by Nancy M Bell
“Vear,” Bella began tentatively, “what have I done? Are you angry with me?”
“Hush, girl. I have to think.” He flapped a hand in her direction but never lifted his head.
The firelight flickered as Gwin Scawen materialized in front of the selkie. Bella sucked in a breath and got to her feet. She edged closer to the two men, smiling down at the thin upturned face topped by the ever present cap.
“I have had speech with Mistress Sarie and she is much relieved Mistress Bella is safe. She wanted to come forthwith, but….”
“You didn’t tell her how to find this place, did you?” Vear raised his head in alarm.
“I never did, to be sure,” the piskie declared. “But, I wouldn’t put it past the mowes to come searching. She’s a very resourceful lady, so she is.”
“Why can’t Sarie come here? I need to talk to her, figure out what to do next,” Bella interjected.
Vear Du fixed her with a stern look. “This is a selkie’s cave, Bella. ‘Tis bad enough that I have brought you here, but to bring yet another mortal to this place of magic….” He broke off shaking his head and strode to gaze out the gaping maw of the cave.
“But….” Bella began. She stopped when Gwin Scawen pulled at her pants leg. She looked down at him in puzzlement. “Is he in trouble, then? Just for helping me?”
“Aye, he is that. ‘Tis forbidden for us to interfere in the affairs of man, to meddle, so to speak. By doing magic in front of a mortal and by bringing you here by those means, he has broken more than a few rules set out by the Council.”
“That’s unfair! He was only helping me escape from bloody Daniel Treliving.” Bella stamped her foot.
“While it is true, I meant no harm, the rules are there to protect mortal kind. If there were no such restraints the temptation to play games with people’s lives and emotions would be too great. That is why the penalties are so heavy.” Vear’s voice was low and toneless.
Chapter Seven
Vear turned from his scrutiny of the cove below the cave. Straightening his shoulders, he moved back to stir the fire and set the kettle on the tripod to boil. Bella’s gaze touched him like a physical caress. What was it about the girl that made him so sensitive to her nearness? There was no way this could end well. The Council would be all over him, if not today, then soon. Far too many elementals, not to mention other magical beings, knew about his precipitous rescue of the daughter of Eve. Some, like Gwin, would be willing to keep his secret, but others would be only too glad to spread the news and watch the resulting fall out with glee. Nothing malicious about them, he supposed, for the most part, just some entertainment. Once the merpeople, and others with an axe to grind, got a hold of the information, he’d be summoned to stand before Council and if he was lucky maybe get a chance to explain himself. For all the good that would do.
“It’s true, then? You’ll be in ever so much trouble because of me?”
Bella regarded him with those luminous blue eyes and his heart stopped for a moment. Tearing his gaze away from her face, he poured the now boiling water into the battered teapot.
“Aye, it’s trouble I’m in for sure,” he admitted.
“Do you want me to leave?” She scrambled to her feet and made to move to the front of the cave.
“There’s no point. The damage is done at any rate.” Vear caught her hand and stayed her movements. Heat and electricity shot up his arm from the contact with her skin. He imagined she felt the same jolt from the gasp that escaped her parted lips and the flush that pinked her cheeks.
“Damage? Is that how you think of me? Damage?” Bella jerked her hand free and glared down at him.
Gwin Scawen perched on a rock by the fire, his gaze jumping from one of the combatants to the other. If the big selkie wasn’t his friend and Mistress Bella not Mistress Sarie’s best mate, this would be ever so entertaining. As it was, he found the whole thing distressing.
“That’s not what I said, Arabella. ‘Tis not you I was referring to. It is my own folly that caused the damage. Without thinking, I did magic and I brought you here by magical means. I will have to stand before the Council and take whatever punishment they may mete out.”
She sank to her knees beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. He flinched from the contact and then weakened and relaxed into her.
“Oh, Vear. I’m so sorry. This whole mess is my fault. I should have known that bastard Daniel would find me somehow. I never meant to call you, I never meant for you to be involved.”
