“Control your sodding bees.”
“Pardon?” George lifted his head from where he’d been inspecting one of the hives. He frowned at the man clothed from head to toe in what looked like a mosquito net used in camping. His hands were covered in thick winter gloves. “Aren’t you boiling?”
“Control your sodding bees. I’m allergic.”
The slight hint of an accent gave George a clue to the man’s identity. He heard from his cousin Margo about the new neighbour. A wealthy entrepreneur who’d come up from London with friends. According to local gossip, they intended to open a business of some sort.
Gossip in their little village tended to be frequent and only partially accurate. However, it did make for amusing and confusing moments. George had once heard a rumour about himself that he’d left a wife in Edinburgh when he’d moved to Dufftown, odd considering he preferred men—and had never been married.
“Are you daft? I said control your bees.” The man was a second away from stamping his foot in petulant anger like a wayward toddler.
“How? Why are you out in my garden if you’re allergic?” George moved away from the hive. The constant buzzing made it hard for him to focus on the conversation. “I’m George Sheth. I live in the cottage just up the hill. This is all part of my property. You’d have climbed the stone wall to get here from yours.”
“Your bees are in my garden.” He stepped towards George, who held his smoker out in front of him as if it would protect him. “Stop them.”
“First, how do you know they’re my bees? I don’t own all the bees in Dufftown. Or Scotland. There are bees in nature. Living wild outside of my purview. Second, how precisely am I supposed to control flying insects?”
“Control them. Or I will.” He spun around and stormed off towards his cottage, leaving George staring after him.
What a lovely human being.
George turned back towards the hive that he’d been inspecting. “Well, wee buzzy bits, control yourselves.”
Dahlia Donovan wrote her first romance series after a crazy dream about shifters and damsels in distress. Dahlia is an autistic who prefers irreverent humour and unconventional characters. She has found great happiness with her husband, her tiny dog Bacon, and her collection of books and video games.
Dahlia has worked over the years as a teacher, insurance adjuster, and even had a brief stint as the pianist in a band–very brief, like three weeks. She uses her experiences as a TCK travelling around the world during the first twenty-years of her life to add spice to her stories.
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