She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Are you mocking me?”
“I would never,” he teased as he shook his head. “In all seriousness though, you will be able to send them elsewhere.” Then he glanced around the attic and spotted a circular window to their right. “Is that the window you saw in the flame?”
She nodded and started in that direction with purpose, navigating her way around oddly shaped items all draped with sheets. Alec followed in her wake, careful not to bump into any of the pieces along the way. Then she stopped, cast a glance at him over her shoulder and gestured to something hidden underneath a covering.
“This is it,” she said and then pulled the sheet away from an old traveling chest. She dropped to her knees before the chest and frowned when it wouldn’t open. “No key.” She shrugged. “We could try an axe.”
“An axe?” Alec could not help the laugh that escaped him. Certainly, there were other options to try before chopping the trunk into bits. At her deepening frown, he leaned down toward her and said, “Why don’t you try the word ‘Aliese’?”
“Aliese?” she echoed.
“Old magic word,” he told her, kneeling down beside her.
She took a deep breath, turned back to the trunk and said, “Aliese.”
A small click sounded in the attic.
Exuberance radiated from her. “It worked?”
“One way to find out,” he said.
Poppy turned her attention back to the trunk and this time when she tugged at the top, it opened with the ease of a well-oiled door. Before Alec knew how it had happened, he found her arms around his neck as she pressed the most chaste of kisses to his cheek. An intoxicating mix of euphoria and magical delirium swamped his senses and he couldn’t quite recall his own name. Oh, to stay like that forever…
“I would never have managed it without you,” she said softly, pulling back from him.
Alec felt the loss of her touch like a drowning man gasping for one more breath of air. He’d have done anything to feel her touch once more. He held her hazel gaze as brushed the apple of her cheek with the pad of his thumb and managed not to sigh. She had the softest skin, the sweetest floral scent…
Poppy’s eyes widened slightly and her lips parted.
Alec leaned forward to kiss her…
A hiss sounded near the doorway, followed by the growl of a very angry cat.
“Ouch!” came a young voice from the attic stairway. “Stop it, Stormy!”
“Georgie!” Poppy pushed back to her feet. “What are you doing in here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” her younger sister replied petulantly. “Your cat is a menace. He swiped at me with his claws.”
The cat likely saved Poppy and Alec from being discovered by the chit. Good little witch’s protector that he was.
“I’m sure you startled him.” Poppy started toward the stairway, leaving Alec in his hiding place behind some shrouded piece of furniture. He was suddenly afraid to breathe for fear Georgianna Elstone would hear him and discover his presence.
“You don’t want to be in here,” Poppy continued.
“You’re in here.”
“Just to find a book,” she said. “Laurel was helping me, but when we spotted the bats—”
“Bats!” shrieked the young girl before the sound of her footsteps racing down the stairway echoed through the attic.
A moment later, Poppy returned to Alec’s hidden position. “Little sisters are the absolute worst creatures in the world.”
“Hmm…I always thought it was older brothers.” With the aid of his cane, Alec pushed back to his full height.
“Goodness!” Poppy blinked at him, full of innocence. “Are they even worse?”
“At least in my experience.”
