Part 77 (1/2)
”It's so pleasant to be ourselves,” Amphitrite said quickly as Zeus frowned down the table. ”But shouldn't you be eating with us. Keeper?”
Claire had already been over this with Dean. ”As guests of the hotel, you're my responsibility. Besides, Dean did all the cooking.”
”And it looks like a lovely meal. I find men who cook so...” Aphrodite's pause dripped with innuendo. ”... intriguing.”
”You find men who breathe intriguing,” Hera muttered.
”Harpy.”
”Flotsam.”
”More nectar?” Claire asked.
”I thought dinner went well,” Austin observed, climbing onto Claire's lap. ”Everyone survived.”
”You have salmon on your breath.”
He licked his whiskers. ”And your point is?”
”Pick it up. Put it down. She drops a st.i.tch in that infernal knitting and I must pick it up for her. If I were not already dead, that woman would drive me to chop off my own head.” Jacques collapsed weightlessly down on the sofa beside Claire. ”I thought that you should know. His Majesty, the Lord of the Dead, is downstairs talking to h.e.l.l and Her majesty wants him to come to bed. She is getting... How do you say? ...impatient?”
”... them to sit down and they did, but what they didn't know was that I'd shown them to the Chair of Forgetfulness and they couldn't get up again because uh, they, uh... Who was I talking about?”
THESEUS AND PIRITHOUS.
”I was?”
YES.
”Oh. They weren't the ones with the pomegranate seeds?”
NO.
”Are you sure? There was something about pomegranate seeds.”
THE LADY PERSEPHONE ATE SEVEN POMEGRANATE SEEDS AND HAD TO REMAIN WITH YOU IN TARTARUS FOR PART OF THE YEAR.
”No, that wasn't it.”
YES, IT WAS.
Hades' voice brightened. ”Do you know my wife?”
Listening at the top of the stairs, Claire was tempted to leave Hades right where he was. Another hour or two of conversation and h.e.l.l would seal itself. Unfortunately, there was an impatient G.o.ddess in room two. Fortunately, it took very little to convince Hades, who'd forgotten where he was, to return to her.
KEEPER?.
Almost to the door, herding the Lord of the Dead up the stairs in front of her, Claire paused. ”What?”
IF WE WERE CAPABLE OF GRAt.i.tUDE....