He stroked her hair and rested his face on the top of her head. “I know, dear heart. I know. But I realized you were in danger and I had to go to you. I was compelled, as if someone had set a geas on me. If anything had happened to you….”
“But nothing did, thanks to your timely appearance.” Bella slipped her arms around his waist.
With a sigh and against his better judgement, Vear lifted the girl into his lap, snugging her head under his chin. He caught the piskie man’s gaze across the fire and helplessly raised his eyebrows. Gwin shook his head, an enigmatic expression on his narrow face.
“Should I fetch Mistress Sarie?” he inquired.
“Won’t you be in trouble too, if you whisk her here like I was?” Bella asked.
“Ah, the tiny bit of piskie magics will go unnoticed. If the big ones even notice it, they’ll put it down to just a bit of mischief. Yon ones have bigger fish to fry to at the moment.” He winked at Vear Du, who scowled at him. “Shall I fetch her?” he persisted.
“No, I think not. One mortal female is more than I can fathom.”
“Vear, wait.” Bella stopped him by laying a hand on his chest and pulling back to look up at him. “Sarie is ever so smart, she might help us figure a way out of this mess.”
He let his gaze roam over her face before focusing on her eyes. The lashes cast shadows on the ivory curve of her cheek. Vear started when she squeezed his arm. With a sigh, he dropped a kiss on the end of her nose and against his better judgement decided to give in to her wishes. Was there nothing he could deny the wench? A startling thought catapulted into his mind and he stiffened. Was she a witch? A creature of Air and Darkness sent to bring him to his ruin?
Bella glanced behind her and almost slid off his knee. “What is it? Is something wrong, who’s here? Is it the Council?”
He tightened his grip on her and resettled her on his thigh. “Nothing is amiss, dear heart. If it was the Council ye’d have no need to ask t’was it them. Ye’d know.” Vear shoved the unsettling thoughts from his mind. Bella was a Daughter of Eve, nothing more. The piskie would have told him if she was hiding anything. Vear trusted the piskie with his life, the little man having proved his loyalty time and again over the centuries.
“Aye then, fetch the Waters girl, but make you sure no one kens what ye’re up to,” Vear said.
Gwin disappeared and Bella struggled to her feet, adjusting her clothes and combing fingers through her tangled hair.
“I must look a fright.”
The selkie looked up at the human, her hair lifting in the stirring of air from the sea cliffs. The firelight created a nimbus of light about her like a Botticelli angel.
Struggling to speak past the tightness gripping his throat, Vear put out his hand. “You are the most enchanting creature I have ever encountered, Bella. Lord and lady help me. My common sense dictates I leave you alone, but my other senses yearn toward the bright light that shines in you. I fear I am lost.” He rose swiftly and paced to the shallow rocky ledge outside the cave entrance. His fingers gripped the granite outcrop, sharp edges digging into his palm. He welcomed the pain, perhaps it would help drive some sense into his brain to combat the runaway emotions roiling through him.
Bella was only a child. She is a woman, he argued with himself. She is mortal, her flame is bright, but it only burns for a very short time. Are you willing to step into that kind of pain? Loving her also means sorrowing down through the centuries for something that cannot be. The sh
arp wind off the waves cooled his heated face and slowed the racing of his heart. He would be kind to her. How could he not? But he would comfort her, but he would not touch her in any way that a brother wouldn’t touch his sister. Yes, that was the key. He could love her as a friend, nothing more. Are you sure you can do that? His inner voice nagged as visions of the firelight on her creamy skin filled his vision.
“Vear?” She put a hand on his arm. When he didn’t turn, she slipped both arms about his waist and leaned on his back. Her fingers stroking the material of his workman’s shirt, her breasts pressing against the firm planes of his back. “What is it? Have I done something to make you angry? If I have, please just tell me.”
