In the next moments, too many things happened at the same time for Grainne to register them all. Too many people moving, shouting, but she heard clearly the words ‘I curse you….’
Grace had startled awake.
She’d done her best to forget the dream, just as she’d tried to avoid thinking about Luc at all.
She failed miserably at both.
I confess. I miss him.
“I’m going to be gone for a while,” he’d said when she’d invited him to dinner. “Maybe a month or more before I can return.”
Weeks had passed.
He was being polite, most likely, and had no intention of ever returning.
Just as well. The last thing I need is some charming rogue disturbing my peace.
She drained the dirty water then ran fresh to rinse the now clean items, placing each dish or pan on the drainboard.
Best he doesn’t return.
By the time the dishes were done, the dogs set up a deafening howl then began to bark incessantly. “Quiet!” Grace ordered in the gruff voice she used with the dogs. Mars and Mercury were still puppies but much larger now. Their bodies were filling out, growing into the feet they still tripped over from time to time. Their barks had matured from younger dog yips to older dog deep hair-raising howls.
The noise stopped, but the two raced toward her, as she emerged from the pantry.
“Noooo!”
They leapt anyway. The two of them together were too much, even with her height, and she tumbled to the floor.
A playful wrestling match ensued, but she finally got the upper hand. “Now sit,” she ordered. Two furry bottoms hit the floor. Two tails wagged, thudding a tattoo. Two tongues lolled as she scratched ears and stroked heads.
“What has you two so excited you had to cause such a racket?”
The dogs tilted their heads, as if wondering why she didn’t understand.
“Oh, right. It is that time of night. Let’s go out then, just let me feed the cat first.”
Dogs swirling around her feet, Grace fetched and lit the lantern after checking the oil reservoir. The pups saw the light as a signal to race ahead to the rear door and leap at the lever they knew wouldopen the portal to their favorite playground. She arrived to a flurry of door scratching and whimpering. “Patience, please,” she ordered, despite the fact that any kind of restraint was a skill they had not yet mastered. Grace finally managed to open the door, and the dogs raced out heading straight for the dock. She ambled along behind. After five or ten minutes of chasing each other, the pups would settle down.
However, as she rounded the tall hedge of the herb garden, both dogs sat patiently about five yards from the dock, listening to Luc Flynn as he talked softly to them. Mercury and Mars bounded away as he straightened.
All the misery, sadness, loneliness shrank at the sight of him, along with a rush of familiar joy.
Grace shut it down in her head.
I felt that way once about Eustace—better not be too happy to see Luc.
“How in the world did you manage to get them to calm down?” she asked.
He shrugged. “They are loyal dogs, eager to please the hand that feeds them.”
“But I feed them.”
“That you do, and so I reminded them. I suggested they go chase a rabbit or two, so you could have a quiet moment with a friend.” He smiled.
“I never wanted dogs,” Grace said, moving past him toward the dock.
“Then how did you acquire these two?” Luc joined her, taking her hand in his.
