Alasdair watched as well, just to her right where she couldn’t see his face without turning. When the selkies around her seemed to have satisfied their curiosity and had fallen back into a semi-circle once more, he spoke. “It’s getting dark. Where were you going just now?”
Darn it, the sun had touched the horizon while the selkies had been inspecting her. Would she be able to make it home all right? Twilight would linger for at least another forty-five minutes at this time of year, but she still had to figure out how to get Rob out. Maybe the selkies would help her since she’d helped them.
“I—” Her voice came out in a rasp. She cleared her throat and continued. “I was going home. But I’m glad I saw you before…before I left. Here.” She held Mahtahdou’s quilt out to him.
He shook his head. “I can’t take it. You bound him. You’re his guardian now.”
Oh, splendid. “I was afraid you’d say that. Well, uh…good-bye. I hope—”
“Good-bye?” He shook his head again. “No, Garland. I don’t think so.”
“What do you mean?” Why was there a smile lurking in the corners of his mouth?
“You must consider my position,” he said, eyes wide and innocent. “You’re the most powerful magic-wielder we’ve seen since my grandmother’s day. You were the one to enchain Mahtahdou. If you were me, would you let the person who had control of your deepest enemy out of your sight? It would be most unwise, I think.”
“Alasdair! Are you saying that you don’t trust—”
The smile she’d seen blossomed into a laugh, and through her indignation she realized she’d never heard him laugh before—a rich, deep, happy sound. Then he caught her in his arms and brushed his lips across her ear.
“Mahtahdou is gone and I can love again. You’ve given everything back to me except for one thing—my heart. I love you, Garland. I don’t want my heart to be anywhere else but with you. You can’t leave me.”
The world spun around her, balancing delicately like a gossamer top on his words. “But…I’m human. You—”
Instead of whirling to a crash, the world lifted and filled with light as he spoke. “Yes, you’re human, and I’m a selkie. You weave magic and I don’t. What does it matter? I love you and I can’t live without you.” He blew gently in her ear. “Be my wife, beautiful lady.”
She clung to him, trying to make sense of what he was saying. “Are you sure?”
Someone tugged on her shirt. She looked down and saw Conn staring up at her hopefully.
“Please?” he asked, and wrapped his arms around her leg.
Joy in the form of laughter bubbled up inside her. She pulled Conn into their embrace. “I was right when I called you ‘little limpet’, wasn’t I?”
“Limpets know where it’s safe to cling,” Alasdair said. “But I’m still waiting for an answer.”
“You know what my answer is. You knew all along. I don’t know how we’ll do it, but I’m yours.” She laughed shakily. “Will they make a song about us? The human who gave a selkie back his skin, and he stayed with her instead of leaving?”
“They’ll make songs about more than that. What about one with the blue-eyed lady who trapped Mahtahdou in her golden net? But we’re going to prove those old stories wrong. Neither of us has to choose one world over another. In summer we’ll live here with the selkies, and in the winter I’ll help you make your quilts. We can have both.”
She touched his cheek where a smile had banished his old stern expression. If she had anything to say about it, it would never return. “Ha. You and Conn just don’t want to have to completely give up toast.”
His eyes gleamed warm gold. “I’d thought of that. But more importantly, we won’t have to give up you.”
Chapter 22
A year later...
From the June 5 Mattaquason Mariner, “Mattaquason Faces and Places” column by Jim Barnes:
Fans of local quilt artist Garland Durrell held their collective breath as the gavel went down on an extraordinary auction of her quilts last weekend, held to benefit local conservation efforts by Cape Cod Preservation (CCP).
The glittering evening, held at Ms. Durrell’s home on Eldredge Point, featured food, music, and twelve of her fabric creations. The guests, both local and from off-Cape, were spellbound as each quilt was presented for bidding. A bank of phones was brought in for call-in bids from as far away as London and Los Angeles, and altogether close to $75,000 were raised for the CCP, a not-for-profit group that works with the National Park Service to preserve and protect the natural resources and habitats on and around Cape Cod, especially for the marine mammals that call the waters of the Cape home.
A radiant Ms. Durrell, who is expecting her first child next month, presented a ceremonial check for the amount to Henry Bard, the CCP’s executive director, supported by her husband and stepson.
Ms. Durrell is well known for her exquisite quilts, a favorite of both locals and summer visitors. Examples of her work can be seen in both the library and town hall as well as in private collections around town and around the country…
* * *
From the “Mattaquason Faces and Places” column, same issue:
Dr. Sidney Phelps is pleased to announce that Drs. Chandra and Mahdavi Ram will be joining his practice as internists. The husband-and-wife team will be welcome additions to Mattaquason, short on local medical practitioners since Dr. Robert Mowbray returned last year to his native Iowa to practice medicine with his uncle. Existing and new patients are welcome to stop in to the office next week and meet the new physicians, who are both graduates of…
* * *
From the “Upcoming in Town” notices, same issue:
Plans are underway for the Equinox Extravaganza to take place on September 21, starting at 5 pm and featuring two local bands, a bonfire and cookout, and ending with fireworks at 9 pm on the Town Beach. All Mattaquason residents and their guests will be invited to attend.
