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The water of the ancient well murmured like a pagan chant.
“And how are you faring in Faerie Hill Cottage?”
“Very well. Do you have family here?”
His bright eyes clouded as they skimmed over the stones and high grass. “I have those I remember, and who remember me. I once loved a maid and would have offered her everything I had. But I forgot to offer her my heart first and last. Forgot to give her the words.”
When he looked up, his expression was more quizzical than confident. “Words are important to a woman, aren’t they?”
“Words are important, to everyone. When they’re not said, they leave holes.” Deep, dark holes, Jude thought now, where doubts and failures breed. Unsaid words were as painful as slaps.
“Ah, but if the man you’d married had said them to you, you wouldn’t be here today, would you now?” When she blinked at him in shock, he only smirked. “He wouldn’t have meant them, so they would have just been convenient lies. You already know he wasn’t the one for you.”
A little lick of fear worked up her spine. No, not fear, she realized, breathless. A thrill. “How do you know about William?”
“I know about this, and I know about that.” He smiled again, easily. “I wonder why you take upon yourself the blame for something that wasn’t your doing. But then, women have always been a charming puzzle to me.”
She supposed her grandmother had spoken to Maude, and Maude to this man, though she didn’t care for the fact that her personal life, and embarrassments, had been discussed over the teapot by strangers. “I can’t imagine that my marriage and its failure is of particular interest to you.”
If the cold chill in her voice affected him, his breezy shrug didn’t show it. “Well, I’ve always been a selfish sort, and in the long scheme of things what you’ve done and do may have bearing on what I most want. But I apologize if I’ve offended you. As I said, women are puzzles to me.”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
“It does as long as you let it. I wonder if you would answer a question for me?”
“Depends on the question.”
“It seems a simple one to me, but again, it’s a woman’s perspective I’m wanting. Would you tell me, Jude, if you’d rather a handful of jewels, such as this . . .”
He turned over an elegant hand, and mounded in it was the blinding brilliance of diamonds and sapphires, the aching gleam of creamy pearls.
“My God, how—”
“Would you take them as they’re offered from the man who knows he holds your heart, or would you rather the words?”
Dazzled, she lifted her head. The fire and spark still sheened her vision, but she saw how dark, how fiercely intent was his gaze as he studied her. She said the first thing that came into her head, because it seemed the only thing.
“What are the words?”
And he sighed, long and deep, his proud shoulders slumping, his eyes going soft and sad. “So it’s true, then, they matter so much. And these . . .”
He opened his fingers and let the shimmer, the fire, the glow of the stones sift through and sprinkle over the grave. “Are nothing but pride.”
She watched, her breath coming short, her head going light, as the jewels melted into puddles of color, and those puddles sprang into simple young flowers.
“I’m dreaming,” she said softly, while her head reeled. “I’ve fallen asleep.”
“You’re awake if you’ll let yourself be.” He spoke sharply now, with an impatience ripe and ready. “Look beyond your nose for a change, woman, and listen. Magic is. But its power is nothing beside love. It’s a hard lesson I’ve learned, and a long time it’s taken me to learn it. Don’t make the same mistake. More than your own heart lies on the line now.”
He got to his feet while she stood frozen. On his hand the stone he wore shot sparks, and it seemed his skin began to glow.
“Finn save me, I’ve to depend on a mortal to begin it all, and a Yank at that. Magic is,” he said again. “So look at it, and deal with it.”
He shot her one last look of smoldering impatience, lifted both hands toward the sky in a sweeping gesture of drama. And vanished into the air.
Dreaming, she thought giddily as she staggered to her feet. Hallucinating. It was all the time she was spending listening to fairy tales, all the time she spent alone in the cottage reviewing them. She’d told herself they were harmless, but obviously they’d pushed her over some edge.
She stared down at the grave, the new flowers in their colorful dance over the mound. When a flash caught her eye, she bent down, reached carefully among the pretty petals, and plucked out a diamond as big as a quarter.
Real, she thought, struggling to steady her breathing. She could see it, feel the shape and the cold heat it held inside.
She was either crazy, or she’d just had her second conversation with Carrick
, prince of the faeries.
Shivering, she rubbed her free hand over her face. Okay, either way she was crazy.
Then why did she feel so damn good?
