Charmed by His Love

by Janet Chapman

  Duncan stiffened again. “If she doesn’t think I’m crazy now, she sure as hell will when I ask her to please help me get … what? A staff? Amulet? Gemstone?” He snorted. “A bottomless satchel of bunny rabbits?”

  “Your father found a way to ease your mother into the magic. Maybe you should ask Callum to help you with Peg.”

  “Or maybe I’ll just ask your father to help me protect your resort while you’re off on vacation. I believe your buddies in Midnight Bay know how to reach Titus.”

  “Good luck with that, my friend,” Mac said with a chuckle. “It was Dad’s idea to send you on this quest, claiming the kind of power you’re about to receive must be fought for to be appreciated.” He placed his hand on Duncan’s shoulder again. “It was my idea, however, that you not be able to do it all by yourself, by requiring you to ask a mere slip of a woman to help you claim your … prize.”

  Duncan’s chest tightened to the point that all he could do was glare.

  Mac gave his shoulder a hearty slap. “I’ll be back in two months, eager to drive my wife up our road so we can wave across the fiord at our new neighbors,” he said with a laugh, sprinting to the RV. “Godspeed, MacKeage.”

  Duncan stood staring after him, wondering if he shouldn’t just climb in his pickup and run a gauntlet of road-stupid moose back to Pine Creek and stay there.

  God dammit, he hadn’t done one thing to deserve this.

  And dammit again, neither had Peg.

  Duncan reclined on his elbow in front of the small campfire as he frowned down the hillside at Peg’s house, undecided if he liked what Alec was telling him or not. “Ye hired Peg’s mother and aunt to cook for us?” he repeated, sliding his gaze to Alec. “Before I gave my approval?”

  “I tell ye, those two women can cook,” Alec said, looking to Robbie for support. “Tell him how I caught you licking your plate clean.”

  Robbie shot Duncan a grin. “They definitely can cook. And they both seem to understand the number of calories a working man needs at the end of a day. I swear the steaks they served us were a pound and a half each. Sam Dalton ate two.”

  Duncan snorted. “More like they understand how much butter to spread around a job interview to get hired. So,” he said, looking from one man to the other. “Is Peg’s mother anything like she is?”

  “Ye mean smart and capable,” Alec drawled, “or sassy-mouthed trouble?”

  “I mean, am I going to have to put mittens and blinders on my crew three times a day?” He shook his head. “I hadn’t planned on having females in camp.”

  “I’m certain Jeanine and Bea can handle our crews,” Robbie said with a chuckle. “I wouldn’t be surprised to find a shotgun standing in the corner of your camp kitchen, along with a bottle of liquid gold.”

  Alec sat up. “I thought I saw Bea dosing the beans with something, and I swear I tasted a hint of Scotch.” He looked at Duncan and grinned. “Ye suppose Peg told them you like a little nip in the morning?” He suddenly sobered. “I’m afraid there’s a bit of a problem with my hiring them, though. It seems Peg’s not all that pleased.”

  It was Duncan’s turn to sit up. “Why?”

  “I overheard her telling her mother that some people in town are targeting anyone who’s working on the resort road.”

  “What else?” he asked when he saw Alec’s face darken. “Did Peg tell you what happened to her van?”

  “She said it was taking a long, well-deserved nap. And she told me to tell you that if anyone gives her mom or aunt any trouble, she’s ripping up your agreement and chaining off the pit.”

  “So she was threatened.” Duncan looked at Robbie. “Did ye find the van?”

  Robbie shook his head. “Nay, I even drove several tote roads between here and Turtleback Station, and quietly asked around in both towns while keeping an eye out for the car that brought her to Inglenook, but I couldn’t find any trace of the van using conventional methods.”

  Duncan gazed into the fire. “And unconventional methods?” he asked quietly.

  “Apparently this is a no-magic zone,” Robbie said just as quietly.

  Duncan lifted his head in surprise. “Is that even possible?”

