Just to Have You (Blackwood & Friends #3)

Chapter Twenty-Five

"It was Oliver wasn't it?" Blanche demanded at exactly the same time Nicola said, "Both of us haven't a leg to stand on when it pertains to good-standing among our peers."

Blanche nudged her friend and gave her a very pointed stare. "Nicki, for goodness sake, Amy was about to tell us how Oliver compromised her!"

Amy couldn't help but laugh. The pair of them were oddly compatible as far as best friends went and she couldn't help but enjoy their companionship. It was rare that she felt a strong affinity for friendship with anyone else other than Oliver, but the two Blackwood women seemed to make her feel comfortable enough to share something that only one other person knew.

"Oh, Bee, you are too much. That is hardly any of our business and I am sure Amy feels horribly henpecked," Nicola admonished as she folded her arms around her slim waist.

"It's quite fine, really," Amy said. "Blanche is correct- though he hardly compromised me. If anything, I compromised him, but it does not matter. It was so long ago that neither of us can barely remember the, uh, event."

Blanche clapped her hands together giddily. "Oh, it's marvellously romantic! You are rather like estranged lovers- reunited!"

"Oh, truly, not at all!" Somewhat anxious at the direction of the conversation, Amy fussed with the rows of displayed jars and bottles, straightening them unnecessarily. "Oliver and I have never been estranged, nor lovers, so that description is rather misconstrued. We were curious innocents mired in our own awkward skins and lucky enough to move through the awkwardness of that day and still remain best friends for it."

Blanche's expression was speculative, positively impish, when she held her hands widely apart, as if explaining how large a particular fish she caught was. "I bet you he was rather... you know-"

"Blanche!" Nicola gasped and her cheeks infused with a decidedly splotchy pigment.

"Well, he seems the type to you know!" Blanche objected, dropping her hands and plunking them on her hips. "No need to be such a prude, Nicki."

"No, indeed. Would you care for me to elaborate on my husband's prowess then?"

Blanche grimaced, looking ill, and turned to the same table Amy was fidgeting at. "You're selling love potions then?" she said pointedly, picking up a vial and twirling it in her finger.

"Tonics," Amy explained. Selecting one that had been spiced with ginger to offset the chronically vile effects of Haventry cider, she handed the small, labelled vial to Blanche. "Perhaps you'd like to try some? The effects are generally prevalent the next day and linger against the skull and one's gut."

Blanche pried the stopper off and sniffed at it tentatively before taking a sip. "It is rather pleasant! You had me worried with that description."

"Oh, trust me. Haventry's cider tends to effect you in ways you can not possibly imagine." With a smile, Amy handed one to Nicola as well, though it was one of the vials that lacked any fermented apples and was purely innocent juice laced with berries and some mint.

"Mmm!" Nicola sighed after her own sip of a raspberry flavoured concoction. "These are quite marvellous!"

"Only Haventry's finest for our established guests," Oliver said suddenly as he came to stand behind Amy, dropping his hand intimately to her waist and drawing her close to the welcome warmth of his body.

"I was unaware that finest now referred to the unfiltered swill against high standards of palatability," Jason drawled caustically. The effect of his distaste was softened by the tankard of insinuated swill clutched in his hand as he drew his wife close.