It was now evening. Golden light filled the world. Cela leaned forward, curious despite herself to see where her mate lived.
Her first thought was,How beautiful.
There was a lovely tall house, looking like human houses in illustrations from the children’s books she had enjoyed—much more so than the small houses in town. It was surrounded by a sweeping green pasture dotted with flowers and blossoming trees. When Tyr opened the back door of the car, sweet floral smells blew inside.
Cela had lived all her life on a windswept island that she had thought, up until now, was the most beautiful place inthe world. But in this instant, her entire world seemed to tilt sideways. She abruptly loved this soft green place more than any place she had ever seen.
In this instant, for the first time since leaving the island, she felt as if she could be happy here.
Then she tried to get out of the car and made a tiny, “Urk!” sound as the belt dug into her abdomen.
“You’re still buckled,” Tyr pointed out. “Can I help—” He started to reach for the belt, his hand brushed hers, and they both jerked back in opposite directions with small exclamations of pain.
This wasterrible. Cela wondered if Kav had known what a perfectly hellish punishment he had inflicted on her. She tried to think back and remember if she had touched Lirin at all after the exile mark was placed upon her. She didn’t recall doing so. At least then she would have been forewarned.
But of course he must have known. Why would he let her go if he hadn’t set her up with a reason to come crawling back to the island, and to him?
Tyr was still hovering anxiously, wanting to help. “Can I do anything?”
“Here, you can help me by taking them.” Cela pushed back her poncho and unslung the twins’ carrier.
There was a moment of quivering hesitation. These were her babies. She had kept them close to her chest for the entire trip, wrapping herself around them as if to protect the one thing she had left. But sooner or later she was going to have to let someone else help with them, and this was her mate. For all the problems currently coming between them, she knew on a deep, instinctive level that there was no one else in the world she could trust more with her most precious thing.
The babies were both back in human form, and bothasleep. She just hoped they stayed that way for a few minutes.
“Are you sure?” Tyr asked as she handed them into his arms. But he took them immediately with the attitude of a man who knew how to hold a baby. It took a little effort to get them both settled, but he did it with the skill of a father.
That had definitely been his daughter at the house.
Cela unbuckled herself and picked up the bags. “We are going inside?” she asked. She assumed so, but for all she knew, he slept in the trees out back.
“Yes. This way.”
They mounted the steps to a wide porch. Cela tried not to look like a wide-eyed country girl, but she knew that was exactly what she was. She hadn’t realized Tyr was so successful in his human life. This was a very fine house, in such a beautiful setting. He must be an important man in the human world.
This lifted her spirits a little. If Tyr could start out on Griffin Island and end up doing so well, maybe she could too.
The house was just as grand inside, much bigger than even the biggest dwelling in her covert. Tyr showed her to a bathroom and explained how to use everything. She already knew most of this from bus station bathrooms, but the bathtub and shower were new to her.
“I’ll make something to eat. Do you want me to, uh ...” He had slung the carrier on, but the sidestraps were loose and he was cradling both babies carefully. His awkward gesture was more of a shrug. “Keep them with me for a while?”
“No, they could use a bath too.” She set the bags on the floor. “And I want to see what your, um—your ex-mate, what is her name?”
“Paula.”
“Yes. What your Paula gave me for them, and whether it fits.”
“I told her their age. She didn’t have anything exactly their size, but she gave me some old clothes from when her kids were younger and said she’d ask some friends who have small children tomorrow.”
“Tyr, what exactly did you tell her?”
Tyr was carefully extracting himself from the carrier. “What I told you, that you’re a friend from out of town. I told her you were, uh—that you were from the island and didn’t have anything with you.”
Cela gave him a wide-eyed stare of shock and dismay. “We’re not supposed to talk about the island with outsiders!” She tried not to dart a stare at his sleeved arm. Hemusthave a tattoo; everyone did. But how could he do that?
“Paula already knows. Do you, um ...” He held out the carrier.
Rather than go through the dance of trying not to touch him, and risk dropping or hurting the twins, she simply pointed to the bag of clothes. Tyr very carefully settled the double carrier on the soft surface.
