“Great lump-headed idiots,” the girl hissed, moving to Mairi’s side. “Though I’ve none to blame but myself. I said naught a word of my plan to those two. Do you see what they’re up to?”
Mairi did indeed. Colin had intercepted Ran, diverting him from his path to Sallie’s side, while Drew was escorting Duke Servans to the spot where the women waited.
Unlike Ramos, the Duke appeared very much aware of Mairi’s presence, his gaze fixed on her as he approached.
“Enchanté,” he murmured, lifting her hand to his lips, his eyes still locked on hers. “Both of you are extraordinarily lovely this evening.” Reynard shifted his gaze to Sallie, capturing her hand as he had Mairi’s.
“Indeed they are, yer grace,” Drew agreed, taking Mairi’s arm and directing her forward. “Perhaps you’d no mind escorting my sister to her seat?”
Mairi felt herself smile as Sallie tensed next to her. How sweet. Her cousins were doing their best to obtain for their little sister exactly what they thought she wanted. The Duke.
Sallie was getting a good lesson in being careful about what she asked for.
Once they were seated, the Duke excused himself to join Blane and the group of men surrounding him, promising to return shortly. Drew accompanied the Duke, turning to waggle his eyebrows and grin at his sister.
Her groan drew a laugh from Mairi, earning her Sallie’s scowl.
“I’m sorry, Cousin, but even you must admit, it’s fair amusing how hard they’re trying.”
Sallie fought to hide her smile but lost. “Oh, verra well. Yer right, of course. And is it no exactly what I’d expect? The lads to put full effort to a cause I’ve no real interest in?” She shook her head and sighed. “I suppose I’d best have a chat with my brothers on the morrow.”
“About that,” Mairi began. “You left unfinished yer explanation of yer new plan when we were interrupted. Perhaps now?”
“Oh, I dinna think just now,” Sallie responded, her gaze fastened over Mairi’s shoulder. “Good eve, Brother. Alycie.”
Mairi turned to find Caden and his fiancée standing behind them.
He tipped his head in greeting, moving forward to pull out the chair next to Sallie and assisting Alycie to sit. “Would you mind Alycie’s joining you? I’ve business to attend and I dinna see Mother or Mistress Maxwell down yet.”
“No at all.” Sallie smiled up at her brother, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “Welcome, Sister.”
Alycie tensed, her eyes downcast, studying her tightly clasped hands, but she said nothing.
Caden nodded his head as if satisfied, walking away to join the knot of men across the room.
After a few moments of silence, Alycie cleared her throat and looked up. “I dinna wish us to continue to do battle, Sallie. It’s no fair to my…to Caden.” She stumbled over her words but seemed intent on finishing. “I would that we tried to be friends. For his sake, if naught else.”
When Sallie didn’t respond, Mairi gave her back a little nudge. She knew too well what it felt like to be on the receiving end of Sallie’s wrath.
“And how do you propose we go about that, Sister?”
Alycie’s cheeks took on a pink color, though her hands clasped together on the table were almost white from the strength of her grip. “Perhaps we could begin by yer no trying to anger me at every opportunity.”
Mairi nudged her cousin’s back a second time.
“Oh, verra well. I’m sorry. I’ll try.” Sallie turned her head and glared at Mairi. “Though it may take me some practice,” she muttered before turning back to Alycie. “And what do you intend to do to accomplish this change?”
“I’m going to be more accepting of what…of who you are.” The girl took a deep breath. “And I’m set to prove it.”
“Really? How?” Sallie asked suspiciously.
“By helping you with yer wee task.” The girl straightened her shoulders. “I know of a place no far from here where you can find the witchwood berries you want. I’ll lead you there on the morrow, if you like.” The words rushed from her, as if she couldn’t get rid of them fast enough.
“I’m no understanding why you would make such an offer. You hate everything about the magic. Why would you help me with this?”
“It’s verra simple.” The girl scanned the room nervously, her eyes darting from person to person as she reached up to finger the cross hanging around her neck. “If you find the one you seek, perhaps then you’ll settle down and forget all this Faerie foolishness.”
Sallie drummed her fingers thoughtfully against the table as if coming to a decision. “There is a full moon due. It would be perfect timing for the spell,” she murmured. “Can we bring Mairi along with us?”
“I was going to suggest it myself,” Alycie countered.
Both women turned to look expectantly at Mairi.
“Fine, I’ll do whatever you want,” Mairi agreed. They’d only just begun to be friends and she wanted to build on that relationship with her cousin. Besides, this was the sort of adventure the old Mairi would have jumped at. When she’d lived here before, she’d thought nothing of spending a day scampering about the countryside. And now that she didn’t need to worry about Sallie any longer, perhaps it was time to try to be herself again.
She tuned out the women’s conversation as they discussed the specifics of their little field trip, her mind wandering. Looking around the hall, her gaze lit on the empty doorway at the far side of the room.
The doorway Ramos had gone through with Wyn Servans.
Servans. How could she have forgotten about him? About what happened the last time she’d been with him.