  “I hadn’t thought so. But no matter what I tried, I couldn’t do a damned thing. Hell, I had to use a lighter to start our campfire tonight.” He canted his head. “It’s as if the energy I kept trying to call forth was—and apparently still is—sleeping. It’s here; I can definitely feel it, but I can’t seem to roust it.”

  Duncan stiffened. “Do you think it’s just in this area, or everywhere?”

  “I finally grew frustrated enough to call both Ian and Winter yesterday, and they’re not having any problems.” Robbie gestured toward the fiord. “It only seems to be around Bottomless.” He shrugged. “Maybe Mac turned it dormant.”

  “But you’re a Guardian; you’re immune to a drùidh’s magic because it’s your job to protect us from them.”

  “Mac’s a theurgist, not a drùidh,” Robbie thought to explain. “With Providence’s blessing thousands of years ago, Titus Oceanus built Atlantis on which to cultivate his Trees of Life to protect mankind from the warring gods. He then trained a handful of men to be drùidhs to protect the Trees he eventually scattered all over the world, only to realize he needed to install Guardians to safeguard the people from the drùidhs. Titus and Maximilian—and eventually Henry—are at the top of the hierarchy.” He shook his head. “Even de Gairn would be powerless here.”

  “For Christ’s sakes, why would Mac turn off the magic and then walk away?”

  Robbie’s deep gray eyes looked directly into Duncan’s. “I doubt he walked away without leaving some means to awaken it. Mind explaining to me why he suggested I tell you to go see your mountain before all hell breaks loose? And that you remember to bring along someone with less broad shoulders and smaller hands?”

  “You have a mountain?” Alec asked in surprise. “Like Ian has TarStone now?”

  Duncan dropped his head in his hands. “It appears so.”

  “Which one?” Alec asked.

  He gestured toward the fiord without lifting his head. “That one over there.” He finally looked up, his gaze going from Alec to Robbie. “The other day when we were up the mountain, Mac told me to pick one and its power would be mine to command.” He gestured across the fiord again. “And being an angry idiot at the time, I pointed over there when Mac threatened to choose one for me—in whatever century he decided.”

  “Sweet Christ,” Alec murmured, looking at the dark shadow looming into the night sky across the fiord. “He just up and gave you a mountain?”

  Robbie turned his fire-lit gaze to Duncan. “Did he say why?”

  “I didn’t exactly dare ask at the time, but he was muttering something about my refusal to acknowledge my calling eventually destroying me.”

  “What calling?” Alec asked.

  Duncan snorted. “Hell if I know.”

  “What do you suppose Mac meant about your needing to take along someone with less broad shoulders and smaller hands?” Robbie asked, even as he looked down the hillside at Peg’s house. He looked back at Duncan and smiled. “Does our resident wizard have a matchmaker’s heart?”

  “Doesn’t every newly married bastard want every bachelor he knows to join him in wedded bliss?”

  “But if you do claim your calling, how are you going to explain the magic to Peg?” Alec asked. He suddenly grinned. “Ye might want to have a length of rope with you when ye do. I believe Hamish has one that he no longer needs.”

  “You should at least make sure she’s not armed,” Robbie said with a chuckle, only to sit up when Duncan eyed him speculatively. “Nay, ye will not.”

  “Didn’t you tell me that when ye took old Uncle Ian back to his original time and spent several weeks trying to steal the taproot of de Gairn’s Tree of Life, that you were only gone overnight in this time?” Duncan asked. “Sunset to sunrise, right, which is what … a little less than eleven ho
urs this time of year?”

  Robbie suddenly relaxed, folding his arms over his chest to lean back against the log. “You’re forgetting that Mac put the magic to sleep.”

  “But what if I can wake it back up? Ian told us that he was able to take Jessie back to the night she was nearly murdered; what if I find my power and then use it to buy myself several days alone with Peg? That would give me time to work some of my own magic on her,” he said with a grin. “And she’d only be away from her kids overnight.”

  “But she would feel as if she were away from them for several days,” Robbie growled. “And it was all she could do last Wednesday to be separated from Pete and Jacob for a couple of hours.” He shook his head. “Ye can’t manipulate the magic like that, Duncan—assuming you can get hold of it.”

