She always stayed awake until he came in, and he always assured her things were under control. He even kissed her good night, but only one kiss. And her pride would not allow her to snuggle up to his broad back after he turned away from her and settled into an exhausted sleep.
“Oh, la, la, Mademoiselle Jeannie,” Madame Chantal’s voice broke into Alaynia’s thoughts. “You will have the swains fighting for every dance tomorrow night. Is she not lovely, Madame St. Clair?”
“Yes,” Alaynia agreed. “You’re very beautiful, Jeannie. Here. Let’s try your hair this way.”
She worked with Jeannie’s hair for a few minutes, threading the top of it into a French braid, then looping the glorious blond mass before letting it fall down her back. Tugging a few wisps of hair free, she curled them around Jeannie’s piquant face and stepped back to let Jeannie look into the full-length mirror on the back of her bedroom door.
Jeannie gasped in awe, then bent forward in childish wonder. “Is that me?” she breathed. “I ... I look like a woman.”
Madame and Alaynia chuckled. “You are nearly a woman, honey,” Alaynia said. “And you’ll definitely be the belle of your own ball.”
Madame Chantal began gathering up her sewing things, and Alaynia stepped behind Jeannie’s dressing screen to change from the white dress into the everyday one. Carefully carrying the white dress over her arm, she left Jeannie’s room to hang the lovely creation in the master bedroom wardrobe, beside the tangerine dress. By the time she had returned to Jeannie’s room, the young girl had also changed, and Madame was heading out the door.
“Please do not bother to show me out,” Madame said with a negligent wave of her hand. “I must hurry back to town, as I have two more dresses to complete before tomorrow.”
“Jeannie’s been afraid people might not come, with the weather like this,” Alaynia said.
“Oh, no one would miss it,” Madame assured her. “The party is the talk of the town. There has not been a gathering at Chenaie for months and months. Everyone will be here.”
“Thank you for doing such a wonderful job on the dresses, Madame. I guess we’ll see you tomorrow night.”
A tiny simper pursed Madame’s lips and she nodded her head vigorously, almost toppling her orange hair from its high perch. “I must tell you, I was very surprised to receive an invitation, since I don’t usually move within the circles of society,” Madame said. “But I was so hoping it was not a mistake.”
“Jeannie made out her guest list herself,” Alaynia confirmed. “And we’re looking forward to seeing you again.”
With another vigorous bob of her head, Madame toddled down the hallway, her sewing bag clutched to her momentous chest. Alaynia watched her with a smile, but the smile faded as soon as Madame disappeared down the stairwell. Alaynia walked on into Jeannie’s room again, finding the young girl bent over her writing desk, with Tiny curled at her feet.
“Madame didn’t quite know what to think of Tiny, did she?” Alaynia asked to get Jeannie’s attention.
Jeannie laughed and glanced up. “No. She didn’t seem to think a pig was an appropriate house pet.”
“What are you doing now?”
“Finishing up my list of things to do,” Jeannie told her. “The servants know what needs to be done, but they still expect us to tell them. Then they can show us in return that they already have everything well in hand.”
“I guess I’ll never learn all the ins and outs of running a household like this,” Alaynia replied. “Indeed, I think I’ll ride over to Jake’s, if you don’t need my help here.”
“Got it under control,” Jeannie reassured her. “You don’t want me to go with you, do you?”
“No. I’ll ask one of the stable hands to accompany me. You go ahead with what you’re doing.”
Jeannie bent back to her list, and Alaynia returned to the master bedroom to change once again. A few minutes later, she splashed across the sodden backyard toward the stable, wearing her riding skirt and boots and carrying the slicker, since the rain had let up for a while. But though she searched the interior of the barn, she didn’t find anyone there.
Patting her foot in indecision, she stared at the stall where her little mare was standing. Shain never appeared for the noon meal these days, and she was sure Jeannie would assume she would stay at Jake’s past the hour for the meal. She could get Jake to accompany her back.
