Moira looked hard at June. She had a definite glow about her that meant only one thing to the hedge witch’s trained eye.
“You are pregnant!” she said accusingly.
June smiled shyly and nodded.
“You see,” Danny said triumphantly. “I can’t go back.”
Fortuna! Moira thought, didn’t the little ninny have enough sense to take precautions?
“You cannot stay, either. How to you plan to support yourself—and your family?”
“I’m staying,” he said gruffly. “Here at the keep or someplace else, but there’s nothing back there for me. And I can work. It’s not like I’m lazy or anything.
“Look,” he went on, almost pleading. “Wiz is going to need help, right? I mean like there’s still a shitload of stuff to do. Well, I can help him.”
Moira realized she was completely out of her depth.
“I think we had better talk to Wiz about this,” she said finally. “I don’t think he is going to like it.”
Wiz didn’t like it. He scowled through the whole recitation, or as much as you can scowl while you’re eating an apple. When Danny finally ran down he continued to scowl and kept on eating. Then he tossed the core of that apple away, selected another one from the bowl and took a hefty bite out of it while he tried to think. Danny stood silent and held one of June’s hands in both of his, as if he were afraid she would vanish if he let go.
“Won’t there be trouble if you don’t go back?” Wiz asked at last.
Danny shook his head vigorously. “Nah. My dad doesn’t want anything to do with me since I dropped out of school and my mom’s remarried. I’m over eighteen, so what could they do anyway?”
“You realize that if you don’t go back now it may be a long time before you get another chance?”
“I don’t want to go back. I want to say here with June.”
Wiz thought for about as long as it took him to finish the apple.
“Leave us alone for a few minutes, will you?”
The couple left the room, still joined at the fingers.
“What do you think?” Wiz asked as soon as the door closed behind them.
Jerry shrugged. “I don’t know how much help he’d be, but I don’t think it would be a problem to have him around. He’s got more sense than most hackers his age.” He caught the look in Moira’s eye. “Programming sense,” he amended.
“Moira?”
“I doubt it will last. Both are children in more than just years and neither has a strong family upbringing. Still, they deserve the chance to try and I am not sure what June would do if they were parted forcibly.” She looked at Wiz. “It has to be your decision, Lord. Ultimately you would be the one responsible for him.”
Wiz grabbed another apple from the bowl and took two bites. “I’d just as soon he went back. He’s got potential, but sometimes he’s so obnoxious I want to kick his ass from one end of the castle to the other.” He sighed. “On the other hand, I don’t like playing the ogre by separating them and he sure can’t take her back to Cupertino.” He stood silent for a moment, chewing reflectively.
“Okay, if we can paper this over so he’s not missed, I guess he can stay.” He looked sharply at Moira. “What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?”
“You’ve got that look in your eye.”
“Oh, nothing,” Moira said. “It is just that I got an odd feeling . . .” She shook herself. “No, nothing at all.”
Wiz knew better than to pursue that. “All right, bring them back in here.”
“Okay,” Wiz said as he faced the pair. “You can stay. If,” he waggled a finger at Danny. “If we can arrange this so you won’t be missed. You can’t just drop out of sight.”
“That’s easy,” Danny said. “I’ll write my mom a letter telling her I’ve taken a long-term contract overseas.” He grinned. “That’s even true. Then I’ll throw in a couple of more letters to be mailed on her birthday and stuff. That way she won’t worry and we’ll just gradually lose touch.”