Free A Mate Worse Than Death by J.L. Ray Page B

the fact that, rather than being short, the middle-aged woman in front of her was actually a goblin. She seemed completely unaffected by the cloak’s look-away spell, as she could obviously see Tony standing in front of her. The goblin woman had a remarkably lovely face, but with the rather large, prominent nose common to the race. Tony had a sudden flash of the woman on a round dais bed with black satin sheets and tried very hard to shake it off. She gave Phil a look.
    As all of this occurred to Tony, Phil had turned to her and hastily added, “And when Dienah says ‘time on my bed’, she means changing the linens for me. As my housekeeper. For over a century.”
    Tony pushed back the inexplicable feeling of relief that she wasn’t meeting yet another one of Phil’s conquests and shook her head, “Not my business one way or another.” Then she thought about it, “For a century?”
    Dienah preened, “Hard to believe I’m well into my third hundreds! It is all in the right product, dear. In fact, I can lay my hands on something to help with those crows feet you are working on--”
    Tony interrupted her, “Oh, that’s okay. I’m fond of them.” She then realized that she was potentially angering an inhabitant of Fairie in her first two minutes in the realm, which went against the first commandment of travel for Naturals and amended her remark. “Actually, I was trying to picture cleaning house for someone else for a hundred years. Especially this guy! You must be very, very patient.”
    Dienah, who had looked like she was taking offense at the refusal of the cream, softened immediately and simpered, “Oh yes, I’m very patient, especially for a goblin! Everyone tells me, ‘Dienah, you are almost gnomish in your patience! How do you do it?’ Especially when I had to work for Mephistopheles all those years. My dear, the stories I could tell!”
    Suddenly Phil swooped down for a big hug that essentially cut off Dienah’s oxygen supply for a few moments. “So very good to see you again, Dienah. I was simply stunned by how well you look. I hope that freedom agrees with you.” He swung her around so he was facing Tony. He seemed to be trying to tell her something without saying it out loud to Dienah. He was saying something about...oh.
    Tony mouthed back, “Very dangerous creature?”
    He nodded and added, “Careful!”
    Dienah had been trying to pull out of the hug since the end of Phil’s comments to her, like a cat that really didn’t want to picked up. Phil stepped back from her and Tony noted that his step back left him room to pull a weapon. Five minutes into an otherworld and already they were in danger. From a housekeeper. It just didn’t seem fair.
    Dienah pulled down her bodice while straightening her neckline and fluffing her hair. “Well, I think someone missed my cookies more than he’ll ever admit.”
    Before Dienah could turn around and see her, Tony mouthed at Phil, “Cookies? Dangerous?”
    He grinned a pained smile at Dienah and said, “Ah yes, your cookies. There are none like them in all the worlds,” and when Dienah turned to Tony to preen some more he shook his head and drew a finger across his throat, as Dienah told her, “I have just finished a large batch and they are cooling as we speak! Come on and have some.”
    Phil’s gesturing grew more urgent, so Tony improvised, “I would so love to taste your cookies, but as you know, human women have to watch their weight all the time! We gain it so quickly! And I ate right before we came.”
    Dienah nodded, “I have heard that. So sad. But I’m sure that Mephy wants a cookie.”
    He grimaced at her nickname, then went very still as she turned to him, but he nodded, “Dienah, I should like nothing more than to sit down and talk old times with you over a glass of milk and your delicious,” his voice quivered as he pulled out the syllables, “really delicious cookies, but we have a murder investigation, and you know how it is.