She walked slowly, fingering the priceless jewel as a child might a pretty stone. She needed to write it all down, she decided. Carefully, concisely. Exactly how he’d looked, what he’d said, what had happened.
And after that, she would try to get some sort of perspective on it. She was an educated woman. Surely she would find a way to make sense of it all.
When she came down the slope toward her cottage, she saw the little blue car in the drive and Darcy Gallagher just getting out.
Darcy was wearing jeans and a bright red sweater. Her hair tumbled down her back like wild black silk. One glance had Jude sighing with envy even as she cautiously tucked the diamond into the pocket of her slacks.
To once, she thought—just once—look that carelessly gorgeous, that absolutely confident. She fingered the jewel absently and thought it would be worth the price of diamonds.
Darcy spotted her and shaded her eyes with the flat of one hand while she waved with the other. “There you are. Out for a walk, are you? It’s a fine day for it, even if they’re calling for rain tonight.”
“I’ve been visiting Maude.” And I talked to a faerie prince who left me a diamond that could probably buy a small Third World country before he vanished into thin air. With a weak smile, Jude decided she’d keep that little bit of information to herself.
“I just went a couple rounds with Shawn and took a drive to cool off.” Darcy skimmed her gaze over Jude’s shoes, casually, she hoped, to try to gauge how close in size they were to what she wore herself. The woman, Darcy thought, had fabulous taste in shoes. “You’re looking a bit pale,” she noted when Jude walked closer. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Self-consciously, she pushed at her hair. The breeze had teased strands out of the band. Which, she thought, would make her look unkempt rather than wonderfully tousled like Darcy. “Why don’t we go in and have some tea?”
“Oh, that would be nice, but I’ve got to get back. Aidan’ll already be cursing me.” She smiled then, a dazzle of charm. “Maybe you’d like to come back with me for a time, and then he’d be distracted with you and forget to skin my ass for walking out.”
“Well, I . . .” No, she thought, she didn’t think she was up to dealing with Aidan Gallagher when her head was already light. “I really should work. I have notes to go over.”
Darcy pursed her lips. “You really enjoy it, don’t you? Working.”
“Yes.” Surprise, surprise, Jude thought. “I enjoy the work I’m doing now very much.”
“If it was me, I’d find any excuse in the world to avoid working.” Her brilliant gaze scanned the cottage, the gardens, the long roll of hill. “And I’d die of loneliness out here all by myself.”
“Oh, no, it’s wonderful. The quiet, the view. Everything.”
Darcy shrugged, a quick gesture of discontent. “But then you’ve got Chicago to go back to.”
Jude’s smile faded. “Yes. I have Chicago to go back to.”
“I’m going to see it one day.” Darcy leaned back against her car. “All the big cities in America. All the big cities everywhere. And when I do, I’ll be going first class, make no mistake.” Then she laughed and shook her head. “But for now, I’d best be getting back before Aidan devises some hideous punishment for me.”
“I hope you’ll come back when you have more time.”
Darcy shot her that dazzling look again as she climbed into her car. “I’ve the night off, thank the Lord. I’ll come by with Brenna later, and we’ll see what kind of trouble we can get you in. You make me think you could use a bit of trouble.”
Jude opened her mouth without a clue how to respond, but was saved the trouble when Darcy gunned the motor and shot out into the road with scarcely more care than Brenna took.
NINE
T HERE ARE THREE maids, Jude wrote, as she nibbled on a shortbread biscuit, and each represents some particular facet of traditionally held views of womanhood. In some tales two are wicked and one good, as in the Cinderella myth. In others, the three are blood sisters or fast friends, poor and orphaned or caring for one sickly parent.
Some variations have one or more of the female characters possessing mystical powers. In nearly all, the maidens are beautiful beyond description. Virtue, i.e., virginity, is vital, indicating that innocence of physical sexuality is an essential ingredient to the building of legend.
Innocence, a quest, monetary poverty, physical beauty. These elements repeat themselves in a number of perpetuated tales that become, over generations, legends. The interference, for good or ill, of beings from the otherworld—so to speak—is another common element. The mortal or mortals in the story have a moral lesson to learn or a reward to glean from their selfless behavior.
Almost as often simple beauty and innocence are equally rewarded.