Her breath stirred the hair on his neck and he shuddered. Bella pressed closer which only heightened his turmoil. Vear’s every instinct was to turn and take her in his arms, kiss her and claim her for his own for as the long as the fates would allow. The thought brought the Council back to the forefront of his thoughts. The fates wouldn’t give them much time if the bloody Council had any say in the matter. He snorted and grasped Bella’s fingers that had worked their way inside his shirt and were toying with the coarse hair on his belly. Disengaging them, he turned and looked down into her worried face.
“’Tis nothing you have done, sweetling. But this … whatever this is between us … it cannot be. You are but a child and I am so much older. I find myself in the position of being the responsible one, it is a most peculiar turn of events, I assure you. Sweet as it would be, there can be nothing between us but friendship. Do you understand me, Arabella Angarrick?”
“Is that how you think of me, truly?” Anger darkened Bella’s eyes. Vear was unprepared for the hand that snaked out and stuck a stinging blow to his cheek. “A friend?” The words hissed between her clenched teeth. “I want more from you than friendship, and if you would be honest with yourself, you want more from me as well. Don’t you.” She challenged him with her hands on her hips, bosom thrust forward and her hair floating wild in the wind. “I’ve not lain with a man, but I’m no fool, Vear Du. You think I don’t feel your reaction when you kiss me? When I stroke you? You words can deny me, but your body betrays you. How can something that feels so right be so wrong?” she demanded.
He held a hand to his still stinging cheek. “Bella, Bella, it is wrong on so many levels. Surely, you must see that? You’re an innocent and a mortal on top of that. I’m a selkie, a creature of the sea and the land, and much more experienced than you.”
“Have you had other women, then? Other mortals?” She interrupted him, glaring up at him.
He sighed. “No, Bella. I have kept my lust to those of my own kind.”
“Are you in love with a … a … whatever you call a female selkie? Are you married to one of them? Are you in love with someone—something else?” She took a step back from him, shadows falling across her face.
“I am a bull selkie, so of course I have mated over the years. I won’t insult you by denying that, but I have never been in love, as you so quaintly put it.”
Her shoulders relaxed at bit and Vear hoped she had put the thought of hitting him again out of her mind. She stepped close again and he closed his eyes against the rush of longing that surged through him.
“I think I’m falling in love with you,” Bella whispered. She raised her hand and trailed gently fingers along his jaw.
Vear kept his eyes closed. “That way lies madness, Bella. Madness.”
“Then I think I very much like being insane,” she replied. One finger traced the strong column of his throat and continued inside the open collar of his shirt.
He caught her fingers in his and brought them to his mouth, opening his eyes as he kissed them. Touching his tongue to the tip of each and revelling in the hot colour that suffused her face and the soft gasp that escaped her lips at every stroke of his tongue. He closed his lips around her index finger and sucked gently, his common sense screaming for him to stop this foolishness while his baser emotions urged him on. Bella’s eyes darkened with desire and she swayed toward him. The pulse of lust surging through him scared him with its intensity and brought him to his sense. Reluctantly, he folded her fingers into the palm of her hand and let go of her.
“Vear…?” Bella moved closer, confusion warring with desire in her expression.
He held up a hand to stop her. “This can go no further, do ye ken? No good can come of a relationship between us. The church men would call this an unholy alliance at best, and how will you ever find the husband you deserve if you dally with me?”
Anger chased the confusion from her face and he took a step back, mindful of her wicked slap earlier. “A husband?” Her voice rose shrilly. “A husband? It’s Daniel bloody Treliving who I’ll be shackled to. He’s already after telling anyone who will listen that he’s had me any way he wanted to. No decent lad will ever look twice at me except to see if I’ll lift my skirts for a quick slap and tickle. That is what I call an unholy alliance, but the damned church will bless it, of course. Tame the wayward woman, show her who’s the boss, bring her into line. I’ll have a lifetime of pain and abuse, he’s a bloody mean bastard, and once he owns me I have no escape save death.”
“Bella, I grant you, the man is a bounder, but surely there are other….”
“Da promised me to Daniel. Promised. Da’s word is law, he wouldn’t go back on it even if I could prove the man was a murderer. A promise given is a promise kept, he’d preach at me. And my sworn duty as his daughter is to accept that.” She spat the words at him and he had to force his gaze away from the agitated rise and fall of her breasts beneath the thin shirt she wore.
