With Nicola not wanting to speak to James and James not wanting to speak to Silas the toad sat silently in the far to big for him chair and contemplated his situation.
As usual, this meant trying to suss out Elspeth and her intentions towards him and Nicola - he really didn't care about Silas. It was almost an unspoken truth now that Elspeth had enough magic to restore him and Nicola to humanity whenever she wanted, but clearly she would rather leave them as talking pets for now at least. And for how long beyond that? In Silas' case it had been years.
Also, what waa the strange offer to let him choose to transform Nicola about? Divide and conquer? A test? A bit of fun and nothing else. Maybe he would take her up on it if Nicola continued to ignore him.
After a while, Elspeth entered the room again, dressed for the chilly weather outside.
"Ok, we're heading out" she instructed her transformed companions "Silas, you know the drill. James and Nicola you will NOT speak outside the house without my permission. Talking animals does rather tend to blow my cover, and we can't have that. Understood?"
"Yes, Mistress Elspeth" James sighed.
"Yes Mistress Elspeth" Nicola huffed.
"Good, now come along James" Elspeth picked him up again as if he were an object "you can ride in my pocket."
James heard Nicola snigger meanly as she rose to her feet to leave.