But Lucas just started collecting dishes to take to the sink with that smile still on his face.
Robin napped after breakfast and got coffee with his lunch, served with two of the orange shortbread cookies that tasted like childhood winter treats. But he didn’t give himself time to feel sad, too busy girding his loins for the trip into town. Of course, then he barely made it through the grocery store pre-Christmasfrenzy and nodded off in the truck, leaving Lucas to deliver the finished presents.
Lucas kept mum about the whole affair. Robin was content for the moment not to ask. He was sure he’d get messages later. Lots of passive-aggressive or outright aggressive annoyance and then roundabout questions about why Lucas Greysmith had been at their doors.
Though Robin would have liked to have seen their faces.
He roused himself enough to help put groceries away, then went to the storeroom to get ideas for the presents he actually wanted to make.
There was a chair in the storeroom, covered in swatches of fabric for backing and possibly someone’s planned clothing project. Lucas had found Robin in it, snuggling some rolags, fast asleep.
Mortifying, even if Lucas insisted it wasn’t.
Lucas also took Robin at his word and didn’t protest Robin in the kitchen, although he did politely yet firmly insist on helping. He cut parsnips and carrots into sticks and made the tarragon dumplings to go with the chicken. He raised his eyebrow at the honey butter for the rolls, and again at the addition of rosemary potatoes, but helped make both at Robin’s request anyway.
Robin had to sputter defensively that some of it was for leftovers for Yule, which was true. That Robin also wanted the dinner to be impressive, and they were the sort of dishes that Robin knew he could make well… that wasn’t something Lucas needed to know.
Although the only reason Robin didn’t make artichoke puffs was that he realized too late that the dairy in them might be a problem for Lucas. He’d make them for himself tomorrow.Anyway, if Robin had really wanted to be excessive, he would have done a soup course too.
They didn’t make it to the dining room, but since there was still an extra chair in the kitchen, they ate on opposite sides of the little desk, getting up to refill their plates.
There was room in the kitchen for a table, Robin reflected while stuffing himself on homemade rolls and honey butter. He didn’t know why they didn’t have one. It had probably been easier to feed everyone at the larger dining room table back when the house had been full. But there must have been one in this room, at some point, removed for whatever reason.
“Is there a small table in any of the sheds with all the equipment in storage, or in the cellar with all the old shelves and assorted junk?” It sprang from him without warning but Robin didn’t call it back.
Lucas glanced around them as if immediately understanding why Robin would rather eat in the kitchen than at a large, empty dining table. “To fit in here? I think so.”
“Something to think about later.” Robin nodded, wondering if he was right to suspect that Lucas would dig it out and clean it up and bring it in here at the first opportunity.
But since that meant Lucas would be staying on longer, Robin kept his wondering to himself.
Ten
They meant to settle in the living room after the dishes were done, but the ravens hadn’t come in despite the cold, which hadlingered even after rain had started to fall. Lucas hadn’t seemed particularly worried, but had gone out on the porch all the same and then not come back.
After he felt it had been long enough, Robin went out after him.
The ravenswereon the porch, both of them on the railing instead of the bench as Robin would have expected. A bird stood on either side of Lucas, who had one hand on the post nearest the stairs and his face turned up to the dark sky.
A spike of distant lightning illuminated rolling black clouds and sheets of rain blowing in several directions. Then it was gone and only the flickering porch light remained to help Robin see anything.
His breath was starkly visible though he wasn’t breathing hard. The temperature had dropped dramatically. Robin hadn’t thought to put on a coat or bring a blanket and he shuddered as he came up behind Lucas.
He peered into the darkness to find what had captivated Lucas but there wasn’t much he could see and the freezing rain made him immediately step back.
The rain was so loud he had to raise his voice. “What’s going on?”
Lucas, with no coat on either, his boots not even laced, turned to frown at him. “You should be inside.”
In all black, with the storm in front of him, the white patch in his hair was a beacon, though whether it was to guide or warn, Robin couldn’t say. Lucas had water on his face, probably dripping from his hair. His sweater was likely soaked too.
On the verge of snapping at Lucas thatheshould also be inside, Robin stopped himself. He came back to stand at Lucas’ elbow and reached out to tug on his sleeve. “What is it? The lightning?”
The question wasn’t even out before thunder shook the porch and rattled the windows. Then Lucas was down the stairs and off the porch. He dashed past Robin’s car and his truck to the start of the driveway, heedless of the rain, and put his hands to his mouth to yell something Robin couldn’t hear over the rain and the pounding of his heart and the screaming from the ravens.
A shadow rose up from one of the trees farther down the driveway, a barely visible wave against the clouds. Robin had a second to realize it was a group of birds that had been waiting out the storm in that oak, then his vision whited out as lightning struck the tree.
The explosion, and it must have been an explosion because Robin’s ears were ringing, was over by the time Robin reached Lucas and started to yank him back.