* * * *
Sylvia and Basil drifted overhead as Alaynia rode into the clearing around Jake’s shack and barn. Bypassing the shack, she headed over to the barn and dismounted.
“Now, you shield your presence here from Zeke,” Sylvia warned. “You’ve been pushing the bounds way too much lately.”
“I knew that old creek bed was there,” Basil argued. “And if I hadn’t shown Alaynia what was needed, Chenaie’s cabins would have been flooded. Now even the cane might make at least a halfway decent crop. It needs at least some moisture to reach maturity.”
“You came up with that idea of diverting the water in the irrigation ditch by tuning into Alaynia’s mind—and her engineering education,” Sylvia insisted. “But that’s not what I’m talking about. If I hadn’t found you when I did that day at Tana’s cabin, you’d have probably given Alaynia a heart attack by appearing full-blown in front of her and sitting down to chat!”
Basil looked anything but contrite as they drifted through the barn roof and settled on one of the beams. Shaking her head in consternation, Sylvia sent a quick plea winging to Francesca to join them. It went unanswered yet again, and she frowned in vexation. Just what the heck was the superior angel up to? But she couldn’t chance leaving for even a brief period to check it out. No telling what trouble Basil would get into, if she left him alone.
“I’ve been doing just fine and dandy here for all this time,” Basil said, making Sylvia realize she hadn’t protected her thoughts from him. “If you want to go look for your friend, feel free to take off.”
“My assignment is to stay here. And here’s where I’ll stay, until I get permission to leave. Oh, darn. Look at Alaynia.”
Below them, Alaynia buried her face on Jake’s shoulder, and the wiry little man patted her uncertainly on the back. Sylvia immediately turned her attention downward, rather than upward.
* * * *
Jake led Alaynia over to one of the stools and gently pushed her onto it. “I seem to remember this situation once before,” he said in a soothing voice. “Now, you talk it out with Uncle Jake here. Tell me what’s troubling you.”
Alaynia straightened and backhanded the tears from her eyes. “Since the other night, I just can’t get something Tana said out of my mind. She said perhaps I’d been brought here for a purpose, and I’m deathly afraid that my purpose has been accomplished. I also honestly don’t think Shain would give a damn if I disappeared entirely from his life. I’m nothing but an embarrassment to him.”
“Why?” Jake asked in astonishment. “Because you’re still insisting on finishing the construction of my house?”
“Not just that.” Alaynia went on to explain what had happened at the irrigation ditch, and Shain’s withdrawal from her after that. “I think he’s upset that I thought of the plan to divert the water,” she finished. “It was an insult to his masculine pride that a woman—and his wife, at that—came up with it, instead of him.”
“Maybe so,” Jake agreed. “Have you talked to him about it?”
“When?” Alaynia asked with a sigh. “He claims he’s busy. Oh, not in so many words, but he’s out all day and falls asleep at night as soon as his head hits the pillow.”
“So you feel your purpose here may have been to save Chenaie from that flood,” Jake mused, “and now you’ll be going back to your own time?”
Alaynia rose and paced back and forth. “I ... something else happened at Tana’s,” she finally forced herself to say. She told Jake about the voices and her absolute conviction that at least one presence, perhaps two, had been in the room. “And
I didn’t think of the idea of how to divert the water all on my own. It was like something ... someone ... planted the thought in my head. I’m satisfied it was Shain’s grandfather, Jake. From what I’ve learned about him, he’d go to any lengths to protect Chenaie, alive or dead. And now that I’ve done what he brought me here to do—save Chenaie from that flood—I’ve served my purpose.”
* * * *
Alaynia dropped back onto the stool, and Sylvia grabbed Basil as he started to fly from the beam. “No you don’t!” she said. “Don’t you dare go down there and appear to them!”
“But she’s got it all wrong,” Basil said. “I brought her back here to protect Chenaie in the future—to keep a bunch of strangers from taking over my manor house. Her being here and having the skills to avert danger to Chenaie in this period is an added bonus, I’ll admit. And I’ve told you and told you that I’ve no intentions of sending her away from Shain.”
