Page 28 of In Shining Armor

“Did he drug you?”

“I think I’m just sozzled.” She stumbled again on something on the sidewalk. Winter wind blew right through the silk of her dress. “My coat.”

Dieter whisked her up in his arms.

Flicka held onto his neck and laid her head on his shoulder.

He shoved them both into a waiting cab, which took them home, and then helped her into the apartment.

“Don’t tell Wulfie,” she begged him. “I don’t want Wulfie to know.”

“He’s out for the night,” Dieter said. “Probably a good thing. We don’t want Liechtenstein and the extinct Kingdom of Hannover to go to war.”

“Oh, Wulfie would probably just shoot Antonius.”

“Yeah, that’s probably true.”

Dieter helped her into her bed.

She leaned down and tried to take her shoes off, but she collapsed into a coil like a cat. “Dammit.”

Dieter removed her shoes from her feet.

Her dress was already half-unzipped. She tried to shimmy out of it but got tangled in the heavy silk.

Dieter said, “Wait, wait,” and he lifted the dress off her.

Flicka crawled under the bedcovers.

When she looked up, Dieter was still holding her dress between them like a drape with his head turned to the side, his eyes closed.

“It’s okay now.”

He glanced out of the sides of his eyes at her, discovered she was covered up, and laid the dress on the foot of her bed.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Anytime,Durchlauchtig,”he said.

“You’re not just myLieblingwächter,”she murmured. Flopping her head on her pillow made the room spin. “You’re my guardian angel.”

“Am I?” He stroked her hair back from her forehead.

“Yeah,” she said. “Maybe you’re my guardian angelRaphael.”

His hand lifted from her forehead. After a beat, he asked, “Why do you call me that?”

“I always liked Raphael,” she said, kind of sing-songing her voice because it sounded funny. “He’s an archangel, and he’s probably the hot one.”

Dieter chuckled. “Don’t call me that, all right?”

“Okay, but I know that you’re really the archangel Raphael.”

“Considering that you probably won’t remember this tomorrow, it’ll be our little secret. Good night,Durchlauchtig.”

He left her alone in her bed.

Flicka tried to remember that he was the archangel Raphael, but she’d really had too much to drink.