by Anne Manning
"Don't apologize, it's fascinating."
He smirked a grin. "You're kind. There's nothing more boring than a professor spoutin' off on his area of study. And nothing less called for during an intimate dinner with a lovely lady."
He'd done it again. He'd made her the center of discussion. Though she couldn't say she minded how he did it. Charming didn't begin to describe him.
A moment or two of silence passed before he made her reporter's instincts twitch to life again with an entirely innocent question.
"I don't suppose you've heard anything of Lucas?" he asked.
Annabelle chuckled. "Don't you have your brother's phone number, Dr. Riley? Why don't you just call him if you want to talk to him."
He smiled, and the effect it had on her wasn't even decent.
"Well, as I said before, Miss Tinker, my brother seems to have forgotten how to return a call."
He raised his coffee to his lips, sipping slowly.
In the extending silence, Annabelle had to fight the urge to talk. It was a clever reporter's trick, one she'd used herself, and she admired the smooth way he'd done it.
"Why do you keep asking me that question? I assure you, if I'd seen Lucas today, I'd have told you."
Something flickered across his eyes. Irritation? Humor?
She decided on the latter when his smile returned, and he reached over to her cheesecake, digging his fork in to steal a bite. He shoved it into his mouth and ate it with a sly smile. Lasciviously licking his lips, he raised his coffee and sipped again.
"I suppose you've been too busy caring for your sister to have heard the story circulating about town?" He paused for an instant, as though waiting for an answer. A deep, warm chuckle rumbled from his chest and he went on. "It seems Erin's first story was that my brother had been taken by aliens."
Annabelle laughed with him, as though it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.
"Aliens? Oh, well..." To hide the fact she had nothing to say, she sat back and sipped her coffee.
"So, do you believe her?"
"What? That Lucas was taken by aliens? Of course not. After all, there are no aliens."
The arching of his eyebrow, the ghost of a smile, stopped her. "Are you so certain?"
"Are there?" she asked in a whisper.
"Don't you know?" he asked, his voice low, caressing.
"Not for sure."
She wasn't certain how she knew, but she did know that her answer pleased him.
* * * *
Gaelen understood now what drew him to her. She still had a sense of wonder. She still believed, even if she didn't know it. He had already revealed more of himself to her than he ever had before, even to his fairy women.
In spite of the unfortunate factors of her human nature and her occupation, which made her a person to be avoided, he was drawn to her like a moth to a bug-zapper. And it was too bad. He had a feeling Annabelle Tinker was a treasure. Envy scorched a hole through him. Though any human male could have her, she was forbidden to him.
No good dwelling on that. It was a fact and had to be faced and accepted. His more pressing problem was Annabelle's profession. She didn't much care for her job--that much was clear--but still the bills had to be paid. So, she didn't believe Erin's story, but might she use it as a filler in her tabloid, like all the other stories she hadn't believed? Would she even bother changing the names to protect the innocent?
He watched her, and in spite of all his sensible reasons why he should stay away from her, he heard her spirit calling his, all the while knowing she was a risky woman. He risked not only revelation and disbelief, but also violating the laws of his people. Laws put in place to protect both fairy and human.
"Ready to blow this joint?" he asked, surprising himself, as he motioned to the waiter for the check. Leaving too big a tip in his urgency to get going, he took her arm and led her from the restaurant. "Do you mind walking a bit?" he heard himself say, though he'd certainly not meant to delay getting her back home and him out of the reach of her allure.
"Oh, no. It's such a nice evening."
They left his car in front of The Tea Room and walked down Franklin Street to the place where the campus met the town. They turned on the sidewalk fronting Battle Hall and followed it past Silent Sam, standing his post as he had for almost one hundred years. A breeze swept through the trees covering McCorkle Place. Annabelle chafed her arms.
"Cold? Silly girl to come out on an early spring night with nothing but that bit of finery to warm you." With no thought, Gaelen whisked off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. The chill seeped through his shirt sleeves into his bones.
"I can't take your--"
"Say thank you, Annabelle."
