Finally, he had to give up and gasp, though he did wish he'd seen the kiss coming in time to hyperventilate a little. He hooked an arm about her waist and pointed at the path that wound away through the trees. "We do have to get back to the children, you know. Besides, we have a bed in the house."
She beamed up at him. "I think 'twill be an early slumbering for them this night, my lord."
And, arm in arm, they strolled away through the trees, hand in hand, mind in mind, pausing only occasionally to scan for mental traces of ambushers.
They came in the door with a word of cheery greeting— but it died on their lips. Rod stared, aghast. The table and chairs had been pushed back against the walls. A giant of a man, at least eight feet tall, took up most of the living room floor, with two people of standard size beside him, one wearing a robe and pointed hat of dark blue, sprinkled with signs of the zodiac, and the other a pretty lass in her twenties with her hair bound in a kerchief. The three of them were so tightly wrapped in hempen rope that they looked like candidates for a joint sarcophagus.
Geoffrey stood over the giant with a cudgel in his hand; Cordelia sat at the woman's feet, singing lightly and embroidering a handkerchief; Magnus stood over the wizard, arms akimbo, as though he were daring the man to try a spell; and Gregory sat cross-legged on the mantelpiece, contemplating the whole mess.
By the hearth sat a very worried-looking Puck. At the sound of Rod's voice, his head snapped up; he took one look at Rod and Gwen, moaned, leaped into the fireplace, and darted up the chimney with a howl of despair.
Gwen stared, appalled.
Then she took a deep breath.
But Rod beat her to it. "And just what do you think you've been doing!?!"
The End