“Well,” she said thoughtfully, stalling a little to give her time to plan this properly. She wanted more information about Una, but she didn’t want to give anything away. “When I swam out of the Loch… someone helped me.” She’d mentioned that much to Brendan and the others when she woke up — they couldn’t claim that she’d made it up. “Someone grabbed me by the arm and pulled me in the right direction from the bottom of the lake… and I’m pretty sure they were there when the Sidhe were healing me.”
Maggie frowned a little. “Doesn’t sound right. It’d take a lot of strength for something from the Fae world to cross over to ours. Especially if they were busy sending you through.”
“I’m not sure that they … sent me,” Elena said hesitantly. “From the memory — the dream, or whatever — it felt a lot more like I … escaped. Like this person helped me. It’s hard to describe,” she added, not untruthfully. It had been a strange place she’d found herself in — the usual rules of reality didn’t seem to apply.
The frown deepened, intensifying the network of lines on Maggie’s face. “To do something the Sidhe don’t want you to do, in their world… that would take an incredible amount of power, you realize.”
“Not really,” Elena shrugged. “I don’t know how it works at all. Is it possible one of the Sidhe came through with me?” Could that be it? Could Una be a Sidhe? She certainly didn’t glow the same way they had, and she seemed to hate them… but wasn’t it possible that she hated them because she’d chosen to leave them? But Maggie was shaking her head.
“The Sidhe can’t exist on this side of the barrier,” she said with authority, and Elena leaned forward, pleased to be getting some concrete information for once. “Not for long, at any rate… it takes too much of a kind of energy that is plentiful over there, but very rare here. There are ways of getting it on our side, of course, but they’re not pleasant.” There was a darkness in her voice that made Elena shiver.
But Brendan was frowning. “Maggie, you’re Fae yourself. How do you subsist?”
“Human genes,” she said, winking at him. “I’m not pure Fae, so there are more mundane ways of nourishing me. And neither’s Darter, for that matter.”
“Who’s Darter?” Elena asked, raising an eyebrow. Did Maggie have a housemate? How on earth did they fit among all the knickknacks and decorations?
“A friend of mine. You’ll meet him,” Maggie said, but her eyes were troubled. “This person who helped you. Did you catch a glimpse of them?”
“Yeah,” Elena said cautiously. “It was dark, but…”
“Human shaped, do you reckon?”
“Yes. About my height, maybe — definitely human shaped.” One of the weirder descriptions she’d given in her investigative career, that was for sure.
Maggie was frowning at Brendan. “Could be a Selkie, I suppose. We’ve had a few in and out of the Loch, caused a lot of trouble in the village with those coats of theirs… but Nessie didn’t mention anything coming through.”
“It’s possible that Elena dreamed it though, isn’t it?” Brendan seemed deeply concerned about the prospect of Elena having encountered a Fae — she felt a pang of guilt that she’d done a lot more than just encountered Una once or twice. “She was under a lot of stress…”
“She doesn’t seem like the type to dream something that wasn’t there,” Maggie said, scrutinizing Elena’s face. “Too smart for that, too switched on. Am I right?”
“I’m a good detective,” Elena admitted, feeling oddly pleased by the compliment. It was nice to have her strengths recognized, for once… not enough of that back home. “If I’d been dreaming, I feel like I would’ve known it. But I saw her on the dock as well as in the other world.”
“Her?” Maggie said thoughtfully.
Elena bit her tongue, tried to look innocent even though her heart was pounding hard in her chest. That had been a mistake. She’d slipped up, given away more than she’d wanted to about Una. She’d have to cover.
“Just the impression I got. Could’ve been a man, I suppose, but I thought I saw long hair…” That was technically true, wasn’t it? It was hard to remember that night that she’d dragged herself out of the Lake and collapsed on the dock, but she’d seen Una’s form, cut out against the moonlight, her long dark hair… it was true, which meant she could say it without feeling like she was lying. Still, Brendan was looking at her curiously, and she was worried that his own investigative instincts would be piqued.