Her fingers unconsciously trailed over the Faerie mark near her heart when she realized with a start that the burning sensation there was gone. Could it be because Wyn Servans was gone? No, it must not be him. She couldn’t remember having felt the burn when she’d been alone with him on the terrace. Of course, with Sallie’s arrival, she’d been distracted.
Just like she’d been distracted last night when she should have told Ramos about the man and what she’d seen.
No matter. She’d find him now and tell him.
“There is nothing to think about, Servans. My answer is an unequivocal no.”
Ramos straightened to his full height, locked in a contest of wills with the man in front of him. He and Wyn Servans stood within feet of each other, alone on the balcony. Wyn had brought him here in search of this private conversation.
A bitter wind, damp with the promise of snow, swept over and around them, but neither man seemed aware of it as they faced one another. Ramos recognized the tingle of magic that crept across his mind at the moment. He’d used the same too often himself not to know it.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand.” Surprise marked Wyn’s face.
“There’s nothing to understand. You offered for my ward’s hand; I refused you. It’s as simple as that.”
That and the fact that your bloody compulsion won’t work on me.
Wyn’s perfect brow creased in a frown. “But you yourself indicated you were taking the good lady to your home in Spain for the purpose of finding her a husband. My offer would allow you to end that search right now. And I can assure you, Lord Navarro, she’ll lack for nothing in my home.”
Ramos smiled grimly. “Oh, I’ve no doubt of that, Servans.” He visualized his father’s palatial manor in Switzerland. He’d lacked for none of the material comforts growing up there. Emotional ones, though, that was a different story.
“Then by what reason do you withhold your permission?”
Because you’re a heartless Nuadian Faerie with allegiance to the murdering monster who will one day be my father.
Perhaps the truth wasn’t the best response in this particular situation.
“I have already promised Mairi’s hand to another.”
“I see.” Wyn’s eyes narrowed, his doubt of the statement clear. “Does the lady know of this arrangement you’ve made?”
Wyn shrugged his shoulders, a forced smile on his lips. “Should you change your mind, Navarro, you’ve but to tell me. My offer will stand.” The man bowed his head as he backed to the door.
“As my decision will stand,” Ramos responded, inclining his head in acknowledgment of the man’s comment and his departure.
Ramos turned, leaning over the rock wall surrounding the balcony, the stones under his hands worn smooth by time and use. He stared sightlessly out into the evening gloom, his grip tightening as repressed anger whipped through his body.
Wyn had tried to use a compulsion on him! And the arrogant Fae thought to wed Mairi?
Not a chance in hell.
He’d marry her himself before he’d allow that cocksure Faerie the opportunity to put his hands on Mairi.
The thought jolted through him like electricity, though he refused to determine whether it was the idea of Servans touching Mairi or his marrying her himself that speared the raw ache in his soul.
As if marriage to him would be a good thing for Mairi. As if the lady in question would even consider it once he had her home.
He’d done enough to her already. Last night he had lost control, and though he couldn’t regret it, he wouldn’t allow a repeat of that mistake. He’d have to satisfy himself with that stolen moment.
Once he could determine what held Mairi in this time, he would return her to her family and then do whatever was necessary to stop his father. It was the only way to wipe the stain of evil from his soul.
That was his destiny.
He straightened as he heard the door behind him quietly close.
“I haven’t changed my mind,” he growled.
“Neither have I.”
How could he have so seriously let his guard down? Ramos whipped around at the sound of Mairi’s voice.
Even the encroaching evening gloom couldn’t disguise the turquoise beauty of Ramos’s eyes, open and needy. As if by magic, she floated there, suspended in the pools of his gaze, unable to remember why she’d come other than to find this. To find him.
After a moment, he blanked his expression and the spell was broken.
Thank the Fates. There was little chance she’d be able to speak of important matters if he’d continued to look at her that way. The way he’d looked at her last night, in his room.
“I thought you were someone else.” He turned his back to her, a sure sign of dismissal.
“Wyn Servans?” Though Ramos remained silent, the instant tension in his stance told her she had guessed correctly. “Fortunate he’s on yer mind since it’s him I’ve come to talk about.”
In the space of her next heartbeat, Ramos spun and stood in front of her, glowering down at her, his hand gripping her arm.
“What did he say to you?” His voice was quiet, but anger sparked in his eyes.
“It’s no what he said, but what he did I’m here to discuss.”
His hand tightened around her arm. “What’s the bastard done?” he snarled.
“Ramos!” She jerked her arm from his grasp, backing up. “Calm down. I’m trying to tell you exactly that.”
“Well? Go on.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest and waited, like some great avenging genie come to life.
“When I came out here yesterday evening…” she began.
“With Sallie,” he interrupted.
“Not exactly.” She held up a hand to stop further interruptions. “I know what we told you, but I came out here alone. To think.” She would not admit that she’d been thinking about him.
He remained quiet, his intense eyes boring into her.
“Before Sallie joined me, Wyn Servans showed up.”
“And what did he want?”
Mairi huffed out her breath in exasperation, moving past him to pat her hand on the top of the rock wall. “He sat right here while we spoke. I was on the ground, here.” She pointed to the spot where she had sat.
