“I think we’re in the same mind frame on that. You’ve been around for so long, it became just another day to you. Another year you’ve been alive. My grandparents have been doing the day to day for a long time, Grandma told me. Just getting through one day at a time.” Jude asked him about their money situation. “I didn’t know about it. I’m glad you were able to take care of all those outstanding debts. I would have gotten in touch with them before had I thought they were still alive.”
“I can understand why Dante didn’t tell anyone about them. They would have been murdered to bring her to heel. It was like her hiding you away. If they didn’t know about you, you couldn’t be harmed in any way and used against her. They would have too.” Duncan told her he knew that too. “I don’t know why she didn’t tell us about you, however. I’m sure she had her reasons. Maybe she was afraid if someone were to capture us, or worse yet, if she were to fall to another king, we’d have to tell them about you. I wouldn’t have. But back then, we were simply her birds and not anything that could have changed into a human form.”
“In one of her books, she talks about changing you to humans when she was in a place she could live without the help. I don’t think she meant to make it so you could be birds too. But when she spoke of you six, she seemed to have hated what she’d done to you. Making you larger than life. Her own death squad, so to speak.” Duncan sat on the floor with her, tying the ribbon around some of the packages as she was doing with the candy canes. When he stood up suddenly and smacked his hand on his head, she thought for sure something had happened. “The fireplace. I completely forgot to show it to you guys. Can you round up the others for me? Mom showed me something in the fireplace that I had to give to you. I cannot believe I forgot about it. I’ll meet you in the living room with them.”
When he took off toward the back of the house, Jude did what he asked. He said his mother told him about a place in the fireplace we have to look at. Mercy asked if she could bring Miley too. I don’t know why not. I mean, she’s a part of us as much as Joel is. But I don’t know what he’s talking about, just so you know, so I can’t give you a heads up on what might be in the fireplace. I don’t even know if it’s going to be dangerous. Not that I think she’d want to hurt us after all this time.
When the others showed up in the living room, Jude asked to have something brought in to tide them over until dinner. They were eating later tonight, so they could go to bed full and get up early. She had no idea why that made them all sleep better, to have a full belly. But it worked, and she wasn’t going to change it now.
Grandma and Grandpa Beswick came into the room with them. Jude had asked them to be there as well. Tomorrow they were going to get their titles back, and Jude was excited about that. They’d be Lord and Lady Beswick of Honeysuckle Estates, the name of their estate long ago. They’d have their own home if they wanted to move, but she and Duncan hoped they’d live in the castle with them. The two of them were sweet, and she was getting to love everything about them being there.
~*~
Duncan tried to remember which of the stones his mother had told him to push. If he was honest with the others in the room, he was nervous about doing this. Before he could settle on one stone, like it was going to make a difference if it was the wrong one, Joel stopped him.
“Before you do that, I’d like to say something.” Duncan turned and nodded when he stood up. “I’ve only been a part of this family for a short time. I wanted to tell all of you how much I’ve come to love you. I know it’s sappy, but I had to say it. You know, just in case there is some kind of poison in there that’s going to kill us all off.” Mercy told him he was immortal, and he didn’t have to worry about that. “Oh yeah. Well, hell, go ahead and release the Kraken.”
Duncan was still laughing when he pushed the correct stone. Standing back out of the way when the rest of the chimney started to move, he watched the entire thing open up and show an entire room in the back of the thing.
It was a huge opening once the fireplace moved back and out of the way. The room seemed to light its way deep inside before it started to illuminate the area where they were standing. When he looked deeper into the room, he noticed it wasn’t a room at all but a long corridor.
