Albertus smiled appreciably on his daughter and touched her braids. “I think, young lady, you’d best hunt a hat!”
Despite the rather deceptive way he’d brought her and Quinn together, she had long ago learned to forgive her father his meddling. After all, he’d been right. Quinn was the best thing that had ever happened to her. And he said the same of her. He no longer drank or fought. He had long ago paid off his debtors, and together they had restored his big, rambling home in Rhodesia and built an incredibly rich life together. That did not mean they had a perfect marriage, because they most certain did not, but Quinn was faithful and loving. He was gentle with his children. Sasha could easily forgive him his occasional bouts of stubbornness or high-handed arrogance. After all, in the end, he usually did what she wanted him to do.
She was about to retort her father’s statement when a caddy of police pulled up in one of those new motorized coaches that was all the rage in London these days. The lead man jumped out and introduced himself as the Chief Inspector and asked to speak to Lord Sirius Quinn immediately. Frowning, Quinn moved to the fore of the group and said, “I’m Lord Quinn. What can I do for you gentleman today?”
“You are the man who slew the Ceratosaurus just ten years ago, yeah?” He spoke with a very broad Cockney accent.
“I am. Well, my wife and I did,” he said, reaching for her hand and pulling her alongside him.
“Yes, well, the boys and I be wondering if you’d be willing to give us a hand. It seems a very strange creature was sighted circling the Bow Bells. A large creature, they say, at least as wide as four men together. My boys swear it were a dragon.”
“A dragon?” Quinn said, impressed. Then he turned to Sasha. “My dear, when you were fine tuning that Tuning Machine, could you have sent one of the pterosaurs through by accident?”
Sasha shrugged. “It’s possible, of course. But we won’t know until we see it.”
Quinn turned back to the police. “Sir, take us to the Bells.”
The Chief Inspector looked worried. “I dare say, it might still be roosting up there, sir.”
“All the same, we absolutely must see it.”
The man smiled grimly. “Come along, then, sir.”
Quinn handed off his children to their grandfather and started toward the cab. Sasha kissed her father on the cheek and begged him to look after Isaac and Elizabeth while she was gone. “You be nothing but a gentleman for your grandfather,” she warned Isaac, wagging her finger in his face. She cuddled Elizabeth close, who was trying very hard to say Dragon, before following her husband over to the police cab.
“We’ll need javelins, of course,” she insisted, linking her arm through his. “And a bow and a quiver of arrows.”
“Yes, of course, my dear.”
The Chief Inspector climbed up into the cab but looked bemused. “You are bringing your wife, sir?”
Quinn looked insulted as he climbed in after the man. “Yes, of course,” he said, helping Sasha up into the cab after him. “Sir, I never hunt dragons without my wife!”
The End
***
K. H. Koehler is the author of various novels and novellas in the genres of horror, SF, dark fantasy, steampunk and young adult. She is a freelance editor, a cover designer, an associate editor at KHP Publishers, and owner of K. H. Koehler Books. Her short work has been featured on Horror World, Literary Mayhem, and in the Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology Demons, edited by John Skipp. She lives in the beautiful wilds of Northeast Pennsylvania with two very large and opinionated Rottweilers. Visit her site at: http://khkoehlerbooks.wordpress.com
***
VISIT K. H. KOEHLER BOOKS AT:
http://khkoehlerbooks.wordpress.com
Planet of Dinosaurs, The Complete Collection (Includes Planet of Dinosaurs, Sea of Serpents, & Valley of Dragons) Page 29