Seaspun Magic

by Christine Hella Cott

  As soon as she had eaten some dinner, she heard a guard tapping at the back door, ready to escort her on her nightly trip. Rather than the usual type of tests, which required a high level of concentration, that evening, Arianne and the doctors and scientists sat around conversing while a recorder taped everything that was said for later study.

  Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. Apparently intelligence sources had reported that the consulate was hosting a large party that night. It was likely, Admiral Thrush said, that Leo had decided to wait until the party before attempting his... er... business.

  This seemed to be the case. At midnight, one of the computers started quietly clicking away, and very shortly after that, Leo identified himself on a printout. He had, therefore, successfully linked the two machines. After a stream of directives in computer language, there was a miniscule pause and in plain English he relayed a special message.

  "I'll be home Christmas Eve. XOX." The message wasn't addressed; nor was it signed. But nobody in the room had any trouble guessing to whom it belonged.

  "May I say something in return?" Arianne asked the fellow running the console.

  "Sure," he said, grinning. "You got the bug, too, huh? Go ahead, but keep it short." He keyed in a few command phrases, then motioned for her to use the keyboard.

  Holding her breath, Arianne carefully typed, "I love you."

  There was a slightly longer pause from Leo's end, and then he began the sign-off procedure. Trembling inside with anxiety, Arianne turned away.

  ***

  The next day Arianne only had to work until three; as it was Christmas Eve, Orly closed the shop early. She went home laden with presents from him. He was looking forward to having Christmas dinner with Rae and her—and hopefully Leo—the following day.

  She was glad to get home early, for she had a million things to do before Leo came home. She prayed he would get home. While she'd been at work Uncle Art had gleaned further details of the spy network.

  When Larry found out the navy was after him he had panicked. Just as Arianne and the admiral's cook had speculated, he had tried to sell her out to the embassy staffer for one big cash settlement, while packing his bags to flee the country.

  Of course the staffer, realizing Barnes had blown his cover and would have to be put away before he blew all of theirs, too, had immediately sent news of this potentially explosive situation to his higher-up. Apparently the directive had come back down through the ranks that he himself had the task of disposing of the officer. Enlisting the aid of the board member, using one of the consulate vehicles, he had carried out his duty. Except that Larry Barnes was still alive, after all, and under heavy guard in a navy hospital.

  At this point, even though navy spies had found the bloodstains on the vehicle in question and had enough proof to lock away the two would-be murderers for umpteen years, no one was arrested. The object was not to scare the network into disappearing, but to follow the lead to the top man. As Larry's data was still in transit, it was deduced that it hadn't reached the top yet. To unearth every link in the chain might take months. In the meantime, thanks to Leo's "tinkering," the navy was learning all about the network, who ran the different levels and how they operated. And unfortunately, that was all Uncle Art was allowed to disclose to Arianne.

  She was upstairs just finishing a quick bath, when Uncle Art yelled up the stairs, "Phone, Arianne!"

  "Hello?" she said crisply into the receiver several seconds later, wanting to get the call over with so that she could get on with her numerous chores!

  "Arianne, honey?"

  She gripped the receiver tightly. "Oh!" was all she could manage.

  "Darling?"

  "Are you all right?" she exclaimed breathlessly.

  "I was about to ask you the same thing," Leo said, chuckling. "Darling, is there anything you want me to get while I'm out? Cause once I get home to you, Arianne, I'm staying!"

  "I—I, no, I don't think so—I can't think!" she replied, laughing. "I know—a Christmas tree! With all the excitement, I forgot to get a tree."

  "I'm on my way!"

  "Don't be long." It would take him an hour to get home from Seattle, she figured, maybe a little longer in the holiday traffic. Back she went upstairs to dress. Ten minutes later Uncle Art yelled up the stairs, "Arianne, company!"

  Half-dressed, with an impatient sigh she slid into her robe and went downstairs to see Leo coming in the front door with an armful of bags and parcels and a splendid Christmas tree precariously wedged into his load.

  Leaving the tree propped in the doorway and dumping all his parcels on the refectory table, he walked straight over to her and promptly wrapped her in his arms and started to kiss her ferociously, to make up for lost time. The coldness that had gripped her ever since he'd gone began to melt away inside. Her arms went up to cling unabashedly to him.

  "Arianne..."

  "Um-hm?" She was occupied in covering his winter-cold face with kisses. "How did you get here so fast?" She helped him out of his coat and quickly drew him closer to the warmth of the fire.

  "I was already in the Port when I called. Arianne. I've been thinking about this since I went away and I can't wait— Do you remember what you said on the beach that day, about the guys all wanting dinner, but none staying for breakfast?"

  "And you said you had no intention of settling down," she added, feeling an echo of sadness. Was he going to repeat that statement now?

