Hermes had committed to an hour a day of work on reading while Carrick slept. The first day he'd given himself two and still found himself continually frustrated. Currently, he was working well into hour four of staring at thick cardboard pages with large words and pictures printed on them.
Elsa laid at his feet where he sat on the floor chewing on the end of a ball point pen while he focused on things so intently he didn't notice that anyone else was around until the dog perked up and suddenly someone else's thoughts were smashing against his own.