Claire Delacroix (14 page)

Ye gods, but she made his blood boil!

The sorceress, though, wore a skeptical expression. “Justine thinks we should take you home after breakfast,” she said, an assessing glint in her eyes. “If that’s what you want.”

Alasdair gasped to have release so freely offered, especially after her earlier words.

There must be a trick.

All the same, he would not show ingratitude. He bowed deeply and tried to think of flowery words to impress her. “Aye, aye, I should dearly love to return home. My lady, you grant great favor to me in this matter and do not imagine that I do not appreciate...”

“It’s
not
my idea,” the sorceress interjected flatly. “In fact, I’d rather not do this at all, but - “ she hesitated for a moment, then waved her hand dismissively. “Well, never mind. It’s complicated. Where do you live anyway?”

Alasdair fought not to scoff at the question and keep his humble tone. Clearly, she mocked him, for a Faerie queen would know all! “Callanish, on the isle of Lewis, my lady.”

“Oh!” Morgaine’s eyes opened wide and her hostility melted away. “Where the standing stones are?”

And the sight of her softness nearly undid what remained of Alasdair’s resolve. He supposed he should not have been surprised that Morgaine would be intrigued by a circle of stones reputed to be magical beyond all. Had his gran not declared Callanish to be the meeting place of the local Faerie folk?

“Have you been to see them?” Morgaine demanded with a curiosity she could not disguise.

Was this another opportunity to win her favor? Alasdair had never felt so buffeted by conflicting emotions. He seriously longed for the previous simplicity of his life.

For the first time in years, his crofter’s cottage held allure. Aye, ’twould be good to be home again, with naught on his mind but keeping the sheep from the garden and bouncing his son on his knee.

“Aye, I know them well,” he admitted carefully. “They are said to be most powerful and are close to my own abode.”

“Oh.” Morgaine’s lips twisted. “I bet they’re wonderful.” She sighed and glanced over her shoulder to the portal of her abode, before summoning a thin smile for Alasdair. Only now he noted her exhaustion, where previously he had thought her merely annoyed with him.

Her candle had burned all through the night. Was it possible that she had been as sleepless as he?

For the same reason? Alasdair’s heart skipped an unruly beat.

“You know, I really wanted to go to Callanish on this trip,” she confided, “but Blake thought it was too far.”

Too far? She manipulated him again!

Alasdair’s anger stirred that she would already change her mind about her offer. And what was distance to a Faerie queen who could be anywhere she desired with a snap of her fingers?

His manners had been impeccable, yet still she toyed with him! Alasdair’s tolerance of these Faerie games was wearing dangerously thin.

“So you would stir a man’s hopes, then snatch them away?” he demanded impatiently. “I should have expected no less! Do you mean to destroy my will that you might bend me to your own ends?”

“That’s not fair!” the tiny sorceress declared. “You’re the one with something to gain, not me! You only want the crystal back!”

Alasdair took a fortifying breath, knowing a test when he saw one. He had to remain calm. And charming.

Even if his frustration was rapidly coming to a boil.

Evidently Morgaine spoke of the magical stone.

Alasdair mustered his most sincere glance, and his voice fell low. “If I grant you my pledge to not try to retrieve the stone, will you see me home?”

The words seemed to surprise Morgaine. She stared into his eyes for a long moment. “You’d promise me that?”

“Aye.” Alasdair’s tone was unequivocal.

After all, how could he guess whether or not he could make the witch’s charm work in reverse, even if he did retrieve the stone? And he had little to gain from a mere crystal, if Morgaine herself would simply send him home in exchange for a vow.

Morgaine stared at him, her lips parting ever so slightly. Alasdair’s gut tightened, and he knew he looked into the bewitching green of her eyes overlong. Once again he could think of naught but kissing her until she moaned against his lips.

’Twas too readily she had granted his request, he feared suddenly. Clearly there was another test Alasdair had to pass in order to win his way home.

Ye gods, was there no end to this nonsense?

Morgaine drew herself up taller so suddenly that Alasdair feared she had read his thoughts. ’Twas almost a joke to see her assume a haughty manner, for she had to be one of the softest-looking women Alasdair had ever met.