She smiled and he suddenly he wasn't chilly anymore. Quite the opposite, in fact.
"Thank you, Gaelen."
"You're very welcome."
They walked on through the campus, past the Old Well, across Cameron Avenue and toward the library. As they walked, they talked. Gaelen couldn't remember talking so much with a woman about anything, much less something not directly involving him.
But he was enchanted.
"So, this farmer, what was his name?" Annabelle made a concentrated frown. "Ah, yes, Oswald McGillicuddy, from just outside of Jamestown, he found one of his cows giving birth in a pasture. But, he claimed this particular cow hadn't been pregnant the night before. When the calf was born, he swore it looked just like E.T., all head and eyes and tentacles. Naturally, we didn't see the calf when we got to the farm. The aliens had abducted it, along with Mr. McGillicuddy's wife, Eloise."
"I see," he said, with a smile. "So, is that the strangest story you ever wrote?"
"So far. But I'm sure I'll come up with stranger." She gazed around in the warm spring evening and drew in a deep breath, her eyes fluttering closed. "Do you smell that?" she asked.
"What?" He picked his shirt away from him, frowning.
"Not you," she laughed, shoving him affably. "The flowers. They're just starting to open."
Sure enough, they were passing the flowerbeds fronting one of the buildings. Gaelen noted with a start it was Dey Hall. He entered this building every day, and he'd never noticed the flowers.
He hadn't noticed them for a long time.
"Spring is my favorite time of all," Annabelle was saying. "Full of new life and warm breezes and bees buzzing."
Her brown eyes sparkled, and her skin glowed. The sense of being drawn to her grew stronger by the second.
"Oh, Gaelen, look!"
He followed her gesture. A black squirrel sat under an ancient oak.
"Isn't he beautiful?"
She walked slowly toward the squirrel. The animal sat still, used to endless streams of people passing his tree.
How many times had he passed this way and not noticed?
He stood behind her as she crouched by the squirrel, whispering and offering him an acorn. And he sensed more. A connection with the world he'd ruthlessly eliminated from his life, a necessary course if he was to manage in the mortal world.
Here in the quad, he felt the soul of every tree, the spirit of every oak reaching out to him, calling him to remember.
You're still a fairy, Gaelen Riley. Remember.
"Come, it's time to take you home." Had she heard the thread of panic in his voice? It had been loud enough to him. Even desperate as he was to be away from her, safe from the influence of her opening up a part of his life he'd tried to put aside, he also yearned to let her do just that. What a relief it would be to give in and be no more than what he was.
"I suppose it is time," she replied. "I want to go over to the hospital one more time tonight."
"Sure," he said, "I'll drive you over there."
He couldn't believe he'd made the offer. What was wrong with him? One moment he couldn't get away fast enough. The next, he was making an excuse--and that's all it was, he knew--to stay with her. Her expression was uncertain and her lips parted to protest.
He raised his hand. "It's right on the way. I want to," he said, realizing he really meant it.
She accepted his offer with a smile and they walked back in easy silence to his car, then drove over to the hospital. Gaelen let her out at the front.
"I'll be up in a few minutes," he said as she got out.
"They might not let you," she warned. "You're not family."
"I'll be up."
* * * *
Annabelle watched him pull away, feeling a little abandoned and cold. She forced herself to turn and enter the hospital.
"Keep your mind on Erin," she told herself, even as she kept wondering if Gaelen would want more than just one dinner date.
Good grief, I only just met the man.
She shook off her self-ridicule at getting infatuated with a man who was so obviously out of her league. For Pete's sake, he was a professor, a full professor, one with tenure, in a very esoteric field.
I write nonsense for a supermarket rag.
What on earth could two such different people have to talk about?
And yet, they had talked. About lots of things that didn't have anything to do with journalism or Celtic literature. The weather. Books, movies, television. The Tar Heels's chances in the upcoming ACC tournament.
She pushed open the double doors of the psychiatric ward and approached the nurse's desk, absently waving at the nurse who smiled at her.
Erin's door was propped open. Annabelle peeked inside.