“And I keep telling you that it’s not your choice.” Sylvia crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “It’s Alaynia’s choice. Your interfering in her free will won’t be tolerated again. And you’re supposed to be recouping your powers, so you can reopen that time warp and allow her to make her choice—so things will be set right. Instead, you’re using your energies to cross out of your plane of existence and communicate with Alaynia—even try to appear to her!”
A flutter of nearby wings startled Sylvia, and a huge barn owl swooped past her. It flew out the barn door, and suddenly several of the other owls in the barn followed. Below them, she saw Jake gazing after the owls with a puzzled expression on his face.
“Those owls never fly in the daytime,” Jake said. “I wonder ...” Instantly his expression changed. “We’ve got to get out of here!”
Grabbing Alaynia’s arm, Jake pulled her with him as he raced for the door. Sylvia heard the sound at that moment, and saw the look of horror on Basil’s face as he realized what was happening. They exited through the roof and hovered high above the barn, watching the mud slide down the hillside behind them, picking up huge boulders as it went. Sylvia glanced down briefly to see Jake and Alaynia standing well beyond the barn, out of danger. Alaynia was holding the reins of her mare, which she had led away from the barn.
The mudslide rumbled on down the hill, as vicious as an avalanche and just as deadly. Within seconds, it hit the side of the barn. The structure held for a moment, creaking and groaning with the strain, while the mud built up higher against it. One huge boulder bounced against another one, flying into the air and landing with a thunderous crack against the wall. The structure trembled visibly, then began to collapse.
It folded on one end, as though kneeling in acknowledgment of the mudslide’s superior force. Timbers cracked like shots from a gun, and the roof slid sideways, tilting down into the mud, which immediately buried it. A few more boulders piled on the mass, blocking the remainder of the slide.
For at least half a minute, the remainder of the barn stood against the onslaught. Then an interior beam split with a resounding, splintering crack, and the structure shivered in defeat. In a violent explosion, the roof caved in and the exterior walls disintegrated, tumbling down to cover the roof. Clouds of dust and flying pieces of wood were driven into the air by the force of the collapse, showering down on the tangled mass of the structure after they lost impetus.
* * * *
The resulting silence after the cacophony of sound was so deadly it took Alaynia a moment to realize she hadn’t been deafened by the explosion. She fearfully searched the mass for any sign of flames, trying to recall if Jake had had any lanterns burning when they were inside the barn. But she only saw the dust of years settling, and when a patter of rain fell on her head, she knew it would soon wash the air free of any lingering traces of that.
Jake moaned beside her. “My entire life’s work,” he said in a miserable voice. “Everything’s gone, even your wonderful car.”
“Jake, you’ve still got plenty of your work left. Your patents—your name among the other inventors. You ...” Alaynia gasped as Jake grabbed at his chest and his eyes searched hers, terror and pain in their depths.
“I ... Alaynia ... it ...”
His knees gave way and Alaynia grabbed him, struggling desperately to hold his inert weight. Sinking with him to the soaked ground, she stared around her, finally seeing Zeke in the shadowed recesses of the porch.
“Help me!” she screamed. “I think he’s having a heart attack!”
Zeke ran from the porch, feet splashing in the water-logged ground. He hesitated only for a second when he reached them, his fear of Alaynia briefly crossing his face.
“Help him!” she insisted.
Zeke knelt in the mud and gathered Jake into his strong arms. Lifting him easily, he splashed back to the porch and inside the shack. Crossing to a battered settee in a corner of the room, he gently laid Jake down.
“Let me see him,” Alaynia said.
Zeke moved aside and Alaynia knelt by Jake. Grabbing his wrist, she pressed her fingers against it, giving a sigh when she felt a very faint pulse. She studied his gray face, noticing his lips already turning cyanotic from lack of oxygen, as were the fingertips of the hand she held.
“A doctor.” She gave Zeke a beseeching look. “He needs a doctor—quickly.”
Huge, silent tears were rolling down Zeke’s face, but he spoke in a distinct voice. “Miss Tana be closest.”