A problem to deal with later, she decided. For now, she just had to focus on learning as much as she could from Maggie.
“Well, there’s one way to get a bit more information about whatever this friend of yours was,” Maggie said, then raised her voice. “Darter! Come down here, would you? We need your expertise.”
There was the soft sound of footsteps on the stairs. Elena looked up, curious to see what kind of housemate a woman like Maggie would have — and barely stopped herself from screaming aloud when she saw who — or what — was standing at the foot of the stairs.
Chapter 31
Her heart pounding, Elena suppressed the urge to scream as fiercely as she could. But the creature she was looking at wasn’t making it easy for her. For a start, it was even smaller than Maggie — smaller than most children she’d met, it must have been about three feet tall, and the only thing vaguely childlike about it was that it was standing on its hind legs. Aside from that, as far as she was concerned, it was a monster. It was covered in scaly gray skin, with patches of fur on its ears — which, she realized with horror, were long and pointed, standing up on top of its head. It looked a little like the fairytale drawings she’d seen of goblins — but there was something strange about it. Its left arm was smaller than its right, withered — and she realized with a shock that it was missing its left arm.
“What — what — what —” she stammered, pointing at the creature.
She felt Brendan put a steadying hand on her knee — and as she stared, the creature flicked its ears. There was a strange expression on its odd little face. An expression a little like … fear.
“It’s alright, Darter,” Brendan said quickly, and she realized with shock that he was talking to the strange little monster at the bottom of the steps. “You’re the first Fae she’s met aside from Maggie, she’s just a little surprised —”
“I understand.”
Elena’s eyes widened even further. The creature had opened its strange little jaw and spoken English — for all that she’d seen a flash of fangs inside that mouth.
“I was a little shocked the first time I saw a human, too.” It took a couple of steps toward her, tilting its head to the side. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have sworn it was smiling. “Hallo! I’m Darter.”
“Darter,” she repeated blankly. “You’re — Maggie, this is your housemate?”
“Oh, aye. He’s a delight. He does the cleaning, I do the cooking, we get on just fine, don’t we, Darter?”
“We do,” the creature said happily. “I’m a Glashtyn. We’re aquatic goblins, you see.”
“Nancy told me about goblins,” Elena said faintly, looking at Brendan. But the creature — Darter, she corrected herself — made a sound of delight.
“Oh, you know Nancy! She’s one of my dearest friends. It’s her who saved me from the Unseelie goblin gang I’d fallen into. If it wasn’t for her, I’d be dead by now. I mean, I was already down a limb when she met me,” he added, gesturing with his withered arm.
She stared at him. “What happened?”
“Cold iron,” he said solemnly. “Poison to us Fae. My old boss forced me to carry a piece down to the Burgh to keep it open. It nearly killed me.”
“That’s awful,” Elena breathed, staring at the injury.
“Aye. But all’s well that ends well.” He smiled again, toothily — and Elena blinked, realizing he wasn’t quite so frightening as all that. Once you got used to the ears, and the fangs, and the little clawed feet, he was almost… cute
. In a strange kind of way.
“Elena reckons someone came through the Burgh with her,” Maggie said. “Don’t suppose you heard anything?”
“Nothing I can think of,” the little goblin said. “But I haven’t been swimming in a long time. I could go down this evening, see what I can see?”
“We’d appreciate it,” Brendan said, smiling at the creature, who gave him a little salute with his good arm. As he did, Elena noticed what looked like a set of gills on the side of his neck. He could breathe underwater, she realized. That must be useful, living on a Loch.
“Won’t be able to go til nightfall, I’m afraid. Too many people out and about this time of year, don’t want to start a panic. Or get chased by a dog again,” he added, clearly thinking of a specific — and unhappy — occurrence.
Maggie chuckled to herself.
