… if you’ve finished slobbering over my third-rate understudy…
“Hello.”
The bird sighed. “So. Sunshine. What are we going to do?”
Sunshine. He pulled a face. “I don’t know about you, but I thought I might get drunk.”
“And then what? Blow your brains out?”
He stared at her. “What?”
“Well… those are your two basic choices, aren’t they? Drop dead or keep walking.” She stared without remorse. “So, Mr. Dunnywood? What’s it going to be?”
Oh, God. I can’t do this. I watched her burn alive. And now here she is, and that’s her voice and her feathers and her beak and her eyes…
“Your Sir Alec,” she said, and rattled her tail. “Bit of a sarky bugger, isn’t he? I think you need to watch your step with him, my boy. I don’t altogether trust that glint in his eyes.”
“He’s all right,” he said, shrugging. “He’s a good man. He’s just… not very comfortable. And anyway… he’s your Sir Alec now.”
“Ha,” she said. “ I don’t want him. I never asked for him, did I?”
“Yes, well, neither of us did, Reg,” he said. “It just worked out that way.”
Her head tipped again. “Reg?”
It’s not the same. It’s not the same. But it’s not her fault, either.
“What?” With a soft sigh, he held out his arm. “You’d prefer Dulcetta?”
“Ha,” she said again, and jumped, and made her way up to his shoulder. “So you like living dangerously. Nice to know some things don’t change.”
They went back inside, down the corridor to the kitchen, where Monk and Melissande and Bibbie sat with their tea. As they walked through the door, intent conversation ceased. His friends… his family… stared at him, anxious.
“Gerald,” said Monk. Still his friend, despite everything. “Honestly. Are you all right?”
He pulled out two chairs, one for him and one for Reg. “Not really,” he said at last, because he owed them the truth. “But I will be. I think I just need some time.” Reg hopped from his shoulder to the back of the other chair. She looked at him, and he looked at her. His fingertip stroked the length of her wing. “Monk… Melissande… Bibbie…” He swallowed. “This is Reg.”
Silence. And then Reg rattled her tail, eyes gleaming, and tipped her head to one side. “Well, well, well, duckies. Is this different, or what?”
