magical pieces of wood he had in his bag in his room.
William always had a box of matches with him, as these things came in handy in many ways. Even to light the fireplace in the house of a witch.
Lacking something more comfortable, they had put their dining-table chairs near the fire, with a large thick blanket over it, which was William's idea. Hilda had stared at what he was doing as he set the make-believe couch up, but as it was done she was surprised at how it looked.
"Is this how you spend evenings in your world?", she asked, "sitting on a chair with a blanket and looking at the fire?"
William grinned. "Not exactly. For one, I don't have a fireplace in the other world. I do have a television, but usually I am reading a book."
"Oh." Reading books was something she understood, but Hilda did ask about a television. It proved difficult for William to explain the concept, and when he started to compare it to a large crystal ball, she grinned loudly.
"Oh, come on William, first you tell me there are no magical people in your world, and now you insist that almost everyone has a magical ball in the house. You are not making much sense, dear man."
William nodded. "I was afraid of that. As I said, I am not a technical person. I just push buttons and hope things work."
"You are maybe not a technical person, but I think you are a nice person," Hilda said as she looked in his eyes. She did not turn red, she did not feel uncomfortable saying the words, and she surprised herself with that. "I have an idea," she then said, "come, get up for a moment."
Wondering what the witch had in mind, William got up. Hilda was busy moving their chairs apart and folding the large blanket a few times. She mumbled some Latin, repeating it in several versions until the spell took hold.
"Latin is not your strong point, it is?", William asked.
"No. I hate it," she told him. "But I got it this time. Now we can sit again." She proved it, by sitting down on the blanket that was hovering over the floor between the chairs. "It's much softer this way." Her face showed William that she was happy that she'd gotten this idea and that it worked. "Come, sit down next to me," she encouraged him, patting the space with her hand. "It's safe, really."
William shook his head, for a change. "You never cease to amaze me, Hilda," he said as he sat down. He was confident that this would hold, if she was able to keep him on a broom.
"That is good," she said as she took his arm and draped it over her shoulders. She sat very close to him. "I am not one for being predictable."
There was silence for a while, only interrupted by the cracking wood in the fireplace.
"Maybe there is something missing," Hilda frowned.
"And what might that be?" William was puzzled. This evening was going incredibly well, he thought.
"Oh! I know!" Hilda jumped up and went to fetch a few glasses. Unfortunately her magic had not yet fully recovered, so magicking up two glasses with wine was something she avoided, just to be safe. Another unfortunate thing was that she was a bit weary from the sleepless night and the busy day that had also gotten stacked full with emotions. As she went into the kitchen, her attention slipped away from the improvised couch, the blanket slipped from the chairs and went down to the floor, taking William with it.
Hilda returned with two glasses of wine, one watered down, one with wine of its original colour. "What are you doing on the floor?", she asked in wonder as she saw William sitting there.
"You went away, and the couch went with you," he remarked dryly, not making any attempt to get up.
"Oh..." Hilda blushed as she sat down on the ground with him. "Here. For you. Poured by hand."
The book salesman chuckled.
"Hey, no laughing at the resident witch, okay? I am not used to this, I told you that."
William put a finger over her lips. "Sssst. No more babbling about that, Hilda. Everything's fine. Very fine even. I count myself incredibly lucky to be here with you. And I really think you look cute in that nightgown."
Slowly Hilda raised a hand and took his finger. Just as slowly she stuck it in her mouth and held it between her teeth. She stared at him and he was entirely in the dark about what was happening or if he should do something. He did not dare to pull his finger back; Hilda's teeth were amazingly sharp. William felt how she flicked her tongue against his fingertip, only once. Then she let go of his finger.
"I could have bitten it off," she said.
"Yes. But you didn't. Why did you do that, anyway? Is it some magical practice?"
She shook her head, her hair flowing around her. "I was just curious what you taste like."
"You what?"
