The little dog at her feet let out a growly moan and laid her chin on Abby’s bare foot, her big brown eyes actually looking sorrowful.
“Sucks, doesn’t it, dog?” Abby reached down to scratch the little furball at her feet. “I’m doing the wishing thing, just like everybody keeps swearing is true, but I’m sure not seeing anything.”
“Missy’s real sorry it didn’t work for you.”
Abby jumped, thinking for a moment the dog had spoken, since she hadn’t heard Ellie’s silent entrance.
“I’m sorry, too.” Ellie handed over a pair of soft leather slippers. “But I can’t say I’m surprised. Like I said before, Faerie Magic works on its own mysterious timetable, only whenit’sgood and ready. You know, it’s likely that, since the Fae sent you along with Colin, he’s part of whatever it is they want from you. One thing I’ve learned: there are no coincidences when it comes to Faerie Magic. Everything that happens, happens for a reason. I’m guessing that whatever you have to do to get home, you have to do itwithColin.”
Colin was the missing piece of her return-home equation? In that case, wherever Colin was, that was where she intended to be.
“He’s downstairs?”
Ellie nodded. “As far as I know he is. The midday meal is the largest one of the day. One thing I should mention, though. We don’t really talk openly about theMagic in front of everyone. Though the whole clan has heard the Faerie stories, they don’t all have firsthand knowledge of their truth. We try to keep that limited to just the immediate family.”
Abby nodded her understanding. She could see how that might tend to be the sort of thing that could scare off the hired help.
“So.” Ellie smiled brightly and looped her arm through Abby’s. “Speaking of the family, you ready to meet them?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” What she was really ready for was to find Colin MacAlister and give that wishing thing another go.
Twenty-four
Colin?”
His back stiffened and he sat straighter in his chair at the long table in the Great Hall.
He hated it when his mother began by using his name in that particular tone of voice. It was the one she reserved for determining which of her boys had broken into her dried fruits or which of them had trampled through her herb garden when they were young. To this day it immediately put him on the defensive.
“I met yer Abby at midday meal. She’s a lovely young woman, though I believe she was distressed you dinna join us.”
He felt the rebuke of her statement but couldn’t bring himself to explain his absence. It wasn’t as if he were actually avoiding Abby. There had been arrangements to be made for his travels on the morrow.
“She’s no my Abby.”
“Oh?” Rosalyn smiled up at the serving girl who filled her cup, waiting until the girl moved on. “There’s a thing which has troubled my thoughts since our talk this morn. Would you mind if we discussed it before yer Abby joins us?”
With resignation, he nodded his acquiescence. There was obviously no deterring his mother once she set her course.
“Once I sat down to my mending, I began to wonder, Colin, if the Magic sent this lovely young woman, this Abby of yers, into yer bed without a single stitch of clothing, would I be correct in my assumption that you also were in that bed? And that you also were unclothed as she was?”
“I’ll admit, Cousin, the same has crossed my mind,” Blane added from Rosalyn’s left.
“And mine, as well,” Caden chimed in.
Perfect. The whole of the clan seemed intent on joining in this discussion of his and Abby’s state of undress.
He started to answer but paused, considering where his mother was leading this conversation. As if the room were closing in on him from all sides, he quickly realized there was no answer he could give that wouldn’t bring looks of disapproval to every face at the table. For a brief instant he considered lying but discarded that idea even as it formed. It wasn’t just that the telling of untruths violated his sense of honor. He also doubted it would help, since he’d spent the better part of his childhood half-convinced that his mother had the uncanny ability to read his thoughts.
The truth it was, then.
“Aye.”
The admission was made more uncomfortable by his inability to follow up by telling them it had all been perfectly innocent and platonic. It had, in fact, been anything but. And truth be told, he knew in his heart that were he to find himself in a similar situation, he’d do the exact same again.
“I see.”
The arch in his mother’s brow should have warned him of what was to come, but he chose to ignore it, hoping he was wrong.
