“I’m named for me.” The woman’s eyebrows curved as a small frown showed her displeasure. “Whose land might I have the pleasure of trespassing on?”
“Griffin Gallagher,” he said. “I’m the duke of the castle you must have driven by. How’d you like the view here?”
“It’s everything my heart yearns for.” The woman put her hand over her chest. “I feel strangely at home here.”
“Well then, you must let me show you around,” Griffin said, remembering his chivalry. He offered her his arm. “We Gallaghers are one of the few familiesleft with land and title.”
“Then I’m indeed fortunate today,” Brigid said. Tucking her small, graceful hand in the crook of his elbow, she looked up at him with eyes green as fresh cut grass. A sprinkle of fine freckles danced over her nose, and her scent was clean and fresh like sundried sheets hanging on a clothesline.
“As am I.” The corners of his lips turned up, and pride puffedin his chest that he would prove Pierce wrong. He wasn’t going to resign himself into marrying a Morrigan witch. In any case, now that he’d screwed up, he wasn’t in a hurry.
He might as well be a normal guy and have fun with the ladies. This tourist was pretty; she looked as gay as springtime, and his heart leaped with the first sign of life since his gargantuan failure.
“In thatcase, we’re each other’s lucky charms,” Brigid said, her voice high-pitched and sweet.
“You’re definitely a sight for sore Irish eyes, lass.” He made his voice deep and heroic.
“And I,” she said. “Feel like I’m coming home.”
“Where would that be?” He detected an accent from the East Coast, where the Anglo Normans settled in the late twelfth century.
“I grew up in BronaghAbbey in the Midlands but have been living in Dublin,” she said.
“What brings you up here?”
She took a deep breath of the sea air and pushed her hair from her face. “This feels like the very edge of Ireland, doesn’t it? Is it out there that the Tuatha Dé Danann first appeared on our shores? Do you happen to know their landing place?”
“It could be that island out yonder, withthe beach on the contrary side,” he said. “Shall we hike to the headlands and view it?”
“I’d love to relive that,” she said. “Watching the ships burn must have girded everyone’s heart with bravery, valor, and resolution.”
A wistful look settled on her face as if she were under the spell of a distant memory. A feeling of déjà vu overcame Griffin, and he, too, was transported to thatfateful day when gods and goddesses touched down on Irish soil.
Invigorated by her femininity and the bracing wind, Griffin showed Brigid all the wonders of Malin Head, the craggy, razor-sharp cliffs of gneiss, the frothing water, the heather and thistle growing in the clefts, and the shadowy island of Inishtrahull, in the north beyond the mist thrown by the confluence of cold air overthe warmer waters of the Gulf Stream.
“Woohoo!” Clare loved driving fast, especiallywhen the man in the passenger seat was holding on for dear life. He obviously did not remember sitting next to her on the airplane and seemed taken in by her Brigid O’Brien persona.
Clare hadn’t known how she would approach Griffin, but the fact his memory had been wiped blank was the best-case scenario. Now, she could help him get his diamond back without being implicated in the crime.
Maybe they could even become friends.
She stepped on the accelerator and took a curve too fast, then gunned the engine on the winding road circumnavigating Gallagher Castle.
The top was down on the convertible she rented, and the wind made the ride seem rougher.
“You might be more careful,” Griffin said. “Watch for the sheep we have grazing on our grounds.”
“Eh,the sheepdogs will herd them out of the way.” She tore down a section where the road rose and dipped like the back of a sea serpent. “This is fun.”
“You’re a crazy lass.” Griffin let out a hoot of laughter. “But you must be hard on cars.”
“You only live once!” Clare slowed at the sight of a heavy iron gate.
“Well, gate crashing will end that real soon,” Griffin said.
Griffin waved at the guard, and slowly, too slowly, the jaws of the heavy gate opened. Statues of griffins perched on top of the gate posts, and a large letter “G” was designed into the center of the iron doors.
“I don’t mind crashing a rental car.” Clare put on a careful laugh. “I can’t wait to see your castle.”