But who knew what darkness lurked in the shadows of her heart?

“All right. But don’t be getting any ideas about me changing my mind about you,” she said frostily. She pointed a finger at him. “You keep your distance.”

Then she spun around and stalked back to her abode, the proud tilt of her chin so intriguing that Alasdair almost forgot that he was lost in the grip of a powerful sorceress.

Morgaine spun and wagged a finger at him. “And remember, I’m not talking to you.”

When she continued to walk away, her hips twitched with such feminine allure that Alasdair’s distrust melted like butter in the sun. Aye, had she been a mere lass, he would have followed her to the ends of the earth.

But Morgaine was no lass and Alasdair was already beyond the ends of the earth.

He gritted his teeth and crossed the park in the enchantress’s wake. No doubt a meal would restore his even temper, though he had best ensure that his manners were impeccable. Everything he desired was so close, nearly within his grasp.

Alasdair did not dare risk an error now.

* * *

Morgan didn’t miss her sister’s quickly smothered smile as she entered the little room of their bed-and-breakfast that was designated for the morning meal.

Tables no bigger than card tables were packed into what had evidently been a parlor in the converted Victorian townhome. There was barely enough space to sit at each place, let alone to pull out a chair or cross the room. Plastic tablecloths punched in imitation of cutwork linen hung perfectly square on each tiny table; a printed place mat marked each place.

The room was packed with tourists, obviously in a hurry to get to the business of sightseeing on a day that promised sunshine. Morgan noted, to her dismay, that Blake and Morgan had claimed a corner table that would take considerable navigation to reach.

Blake had packed his long legs into the back place and was wedged against two walls. It didn’t look as though he could manage to break free anytime soon. Justine perched beside him with the same grace she would have exhibited if breakfasting at Buckingham Palace, although her elbows were tight against her sides as she poured her coffee.

Their hostess, Maggie, was depositing racks of toast, cups and saucers, and individual pots of both coffee and cream amid the clutter of condiments permanently set on the table. The plump matron expertly fitted everything around the pair’s half-emptied cereal bowls and juice glasses.

As Morgan watched, Blake, trying to find a way to reach his knife without starting an avalanche, moved his pot of coffee to the other side of the table to make space.

Maggie swooped down on the offending pot, plucked it up, and moved it back into Blake’s quadrant. “
Mr
. Macdonald! Must I remind you that this place is reserved for another guest?”

“I’m sorry, I just needed a little space here...”

“Mr. Macdonald.” Maggie sighed deeply in disapproval. “I can only ask you to be courteous and keep your breakfast to yourself.”

Suitably chastened, Blake tried to edge his knife free without either hitting one elbow on the wall or jabbing the other into Justine’s ribs. Morgan felt a momentary twinge of envy when he succeeded.

She would have sent the entire table tumbling to the floor. As it was, she still had to wind her way around four tables to reach the place opposite Blake. When she got there, Morgan resolved, she would certainly let Blake put his pot of coffee on her side of the imaginary lines dividing the table into quarters.

Maggie came to a full stop on her bustle back to the kitchen and pointedly eyed Morgan, who still lingered on the threshold. The hostess then looked up at the prominently displayed wall clock and back to her guest, her brow furrowing.

“Breakfast is at eight-fifteen,” Maggie admonished in her rollicking brogue. Her lips were so tight that Morgan wondered how the words broke free. “Not eight o’clock and not eight-thirty, Miss Lafayette, but eight-
fifteen
.”

Every guest turned to see who had broken the cardinal rule, and Morgan felt her color rise.

This was a vacation?

But there was obviously only one thing to say.

“I’m sorry.”

“Well! We are having our share of troubles from our American
friends
this morning!” Maggie sniffed at this inadequate apology and undoubtedly would have said more, but her gaze fixed on a space behind and slightly above Morgan.

The matron’s entire face brightened.

Morgan didn’t have to turn to know who had just arrived. She groaned inwardly as everything in the room stopped talking and stared. Morgan was sure she heard a knife clatter on a plate.