  Duncan lay back on his sleeping bag with a heavy sigh. “Well, gentlemen, it appears I need a boat.” He folded his hands behind his head and stared toward the looming shadow of his mountain. “I came here to build a road and five timber bridges, not go to war with a bunch of village idiots, so would one of you please tell me what in hell I did to deserve this?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Just because she had every intention of discouraging Duncan from desiring her didn’t mean she didn’t want to be as pretty as possible doing it. But it appeared the best she could do was look like a dowdy old widow, since her entire wardrobe consisted of jeans and sweatshirts except for a couple of funeral and wedding outfits. And although the funeral dress might be appropriate for how she was feeling, it wouldn’t be all that practical for a picnic on a mountain in Maine in mid-April. Come to think of it, she hadn’t even bought herself a new jacket in four years.

  Hell, instead of discouraging Duncan, she was depressing herself.

  “Mom, it’s almost ten,” Charlotte said from the bedroom door. “You spent all morning getting us ready and now you’re not even dressed.”

  “I don’t have anything to wear.”

  “Of course you do,” Charlotte said, rushing to the bureau. She pulled out a navy sweatshirt and soft pink turtleneck and thrust them at Peg. “The dark blue makes your eyes look big, and the pink looks soft and feminine.” She shrugged. “And jeans go with everything. And here,” she said, opening the jewelry box on the bureau. “Wear your small gold hoops and leave your hair down so it wisps around your face.”

  Peg clutched the tops to her chest and spun away when she felt her eyes start to sting. “You don’t wear earrings to a stupid picnic,” she muttered, dropping the sweatshirt to pull the turtleneck on over her head.

  “It’s not a stupid picnic,” her daughter said softly, touching her back. “It’s the closest thing you’ve had to a date since Daddy died.”

  Peg stilled with the shirt covering her face. “It’s not a date. It’s not even close. It’s just … a picnic.”

  Charlotte finished pulling the turtleneck down from behind, then picked up the sweatshirt and handed it to her. “Can’t we just pretend it’s sort of a date?” the girl whispered. “Just between you and me?”

  Peg pulled the sweatshirt on over her head, pressing it to her face to wipe the tears spilling free. “Damn, Charlie, no. I don’t want you … Look, you can’t get your hopes up, okay? I’m not going … Nothing’s going to come of Duncan and me, baby.”

  The sweatshirt was pulled down from behind. “Okay, I won’t get my hopes up. But will you wear the earrings anyway? For yourself?” Charlotte walked around and smiled up at her, one corner of her mouth higher than the other as she held out the earrings. “Just so Dun—Mr. Duncan will see what he’s gonna be missing when nothing comes of the two of you?”

  Peg took the earrings and tried her damnedest for an I-mean-business scowl. “I’m locking you in your room until you’re twenty for even thinking that way at eight.”

  “I’m nearly nine,” the girl said, walking to the door. She stopped and looked back. “And if you think I’m bad now, you just wait until I’m sixteen. Grammy’s already told me all the tricks you used to pull on her, and she promised to help me come up with new ones. Wear the earrings.” She made a face. “But no perfume, okay? Everything you got is so old, it probably smells like skunk pee.”

  That said, the girl was gone before Peg could even get her scowl back in place, so she walked to her bureau and started to drop the earrings in the box, only to close her fist around them instead. She pulled her hair out of her collar with a sigh as she stared at herself in the mirror, remembering Olivia saying that kids did what they were shown, not what they were told. So what was she showing Charlie today? That she should look like a frumpy old sexless widow so Duncan wouldn’t mistake her for a woman?

  Wear them for yourself, the nearly-nine-year-old had said. So when in hell had Charlie gotten smarter than her? Because damn if the dark blue didn’t make her eyes look bigger and the pink look feminine. And just when, Peg wondered, was she going to crawl out of Billy’s casket?

  It took her several tries to slip the tiny hoops on because her fingers were trembling, and when she took a deep breath and tugged on the hem of her sweatshirt, she didn’t know what in hell she looked like because the image in the mirror was all blurry. Damn; desiring Duncan was messing with her hormones.

