by Deborah Noel
“This place is amazing, Declan.” I sighed shifting my weight to lean against him.
He put his arm around me and continued.
“Shortly after making my way through all the corridors, I decided to furnish it. It was closer to you and Mattie and hidden away from the rest of the world, which I didn’t want to be in anyway. And now this is what lies before you, mo barion.”
“Your Queen?” I giggled and turned to kiss him.
Before I could blink, we were atop the bed in the grand bedroom.
I awoke to the soft melody of the piano. I was buried under multiple layers of down comforters and felt like I was floating on a cloud. I pulled the covers back from my face to reveal myself and found that I was still in the grand stone bedroom and I hadn’t been dreaming.
“Ahh, awake from your nap, a chailín mo chroí?” Declan’s words danced in my head.
“Darling girl? What happened to Queen?” I joked back with him a little on the loud so to make sure he heard me.
I met him at the side of the piano, where I sat next to him as he finished out his notes.
“We need to get back soon; there is much to do with the cases.” I reminded him.
“A stor, Cianna,” he began.
Whenever he started a sentence with “My precious Cianna” I knew I was in for a lecture of some sort.
“We need to work on being a family again. You shouldn’t worry about the cases that have hurt and haunted you for so long. I lost you once to them; I don’t want to lose you to them again after just getting you back.”
“You needn’t worry about that, Declan. I won’t leave again. I thought that someone was coming after Mattie and that she was in danger. I knew you couldn’t protect us properly if I was in your way, so I left.”
“I know why you left, Cianna. And I know you. Let’s be a family first. Then we can work on the cold cases.”
I cocked my head to the side and looked deep into his hazel eyes. A wicked smile came across my face. He looked away quickly and then back to hold my gaze.
“You already talked to Sam.” I knew I was right as the words exited my mouth.
“I did,” he admitted to me. “I told him I needed two months…”
“Of me and Mattie all to yourself.” I finished his sentence.
“Le do thoil, Cianna…” Declan begged of me.
“Please nothing, Declan! I’m actually excited to get back to solving these murders. I have run from them for so long and they have never stopped haunting me. I want to get back to them now, not in two months.” I turned to walk out, Bullet at my heels. I wasn’t mad, just anxious to get the past truly behind me.
In an instant Declan was beside me on the deck behind the waterfall. The rushing water quickly quieted my anxiety.
He grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me long and hard. Of course, I melted. Forgave him. And even apologized for my temper tantrum. After all, the cases had been cold for years, two more months wouldn’t hurt.
“So, how did you get the furniture and piano in there anyhow?” I asked as we walked along the path back to the canoe.
“Carefully,” was his answer, with a devilish smile.
We had gotten home in time for Mattie to arrive home from school.
Declan and Mattie worked on her schoolwork as I prepared dinner.
We had a great dinner together as a family. Afterward, Mattie and I sat and listened to Declan play on the piano. We all retired to the family room where Declan made a cozy fire and we made plans for new adventures.
When it came time for Mattie to go to sleep, she hugged me and whispered in my ear, “Mommy, go easy on Daddy. He loves us very much. Never forget that.”
I squeezed her tighter and kissed her goodnight. Declan and I walked upstairs with her. He put the new CD of his lullabies he wrote for her in the clock radio and turned them on low.
“Oiche mhaith duit, mo banphrionsa”
“I like being your princess, Daddy, good night,” she said sleepily, throwing her arms around him and squeezing tight.
Declan smiled as we left her room and closed her door behind him.
When we came downstairs he helped me straighten up and we sat outside on the circular patio.
Over the next two months our routine became that of a normal family, for which I was grateful. I was at peace once more with myself and the world.
I got to watch my daughter and her father’s relationship grow in ways that amazed me. Mattie was so smart for her age. She seemed well beyond her years. Declan had been teaching her Gaelic and they often carried on conversations together speaking only in his native tongue. I was surprised how quickly and easily Mattie picked it up.
I also noticed that she was beginning to show some of my traits. Her attention to detail rivaled mine. She could pull things from her memory in a split second. And she just LOVED taking pictures.
During the two months, we went on many family outings. Several times we had taken Mattie to see the waterfall, but Declan and I had decided that none were the right time to show her what the wall of water was hiding.
Declan and I often spent the daytime hours while Mattie was in school up at the “Castle”. We’d either lie on the beach at the water’s edge, or hang out behind the waterfall, spending hours and hours talking and listening. We were closer then we were before and even more so in love with each other.
On one particular visit, we debated on whether or not to explain to Mattie about her Irish heritage and that of having sidheóg (sheehogue) running through her blood; but we decided that telling a little girl of 4 years that she had Irish Fairy bloodlines was just too much for her to handle, no matter how mature she seemed, or how well her parents explained it.
“Gram did a great job of explaining it to me, Declan,” I argued.
