Pendryg Stories - The Fall Out (part 1)

Teddy “Henny” Hennington was still furious about Luna being sharp with him at the party, and it was fairly clear that he blamed Rob for it. And possibly for the scandal that had apparently come about in the vanishing of Liam Quigley, who had. Quigley himself was the subject of no small amount of gossip and embarrassed fury from the people he had apparently convinced to invest in him and his properties.

He wasn’t sure what rankled more, the feeling of his hard re-claimed place in society slipping out from under him between Luna and Quigley, or Quigley snidely accusing him of being ‘playing at’ being a Woodwife.

As though he’d hired someone on to make his coat, or bleached the white into his hair with the linens. Bastard.

He was quite fond of Luna as a Woodwife, but she barged through delicate situations like a bull, and he was currently, unreasonably feeling a bit resentful of picking up the pieces, trying to explain that she just had no patience for their opinions, but that her skills were remarkable. Better than his at some things. That perhaps was what he found himself resenting in particular.

Luna barely took him seriously. Why should anyone else. Liam, the filthy rat, had barely considered him a threat, as far as he could tell.

He scowled distantly at a cup of chocolate at the shop he had stopped at, savoring an expensive french style pastry and the rich chocolate, but thinking about Liam made it taste like ash… and thinking about everything else made him wonder if he would have been able to enjoy the chocolate more if he could enjoy it more while it was still steaming.

Luna might have enjoyed it, if she could untwist herself enough to enjoy letting someone else treat her occasionally.

God damnit and Wood bind it...

He massaged his temple, and ignored a concerned look from the staff, who wondered if they had been remiss somehow.

He’d fought hard next to her as fiercely as he could, but…

Damnit it should not hurt his pride this much that he’d been overlooked by that creature. It was Liam’s misfortune, his queens pride. He just hoped the man was smarting for the surprise of the two of them working together with water and ice, even though he felt rather like he’d been poured out like a wine bottle at a gathering.

He sighed again, frowning at the memory of the man escaping, abandoning his henchmen and their guns. (Guns, GUNS changed a battlefield vastly, and having had them pointed at him before, he did not care for the experience.)

He was going to have to keep an eye on things, in so much as he could. If he was even invited to another gathering… because he worried. He did not know if Liam would come for him again, having dismissed him as an impostor woodwife and perhaps possessed of one or two tricks from the Wood. (He wondered what tricks that alarmingly poisonous looking man possessed past his ability to open tunnels full of goblins and take to ground like a damned badger.) But Luna… if what she’d said was right he’d marked her for what she was, a very talented woman and a threat. And he was clearly not afraid to use others to get what he wanted… and goblins… goblins were damned resourceful.

He forced a smile, left money on the table, and stepped out, adjusting his coat as he stepped out into the chilly fog. Perhaps he’d stop at the confectioners store and bring her some sweets, to attempt to sweeten her mood until she agreed to spot him as he practiced his own charms and spells. Much more practical than practicing his foxtrot.

Dragon gave him a rueful look for not sharing his pastry and chocolate, but he patted the dog's neck and promised that in addition to picking up sweets, they would arrange for some venison and duck to be wrapped up. That might be considerably more appealing to Luna, if only as a brief change from various cuts of pig, and he had a mind to stay in the loop on this Liam creature.