After a minute he also realized he was hungry. He vaguely remembered eating something after the sheriff’s men got through searching the house, but he wasn’t sure if he’d had anything since then. Rather than going upstairs to bed, he went downstairs to the kitchen.
Down in the kitchen his assistant wizard was enchanting his maid.
“ . . . so we escaped before the bandits even realized what had happened.”
“That’s so exciting,” Anna breathed.
Llewllyn waved a hand dismissively. “Oh tut. All in a day’s work for a journeying wizard.”
He had a wonderful rich voice and talked enchantingly with hand gestures, smiles and just the right amount of eye contact. If you treated the content as some kind of fairy tale, it was great.
Anna obviously thought it was great. She sat at the table with her chin in both hands, her pale blue eyes fastened rapturously on his face. He didn’t have his arm around her waist yet but things were definitely moving in that direction.
Wiz cleared his throat. Both of them started and turned toward the door. Anna blushed and for an instant Llewllyn looked flustered. “Ah, My Lord, how was the meeting with the Council?” he asked before Wiz could say anything.
“Productive. Very productive.” Produced more confusion than anything I’ve seen since the last Total Quality Management seminar. “Can I see you upstairs Llewllyn?”
The young man turned and bowed to the still-blushing Anna. “Forgive me My Lady, but duty calls.”
“Okay,” Wiz said as soon as they were in the front room, “the council’s going to be reorganizing following a proposal I presented to them. Since you’re the one in the office most of the time they’ll probably be coming to you with questions. Refer any and all questions to me. Don’t try to answer them yourself. The situation’s kind of, ah, delicate.”
Llewllyn smiled knowingly. “Am I to be permitted to know the nature of this plan?”
“Malkin’s got copies of the materials I gave the council. You can get one from her.”
“Very good, My Lord. Is there aught else?”
“Yes. One other thing.” Wiz thrust his face very close to Llewllyn’s. “If you mistreat Anna in any way I will personally break you in two.”
The younger man’s eyes widened. “By magic?”
Wiz flexed his muscles. “That wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.”
“And you think that I . . . ? For shame.”
“Spare me the speeches. Just don’t, okay?”
With that he turned on his heel and went upstairs to his workroom.
Wiz ran into Malkin in the upstairs hall. “Our favorite house pest was in the kitchen,” Wiz told her. “I filled him in and he’s probably going to ask you for a copy of that presentation. Give it to him, but don’t let him get any ideas about doing anything on his own, especially answering questions.”
The tall woman nodded.
“Oh yeah, one other thing. Llewllyn seems to be making a play for Anna.”
Malkin snorted. “You finally noticed that did you? You may,” she said, stressing the word may, “be a mighty wizard, but you’re still blind as any other man. Well, you have nothing to worry about on that score.”
“I know,” Wiz said. “I told him I’d break him in two if I caught him messing with Anna.”
Malkin grinned nastily. “I told him I’d have his balls for earrings and do it with a dull butter knife.” The grin got broader and nastier. “Slowly. With a red-hot butter knife.”
Looking at her expression, Wiz felt a certain tightness in a very sensitive spot. “Oh,” he said in a very small voice.
Nineteen: Contact
Networking is a vitally important part of the
consultant’s craft. Never lose touch with former clients or colleagues.
The Consultants’ Handbook
Danny swore a particularly sulfurous oath just as Moira walked into the programmers’ workroom.
“I’m sorry, My Lords,” she said and turned to go.
Jerry looked up. “Oh, hi Moira. No, that’s all right. We weren’t swearing at you. We were swearing at the system.”
“More problems?” she asked in the resigned voice Jerry and Danny had come to know all too well since the search for Wiz started.