“We had such a great time at our Equinox Extravaganza last March that we decided we needed a fall one, too,” says organizer Kathy Hayes, one of the event’s business sponsors. “We have a lot to celebrate in Mattaquason, don’t you think?”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Writing a story is a solitary endeavor. Creating a book, on the other hand, is usually the work of many. I’d like to thank the many who helped Skin Deep see the light of day:
My critique partners Janet Halpin and Doreen Rebh, who read early versions of this story.
E of Aquila Editing, who kindly but firmly pointed out what needed fixing and made it a much better story.
Judy of Judicious Revisions, who polished off the rough edges. Any remaining infelicities and errors are purely mine.
And for various forms of support, encouragement, and shenaniganizing, thank you to my dear friend and blogging partner Regina Scott, to Janet Halpin for years of slogging along in the trenches with me, and to my fellow Moderators and Administrators of the SCBWI Blueboard who keep me sane and laughing and aren’t scandalized when I write books for grown-ups on the side. I love you guys!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read Skin Deep. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a review on the site where you purchased it or on your favorite social media site such as Goodreads or LibraryThing. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and much appreciated. Thank you!
About the Author
Marissa Doyle originally intended to be an archaeologist but somehow got distracted. But she’s put her passion for history into writing fiction: her award-winning YA books Bewitching Season, Betraying Season, and Courtship and Curses (all from Henry Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan) blend history with magic and romance. Her first book for adults, By Jove, is now available from Entangled Publishing. She lives in Massachusetts with her family, multiple boxes of fabric, and a pair of bossy pet rabbits.
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arissadoyle.com
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Other books by Marissa Doyle
BY JOVE
For Theodora Fairchild, returning to graduate school after three years of teaching Latin to unenthusiastic middle-schoolers is a dream come true. The professors in the Classics Department at John Winthrop University in Boston are the best in their field; the classes are varied and intellectually stimulating…and she meets brilliant, sweetly nerdy post-doc Grant Proctor.
As she gives in to her feelings for Grant, someone seems determined to keep them apart—no matter the consequences. Things are not quite what they seem in the Classics Department, and someone there has plans for Theo that don’t include Grant. When Grant disappears, surviving the semester becomes only one of Theo’s worries; her wits and wisdom may be the only things that can save the man she loves.
The Leland Sisters series (young adult)
BEWITCHING SEASON
In 1837 London, young daughters of viscounts pined for handsome, titled husbands, not careers. And certainly not careers in magic. At least, most of them didn’t.
Shy, studious Persephone Leland would far rather devote herself to her secret magic studies than enter society and look for a suitable husband. But right as the inevitable season for "coming out" is about to begin, Persy and her twin sister Pen discover that their governess in magic has been kidnapped as part of a plot to gain control of the soon-to-be Queen Victoria. Racing through Mayfair ballrooms and royal palaces, the sisters overcome bad millinery, shady royal spinsters, and a mysterious Irish wizard. And along the way, Persy learns that husband hunting isn’t such an odious task after all, if you can find the right quarry.
BETRAYING SEASON
Penelope (Pen) Leland has come to Ireland to study magic and prove to herself that she is as good a witch as her twin sister, Persy. But when the dashing Niall Keating begins to pay her court, she can’t help being distracted from her studies.
Little does Pen know, Niall is acting upon orders from his sorceress mother. And although it starts as a sham, Niall actually falls deeply in love with Pen, and she with him. But even if he halts his mother’s evil plan, will Pen be able to forgive him for trying to seduce her into a plot? And what of Pen’s magic, which seems to be increasingly powerful?
COURTSHIP AND CURSES
Sophie's entrance into London society isn't what she thought it would be: Mama isn't there to guide her. Papa is buried in his work fighting Napoleon. And worst of all, the illness that left her with a limp, unable to dance at the Season's balls, also took away her magic. When the dashing Lord Woodbridge starts showing an interest in Sophie, she wants to believe it's genuine, but she can't be sure he's feeling anything more than pity.
Sophie's problems escalate when someone uses magic to attack Papa at the Whistons' ball and it soon becomes clear that all the members of the War Office are being targeted. Can Sophie regain her own powers, find her balance, make a match--and save England?
CHARLES BEWITCHED (novella)
In this novella follow-up to Bewitching Season and Betraying Season, sixteen-year-old Charles Leland is not looking forward to his summer holidays from Eton—not when he has to spend them studying history to make up for a less-than-stellar grade last term. Even the thought of staying with his sister Persy and her husband Lochinvar while his parents are in Ireland can't cheer him up.
But cramming history quickly takes a back seat to finding out what has happened to Persy, who disappears from home the day he arrives. All signs indicate that she’s been abducted by gypsies--but a gypsy boy named Nando convinces Charles that her disappearance has a much more otherworldly explanation.
Now Charles must brave the perils and sheer strangeness of the fairy lands to try to rescue his sister from being forcibly married to a powerful fairy lord, with the help of the fairy lord’s own very insistent younger sister, a copy of History and Policy of the Norman and Angevin Kings that he must read before September, and Her Majesty Queen Victoria. But will he also be able to rescue himself?
Skin Deep Page 26