“Take my mare, Zeke. And please, tell her to hurry. I’ve had CPR training, if I need it while you’re gone.”
Zeke hurried from the room, and a moment later, Alaynia heard hoofbeats as her mare raced from the clearing. Keeping a firm hold on Jake’s hand, both in comfort should he rouse and to keep a check on his fluttering pulse, she bowed her head over his motionless figure.
“Please,” she prayed. “If it’s his time to go, please just let me tell him how much he’s come to mean to me. And don’t let him suffer. But if it’s not his time, please let me know what to do to save his life.”
Jake’s wrist flexed beneath her fingers, and Alaynia’s eyes flew open to search his face. It was still gray and lifeless, but she thought the blueness around his lips had faded somewhat. Beneath her fingers, the pulse steadied into a rhythmic beat, though it continued to be faint.
* * * *
“What can we do to help her?” Basil whispered to Sylvia as they stood just inside the door of the shack. “Is Jake going to join us?”
“I don’t know,” Sylvia replied. “If it’s his time, yes, he will. But we can’t contact Alaynia. We can’t interfere.”
“I wish we could have interfered with that mudslide. That’s what gave Jake this heart attack—seeing his life’s work destroyed.”
“If I’d had to intervene to protect either Alaynia or Jake, I would have,” Sylvia replied. “My guardian duties only apply to humans, though, not natural disasters. I explained that to you after the chapel fire.”
“Then what about Jake’s heart attack?” Basil asked.
“I ... Basil, I didn’t have any warning of that. It’s hard to define how an angel knows when her powers are needed and when she’s to step aside and let events unfold. Since I had no forewarning of the heart attack, it was meant to happen.”
Basil nodded slowly in understanding. “I guess you’ve seen lots of people pass over.”
“Not that many,” Sylvia denied. “My duties up until a few years ago consisted of working with already-departed spirits. But, yes, I’ve seen a few, though never one of my assignments, only those around them. I was there when Jacki’s husband died, and her mother and father later on.”
“Did all of them have the choice I had?”
“You mean, whether to pass on to the heavenly plane or stay in a dimension where they could still be close to earth?”
“Yes.”
“Not really,” Sylvia revealed. “Some spirits are ready and willing to go on to the next plane, and don’t ask for that choice. In your situation
, I assume you did.”
Basil nodded agreement, then fell silent. They watched Alaynia continue her vigil over Jake, now and then smoothing the frazzled hair and whispering encouragement for him to hold on until Tana arrived. At one point, Alaynia stood and searched the room, then went into one of the bedrooms at the back of the shack. Reemerging with blankets, she lovingly laid them over Jake and tucked them around him.
Time passed slowly, but finally Sylvia and Basil heard the sound of galloping hoofbeats approaching. Moving out of the doorway, they glided off to the side of the porch.
“Remember,” Sylvia admonished Basil. “Shield your presence from them. Both Zeke and Tana will sense you easily, and they need to concentrate on Jake.”
“I will,” Basil promised.
They glanced at the galloping horses entering the clearing to see not only Zeke and Tana, but also Shain on his huge, black stallion. Pulling their horses to sliding halts, they dismounted and raced into the cabin.
* * * *
Alaynia rose to her feet, gratitude warring with the heartbreak in her eyes. Shain strode to the settee, his arms already reaching for her. “How is he?”
“Still alive,” Alaynia murmured. She stepped out of Shain’s grasp and moved away to allow Tana room to examine Jake. Shain followed her, his attention split between his concern over his old friend and Alaynia’s bedraggled appearance. Her riding skirt was smeared with mud, as were her boots, and tear paths tracked through a layer of dirt on her face. Another tear snaked down her cheek, and she backhanded it with a negligent swipe.
Shain started to reach for her again, but Tana spoke. “Zeke, get some hot water. Alaynia, put some of these herbs in the water to seep.” She handed Alaynia a bundle of herbs drawn from the black satchel of medications she carried, and Alaynia hurried beside Zeke to the stove in the rear of the room.
Witch Angel Page 33