“And why would you sit at the man’s feet, like a…a…” He sputtered to a stop, his lips tightly drawn together.
“Are you going to let me finish?”
He tilted his head in agreement, but she fancied she could hear his teeth grinding.
“We spoke for only a few minutes before Sallie interrupted us.”
“What did you speak about?”
“Ramos!” He was making this so difficult she wanted to scream in her frustration. “About nothing. What I’m trying to tell you is that when Sallie came through that door, she dinna see the man, although I was sure I heard him still behind me. Then, when I stood to look at him, he was gone.”
“Bloody hell!” Ramos looked furious striding across the balcony toward her. “I should have guessed they’d try something like that. No wonder he asked for your…” He stopped, appearing to gather his emotions and bury them again.
“You should have guessed they’d try something like what?”
The shuttered expression returned, all emotion hidden away. “Nothing for you to worry about. Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”
“I tried to. It’s why I came to yer room last night, but then…” Mairi let the sentence fade away, watching as Ramos backed up a step, his jaw muscle tightening.
“About last night, Mairi. What happened…what I allowed to happen—there can be no repeat of that. Ever.”
The shock of his words washed over her, leaving a numbness in its wake. “Was it…was I so bad? That you’d never want to…” She couldn’t finish. Couldn’t force the words past the humiliation filling her throat.
Ramos closed the distance between them, grasping both her upper arms in his large hands, pulling her toward him. “You know that’s not true. You must understand, Mairi. I was sent here to protect you, to see you safely home, not to take advantage of you. What I did was wrong. I can’t let it happen again.”
She should have expected this response from him. Pol had all but warned her last night. Just because her soul recognized his was no guarantee of anything. She knew that.
And him, with his knight-in-shining-armor complex, of course he’d want to distance himself from any emotional involvement.
If that’s what he needed, she’d let him have it. For now.
“Very well.” With one last look, she steeled herself and backed away from him, putting much-needed distance between them. “If that’s what you want.”
“It’s how it must be.” He looked off into the distance for a moment then cleared his throat before continuing. “As far as Wyn Servans, you’re to avoid that man at all times, do you hear me? Him and his brother.”
“I’ll try. But I still don’t understand. How could he be there on the balcony rail one second and gone the next?”
“You’re asking the wrong question. You should be more concerned with why he’d do something like that.”
“Okay. Why would Wyn choose to leap to the ground?”
Ramos reached for her, taking her upper arm in his hand as he might if he were speaking to a child. “Because he’d learned all that he needed to.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. I’d said practically nothing to the man. And jumping almost two stories off this balcony, he could have been seriously injured.”
His eyes were hard as he stared at her, but his grip loosened a bit. “Two stories is nothing for a Fae.”
“A Fae? You mean those two are descended from Faeries like me?” That would mean they might have abilities she hadn’t considered.
“No. Not like you, Mairi. Those two are Fae. Like Pol.” He dropped his hand from her arm and walked toward the entryway as if to leave.
Like Pol? Her mind swirled. She looked up as he opened the door.
“Wait. How is that possible? What are they doing here?” She stopped as another thought struck her. “How do you know what they are?”
He paused, his hand on the door. After a moment, he pushed it shut and turned to meet her gaze, the sadness in his smile cutting into her heart.
> “Because I am half Fae.”
Eighteen
It was almost too much to believe.
From under her lashes, Mairi studied Ramos, who was deep in discussion with her cousin, Caden, several seats away down the long table. Now that she knew of his Fae ancestry, she wondered at her inability to recognize it before. The remarkable beauty of his features, the sureness of his actions. All the male descendants shared those traits.
With her new knowledge it was easy to see it in others now as well.
She discreetly glanced in the other direction down the table to where the Duke and his brother sat. They were full Fae! The thought rattled her. In spite of her having learned months ago that there were others, somehow she’d still imagined Pol the only real Fae loose on the world.
There sat the physical proof she’d been wrong.
Wyn looked up and smiled at her. She quickly turned her head, the heat she felt in her face her only acknowledgment of the man.
The Fae.
Before they returned to the feast, Ramos had told her all about Reynard’s people, the Nuadians. About how they’d been cast out of the Faerie Realm. About how all they wanted was to get back in and that they needed a female descendant of the Fae to find the Portal to let them in. And about how they would stop at nothing to gain what they wanted.
At least now she understood why the Duke had come to this part of the Highlands after he’d met Ran MacPherson and heard the stories about the Faerie ancestors of the MacKiernan women. He’d hoped to use Sallie to find his way back into the Realm of Faerie.
A shudder ran the length of Mairi’s body. Poor Sallie, without even the ability to see Wyn Servans in his true form, she wouldn’t have stood a chance against the Duke.
Mairi chewed at her bottom lip as she turned to observe Sallie, running the scene through her mind once more of the meeting between herself and Wyn on the balcony.
Ramos had said that any amount of Fae blood would allow a descendant to see the true form of a Faerie. So Wyn now knew she carried the blood. She had seen him. But Sallie hadn’t.
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