“Once night falls, then. I’ll send Nessie along with you, if I can find her. And we’ll send word to the castle of anything we discover, how about that?”
“Most appreciated. Thank you, as always, Maggie.”
“Aye, well, I’ll do a lot of favors for a good bottle of whisky,” the old woman said — and Elena’s eyes widened as she realized, belatedly, that Brendan hadn’t yet presented her with the gift. How had she known?
Laughing, Brendan withdrew the bottle from his coat, and Maggie cackled with delight as she accepted it with an odd little bow.
“Very kind, bringing an old woman like me a present. I don’t hold to the old laws,” she added to Elena, “but I love a present all the same.”
“The old laws?”
“Being in debt to the Fae is a dangerous way to be.” Brendan chuckled. “There are dozens of old stories of people accepting favors from faeries without realizing what they’re getting themselves into. Exchanging a gift for a favor is a way of making sure that you don’t wind up with a debt you can never repay.”
“I’m neither a borrower nor a lender,” Maggie said dismissively, waving a hand. “May be worth keeping in mind, though, if it truly was a Fae who yanked you out of the lake.”
Elena felt a cold chill in her stomach at that. Was she in debt to Una? Even if she was, it wasn’t as though she could ask Maggie or Brendan about it — doing so would reveal that she knew a lot more than she’d let on about her mysterious benefactor. So she just nodded and followed Brendan out when he prepared himself to leave.
To her surprise, the sun was already low in the sky. Brendan was untethering the horses quickly, frowning a little at the sky. “Time always passes so quickly with Maggie. I didn’t realize how late it was getting.”
“Might be my fault,” Elena pointed out a little sheepishly. “I mean, I did fall off my horse…”
“Aye, but it was a good quick fall,” Brendan chuckled.
She moved around to the side of the horse, ready for him to boost her up into the saddle. And maybe she’d startled the silver mare — who was already a little on edge from the new experience of having someone fall off her back earlier that day — but the horse shifted suddenly, knocking her forwards into Brendan’s arms. He caught her automatically, and she stared up at him — and before either of them could think better of it, Elena found that their faces were close, closer — and he was kissing her, his hands still around her waist, her hands against the lapels of his riding coat. This close, she could smell the musky, masculine scent of him — the sweet smell of his sweat, the exertion of the ride, the pheromones or whatever it was that made him so goddamn attractive.
Before she knew it, the kiss was deepening — his hands were roaming across her body, and she found herself backed up against the tree that the horses were tethered to. They were on the opposite side of the tree from the cottage, but she was still worried someone could see them — not worried enough, though, to break away from the kiss. She was enjoying it too much, the feeling of his hands on her, the rough but somehow soft scraping of his beard against her face, the strength of his lips… her heart was pounding, her pulse picking up as he deepened the kiss, and she whimpered a little in protest as he broke away, his dark eyes intense on hers.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long, long time,” he murmured, his voice hoarse and husky and unbelievably sexy.
She ducked her head, a blush rising to her cheeks, and he tilted her face back up, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Me too,” she admitted, too overwhelmed to be anything but honest. “Since that day you found me with that stolen wine —”
“Trust me to fall for a hardened criminal,” Brendan breathed, and when she laughed he kissed her again, harder than before, the passion in his movements unmistakable. “There’s an old cabin a half mile down the track,” he told her in a low voice. “It’s for travelers, it’ll be empty… there’s a bed…”
She took a deep breath, a little surprised by the strength of her reaction to the implicit suggestion he was making. Part of her wanted nothing more than to go with him to this little cabin, to spend the rest of the afternoon — and the rest of the night — wrapped in his arms… her heart was pounding at the prospect, her whole body tingling, begging for more of his touch, ideally with some of their clothing out of the way… but she thought of Una, thought of the confusing situation she was in, the things she had to sort out in her own mind. Could she even trust him? Sure, he’d been nothing but sweet to her so far… but could it be that this was what he really wanted? That once he’d had her, conquered her sexually, he’d lose all interest, toss her aside like a half-eaten piece of fruit? It was possible, wasn’t it? What if this was what Una was trying to warn her about?
