Robin shrugged without looking at him. “But you brought it. Thank you.” He bowed his head to Mallory, an old-fashioned boy who had been raised by the elderly and ghosts who remembered the ways of the past. “I’ll try not keep him from you too long.”
Mallory made the sound again, amusement or surprise not fully concealed. “I didn’t order him here, Blessing.” She tapped Robin’s cheek, clucked her tongue at her son, then went out the door. She raised her voice, apparently to scold the ravens. “Manners, you miscreants. You’re guests.”
Stromwell, whom Robin had forgotten completely, emerged from the living room and padded out of the house as he’d padded in.
Robin exhaled and slowly closed the door behind him.
Lucas spoke first. “You have to only to ask and I’ll stay out of your way. If anyone in the coven calls on me, I can meet them outside, and I’ll stay outside if they come to see you.”
Robin turned toward him, keeping a grip on the door handle. “They don’t come to see me. Not for anything like why they’d come to see you. I don’t…. They’ve forgotten anything else about me but fiber crafts.”Weaver. No one had called Robin that as Lucas had meant it since he’d been a child. Spinner. Weaver. Blessing, with the gift in his hands and his eyes. Robin tightened his mouth. “You don’t need to tiptoe while you’re here. This house is already full of ghosts. It doesn’t need any more.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Lucas agreed.
Because he didn’t need to argue. He was right.
Robin fixed him with a look, or tried to, but he didn’t pretend to misunderstand and he didn’t bother lying. “I haven’t been trying to join them. I just…”
“Did it all alone,” Lucas finished when Robin couldn’t. “And you’re tired. But now I’m here.”
Robin pulled in a deep breath. “What would people in town say to that, I wonder,” he mused to himself as if that would calm hisheart. Too many would revel in having someone like Lucas do what they willed. But the offer hadn’t been made to them.
Robin looked up. Lucas’ hair was clear of webs. They clung to Robin now. “I have been trying to figure out how I’d get groceries.” He let the request be implied. “I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t fall on my face in the store.”
Lucas inclined his head. “Make a list.” He surprised Robin with a brief smile. “I was going to go anyway. I amnotdrinking the broth Connor made.”
“I hope your bacon burns,” declared someone outside, faint through the closed door.
“Doors are powerful things,” Lucas responded, almost sighing. Not even a low croak followed.
“You don’t like to go into town.” Robin was not arguing. He was being reasonable. “I thought… that’s what they say.”
Lucas regarded him steadily. “Give me a list. I’m not afraid of them, Blessing. And you shouldn’t be either.”
Robin held back a sputter. “Afraid of them?” He didn’t like them. That wasn’t fear. He tossed his head. “Maybe they’ll fear me, if I start sending Lucas Greysmith out to run my errands for me.”
Lucas tilted his head down and slightly to the side as if considering this. “Maybe they will,” he said at last.
Yet another joke from Lucas. Robin was startled into a short laugh that was far too high for something so small and soft. A laugh like that wouldn’t have been out of place in that summer he’d been following Lucas around.
He stifled it and cleared his throat. “I’ll just go do that. And then… get some work done.”
He really just wanted to sit and breathe and rest.
Lucas paused as if he knew that, then leaned in even more. “Do you need help back to the kitchen?”
Robin glared at him but nodded.
Lucas held out his arm, the left one again. Robin took it.
Robin toddled to the office once Lucas was gone, his steps heavier than they should have been. Even sitting and doing nothing while others worked had taken a lot out of him. He sat and did nothing in the office too, for a while, then grabbed his phone and his laptop and shuffled to the living room.
The fire was nearly out, but he curled up in his usual spot on the couch and grabbed a blanket that needed a wash, not only because he’d fever-sweated all over it but because it was now covered in dog fur. He put it over his feet to keep them warm, then did his best to respond to the messages that had built up over the past few days.
Five
The tender brush of fingers over his cheek roused him moments before the sound of Lucas coming in the side door to the kitchen jarred him fully awake. Robin scrambled up and made it to the kitchen in time for Lucas’ second trip to his truck and back.
He fiddled with his phone while the blessed, marked Lucas Greysmith asked for direction on where things went. Lucas hadbought more than Robin had asked for, but he was staying here too, for the time being, and must have foods he preferred.