“Maybe, Ci, but you were three times as old as Mattie is now when your gram told you, and I was closer to 10 when she told me.”
“But she is developing the traits faster than I did.”
He looked at me and rolled his eyes, “She’s 4.”
He was right and I knew it. We agreed to wait.
As we sat at the water’s edge, the sky over the mountain was turning gray. The clouds thickened over the treetops and the sky was growing angrier by the second. We were in the coming storm’s path. This was the type of weather that lit a fire in my soul. When most people would run for cover at the dark threatening clouds, they beckoned me to stay and play with them. The darker the daytime grew, the more aroused I became. There was nothing like the feel of wind blowing through my long blonde hair. The sound of crashing thunder in the distance made my heart pound in excitement. Declan once told me the lightning lit up my blue eyes like diamonds glistening in the sun.
The brilliance of the streaks of lightning bolts was blinding and the sudden crack of the thunder was almost deafening. It made me feel rejuvenated; alive.
Declan scooped me up, blanket and all, and then tossed me into the canoe as a bolt of lightning hissed angrily across the top of the lake’s water. With his strength in his arms, in a few short rows we were halfway to the edge of the dock when big cold raindrops pelted the water. The drops were like ice on my skin. The wind whipped my hair around my neck like I would wind a scarf before going out in the winter. I unraveled it and let it ride on the wind behind me.
Daytime became night. The water danced in the wind, fast and strong. Lightning glared bright as if it was shedding its light for us to have safe passage to the dock, at which we arrived quickly.
Declan didn’t bother to tie the canoe or wait for me to stand. He helped me onto the pathway from behind and with a hop he was up on the ledge, bringing the canoe up with him.
“No sense in tying it off, the storm will carry it away and we will be stuck here. Best if we bring it in while this one unleashes its fury.”
I smiled.
We half jogged to get under the protection of the canopy behind the waterfall. In
the strengthening wind of this ravaging storm, the long vines draped over the mountain’s edge began to whip like the tail of a bloodthirsty tiger poised to pounce. Charges of electricity filled the air, as well as my body. These types of storms spoke to me. I just could never figure out what it was they were telling me.
A riveting clash of thunder was followed by a blinding array of lightning. A strange, low roar grew louder. Suddenly, an explosion of water came cascading over the mountain. The normally gentle flow was replaced with a solid sheet gushing into a now violently rippled lake. We could no longer see the lake through the falls.
From behind, Declan wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in close. I welcomed the warmth of his body creeping into mine. He nuzzled his face into the back of my neck. His soft lips grazed my nape. Game on!
This time, before he had a chance to realize what was going on, I had spun around and planted a hungry kiss square on his lips. He didn’t hesitate to return my passion.
Under the protection of the canopy, the obscurity of the wall of water, and in the arousal of the fury of the storm and the hormones in our bodies, we satisfied the lust we had for each other over the next hour or so. The storm came to an end as did our loving making.
With trembling knees, I made my way inside the Castle. From the wardrobe in the oak dresser, I found an outfit to wear. Declan took a quick spring water shower and put on the clothes I laid out for him on the bed. He started a fire in the fireplace and took his favorite place at the ivory keys. I snuggled into the sofa nearby and drifted off to sleep hearing only my favorite lullaby.
Declan was kneeling beside me, stroking my hair and rubbing the back of his fingers along my jaw line. He brushed a tear from off my cheek and shushed me as I opened my eyes.
My hands were in clenching fists tight to my chest. I had to blink twice to refocus from the fog of my dream realm.
With ever-so-tender strokes, he continued to coo to me.
“It’s all okay now, I’m here,” he whispered.
I tucked my eyebrows in toward my nose and crinkled my forehead in confusion at him.
“Ahh, there you are. Better now?”
“Umm,” was the only answer that came to mind. Then I realized what happened. “Oh, I had another nightmare, didn’t I?”
He nodded at me. “Your reaction was the worst I have ever seen, Cianna. Please tell me what twisted your gut so,” he pleaded.
I had no recollection of anything after the passing of the storm. I remembered him building the fire. I remembered snuggling on the sofa. And I remembered closing my heavy eyes and hearing the beat of his lullaby. But I had no memories of any dreams of any sorts.
I did however have an uneasy feeling deep within.
I explained this all to Declan and asked him to take me home. Mattie was due home soon and I had an overwhelming urge to hold her tight to me. Without question we did just that. We traveled across the lake in the canoe as always and drove home in the Jeep.
When Marcy brought Mattie home, I took comfort in hugging her a little longer. She only giggled and wiggled her way out of my arms and told me she was going to be fine and told me to stop worrying over nothing.
It was more than nothing, but I had no idea what “it” was.
“Stop worrying before you freak our daughter out!” Declan’s voice rang through my brain.
“Yeah, Mommy,” Mattie’s voice echoed Declan’s inside my head.
