“Ass!” Vivienne smacked Alberti on the shoulder, then toddled away, all the while yanking her leggings away from her crotch.
Lilia snorted out loud, nearly blowing the last sip of coffee out her nose. Life would be so unbearable without these two. Rubbing her stiff neck with one hand, she moved out from behind the long glass table. “Play nice, you two, or I’m going to sit you in the corner and make you touch noses until you get along.”
She couldn’t believe she had just said that.Lilia’s heart hitched a double-thump then plummeted nearly to her stomach. Granny had always used that threat when the four sisters got into a spat over something infinitely stupid.
Damn, she missed them. Visiting through the fire portal kept them all in touch but it was nothing like really being there and it had been so very long since she’d had the time to jump back for a proper family get-together.
“Now now, lovie. I ken that look. Shake them away. Dinna let those dark demons take hold.” Vivienne hugged her around the shoulders and pulled her close. “Berti and I still think ye should take a wee bit of time off. We’ll take care of the shops. Why don’t ye jump back and visit yer family for a spell? ’Twould do ye a world of good.”
“I can’t.” Lilia blinked hard, forcing the tears back where they belonged. “I can’t leave Eliza. I just don’t think she has that much time left.” Dear, sweet Eliza, the woman Granny had sent to watch over them when she’d decided to stay with Trulie in the past.
Eccentric, bawdy, and a force of nature, Eliza had quickly taken up residence in the Sinclair girls’ hearts. But now Eliza was dying. At ninety years old, she had opted out of the recommended therapy to try and rid her lungs of the cancer. She’d said there were a great many things on this earth worse than dying, and having your loved ones watch you with pity in their eyes was one of them. She’d opted to slip away with as much dignity as she could without going through the tortuous regimen of chemotherapy and radiation and the resulting side effects.
Lilia had begged and pleaded with Granny, Trulie, and Mairi to come to the twenty-first century long enough to rid Eliza of the damn cancer with the healing touch the Fates had given them. But they had all three sadly declined and Lilia knew why. She had received the vision too. Eliza had reached the end of this life’s path. It was time for her to move on.
Vivienne hugged her again then sadly turned away. “We’ll be here for ye, pet. We’ll not let ye face this alone. Will we, Berti?”
“Absolutely not.” Alberti strode across the room, took hold of her shoulders, and steered her toward the door of the private washroom at the back of her office. “Now come. Let’s see if we can do something about that hair before our meeting. We can’t have the zoning committee thinking they’re dealing with Rapunzel, now, can we?”
* * *
“Lore,I love Fringe. It fills the city with such energy.” Vivienne swept her way into a street dancer’s arms, whirling and dancing across the cobbled street with him, her dark cape swirling out behind her.
“She’s going to break her neck in those boots.” Lilia looped her arm through Alberti’s as they hurried across the crowded avenue. All traffic was blocked from this part of the city. Edinburgh Festival Fringe was twenty-five days devoted to the arts. The world’s largest art festival. Held every August. Fringe welcomed the world to Scotland and Edinburgh gladly dedicated its streets and venues to it.
Alberti straightened his own cape at the throat and nodded. “Perhaps I should’ve had the cobbler go with three-inch heels rather than four. Her swordplay was a bit off this evening. The heels quite possibly threw her balance.”
The Highland LARPers had graciously invited Alberti, Vivienne, and Lilia into the ring to join their show—after all, Lilia currently held the title of Grand Champion when it came to medieval swordsmanship. Lilia smiled. The evening had been freaking phenomenal.
She squeezed Alberti’s arm and watched Vivienne completely mesmerize the street dancer with her moves. “You definitely got the leather corset just right. Shamus didn’t stand a chance against Vivienne’s boobs. She disarmed him in the first round. I don’t think he knew what hit him.”
Lilia smoothed a hand down her own tight-fitting leather armor. Thank goodness Alberti had designed her costume a bit more on the conservative side and along the lines of a female Viking warrior. Lilia snorted as she flipped her long braid back over her shoulder. He’d said her long blonde hair had inspired him.
“One must always accentuate the subject’s best traits.” Alberti grinned, his chest puffing out a bit farther in his own black leather suit fashioned after the armor he’d seen the character Loki wearing in an action-adventure movie. Tall and lean, Alberti was well-muscled but he was no broad-shouldered Viking god.
Lilia nudged Alberti with her hip as they meandered down the sidewalk. “Your outfit definitely caught Randolph’s eye and I saw you checking him out too. You better be careful. You know how jealous Thomas can be.”
“Thomas knows I am true to him.” Alberti waved Vivienne over. She’d discarded her street dancer and was standing on tiptoe, moving in a slow circle searching for them. He pulled Lilia out of the path of several exuberant drunks and held open the door to the pub. “He also knows I will never stop admiring other men until the day I die. My heart may be bound to him but I have not been struck blind.”
“Is this the best or what?” Vivienne jostled her way over to them and they squeezed into the crowded pub.
Lilia nodded. She pulled Vivienne forward, sandwiching her between herself and Alberti as they climbed the dark narrow steps up to their usual gallery table overlooking the main room of the pub.
Frank, the owner of the pub, was totally besotted with Vivienne’s plentiful curves and would do anything to catch her heart. Vivienne exploited this infatuation to the fullest but Lilia couldn’t really condemn her for it. She had also overheard Vivienne explaining quite clearly to Frank that she would never be his, especially since he had just married his fourth wife. Vivienne might toy with poor Frank to benefit herself but at least she was honest about it.
Lilia slid into the chair in the corner, propping her thigh-high boot on the lowest rung of the railing hemming in the gallery. This was a good spot. It was dark so she didn’t have to overly socialize and her back was against the wall.
“I’ll go down and get the drinks. As busy as they are tonight, Rabbie will never make it up here.” Alberti unbuttoned the cape at his throat and draped it across his chair. He pointed at Vivienne. “Vodka?”
“Aye.” Vivienne bobbed her head, bouncing in her seat in time with the thumping beat of the music blaring up from downstairs.
“Lilia?” Alberti turned to her.
“Sparkling water with lemon.”
“Lilia,” Alberti said in the chiding tone of a mother scolding a child.
“I don’t need alcohol tonight.” She cleared her throat and sat straighter in the chair. “It’s been a rough week with Eliza and the alcohol makes me weaker against the darkness—and there’s a lot of darkness vibrating through this many people.”
