Big time.
How would Jon—a commoner, if one went by fairytales—know anything about the king and whether he was a standup guy, anyway? Did the king mingle with the little people? Was his opinion based on general Shamlotian opinion?
Or maybe she was just being a totally pessimistic bag o’ dicks based on her own experience with American politics. Maybe King Dick was a decent guy who ran Shamalot fairly, a guy who was an interactive king, so to speak, and she was just cranky because she was soaking wet and she’d battled half the inhabitants of Not So Sherwood Forest to get here to return a pair of shoes that had apparently helped her absorb her foes’ powers.
And her lips were chapped. Really chapped.
But whatever this king had to give her, she had to believe Brenda wouldn’t have sent her here if she knew he was going to chop her head off. That wasn’t very happy.
Right?
“Toni!” a voice whisper-yelled.
Her eyes squinted at the tunnel as Jon rushed toward her, his eyes glinting in the torchlight. “Have you lost your senses, milady?”
“I have not. Did you see me? I was a regular Ariel out there.”
“Muriel,” he corrected.
She flapped a hand at him. “Whatever. I got the job done, right? What’s the big to-do?”
He grabbed her hand and pressed it to his chest. “Doth thou feel that?”
Toni nodded on a shiver. “Thou doth. Did you run over the drawbridge?”
“That is the beat of terror. With no warning at all, you hurled yourself from the cliff’s edge. A conversation prior to such an act would be kind on your part.”
She couldn’t stop the giggle that escaped her throat. “I’m sorry. It just—”
“Happened,” he said on a weary sigh. “This expression I know all too well with you, my dove. Clearly, you garnered some of Pricilla’s sea worthiness.”
“Did you see?” she asked from trembling lips as salty water dripped from her hair. “I had a tail. A tail! It was amazing. Do I get to keep all this stuff if I go back to Jersey? I mean, Bree could really use a good fire under her ass, don’t you think?”
Jon cupped her jaw as she heard the others footsteps coming from the tunnel. “Speaking of fire, you need to be near one as soon as possible.” He took his pelt off and wrapped it around her shivering body, rubbing her arms.
As Marty and the others came out of the tunnel, Toni asked him, “Now what? Where do we go from here?”
Jon pulled her aside as everyone began to cluster around them, dragging the hood of his cloak over his head. “This is where I leave you momentarily, Toni. I must tend to Oliver at the stables and settle him for the night. But I shall come find you the moment I have done so.”
Leave her? She was going to just knock on the king’s door and say, “Howdy, neighbor! Resident realm-jumpers here. Your pal Brenda said to drop in anytime.”
Toni gripped his arm in panic. “I can go with you and we’ll see the king together.”
“You must dry off, my beautiful fish. You do not wish to catch a cold and miss your debut with the king, do you?”
What was all this? “Well, runny nose aside, I kind of don’t want to do it without you with me. I don’t know anything about Shamalot’s formalities and its dignitaries. What if I insult him by using the wrong word—phrase—sentence? Do I curtsy? Bow? I need you with me to help me do this right. What is it with all this ‘Bye, Felicia’?”
“Who, pray tell, is Felicia?”
“Not the point. The point is, I’m a little nervous after everything we went through to get here.”
“You have nothing to fear, milady. The king is a kind ruler. He’ll welcome you and the return of his shoes with open arms. You are safe here at the castle. This I promise. Now, kiss me, wench, for I long to have your lips upon mine.”
She raised her face to his, even as confused as she was by his words. They’d been all gung-ho, yay castle, and now he was just dropping her off like a baby in a basket at a church? Just leaving her without the secret password?
Jon kissed her hard, his arms wrapping around her possessively, making her forget everything but his mouth on hers. Pulling away, he pressed the tip of his nose to hers and whispered, “Go right to that door and knock. There will be a guard by the good name of Heinrick. Show him the shoes and tell him Brenda sent you.”
Still, she clung to his large frame. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?”
“Methinks my novice attempts at the bedsport were better than you let on,” he teased with a soft chuckle.