Beth took the gifts and sniffled once more. “You’ve made living here so much more enjoyable. I’ve been craving tacos like nothing else. Thank you.”
“I thought about bringing you cacoa and vanilla plants as well, but I figured if you had tacos, you could make it through anything.”
“I do miss chocolate but not like I miss tacos.” Beth smiled. “Thank you for coming here and giving me the choice to go home. Thank you for the tacos and the stuff to grow my own tacos. And thank you so much for the Kindle. Books are what I’ve missed the most.”
Dr. Lachele hugged her close. “I’m so glad you’re happy. I worried when you disappeared, but I found you.”
“You did.” As Beth watched, Dr. Lachele closed her eyes and twitched her nose, disappearing once again. She clutched the seed packets and the Kindle to her chest. Only Dr. Lachele would think of the perfect gifts for her.
Thirteen years later, Beth was speaking with Morag about the evening meal. They were having a feast for her eldest son’s birthday, and she wanted everything to be just so.
Her youngest son, Derek, was only three, and he tended to be with her wherever she went. Many of the clanspeople were calling him her shadow. She was slightly stressed, because Adam wanted tacos for the meal, but she couldn’t let the new food become known to the entire clan, so it would have to be something simpler.
Derek pulled on the edge of her kilt. “Mama!”
Beth looked down at him. “Let me finish talking to Morag, and then you’ll have all my attention.”
He looked annoyed, but he waited patiently while his mother spoke with the cook.
Ten minutes later, she led him into the sitting room and gave him her complete attention as promised. “What did you need, Derek?”
“Ye were upset.”
Beth frowned at him. “I suppose I was a little upset. I want to make your brother’s birthday feast perfect for him, but I can’t serve tacos.”
Derek frowned. “But now ye are happy.”
“How do you know?”
“I can feel what ye feel, Mama.”
Beth’s eyes widened. Was this the boy’s power, then? He was an empath? “Can you feel what others feel, too?”
Derek nodded. “That is why I stay with ye. I dinna like to feel so much.”
She understood, and she was pleased. Empathy was a power that would serve a laird well. She was going to have an interesting talk with Gavin when he returned home from the MacDougal settlement. Their little boy had his power, and it was good!
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The Scottish Siren Page 10