Erin lay quietly, eyes closed, her hands resting beside her on the bed. The picture chilled Annabelle somewhat. It was less restful than peaceful.
In a final sort of way.
"Hi, sweetie," Annabelle mumbled as she passed through the door.
"She's sleeping, Ms. Tinker."
"Oh," Annabelle gasped and spun around. "Oh, Dr. Duncan. I'm so sorry. I thought Erin would be alone."
"Just making late rounds." The doctor picked up the stainless steel patient's chart hanging on the end of Erin's bed and raised the cover. "We had to give her a sedative earlier. She became rather agitated."
"Agitated? About what?"
"Accusing us of trying to drug her." A humorless chuckle punctuated the doctor's words. "And, so, we had to drug her." Duncan shook her head. "It's so terribly sad. But, you can see she's in a very deep sleep. Perhaps you should go home and get some rest."
The door scraped open behind them.
"Annabelle?" Gaelen asked, his voice heavy with concern.
"Dr. Riley," Duncan said in a clipped tone, "visiting hours are over. You'll have to wait in the lobby."
"Are you all right, Annabelle?" he asked, ignoring the order.
More than anything, Annabelle wanted to run to him and let him take her into his arms. Of course, there was no reason for her to think he'd want to hold her.
"I'm all right. Would you wait for me, please?"
"Sure." He glanced over at Dr. Duncan, the first notice he'd made of her. With a slight dip of his head, he said, "Doctor."
He closed the door. Annabelle listened to the fading sound of his footsteps, feeling more alone than she could ever remember.
"So, Gaelen came with you."
"Yes, we went to dinner. Gaelen offered to stop here before he took me home."
"Dinner. A date?"
"I suppose so," Annabelle replied, her attention still on Erin's pale and still face.
Dr. Duncan scribbled a note on the chart and closed the cover very gently. Annabelle could feel a tension in the air.
"Ms. Tinker, I feel I ought to say something, yet, I'm not sure how you will react. It's about Gaelen."
"What about him?" Annabelle answered, hoping her jittery reaction didn't give her away.
"He's a very handsome, charming man, and I have known many young women who have set their hearts on him."
"Dr. Duncan, I don't think--"
"Hear me out, please," the doctor interrupted, holding up one tiny hand. "In my profession, I see a lot of young women like Erin who have put all their hopes on a man only to have them dashed, then weren't able to deal with their heartbreak. Some of them have been driven to the very precipice of despair."
Precipice of despair? Dr. Duncan was certainly poetic for a shrink.
"Erin will come around."
"I'm not talking about Erin now. Gaelen and Lucas Riley are cut from the same bolt of cloth. They are users and cannot be trusted to do what's right." A light flashed across her eyes accompanied by a whisper of a smile. "Actually, it's worse than that. You see, women find Gaelen attractive, and he is, but you see...well, he's not fond of women."
"What?"
"My dear, Gaelen is a fairy."
Annabelle bit her lip. "A fairy?"
"Yes."
"You mean he's...gay?"
"Oh, my dear, Gaelen is very gay."
Annabelle thought of the undercurrent between Dr. Duncan and Gaelen she'd sensed earlier today. She'd thought it was sexual.
So much for my powers of observation.
The doctor sighed. "I know how he affects women. Gaelen is, well, an old friend of mine. I've known him for a...long time. He doesn't realize women find him attractive, since his attentions are directed elsewhere."
Well, wasn't that just the way? Annabelle's luck continues unchecked, she mused. The most gorgeous man she'd seen in years and he's a fairy.
Still, something in the doctor's assertion didn't ring true.
"Thank you for the advice, Doctor. But I assure you, I'm not attracted to Dr. Riley at all," Annabelle lied. "I just met the man."
Dr. Duncan nodded, obviously not convinced. "Well, then, we'll just forget I said anything." She smiled and put the chart under her arm. "Shall we?" she asked, holding her hand out toward the door.
Annabelle allowed herself to be ejected from Erin's room, all the while feeling there was more to the story than Dr. Duncan had said.