He seemed to sense her hesitation even without her giving voice to it. Carefully, he disengaged himself from her, moving back a little to where the old white mare was peering inquisitively at them as though wondering what it was they were doing.
“Maybe — maybe not tonight,” she said softly, shrugging a little helplessly. “I don’t — I don’t know, you know? It’s all a bit … fast.”
“Of course,” he said simply, and he meant it — she could tell. “We’ll ride back to the castle. Let me give you a hand up.”
She hesitated, a little taken aback by how okay he was with this. Every time she’d turned Nick down for sex, he’d been insufferable about it — he’d pretend to be okay, but there’d be sulky little barbs all night about his needs as a man, about how she shouldn’t get him going if she had no intention of following through… “Are you sure you’re not — disappointed?” she said blankly.
“Sure of what? Elena, I’m very partial to your company, but only so far as you’re partial to mine.” He smiled. “To share the road home with you would be a delight.”
They set off along the lakeshore in the setting sun. Though there was a hint of awkwardness, a few jokes from Brendan had them both laughing, and Elena realized with a shock that he was legitimately okay with not spiriting her away to a cabin to make love with her all night. She’d asserted her boundaries — and he’d not only observed them, he’d respected them. What would Una make of that? she wondered.
God, this is a complication I don’t need, she thought grimly, trying not to stare at Brendan as he laughed and joked. He was already so attractive, so handsome, so kind and funny… part of her almost wished he’d been sulkier and more entitled about her gentle rejection. It would give her a reason to distrust him. As it stood, he’d been nothing but a gentleman… which was making her feel incredibly conflicted about what Una had told her. Was she just being naive again? Was this her so-called kindness, making her weak?
As they rode back through the gate, she was no closer to having any answers to her questions… but she had a burning desire to spend more time with Brendan. I just need more information, she told herself, heart pounding as he offered to show her how to untack and put away the horses. That was all. She was gathering information, like a detective.
And if, as a detective, her heart kept doing backflips every time her suspect smiled at her… well, she’d keep that to herself, wouldn�
�t she?
Chapter 32
It was full dark by the time she and Brendan finished putting away the horses. She’d given Silver a thorough brush and a half pail of oats, a quiet thanks for putting up with her incredibly novice riding skills. The mare seemed content enough, and whuffled pleasantly at her hand when she stroked her nose goodnight. Brendan was waiting for her in the doorway to the stable, and he offered her his hand as she emerged.
“Would you care to accompany me to dinner?”
“I’d like that,” she said, smiling. It had been a long and very pleasant day with him — some parts of it especially pleasant, she thought, thinking of their session behind the tree with a warm tingle running through her body. She wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to him yet. It would be good to spend some time together — and besides, her stomach was growling furiously. She realized they’d missed lunch, they’d been so keen to get out on the road, and when she pointed this out to Brendan, he grinned a little shyly.
“If I’m honest, I was so thrilled you were willing to spend the afternoon with me, I clean forgot about eating. Joke’s on me now,” he added, wrinkling his nose as his stomach growled audibly.
“We’ll just have to make up for it with dinner,” she said, grinning enthusiastically at the prospect of gorging herself on Blair’s delicious cooking.
Something had changed between her and Brendan — she was vaguely aware of it as they walked across the courtyard together, headed for the dining hall, where she could already smell dinner cooking, fragrant on the early evening hair. There was an energy between them, a spark that had maybe been there before, but not quite so strongly. Not confirmed, the way it had been when he’d closed the distance between them and kissed her. This was something new — this was more than just a crush she wasn’t sure was requited or not. This was … her stomach twisted uneasily. This had the potential to be disastrous.
Swept By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 3 Page 19