I froze and dropped the glass that was in my hand.
Declan spun around to stare at us.
“What?” our daughter shrugged her shoulders and asked innocently.
“How did you do that, Mattie?” Declan asked.
I jerked my head from Mattie to Declan.
“How did you know?” I demanded from Declan.
He was as stunned as me. “I heard her in your head, in mine.”
“WHAT?”
“I heard her tell you ‘Yeah, Mommy’ after I told you to stop worrying.” He answered.
We both turned our gaze to Mattie.
Still shrugging her shoulders, “What?”
Declan walked over to her and scooped her up, spun her around and planted her gently on the counter top. “Do it to me mo banphrionsa.”
“I can’t Daddy. Just Mommy. But I can sometimes you hear you talking to Mommy inside her,” she answered him as if it was no big deal.
I remained frozen in my place. I looked down to see if my feet were in concrete shoes holding me still.
“It’s alright, Mommy,” Mattie was in my head again.
Declan let out a huge howl of laughter. “Of all the things I want to hear in your mind, Cianna, it’s our daughter’s voice I get.”
I carefully restructured my expression to be one of less surprise and was finally able to walk again. I made my way the few steps over to the counter and grabbed Mattie’s little fingers.
“How Mattie? Tell Mommy everything – like you normally tell me things; not in my mind this time.”
She shrugged her little shoulders again. “I dunno, I just heard Daddy whispering in the back of my head, and I whispered back. I just knew how to do it.”
Declan and I exchanged glances and smiles grew across our faces.
“So I’m just like you and Mommy then?” She asked in earnest.
“A perfect blend of both of us,” we both answered and hugged her.
Declan spent the next few weeks working closely with Mattie after school to hone in her newly found skills. He also tried to see what other tricks she had up her little sleeve. But as far as he could tell, that was her only capability so far.
As it panned out, Mattie could hear only Declan in my mind when all three of us were in the same room. The quieter Declan projected his voice to me, the harder it was for Mattie to hear. And if she wasn’t in the same room, she couldn’t hear him at all. Declan could only hear Mattie in my mind. Just clear as day. And of course, both of them could hear me, separately. Declan could hear what I said to Mattie, but Mattie couldn’t hear what I said to Declan. I found though, that I had another talent – I could block Declan from hearing what I said to Mattie.
The experiments in figuring this all out were fun.
She and I could communicate no matter where she was. And again, I had the ability to shut her out like I did Declan. She inherited that trait from me also, as she could shut either of us out too. Declan was slightly upset that he was unable to hear or speak directly with Mattie. But figured that maybe over time that would change as her powers matured.
We decided, though, to wait and explain to our daughter her Fairy heritage. We still had visions of her sharing it at Show-and-Tell in school and becoming the butt of all the other kids’ jokes. We did, however, tell her that this was our little secret to be kept only between the three of us.
“I’m not dumb, ya know?” She answered in her inaudible voice.
I nodded in agreement, and told her in my inaudible voice to not be fresh.
“I’m sorry, Momma,” she told me, then gave me a hug and a kiss.
I was lucky to have such a good kid.
Chapter Seven
Sam had called Declan on his cell phone a few times. He claimed to be just checking up on his family, but I did overhear Declan scolding him once or twice about the investigations. I talked Declan into asking Sam up for dinner. After refusing like a 2 year old who didn’t want to take his medicine, he finally gave in and invited him.
It was a beautiful late summer August Sunday. The scent of honeysuckles permeated the air. Mattie and I were busy out back in the garden picking the freshest of vegetables and herbs to be used in our feast while Declan was in prepping the meats when Sam arrived.
The tiny family reunion was a good one. Sam remarked how great and happy we all looked and on how big Mattie had gotten since he last saw her. She only giggled at him as she threw her arms around him and hugged him tight.
She took him by the hand and led him through the garden, naming all the vegetables and th
en all of the 30 different herbs we were growing. She showed off her Gaelic speaking skills. It was amazing to watch her have a conversation with him in a language other English. Declan would throw his two cents in during their conversation.
I understood Gaelic well, but now that Declan was around teaching Mattie, I knew I had to take the time to brush up on my conversational skills. And I also figured it would probably do me good to revisit the other languages I knew as well. I had German and Spanish under my belt that always came in handy.
We decided to eat outside in the screened-in porch. There was a slight breeze and the sunset was a brilliant array of pinks, oranges, and reds, with whisks of white painted across a light blue sky. The tops of trees dotted the horizon, becoming more dense, indicating where the forest began miles away. The breeze carried a salad of scents from the garden.
We shared a wonderfully filling meal while gabbing away. There’s nothing like stories shared around the dinner table with family. The laughter was abundant. Mattie was a charmer like her daddy. She could hold the attention of a Mexican Jumping Bean, and she carried the room all night.