“Bella, see sense. How would lying with me help your cause in any way? Surely—”
“It would give me something good to remember. Something to remind me that marital relations don’t have to involve pain, and domination, and humiliation. I know it sounds like a dime store novel, but I love you. I’ve loved you since the day you took the stone from Raven’s foot.”
“That’s nonsense, Bella.” Vear denied her, even though his heart soared at her words. It can never be, he reminded himself. Never.
“Nonsense is it?” He stepped back as she moved closer, her eyes glittering dangerously. “Nonsense?” She pulled open the front of her shirt exposing herself to him. “Can you deny you want me as much as I want you?”
Vear opened his mouth to scold her but no words came out. The shimmer of air by the fire gave him a moment’s warning. “Cover yerself,” he hissed.
She glared at him and moved nearer. “For the love of the goddess,” he cursed.
“Bella! I’m ever so glad to see you’re safe.” Sarie materialized beside Gwin Scawen.
To Vear’s great relief, Bella hastily closed her shirt. She glanced up at him. “This convo is far from over, big man. Far from over.”
Chapter Eight
“Bella, I was so worried about you.” Sarie crossed the sand and enveloped her friend in a huge hug. “When Daniel came roaring back into town all bloodied like he’d been in a barney …well, I didn’t know what to think when I heard.”
“But then I showed up and soothed her fears,” Gwin spoke up strutting importantly over to stand beside Sarie.
“Yes, you did. And I am most grateful.” Sarie laid a hand on the small man’s head.
Bella fumbled with the last button as they broke apart. “Oh, look, Sarie. You’ve got me comin’ undone.” She attempted to make light of the state of her clothes.
“Ummm.” Sarie favoured her with a look that clearly said she didn’t believe a word of it. “Come by the fire and let’s suss this out. Figure out what your options are.”
Vear avoided Bella’s attempts to catch his eye. He busied himself with the kettle and teapot. Sighing, she settled by the newly kindled blaze and glanced at Sarie. Her friend raised an eyebrow and quirked at look at the big selkie staring broodingly into the flames. Bella shrugged.
“Interrupted something, did we?” Sar
ie sat on the boulder beside Bella. “Don’t bother to deny it, I’m not the village idiot, as well you know.”
“We were having a discussion, that’s all,” Bella prevaricated.
“A discussion, was it?”
Bella had the grace to blush. “Well, we were talking … at least part of the time.”
“You haven’t done anything rash, have you? For God’s sake, Bella, aren’t you in enough of pickle?”
She laughed to ease the tension in her chest. “For heaven’s sake, Sarie. I haven’t done anything scandalous, more’s the pity. What’s the news from town? Is Da all in a bother?”
“Your da has a whole hive of bees in his bonnet. He’s vowing to find you, drag you back by the hair and marry you off to the Treliving bloke. The coppers are out searching for you everywhere. Daniel led them to the cave you were hiding out in. Lucky I had a head start, thanks to Gwin here, and got there ahead of them. Raven is still safe at Mum’s and someone had brushed away any trace of there being anyone else there except Daniel. The man’s been raving about ghosts and spirits and a huge giant who hurled him out the cave mouth almost to his death.”
“Just my luck he didn’t fall to his doom,” Bella remarked.
“Bella! It never pays to wish ill on anyone, even if he is a right villain. Bless his dark heart,” Sarie admonished her. “They all think he was liquored up and must have fallen when you ran by him to escape. No one is believin’ his story of you disappearing into thin air with the giant.”
“Well, that’s one less thing we have to explain,” Vear joined the conversation. “But what are we to do with you, Bella? I don’t suppose you’d consider returning home and trying to work things out with your da?”
“When pigs fly,” she retorted with heat. “I am not some broodmare to be bought and sold or given away by my father. In a few weeks I’ll be eighteen and I can do as I please. Thank God the law changed last January or I’d be captive for another four years.”