  “Um, Mom?” Charlotte called out at the same time the twins started whooping. “You better get out here.”

  Frowning at the eight-year-old excitement she heard in Charlotte’s voice, Peg ran into the living room to find all four of her children kneeling on the couch, staring out the window. Well, the girls were kneeling; the twins were jumping up and down, whooping louder with each jump.

  “Horses!” Jacob cried. “He brung the horses!”

  “We’re riding up the mountain!” Peter shouted. “Mom. Mom! We’re gonna ride the horses to our picnic!”

  Over her dead body. Peg ran to the door and threw it open to see Duncan riding one of the monstrous horses she’d seen in the trailer, leading two more monstrous horses wearing saddles. She ran down the steps, stopping and spinning back around at the bottom and pointing a finger. “You stay on the deck,” she growled to the children following her. “And stop that noise before you scare the horses.”

  “It’s going to take more than hollering to scare these gentle beasts,” Duncan said from right behind her.

  Peg turned, came nose to nose with a horse, and scrambled backward up the steps, having to grab Jacob when she bumped into him—all while shaking her head. “We’re not riding those … monsters,” she said, glaring at Duncan when he dismounted.

  “It’s the only way up the mountain, Peg, unless ye want to walk. But it would take so long we’d have to turn around and start back down just as soon as we reached the top. The old tote road ends a good four miles short of the summit.”

  “But … but …” She waved at the horses that had all crowded up to the deck to stretch their heads over the railing trying to reach the children—which Peg protectively pulled back with her. “How … Who’s going to …”

  Duncan laughed. “The girls can ride old Forget-me-not, you and Pete can ride Lilac, and Jacob can ride with me on Daisy.”

  Peg pulled her daughters against her sides, squishing the boys. “The girls can’t ride a horse all by themselves,” she said, hearing her voice rise with her panic.

  Duncan turned serious. “They’re completely safe on Forget-me-not, as she’s a veteran heathen mount. All three of them are, which is why I asked Robbie to bring these particular ones. They’re his, actually.”

  “You had him trailer horses all the way here just for our picnic?”

  He nodded. “Aye, but also for myself.” His grin returned. “I was getting tired of hiking the mountain every time I needed to work on the road layout. Robbie and Alec will use them this summer, too.” He sobered again. “They’re perfectly safe, Peg. And Charlotte told me she rode horses when she visited Sophie during Inglenook’s summer sessions. She can handle Forget-me-not.”

  “But …” Peg took a deep breath. “B
ut I’ve been on a horse maybe twice in my entire life—a normal-sized horse.”

  “Please, Mom,” Jacob said, craning his neck to look up at her. “They’re really nice. And they like us ’cause we brushed them.”

  “They liked it when I got under and brushed their bellies,” Peter added, making Peg squeeze him in horror.

  She heard Duncan sigh. “Will ye at least give the horses and your children a chance to prove themselves? I would never do anything to endanger your kids, Peg. We’re almost legendary in the state for our gentle mares, and the children of our clan start riding before they even walk.”

  “I know how to ride, Mom,” Charlotte said. “And you’ll catch on real quick.”

  Jacob tugged on her sweatshirt. “I’ll ride with you if you want, Mom,” he whispered. “And I’ll sit in front and you can hold on to me if you’re afraid of falling off.”

  Oh God, Jacob was reassuring her? When had he gotten so brave?

  Oh, that’s right; when he’d started hanging around big strong men.

  Peg blew out a sigh. “Okay, I guess we can give it a try.”

  “Whoopee!” Jacob and Peter shouted, jumping up and down.

  And to Peg’s surprise, none of the horses flinched. In fact, one of them reached its big nose toward Jacob, and it was all Peg could do not to pull him back when she saw his tiny hand inches from its mouth. “Um, how are we going to carry all our stuff?”

  Duncan gestured at the sacks tied on all three saddles even as his eyes lit with humor. “If it doesn’t fit, then we don’t need it. We’re going for the day, not a week.”

  “I know that,” she said, turning away. “Come on, guys, help me get our things.”