"It's beautiful," Tersa whispered, expressing the sentiment for us all.

"Greek revival," Thaddeus proclaimed, more technically. "Although it also has a definite Palladian influence."

Horace sniffed with surprise, looking even more weasel-like. "You are correct, young man."

"Fluted columns," Thaddeus muttered, "and my God, look at the amazing Corinthian capitals. The size of them. Hand-carved, I'll bet."

The step Thaddeus took toward the house was halted by my hand. "Wait," I said.

There were no other cars, which was why I'd missed it at first. Although hard to imagine how I could have missed it… the hundreds of countless heartbeats. Slow, slow heartbeats. Much slower than the human heart. "There's people inside." My voice flat, I looked sharply at Bernard and Horace.

Bernard dipped his head calmly. "Your people, my Queen."

My people? So many? My palms suddenly grew damp.

Amber and Gryphon stepped up on either side to flank me. Tomas and Aquila surrounded Rosemary and the children—although they weren't technically children. In fact, Tersa was actually older than I was, but that was how I thought of them. Chami automatically took the rear guard. All done without thought.

Bernard's eyes widened. "They are here to welcome you, milady." Milady, not madame. Using the more standard, formal Monère address to… what… calm the savage beast, I mean, Queen? My eyes probably did look a little wild.

"It's okay." I didn't know who I was reassuring, him or me. "Let's go meet them." I tried for a smile. Bernard didn't look too reassured by it. It was probably more of a grimace, but I couldn't help it. I was looking forward to this about as much as I would have liked having a rotting tooth drilled and scraped without Novocain.

Horace and Bernard ascended the wide, flat stone steps and opened the front oak paneled double doors, moving slowly so as not to spook the wild beasts. They were half right, I thought as we followed them up the steps. We were definitely spooked.