What Do You Say to a Naked Elf?
Page 30
He shook his head.
Jane glanced at Bryant and her mother. “It’s because I wasn’t here. I’m the cause of the Dymynsh.”
A murmur rose from the crowd.
“Jane, what are you saying?” Marion asked.
“I know,” said Blacwin, who’d been silent. They turned to the wizard. “Lowth and the portals have a complicated relationship. Each tries to control the other. I believe they let you in; then, three years later, they had a disagreement, and the portal allowed you return to Earth.”
Jane snapped her fingers. “Lowth didn’t know Mom was pregnant with me at the time. That’s why the Dymynsh started. Lowth was grieving for me.”
Silence followed her words. Everyone in the room digested what she’d said. Jane glanced at Charlie. He seemed as shocked as the others.
“If what you say is true,” Garmade said, taking a deep breath, “then much is explained.” He still looked puzzled, but she could see logic taking over.
“What I say is true. The Dymynsh ended the moment I came to Lowth. How tall are the crops this year? How many babies have been conceived?” She looked across the crowd to Hugh and smiled. She didn’t want to say anything about her own child, not yet. “This dog and pony show of getting me and Charlie to Shallen wasn’t necessary. All I had to do was come back.”
“And are you going to stay?” Charlie asked.
She met his gaze. More than curiosity for Lowth’s future lay in his eyes.
“Are you asking?” Jane’s mouth felt dry and her heart skipped a beat. The world suspended for several moments.
He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed each fingertip. “Yes. I ask you to stay, Jane.”
Oh, wow. Holy Scarlett and Rhett, Tracy and Hepburn, Blondie and Dagwood.
“Then I’ll stay,” she whispered, touching his cheek.
They could have stared at each other a millennium or two, but King Garmade tactfully cleared his throat.
“Excellent news,” he pronounced. “Most excellent. I have several questions, of course—”
Jane reluctantly turned from Charlie. “So do I, sire. It’s hard enough to believe there’s no bad guy in this story.” She shot a glance at Eagar and Blacwin, brothers in no crime, tools of their monarch. She imagined they’d gone into royal service at the same time, Eagar in Sylthia and Blacwin in Shallen. “But why the charade? Why pretend to be senile and incapable of running your kingdom—rather, kingdoms?”
Garmade slumped in his chair. He shook his head. “It accelerated events. Perhaps Lowth manipulated me that way. I found the most important clues when I was ill. Eagar noticed. We experimented and discovered that if I stayed under the influence of dalc cone, we made more progress. We made it look like I’d lost my sanity to hide our actions.”
Jane wanted to cry at the sacrifices he’d made—they’d both made—as Eagar helped his king slide into a drug-induced world.
Garmade smiled, falsely bright. “And now we have our two halves of the key,” he said, his voice unsteady.
Jane laid a hand on his arm. “Perhaps there is another reason Charlie and I were got together. Something that you didn’t know of, nor did I when this started.” She took a breath and dropped the bomb on him. “We are two halves of a royal key.”
As concisely as possible, she relayed the tale of Elaine and Largare, of Bryant’s relationship to King Rodom. She looked around the room as she talked, noticing the shock on Bryant’s face, the confirmation from King Tuniesin. Gray hair caught her attention, and she saw Anjinaine watching, nodding her head. When had Tivat found the time to fetch her?
King Garmade wept when she finished. He stood and reached for Charlie, enveloping him in a hug. Charlie looked embarrassed by the whole ordeal.
“My grandson,” the king sniffed, his hand shaking as he wiped away tears. “Under my nose the entire time. I did not know, Charlie, I did not know.”
Charlie patted his arm. “I’m still unused to the idea.”
“Much to discuss,” Garmade muttered, suddenly looking his age. “The two kingdoms united in love! I never thought to see the day.” He leaned on Eagar.
“Rest, sire,” his steward said, his tone gentle. “There are beds here. Tomorrow is soon enough to talk of the future.”
The crowd made way as the two elderly men left the room. Blacwin, with a nod to Jane and Charlie, followed. Some of the others departed, until only a handful of key players remained.
“Jane?” Kevin asked, approaching her with reluctance. “Are you really a princess?”
She hugged him. “Always your sister first.” Tears welled in her eyes. “Are you staying?” It broke her heart to ask.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Lowth is so different.” His gaze wandered to Ashara. “Though there are compensations.”
Good luck, Jane thought. Ashara seemed too wrapped up in her history with Tivat.
She turned to her mother. “Mom?”
“Oh, I’m staying,” Marion replied. She tightened her grip on Bryant. “I had to abandon Bryant once. I won’t do it again. Once the portals stabilize, I can return to Earth to visit. I’m sure the family wonders where the three of us have disappeared to. I’ll try to make them understand.”
“I hope so.” Jane watched as her mother and Bryant drifted off. After a few minutes, their questions answered, the others departed. She and Charlie were left alone.
