I looked up to find a middle-aged woman smiling at me from the seat next to Adam's now-empty seat. Her smile was polite but it had no warmth in it.
"I'm Eleanor Ward. Hansel's Stepmother," she announced. "I couldn't come out earlier to greet you when you arrived but I want to think you for coming all this way with him. You must be his girlfriend? Or are you pregnant?"
I stilled a bit.
What did this family have with being pregnant?
"Ah!" the woman chuckled. "Forgive my directness it's just that, Hansel has never brought any woman home, much less a human. So, we were just wondering if…"
"No ma'am," I shook my head interrupting her. "I don't know how to explain my relationship with Hansel but we're not friends, neither are we lovers. I was the only person available to help when he fell ill."
"Oh!" the woman arched her brow; she didn't believe one bit of what I said. "Okay. If you say so."
"But, is he—is Hansel okay?"
Before she could answer, a deafening roar filled the house.
