InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "And I love when you get bossy."

Florrie had put off the visit with her mother as long as she could, because they'd managed to avoid the unpleasant subject at Christmas because of the children and Georgi. Now that Christmas was over, though, there were no more excuses, which was why she was sitting at the same kitchen table they'd been breaking bread at since Florrie was a wee ickle thing having tea and digestives and explaining the whole wretched story, including the parts that Aunt Minerva didn't know, to her mother.

"... and I still didn't want to see him and no, I've still not talked to Elsie, which I know makes me a coward, but Ma, I dinna know what to say to her. If I was stepping on the hem of her robe, how was I to know about it? It was no surprise to anyone who was looking at all that Doc was moving back to An Nead. But I don't think that's it because she's never given up on Doc the whole time, unless there's summat going on between all three, and if there is, I don't want to know." Florrie threw up her hands. "Isnae my concern, certainly not now.

"And if she wasna, I still canna tell why Elsie slapped me!"

Calliope MacFusty was cut from the same cloth as her MacFusty siblings and nieces: firm, blonde (though gone to white with age), and full of Scots wrath, though that last had long been tempered by McGonagall practicality.

"Florinda Eilidh, how will ye know if ye dinna ask her?"

Florrie sighed. It was just like her mother to get to the heart of things.

"Ye said she'd warded you. And said--"

"'Violence isna an appropriate response'," Florrie quoted along with her mother. "And she's right, isnae. But if she's just wanting a garwhongle for the sake of Montrose and Portree, I'mna having any!"

"You dinna have to. But ye must give her the chance. Do it tonight, so you start off the New Year on a good footing."

Mother's advice was almost always right. Except when it came to fellows.

"--and about this Cavallero lad, I think Mercurius is right. You might be better off without him."

All right, sometimes even when it came to blokes.