It must have been close to why-am-I-still-up o’clock. Rest had set, and only Slumber illuminated the night. The quiet lapping of water against the building echoed in the hall. Jane felt as if she’d stepped from a bad dream.
“Well,” Charlie said, breaking the silence. “I finally have you to myself.” The look in his eyes melted her heart. She could look into their brown depths forever. Caramel mocha. Oh, yummy.
“Did you mean what you said?” she asked, wanting to jump his bones and have hot, wild sex. There might not be a waterfall handy, but a lake beckoned outside.
He slid her into his arms. “About staying? Yes. Did you mean what you said?”
She snuggled in tighter. “Home. This is where I belong.” Not just Lowth, but in his embrace.
Charlie tipped her head up. “Are you sure? We’re a simple people. No automobiles or fancy gadgets.”
“Simple?” She chuckled. “Ha! Worlds that think and kings that plot? Sandobbles and goblins, portals and two moons? You are sadly mistaken. Besides,” she said, tracing the edge of his forewing with the tip of her finger. He shuddered against her. “There’s magic here.”
He kissed her, his lips promising a fabulous rest of the night. And morning. And their lives.
“There’s magic here,” he said, nibbling on her ear. A shock hit her, running right to her core. Hoo-boy. No wonder he got so turned on when she touched his wings.
“And here,” he continued, pressing his lips to her eyelids. “And especially here.” He found her mouth again.
A moment later, when she could barely stand and the thought of a bed triumphed over waves and a shoreline, Jane took his hand in hers.
“There is one more chapter in this story,” she said. “The real reason Lowth brought us together.” She guided his hand until it rested below her belly. When he attempted to move it lower, she stopped him.
Jane looked at him, her gaze steady. She wanted him to know the importance of the secret she’d kept.
“The full moon wanes,” she murmured. “Do you remember the last full moon, Charlie?”
He’d grown serious, watching her. “You’re not talking about Isleighah, are you?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Then Midsummer’s Eve?”
She touched his cheek with her free hand. “We’ve been through a lot together. Not too long ago, you asked a question, and I told a small lie.” She pressed his hand against her womb. “A very, very small lie.”
Realization hit him like a sledgehammer. His face darkened. Then it lit, and he swung her in his arms. Laughter escaped him.
&n
bsp; “You’re sure?” he asked, raining kisses on her. “Absolutely sure?”
“Oh, Charlie, would Lowth make a mistake?” She gave herself to his embrace, loving him more than ever.
“You’ll have to marry me now,” he said, kissing her.
She stopped him. “Are you asking?”
Charlie looked at her, his face inches from her own. His eyes glittered from the few candles that still burned. “I ask.”
Jane rasped her hand against his scruffy jaw. “Then I say yes.”
He whooped and swung her around some more. “Do you suppose Blacwin has a room for us?”
Jane laughed. “You can ask Muttle. He’s by the door, discreetly waiting for us to leave.”
“Is he? Bless the Belwaith.” Charlie kissed her, long and hard and not nearly satisfying enough.
Still carrying her, he walked toward Muttle.
“I love you, Jane,” her Whelphite said. “I don’t care about kingdoms united, or portals or anything else. Just you. And now our child. I’m glad you’re not going back to Earth.”
“Charlie, I love you, too.” She snuggled into his arms, content and happy. “I’m glad I’m not on Earth, either. You know why?”
Guided by Muttle, they’d reached a staircase. Charlie took the steps two at a time.
“No, why?” he asked.
Jane laughed. “They don’t do it anymore, but they used to test for pregnancy by making a rabbit die. Charlie, I could never kill a bunny. Look at what happened the last time I did.”
Publication Information
About What Do You Say to a Naked Elf?
Apart from her being a TV-and-movie junkie and a saleswoman extraordinaire of adult lotions, potions and playthings, plain Jane Drysdale’s life was nothing unusual. That was, until a moment of reckless driving catapulted her into a fairytale world like a J.R.R. Tolkien book on crack. From Walker, Michigan, to a place of wacko wizards, sexually repressed elves and dangerous dwarves, Jane was suddenly fulfilling an epic destiny that held certain death—and even more certain love. Even the newly legible tattoo on her shoulder seemed to proclaim the rightness of her transport: “Forever joined, heart upon heart, world upon world.” Everything started with Jane on trial for her life and her Legolas-lookalike lawyer taking his shirt off, and the first thing she needed to know was . . .
What Do You Say
to a Naked Elf?
One or two things sprang to mind.
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CHERYL STERLING attributes her success to not listening to her mother when told to put down her book and go outside and get some fresh air. Writing since she could hold a pencil and self-publishing the family newspaper (circulation: four) at age ten, she’s graduated to computers and e-mail. She lives in western Michigan with her husband and two teenagers, still reads too much, but occasionally finds time to get outdoors. She can be reached at cherylsterlingbooks.com.
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A LOVE SPELL BOOK ®
January 2005
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Copyright © 2005 by Cheryl Steimel
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v1.0 April 2005 – Desktop & PocketPC .lit
Scan, conversion, and proofing.