"Wisht, a bargain is a bargain, Eithne. You have paid, and now I must keep my end. Back you must go."
"I'll never see you again."
"Ah, but you'll take away something of mine with you. A secret of the leprechaun almost none ever learn."
"What is that?"
"It's what the great poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Englishman though he was, said. ‘Love is the only gold.’”
"Is it?"
"Yes. Sleep, now, Eithne.” Roe pressed a kiss just above her left breast. He whispered, “And when you wake, wake knowing gráim thú, mo chroí. I love you, my heart."
Powerless, Eithne closed her eyes.
She woke in her own bed, certain she had just experienced the strangest dream she had ever had. It wasn't until she dragged her aching body and fuzzy head into the shower that she discovered Roe had left a lover's token: A small red stain in the shape of heart bloomed on her skin where he had pressed his lips to her breast.
She remembered its meaning in the weeks that followed. Its message carried her through as she made her amends. She smiled on her co-workers and treated them with respect. She accepted several dates with Chris, and even let him kiss her a couple of times, though her heart wasn't in it.
Eithne feared what Roe predicted was true. He had loved her, and now no other man could move her. As if he sensed this feeling, Chris stopped asking her out, but he continued to smile and tease her, and his eyes had lost the hurt and puzzled look they used to hold whenever she was around him.
Eithne called her father and went to dinner with him. She and James still hadn't quite forgiven one another; the wound ran too deep between them. But they were working on it, and Eithne discovered she enjoyed hearing of the early days of his marriage to her mother. Perhaps one day they would recover the closeness that had been between them.
While sorrow was no stranger to her, Eithne held fast to Roe's statement she had carried off the only true gold a leprechaun had to offer and to the promise of his whispered words.
Surely being loved by a prince of magical cobblers couldn't be a bad thing, even if right now her heart felt as if it were being torn apart. She took a week off work early in the summer and went to the mountains. Their vast solidity reassured her, and she returned to Jefferson, Whiteside and Funke more at peace with herself and the world around her.
To her chagrin, the first thing that happened was she tripped in the new, kicky Manolo Blahnik heels she had bought on her vacation. Eithne landed on her butt right in front of the water cooler. A sickening crack told her the Blahniks would never be the same.
"Oh, mother of God,” she swore. A low, amused sound answered her, sending a thrill right down to her bones. As she stared at a black leather man's shoe with a gold buckle, its wearer bent his knees and hunkered down to pick up and offer her the broken pieces of her right high heel. Eithne kept her eyes on his long fingers, afraid to look into his face.
"You must be Eithne, the other Irish I keep hearing about. That's something we have in common.” When she didn't reply he continued. “I'm new here. My name is Kane. Ronan Kane. Everybody calls me Roe."
Eithne gazed up, her heart hammering.
Laughing green eyes framed in shaggy red hair met hers. “I like a woman who isn't brought down by a fall. I can fix the heel, but I'm here to tell you I know where you can get a better pair of shoes."
The End
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A little bit about the author:
members.cox.net/fantmwritr/
I've been writing since grade school when I did a crossover fan story between The Beatles cartoon and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV show. My first original novella, Stephanie's Fantasy, involved an ordinary girl and a guy who was a half-elf.
As a young adult I wrote a lot of fan stories about Star Wars: A New Hope and about several different TV shows. More years ago than I of them care to remember, I joined WARA where I learned to write romances, specializing in those with a fantasy, futuristic and paranormal bent. In 2007 I made my first professional sale: A short story titled “A Time to Die” to The Magazine of Unbelievable Stories.
I continue to work on stories and novels about “the weird stuff” and on adult-oriented romances. My love of writing fan stories lives on, and I still post “fanfics".
I live in Wichita, Kansas with my husband, daughter, son and a menagerie of critters in a too small apartment crammed with books, movies and video games.
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Visit www.redrosepublishing.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.
The Only Gold Page 3