Justine, of course, simply stirred her coffee, looking like the cat who had swallowed the canary.

“My most sincere apologies, my goodwoman,” Alasdair said in his charming rumble. “My dalliance has delayed the lady in coming to the board.”

“Oh!” Maggie’s features melted into a smile that was obviously an unfamiliar expression. “Well, for such a braw man, I canna blame her for dawdling.” Then she winked at Morgan and made for the kitchen with a definite swing to her hips.

Someone chuckled, and Morgan didn’t need her imagination to know what everyone was thinking. Her face went hot right on cue, and the whispering began.

When Alasdair’s hand landed on the back of her waist, her heart skipped a beat, and Morgan knew she had to move. She darted forward, thinking of nothing but reaching the relative safety of her seat.

Of course, she snagged her toe on the corner of a table en route.

And everything went from bad to worse in a hurry.

The table jumped six inches, and the blond woman there squealed as her tea spilled into the saucer. Her portly husband muttered in noisy disapproval, the china clattered, the vase holding one fake carnation wobbled.

The simultaneously erupted into a scold of German.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!” Morgan stepped backward and collided with another table. The salt and pepper shakes from that one tumbled to the floor and rolled underfoot. The woman seated there said something uncomplimentary, just as the vase on the German tourists’ table decided to fall after all.

It landed right in the woman’s sunny-side-up eggs, sending a little splash of bright yellow yolk across the place mat.

Exclamations in several languages burst from all sides. The woman with the silk carnation in her eggs expressed her feelings about the matter in rapid-fire German.

Morgan didn’t need a translator.

She stepped forward to help clean up, but the German woman took one look and cried out. “
Nein!
Not the little one again!”

As she protested, she spilled her tea, sending a dark flood across the plastic tablecloth. Her husband’s mouth rounded in a little O, and he jumped to his feet, a dark, steaming stain on his trousers revealing just what the problem was.

He wasn’t a small man and his quick move made his chair bump against Justine’s table, immediately behind. Blake swore, china clattered, people stood up to get a better view, and Morgan felt Alasdair right behind her.

Just when it seemed things could get no worse, Maggie appeared in the doorway, clucking like a disapproving hen. “Miss Lafayette! What are you about? What have you
done
?”

Morgan looked back quickly to explain and might have lost her balance if Alasdair hadn’t snatched her elbows and lifted her clean out of harm’s way.

“That would be enough of that,” he said, his tone so dangerously low that Morgan froze.

The entire room breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Morgan could feel the solid thud of Alasdair’s heart against her back, and the heat of his skin pressed against her own was enough to make her blush again. Her toes were dangling several disconcerting inches above the floor.

Morgan saw the sly smiles slide around the room and didn’t know whether she was grateful for the highlander’s intervention or not.

She wished the floor would yawn open and swallow her whole.

“Do not even move, my lady,” Alasdair growled.

Morgan was smart enough to take his advice. She nodded and he set her back on her feet. One strong hand remained on the back of her waist, as though Alasdair didn’t trust her to do as she was told.

“There’s no harm done there,” he told the one woman, as he gallantly retrieved her salt and pepper shakers. “’Tis powerful good fortune to spill a wee bit for the pixies. Toss a pinch over your shoulder for good measure.” He winked and that woman sat back with a smile.

“The left one,” called someone, the room settling with a chuckle as she did exactly that.

Alasdair plucked the vase out of the German woman’s eggs, and treated her to a killing smile. “’Tis no harm to an egg already broken,” he assured her. “Nary a bit of water in the vase to spoil the meal.”

He turned back to the matron, and Morgan seethed at the way Maggie relaxed before his easy wink. “Maggie, lass, would it be too much trouble for you to bring another pot of brew? And a wee cloth to repair any damage done?”

Maggie, far from a lass, giggled – much to Morgan’s astonishment – and darted away to do Alasdair’s bidding. Everyone returned contentedly to the meal, and the low hum of conversation filled the room again.

“Now, step there and there,” Alasdair murmured, the flurry of his breath on her ear making Morgan shiver. She did as she was told and slid gratefully into her seat, knowing her cheeks were hot.