Ralph and the Pixie

Ralph swallowed, trying to digest all he had heard. ‘I can make more.’

‘When?’

‘After we get some sleep. Some of us have been up since yesterday.’

‘Ah,’ the Thane said, raising his voice once more. ‘I shall arrange for your rooms to be near to mine. Rest as long as you wish. And . . . Malina?’

Too intimidated to answer, she looked a question at him. He smiled to put her at ease. ‘If anyone in Mirrindale causes you affront in any way, tell me and I personally will deal with them.’

After trying unsuccessfully to fall asleep in the apartment he had been furnished with, there was a quiet knock on Ralph’s door.

‘Come in,’ he murmured, hoping the disturbance would be brief.

He heard the door, open, and someone enter the room, quietly. The curtains were drawn in an attempt to keep out the annoying daylight which seemed to draw his eyes open, albeit unwillingly. At the last moment, some instinct made him turn over, to see, in the dim light of his apartment, who had approached his bed, and was making rustling noises beside it.

‘Nevana!’

She was just pulling off the last of her clothes, getting set to crawl into bed with him.