"I wanted to taste you. It is amazing how much you can learn from a person when you taste them. Here." She put her glass down and before William knew what was happening, she had stuck her finger in his mouth. "Well? Isn't that something?"
William took her hand and pulled her finger from his mouth. "It definitely is... different. I'm not sure if I get the deeper meaning of it, but it is interesting."
"Yeah, I know. I never got into that myself either. We all suspected that the witch who taught us that had a bit of an odd streak, or was a finger fetishist." The wicked witch picked up her glass of wine and sipped it, staring at the fire. "Aren't we silly to have the fire burning while it is not cold?"
"As far as I'm concerned, we can be silly all we want. Nobody's bothered by it, and I for one have always liked fireplaces. And burning it once in a while is good for the chimney too." William raised his glass and she touched it with hers, the crystal making a really nice sound.
The blue sparkle was in Hilda's eyes again. "You are a weird person, William Connoley. I really cannot figure you out. You always are different from what I expect. When I brought you to my house I was not sure if that was a good idea, although it was the only thing I could do. After all, now I know that I brought you here, to my world, even though I still don't know how I did that. I really was afraid that you'd get on my nerves within hours. And now you are here since more than two days and I still haven't changed you into something obnoxious. That is a miracle."
"Oh... and what would you change me into?", William asked as there was a pause.
She looked at him, her eyes large and shining. "See, you do it again. You ask the only thing that I would not have expected." She drank the last bit of wine from her glass.
"And now I am glad you are here, William. Really happy. It still scares me, because- well, just remember that it is so. I'll tell you when it's better, okay?"
"I am all fine with that," William said, who had already emptied his glass. "And I strongly believe that you should be in bed by now."
Hilda pouted. "I don't want to. It feels so good sitting here with you." To William's surprise she then put her hand against his cheek. "But you are right. I am really tired."
"Would you want me to put you in bed?"
Hilda considered that for a few moments. "Actually it is my turn now, to put you in bed. You did that for me this afternoon."
William sat on his knees and held out his arms. "Come here. We'll pretend that doesn't count as you had flung yourself on the bed already."
Hilda giggled. The wine, watered down as it was, had gotten to her head quickly as she was so bushed. She got halfway up and let herself fall in William's arms. The man caught her easily and stood up, holding her against him as she wrapped her arms around his neck, her head lying against his shoulder. Her soft breath touched the skin of his neck.
He calmly walked up the stairs and as he reached the small upper hallway, the door to Hilda's bedroom opened. He put her on her bed and took the bunny-slippers off her feet which made her giggle again. Then he pulled the covers over her and sat on her bed. "Sleep well, pretty witch," he said.
She smiled at him, her face small, worn out and pale in the flurry of her long grey hair. "Thank you, William." She was holding one of his hands.
He bent over and kissed her light
ly on her cheek. When he looked at her again, there was the amazing blue sparkle in her eyes again.
"You sleep well also, dear man," she said as he got up.
"I will."
Hilda was asleep before he had left the room and closed the door.
17. I'll make breakfast
A minimal amount of awareness came into Hilda's head. She softly moaned, happy, warm and at peace. She shifted slightly, moved her arm a bit and listened to soft breathing and a heartbeat. The shadow of smile visited her lips for a moment, then she drifted back to sleep again.
Early morninglight was coming in through the windows. William woke up with the acute awareness that something was different. It did not imply that it was a bad thing, but different nonetheless. Something was on his chest. And something, or rather someone was lying next to him. There was a distinct smell about also, one he had gotten to know very well. This triggered a process that started with confusion.
He opened his eyes partly and looked. The next step in the process was puzzlement. He clearly recalled putting Hilda in her own bed, and now she was lying in his. Or... William slowly looked around the room, only moving his head. Yes, it was the guestroom.
A slight movement from his left side pulled his full attention back to the witch that had somehow gotten into his bed. She moved her head a bit, there was a bit of a tremble in her legs. One of them lay over his, and her left arm was resting on his chest.
The final step in the process came. Acceptance and