"Your mother was here earlier and left in quite a state, I'm afraid. Will you let me know if she needs anything to help her cope? I gave her another sedative, but I'd really like to check with her physician before prescribing more. At any rate, she is not taking these latest developments very well." They stopped at the elevator. "In fact, Ms. Tinker, I fear your mother is being drawn into Erin's delusions."
Her mother wasn't the most emotionally fit person Annabelle had ever known. She didn't doubt for an instant the situation was weighing on her.
"I'll keep an eye on her, Doctor. Thank you."
"Yes, Doctor. Thank you," Gaelen echoed. He had come from nowhere to stand by Annabelle's side, and she could have wept with relief for the support, even if that was all she could hope for. "We'll certainly keep an eye on Mrs. Tinker, won't we, Annabelle?"
"That is very kind, Dr. Riley. Goodnight." Dr. Duncan turned and walked silently away.
Gaelen squeezed Annabelle's elbow and led her into the waiting elevator.
"Come on, let's get you home, so you can check on your mother."
"Thank you, Gaelen."
They walked silently to his car. As though neither could bear to speak first, they rode with no words passing between them.
When she could stand it no longer, Annabelle finally asked, "Did you see her, Gaelen?"
"Uh--huh." He reached over and took her hand. It was so comforting, she held on. "Don't you worry, dear. Erin will be all right."
In the light of Dr. Duncan's revelations, Annabelle peeked over at the tall, handsome man holding her hand so tenderly. They had passed such a lovely evening, and his company was so easy, so comfortable.
It occurred to her then, maybe part of her ease with Gaelen was only because on some level, she must have known he wasn't interested in her sexually. This knowledge, even if it were only subconscious, removed the usual tension of a first date and explained why she was so comfortable being with him.
A deep sigh of disappointment escaped her.
"Don't worry, Annabelle." Raising her hand, he brushed his lips along the bones, tracing each one with a b
utterfly touch.
A flutter of reaction blossomed throughout her body.
Oh, it wasn't fair. How could he tease her like this? He had to know how such a caress would affect her?
Or maybe not. Maybe he didn't think anything of it. Maybe it was just kindness. Whatever it was, in spite of her unwanted reaction, his gesture did help.
Gaelen pulled into the driveway, stopping behind Susan's wood-paneled station wagon. Annabelle didn't even see him come around to her side, didn't hear the door open.
"Annabelle," he said, his hand offered to help her out of the car. He held her hand as he walked her to the front door.
"Do you really think Erin will be all right?" Annabelle asked, desperately needing his reassurance, wanting someone else to say the words out loud.
"Yes. She will be. I promise."
Why did she want to believe him? Why did she want to believe his promise had any meaning at all?
"I'm going to hold you to that," she said.
"You can count on it." Gaelen leaned forward as he tipped her head up with a gentle touch of his finger. His lips, so warm, so gentle, touched hers. "Good night, Annabelle."
Chapter Eight
Annabelle let herself in and softly closed the door, Gaelen's kiss still fresh and tingling on her lips. Admittedly, her experience with men left quite a lot to be desired, but even so, she couldn't convince herself Gaelen's kiss was merely a gesture of sympathy. Perhaps Dr. Duncan's powers of diagnosis weren't what they should be.
Okay, maybe it was only wishful thinking on her part. There couldn't be a bigger waste for womankind than for Gaelen Riley to have no interest in women. But Annabelle couldn't believe herself so clueless that she couldn't tell she was being kissed by a gay man.
Still, Dr. Duncan claimed to have known Gaelen for a long--long--time. And Gaelen supported that by his comments, uncomplimentary as they were, about Dr. Duncan.
"Stop it, already." Annabelle waved her hand in impatience. "I've got enough to worry about."
Still, she decided to trust Gaelen's prognosis. His promise. Erin would be fine.
"So, you've finally come in," a deep male voice came from the shadows.
Annabelle jumped at the sound, her heart hammering. As her eyes adjusted, she saw Lucas standing in the living room on the other side of the waist-high bookcase that formed a partition. A frown furrowed his brow, several day's growth of beard adding to the impression of exhaustion.