Christmas Morning at the Carnivore Club

I've posted a free read! A prequel to Christmas Afternoon Delight. Wonder what Barry was up to at dawn, before his date with Lily? Come on over to Got Romance Musings...

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Kate and Dana dine with the Dragon

Dinner with the Dragon or How to Avoid Being the Main Course

Kate and Dana poked their heads back out into the hallway. "I don't see anyone," Dana said. "Should we just stay here?"

"I don 't think so," Kate replied, coughing. "I think the hall is a little less dusty, since it doesn't have any hangings or draperies. Let's see if we ca find our way to the dining room." She led the way, stepping bravely out in to the stone corridor. "Let's go to the right."

"Why the right?" Dana scurried to catch up with Kate's longer stride.

"Why not?"

"Okay." They came to a corner and Kate turned to the right. This time Dana just followed, shrugging her shoulders. They had to go one way or the other, and without any knowledge of the castle's layout, it didn't really matter.

"Wait." Dana laid a hand on Kate's arm. "Listen."

Finally, My Love News

Today Finally, My Love is released and the author is too busy snoopy dancing to do anything else. Check it out at http://www.breathlesspress.com/ and tell me what you think!

He's a dragon?

"What do you mean he's a dragon? And that sparkly thing is enough to tell you that?" Kate's voice rose to a squeak at the end.

"Kate, keep your voice down, please! I am pretty sure he doesn't know I am a dragonslayer - why would he, right? And I'd rather he didn't know we were aware of his other side. So lets just clean up, as best we can in this filthy room, and go out to dinner. Look here's a pitcher of water, we can at least get the dirt from that tunnel off our faces and hands."

Kate stared at Dana. "Dinner? And do you think we are likely to be dinner?"

"Ordinarily I wouldn't think so, but I know less than nothing about this place. So we need to stay aware and try not to do anything to make him think we're a danger to him."

"But you are a danger to him, right?"

Dana narrowed her eyes and fingered the knife hanging from her waistband through the cloth of her skirt. "Oh yeah, I am a big danger to him. The question is...does he know?"

Kate and Dana Meet the Dragon

Kate followed Dana into a small bedchamber where they were evidently intended to refresh themselves. She turned in a slow circle, taking in the tattered bed curtains and window draperies, the mildewed bed covering, and the dusty stone floor. "This is where we are supposed to clean up? It's filthy." She shook out her hem, sneezing as a cloud of dust rose around her. "Something is so wrong here."

Dana looked up from examining something in her hand. "There's something wrong, yes."

"Do you suppose that man even knows he has a dragon on the battlements?" Kate sneezed.

"The dragon isn't on the battlements right now, Kate." Dana looked back down at her hand.

"What do you mean it's not on the battlements? We've been underground - how do you know that? And what is that in your hand?"

"Don't get cranky on me now," Dana said. "Look at this." She held her hand out to Kate, palm up.

"What is that? It's shiny."

"Haven't you ever seen a dragon scale before? That was no man, Kate, or at least not a man like you mean. That was the dragon, and we're really in deep now."

Kate and Dana: The Dragon

Kate saw Dana stash the weapons and managed to grab a small copper dagger herself. She didn't know there were copper weapons, but it was the closest one to hand and she slipped it into her bodice as she began to move toward the stairs.

"Welcome to you both," the man said as they began to climb the crumbling stone steps toward where he stood. "I trust we haven't had you stumbling around here in the dimness long."

Kate looked around and was stunned to see that the walls had stopped glowing. She realized they had begun to fade at about the point where the man appeared above them and the little villager had disappeared. Odd, but not something she wanted to deal with right now. There were a few torches stuck into brackets on the stair walls, as though they had expected company and thought to light the way. Stranger and stranger.

Dana, as usual, led the way, the braver of the two. "I presume we are not the only guests for dinner, sir?"

"Alas, you are, ladies. I find that it's difficult to attract company up here on the tor. But we will enjoy a fair repast and each other's company as best we can." He gestured for them to precede him through the heavy, banded oaken door and into a stone corridor. "Up one more set of stairs and you shall see my castle proper."

They continued down the hallway and came to a slightly broader set of steps, these better lit, with more torches, than the last. Before they began to climb these, the man turned and bowed deeply from the waist. "I neglect my duties. I am Simon Leclerq, and this is my home. I bid you welcome."

Dana extended her hand, "I am Dana and this is my companion Kate. We have traveled far to come here, and are grateful for your hospitality."

Kate stared at Dana, speechless. In this strangest of circumstances, Dana seemed to know how to behave. Did she travel the space-time continuum often? But she dipped her head as well, when the man bowed to her.

At the top of the stairs the decor became moderately better, with glassed candle holders mounted on the walls providing a glowing light. But the floors and walls were still stone without any more adornment, and the stone looked a bit crumbly to Kate's uneducated eye.

"Here is a chamber where you may take your ease and refresh yourselves before dining." And, opening the door, the man left them behind to explore this new and strange room.

Kate and Dana Under the castle

"We are, said their host, "Officially under the castle."
Dana and Kate looked at him. It didn't seem as though they had been traveling that long, but underground, with the glowing walls lighting their way, it had been hard to tell distance.

"What is this room?" Kate asked.
"The armory," Dana answered, looking around with frank admiraton. "What do we... Where did he go?" Their guide was gone and the two women found themselves alone in this large chamber, which they now knew to be under the castle. There were vast numbers of weapons, all of a rather medieval nature as far as they could see.

Kate was nearly paralyzed with fear, but Dana bounced on the balls of her feet in apparent glee.

"Why are you looking so happy?"

"Because if I have weapons we might not die." Dana was already hefting the swords and daggers, trying their heft to find the best fit. She lifted her skirt and tore the skirt of her underdress into strips, fashioning loops to suspend various knives about her person. She actually began to hum, low under her breath.

Kate shook her head. "I'm glad you feel better, but we still don't know what the haps are here. Might I remind you we're under a huge fortress with a dragon as a cake topper?"

"Oh, I know that," Dana grimaced. "But we have weapons now. And you have to have some on you too. I don't suppose you know how to use a sword? No, I suppose not."

Kate picked up a small knife with two fingers, looking at it with her nose wrinkled. "The only thing I know how to do with this is cut a steak."

"Funny thing, we are serving steak tonight," A deep voice boomed from the top of a stairwell they had not noticed. "Won't you ladies accompany me as we shall all be dining very shortly and I am sure you would like time to freshen up first."

Their eyes moved up to see a man garbed in rich attire standing at the top of the stairs.

"Oh shit," Kate said.

Dana just stuffed one more knife into the breast of her gown.