all-powerful being have a name?"

Something indefinable flickered in the depths of Baleweg's eyes. Whatever it was, it was unsettling. "Emrys."

Talia shuddered without knowing quite why. "Why does he care about me?"

"I imagine it is another who cares about you."

Talia reached for the name Archer had mentioned earlier. "Chamberlain?"

Baleweg nodded.

"And Emrys?"

"Oh, I imagine he's more interested in besting me."

Talia's eyes narrowed. "Can he?"

Baleweg stroked his beard. "We will handle the others involved. What you

need to concern yourself with is the queen. You are her only hope for

survival."

"Then your queen is doomed." She left, and he didn't try to stop her.

Archer leaned on the paddock fence and watched the horses munch on gra.s.s.

He was supposed to be on perimeter recon, but he was already sick of the whole thing. He understood that there was a threat to Talia both here and in his own time. He even understood Baleweg's logic in keeping her here where there were fewer players in the game. He swatted at a monstrosity of a fly and swore under his breath. But he didn't have to like it.

One of the helpers-Stella?-came out of the kennel building and headed his way. He groaned silently. Talia had told her employees that he and Baleweg were friends of Beatrice's, the woman who'd left her that monstrosity of a house, as well as her livelihood as Patron Saint to Abandoned Beasties. He found a smile in that. So they were both paid saviors, of sorts.

"She's coming along great, isn't she?" Stella propped a boot up on the fence.

It took him a second to realize she was talking about the mare and not Talia.

No one, including him, had been allowed access to her sessions with Baleweg.

So he had no idea how she was coming along. Which had nothing whatsoever to do with his grotty mood. He couldn't care less what she was up to in there,

or how she was faring. Honestly, he hardly even thought about her, except the way she had made his life a living, boring h.e.l.l.

Stella was looking at him expectantly. He managed a noncommittal, "I

suppose."

"Talia was right to put her in with Old Sam. She needs to be with her own kind for a while, you know?"

The perkier and more animated Stella became, the older and crankier he felt.

He didn't belong in this pastoral setting where the only sound was the incessant buzzing of the flies. He wanted to be back in the city. At this point any city would do.

Stella leaned back against the fence, her attention moving from the horses to him, a speculative gleam in her eyes. Archer bit off the scowl, but kept his attention firmly on the horses. What was it about women, anyway? The more distant and uncommunicative a bloke got, the more interested they became in disturbing his peace. Talia being the main exception to that rule. Not that this annoyed him. Not a bit.

"She's really something, isn't she?" She waved to the grounds. "She built this herself, you know."

"I thought she inherited the whole gig from the old la-er, Beatrice."Stella laughed, a high-pitched sound that grated on his already raw nerves. "Mrs. Fontaine took in strays, but she'd let them take over the house. I think at one time she had something like thirty cats and Lord knows what else living in there."

Archer shuddered.

"The stables were here, but that was for the few riding horses she kept. Talia was the one who turned this place into a real rescue operation." Stella smiled, but this time the warmth that filled her whole face was guileless and fully

sincere. Archer wanted to tell her if she was interested in attracting boys, this was the smile she should hold on to.

Talia had chosen her help wisely. They held the same pa.s.sions she did. But

Talia was a puzzle. Pa.s.sionate about her work, about the animals she saved, about the old people at the Lodge. But she lived alone. Other than the old cat he'd seen wandering about, she kept no animals in the house.

"She's really worked miracles here," Stella went on.

That caught his attention. "What kind of miracles?" Had Talia been holding out on him about her special skills?

"She finds good homes for all of her strays. They are never turned away or put

down. It's almost spooky how successful she is."

"Spooky? In what way?"

Stella warmed to her subject. "Well, she works with rescue leagues and the

Humane Society, even the pound. They send her their hopeless cases, animals they don't want to put down but know they can't find homes for."

"And she fixes them up herself?"

"No, the vet does that. Ken's a great guy, he helps her for cost." She studied him, considering. "I sort of thought he might have a thing for her, you know?"

Archer was still focused on the healing, and he was a bit slow on the uptake.

"A thing?"She stared at him meaningfully. "She is single, you know." Then she shrugged, the movement so calculated, Archer didn't know whether to laugh or pat her on the head and send her home. "But Ken is a workaholic who wouldn't know romance if it bit him on his b.u.t.t." She sighed then. "And a nice b.u.t.t ?. . it it is.

Archer did smile now. "I'm sure," he said, wondering what Talia thought of Dr. Ken's b.u.t.t. Not that it mattered one way or another. He managed to stop himself short of wondering what she might think of his own backside. He cleared his throat. "What did you mean about spooky?"

"Oh. Well, it's just that she saves so many of them. Even the hopelessly neurotic respond to her." She shrugged and Archer wisely kept silent. "It's the weirdest thing. It's like stray animals seem to find her. They just show up.

They wander out of the fields and stuff, like there's some psychic animal network out there and they all know this is their mecca." Archer just looked at her blankly, then she leaned closer, her expression animated. "She just shrugs it off. Still, it's odd. She's devoted her whole life to them. She spends more time with animals than with people. She needs more friends, y'know?"

More like the animals call out to her and she feels their distress, he thought. Obviously Talia kept her empathic gifts a secret from her staff. Archer understood that empaths weren't typical in this time. He looked around at what she'd done with her abilities and grudgingly admitted respect.

He knew how hard it was to be an outcast. He respected how hard it would have been for her to find her way, alone, with no one to guide her. He'd been alone longer than he could remember. And no one had ever stood by his side. Like Talia, he'd learned everything the hard way.

He thought Talia was doing okay. She'd sure earned Stella's respect and admiration. Yet, he couldn't stop thinking of her as a child, orphaned and alone in a time that didn't understand her. "Yeah, I guess I do know." He left Stella to her work, his thoughts all muddled as he approached the porch. Talia was supposed to be inside with Baleweg, but she was sitting on the swing, her gaze unseeing as she pushed her toe against the porch to make the swing rock.

Turn around and continue the recon a.s.signment, Archer told himself. He wasn't one for entanglements or involving himself more than he had to. He should just leave and not push at things better left undisturbed. But Archer had long ago learned that he was biologically incapable of not pus.h.i.+ng at boundaries.

He didn't go so far as to climb the steps. He moved near the end of the porch where the swing was and leaned against an old shade tree. "Evening."

She didn't startle, so she must have seen him approach. Perhaps she'd even

watched him as he talked with young Stella. But if she was interested in his activities, she didn't show it. She nodded absently to his opening gambit.

Irritated without quite knowing why, he moved from the tree and drew closer

to the railing. "Lessons all done for the day?"

She nodded again.

What had possessed him to try and be sociable with her, he had no idea. "Fine

then, I'll go back to my rounds." He turned away. "Such as they are."

"Wait."

Archer didn't normally respond well to demands, but he wanted to respond to