  "And do you remember when I came back after being away those three weeks how I said I couldn't give you what you wanted?"

  "Well, yes, I certainly can recall every awful detail, if you must know!"

  "Arianne, honey, you know I had to say that, because at the time I was investigating your possible guilty association with Barnes! 1 had to remain uninvolved, or at least try to. When truthfully, Arianne, all along, and now more than ever, I've thought of nothing but settling down with you. I'd love to be here for dinner and breakfast, every breakfast, from now on. I went through hell loving you and wanting you while having to investigate. I went through hell nights, in my room alone, knowing you were just across the landing.

  "So Arianne, this might be rushing you, but since I love you and you love me, why don't we get married?" he finished, as if the two of them had just invented love for the first time.

  She hugged him very tightly. "Yes, let's," she agreed simply, laughing. She was without reservations or questions, for she knew her lover well enough to know he wouldn't be asking if he didn't mean it or if he had any reservations of his own—about Rae, or her psi, or anything else.

  "Oh, Leo!" she whispered, her voice choked with happiness. "I love you so much!" And she took one of his hands to slide it inside her bathrobe to cover her madly beating heart. "You see what you do to me... " She reached up to brush her lips delicately, evocatively, over his.

  His voice was husky and deep as his touch moved to encompass the firm roundness of her breast. "Arianne, I need you... " His mouth covered hers. "I want you...." His lips teased and tantalized the soft red eagerness of hers. "Arianne, I love you more than I can say...." His embrace changed to fit her more intimately against him.

  His tough sinewy male body ravished her senses, and love-drugged, her lips parted to accept his potent caress. "My Arianne... how lovely you are to come home to...."

  The fire snapped and crackled, and Uncle Art and Rae came around the doorway to witness the close embrace. Rae gazed with puzzled interest and the face of the admiral's cook split into a grin. He took the child back down the hall as another kiss continued in leisurely but eager and utter enjoyment.

  "This is all so exciting I can scarcely take it all in!" Arianne said somewhat dazedly several minutes later. "There's so much to think about! For instance, Leo, where are we going to live?" He pulled her down onto the couch beside him.

  "Do you like this house?" He tipped her to lie against him across his lap, and she raised her feet to recline on the sofa cushions. "I'll be doing a lot of work for the
navy over the next few years and most of it will have to be done here at the fort. We could live here half the year. The other half—how does Los Angeles sound to you?"

  "Fantastic." She smiled, delighted to have her man back home and in her arms.

  He laughed softly. "Is that it? Aren't you going to ask where I live there and how I live and—"

  "Leo, it doesn't really matter, just as long as it's like this." She wriggled contentedly in his clasp.

  "It'll be just like this, wherever we are." He lightly kissed the tip of her nose. "My place in L.A. is different from this, though, a complete contrast. You might not like it. A condo right downtown and high up. It's near my office, you see."

  "It sounds wonderful. I've missed city life, and Leo, I could still work with Dr. Dickenson during our half year here. He'd be so disappointed now if I let him down a second time."

  "You've been talking to him?"

  "Well, yes. I figured I had to do something other than hibernate. And after all, being a witch is what I do best, so my second conclusion was to stick to it rather than joining Mikey's cookie brigade. Oh, I'm so happy, Leo, I feel like...like..."

  "Like absolutely perfect to me," he murmured, following the curving line of her waist and hip with a warm and possessive touch. "I've been thinking... I like this house. I've become rather attached to it. Should we buy it from Orly? I stopped in at your shop today, and he was hinting that if we want the place, it's ours."

  "I'd love to buy this house! I feel as if it belongs somehow. Just the way we do. Heaven's, it's hard to believe life was boring just a couple of months ago!" She leaned her head back against his arm to contemplate him with a soft, sultry smile. "Oh, and Leo, this house is big enough to have lots of kids."

  "Just how many do you want?" His hand stopped in the soft pool between her hipbones, and his fingers fanned out to reach from hip to hip.

  "I don't know," she replied huskily, "but my guess is you want just short of a crowd! I know you love children, Leo."

  "I especially enjoy the prospect of making them with you," he whispered against her lips, his undertone a sweet caress.

  Outside the wide living-room windows a few tiny snowflakes wafted down, twirling through the still-cold air. Several kisses later the few crystals became more, and then still more, a white miracle, until the snow made a lacy curtain against the green of the pines and cedars and the gray of the bare, big-leaf maple in her front yard. The snow began to fall in earnest, and Christmas Eve settled softly over Port Townsend, and over one particular house that stood on a hill overlooking the sweep of a stormy strait…

  Table of Contents

  Seaspun Magic by Christine Hella Cott

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTERSEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN