"Esther M. Friesner - At These Prices" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

other aspect of Bella Franklin’s life.
“Ma’am, you can’t take that. It doesn’t belong to—” Berry began.
“After all I spent to stay in this fleabag, it damn well should,” Bella shot back,
and stalked out of the Oberon Suite, slamming the door behind herself and Bixby.
****
The reverberations were still fading when Berry, Tom, Melusine, and Selina
ditched their expressions of shock in favor of wicked smiles. “Nicely coordinated,
friends,” Berry declared. He flipped open his cell phone and turned to Mel. “Now?”
“Now.”
The dwarf hit a number on his speed dial and spoke a few choice words.
Within the space of two heartbeats, the peace of the Hotel Tiernan was shattered by
a gut-knotting shriek of pain and terror. Then there was silence, soon followed by
the sound of heavy, ominous footsteps approaching the closed door of the Oberon
Suite.
 With a thunderous kick that sent the door flying across the room, Lyndon the
ogre made his entrance. One massive paw held the floral arrangement that had left
the premises in Bella Franklin’s swag-engulfing handbag. He replaced it carefully on
its table and left without a word, nonchalantly picking some stringy, sticky, crimson
bits out of his fangs. Bixby sidled in just under the departing ogre’s elbow, his
mortal glamour gone, his whole body shivering with distress.
“He ate—he ate—he ate her!” the brownie cried, with a fearful backward
glance at Lyndon’s retreating form.
“Well, I should hope so,” Mel said. “That was the plan.”
“Praise the blesséd Mill, it worked.” Berry dabbed his brow with a wadded
pocket handkerchief. “If the Franklin woman hadn’t taken those flowers—”
“Pass up a freebie like that? Her?” Mel waved one hand in a cavalier manner.
“It was only a matter of when she’d rise to the bait, not if. And believe me, I know
bait. Personally.”
“But how could he do it?” Bixby protested. “How could he harm a guest?
The bond of hospitality—”
“—does not apply to the florist shop, unless the guest has actually purchased
flowers,” Berry said.
“Lyndon has certain standards, for an ogre,” Mel added. “One of them is zero
tolerance for petty filchery, especially when he needs every last one of these
arrangements for the Siegelman bar mitzvah later today.”
“Mazel tov!” Selina concluded. She clapped her hands and a goblin busboy
appeared, bearing a tray laden with a steaming coffee pot, four cups, and a thimble
for the pixie. “Tiernan House Blend,” she announced gleefully as her minion pressed
a filled cup into Bixby’s hands, then served the others. “Welcome home!”
Bixby gratefully gulped the brew that renewed the ancient tie, then took a deep
breath and said, “My dear friends, how can I ever thank you?”
“Try losing a hand now and then,” Selina proposed.
“Or just thank Melusine,” Berry said. “This was all her idea.”
“Don’t mention it.” The ondine gave Bixby a warm, somewhat damp hug.
“Hey, coffee and a free brownie? There are worse ways to start the day.”