Dougal.Ugh.Nessa would start the visit withthattopic. Trish shucked off her jacket and turned a bit, checking for the toes of the boots under the tapestry. Nothing appeared but the clean gray slab of stone flooring stretching beneath the arch.Good boy. Stay out of sight until I can get rid of your mom and we can talk.Tossing her jacket onto an ornately carved wooden bench, Trish ignored the particulars of Nessa’s question. “You know me. I always travel light.” Maybe if she didn’t acknowledge the part about Dougal, Nessa would move on to another subject.
Nessa didn’t. “Oh, Trish.” Nessa threw her hands up in the air. “I thought you and Dougal were serious. I already had a spring wedding envisioned for the private garden.”
Well dammit. Nessa never did know when to butt out. Trish snorted a silent laugh. That’s one trait she and Nessa shared. They both enjoyed meddling in each other’s business. “Dougalwas serious. Not me. You know settling down in one spot for a cozy family life isn’t my thing. There’s still a lot of world I want to see.”
“But the way you love kids.” Nessa waved toward the staircase. “Don’t you want to settle down and have a few dozen of your own?”
Trish swallowed hard against a sudden bitter lump rising in the back of her throat. She didn’t have the heart to tell Nessa the cold hard facts: long ago doctors had dashed her dream of having children and refused to give her the slightest hope. Forcing a grin to her lips, Trish waved a hand toward the staircase. “Why should I go through the pain and aggravation of having my own kids when I’ve got the best of both worlds with yours?”
Trish backed against the forest scene tapestry covering the archway and nudged against the child-sized lump protruding from the woven reddish-brown buttocks of a slightly threadbare stag.Damn, the boy is stubborn…and reckless.She smiled wider and nodded toward Nessa’s stomach. “Besides, you look like the poster child for exhaustion. Think about it. I’ve got the best part of this deal. I get to play with the feisty munchkins while you have to be the mean old mom and make sure they’re properly trained to charm the world.”
Nessa’s brows knotted over her tired eyes. “You have such a way with words. With a friend like you—”
“Now, Nessa.” Trish rushed over and wrapped an arm around her friend’s slumping shoulders and pulled her into a hug. “You know how much I love you. You’re the sis I never had.”
Nessa huffed and grudgingly returned the hug. “So, out with it. What happened between you and Dougal?”
“Nope.” Trish shook her head. She wasn’t about to get sucked into a relationship tell-all session until she found out what the boys had done to enact such a strict punishment. Besides, there wasn’t much to tell. Dougal had been a nice enough guy but that was it. After the initial excitement of the first meet wore off, any time spent with Dougal grated on her nerves. The man had revealed himself to be an insufferable bore. If she needed a path to unbearableyawndom, she would bury herself in the college computer lab and code all her archeology notes for filing.Yuck.That thought triggered an involuntary shudder.
Trish rubbed an elbow against the tapestry at her back.Good.Ramsay had finally retreated. Meeting Nessa’s gaze, she crossed her arms and patted a foot against the stone floor. The clicking tap of the toe of her boot echoed with a sharp report through the high-ceilinged hallway. “We’re not talking about my failed relationship with Dougal until you tell me what the marauding curtain climbers of Clan MacKay did to incur your wrath.”
“Magic.” Nessa spat the word as though it burnt her tongue.
“Magic? Is that all?” Trish leaned against the doorframe, teetering back and forth while she peeled away the uncomfortable leather boot. She wiggled her toes and stretched out the uncomfortable seam of the tortuous sock that had embedded itself into her flesh.
Trish groaned aloud at the instant relief her poor toes transmitted to her brain.Whew! She really needed to get rid of those heels. Comfort was so much more important than style.Lifting her gaze from her much happier toes, she motioned toward the shattered remnants of a crystal globe encased in a well-lit curio cabinet. “Those boys have been doing magic since they were just a few weeks old. It’s their heritage. You’d think you and Latharn would be used to it by now.”
“Not time travel.” Nessa hissed between tightly clenched teeth.
Trish straightened, hopping on the remaining high-heeled boot and stumbling toward the wooden bench fitted into a stone niche beside the doorway. “Time travel? Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Wow.” Trish kicked off the boot and pulled both feet up into her lap, relaxing yoga-style against the back of the seat. “Um. Where…or I guess the more appropriate question would bewhen?”
Nessa lowered her swollen body onto the bench beside Trish, closing her eyes as she leaned against the throw pillow threatening to squish out from behind her back. “Nowhere…or when. Luckily, Ramsay botched the spell. He claimed his cousin broke his concentration.”
“I see.” Trish frowned at the gently moving tapestry to her left. Hopefully, if Nessa noticed the wavering cloth, she would think it was just stirring due to heated air flowing from the free-standing heater positioned nearby.
Time travel. Ramsay had always been fascinated with the past, almost obsessed with the need to know every detail of his ancestors’ lives. “Not that it matters, but which cousin did he blame? Usually, Catriona is the level-headed one of the group that catches all the heat. Was she the one who ratted them out?”
Nessa nodded without opening her eyes. “Yes. Thank goodness our little Catriona was once again the voice of reason.” Flexing her spine, a pained expression darkened Nessa’s face as she massaged her knuckles up and down her lower back. “Trouble is…when she forced her way into the boys’ magical ring, the energy of the spell had to go somewhere and they nearly blew the roof off the northern tower.”
“Isthatwhat caused that gray cloud to settle across the entry bridge?” Trish massaged her thumbs into the balls of her feet. “I thought it was a little late in the season for an early evening fog.”
“Yep.” Nessa slid to the edge of the seat and hefted her weighty girth up from the bench with an awkward hitching launch. Pausing once she’d gained her footing, she closed her eyes and flexed her shoulders, still working her fingers up and down the base of her back. “The roof of the library tower is now hanging by a thread and half the blocks from the farthest parapet have been reduced to dust.”
An involuntary shiver stole across Trish’s flesh.Holy cow.Ramsay had outdone himself this time. Speaking a bit louder while she risked another glance at the now motionless tapestry, Trish slowly unfolded her legs. “Sounds like they definitely pushed the envelope this time.” Wiggling her toes back into the persecution of her boots, Trish grimaced as she forced the tight leather heels back into place on her aching feet. “I didn’t hear a second explosion so I’m assuming Latharn doesn’t know that in a single afternoon, his sons destroyed a part of the castle that’s survived centuries of enemy attacks and extremes of Highland weather?”
“Oh, he knows.” Nessa waddled toward the wide stone archway connecting the entry hall to the larger main room making up the first floor of the keep. “According to Ramsay, his father’s angry roar shook the remaining walls of the room even before the dust settled. Apparently, even though Latharn is currently meeting with historians in Ireland, he sensed the displacement of the energy blast and made certain his sonsfelthis displeasure.”
“In other words”—Trish cringed as she danced her pant legs back down in place over her boots—“they’re gonna get it when Daddy gets home.”
“Pretty much,” Nessa agreed.
ChapterThree
Trish raised the battery-operated lantern higher, increasing the diameter of the glowing blue-white circle of light pushing back the darkness. She slid her feet in slow, searching steps, brushing the soles of her boots across the cluttered, uneven flooring. She kicked aside odd-shaped chunks of debris from Ramsay’s blast earlier in the day. Hopefully, for the boys’ sake, Latharn would delay his return from Ireland. The man had a terrible temper when adequately provoked. He needed time to cool off before he witnessed all this damage and meted out additional punishment to his sons.
