Page 18 of Duncan

Jamma came into the hall carrying a heavily-laden serving platter, the edge of which she rested atop her burgeoning belly. She had not told anyone she had become pregnant, and her skirts had hidden her condition until a few days past. After she handed it over to one of the maids she approached Duncan, giving Nicole an uneasy look.

“’Tis something amiss?” he asked the kitchen maid.

“No, Healer, I’m well. I found something while I went walking yesterday.” Jamma pulled a chain from her apron pocket, from which dangled the red stone pendant. “Didnae Lady Julianne give you the same bauble some weeks past?”

“That one is mine,” Nicole said, taking it from her before he could reply and fastening it around her throat.

“Och, ’tis another, then.” The kitchen maid bobbed, smiled and left.

Once they finished the meal Nicole cleared her own dishes and his, carrying them over to the cart the maids used for collecting them. She asked if they needed help with washing, which they refused with flattered smiles, and then turned to Duncan.

“If you really don’t mind,” she said, looking tired now, “I’d like to take that nap now, Healer.”

“Come with me.” He held out his arm for her hand, and then escorted her from the hall.

Along the way Duncan noticed other, subtle changes in Nicole that hadn’t been evident during the meal. She appeared worried, and much more on edge now. Any unexpected sound caused her to flinch. When a maid dropped a bucket beside a hearth in one of the chambers, the noise made Nicole jump and then freeze for a moment. Each time they passed a guard her gaze went to the man’s weapons, and then to the nearest doorway.

“’Twas difficult, the first days our ladies spent at Dun Ard,” he mentioned to her. “Our worlds, they’re very different. ’Tis no’ much that shall seem familiar, my lady.”

“I don’t mind the surroundings as much as the people I don’t know,” she said in a low voice. “I’ve never had to live with strangers, and I’m accustomed to a very different lifestyle.”

She spoke as if she’d been the daughter of a king, Duncan thought. He knew so little about her time, he had no inkling of how she might have lived.

“It’s a very lonely way to live,” Nicole said, as if she heard his thoughts. “My father was very strict with me.”

He stopped and opened the door to the infirmary, and then went to light the lamps and build a fire. Nicole wandered around, idly examining his shelves and cabinets.

“What do you keep in here?” She asked, giving the nulling cabinet a wary look.

“My sire created Caladh with his magic, and the island attracts Fae objects of power. Things from the mortal realm that have been enchanted or exposed to magic sometimes wash ashore here. I store what we find in that cabinet, as it renders them harmless.” He didn’t want to scare her by showing her his collection, so he took a clean blanket from his linens trunk and gestured to the pallet. “Come and rest, lass.”

“I’m not sure I can fall asleep.” She looked defeated now. “You don’t happen to have anything that can help me, do you?”

“These I use when I wish sleep.” Duncan took down a packet of herbs and dropped a pinch into a mug before adding a little water to them. “’Twill be a little bitter, but I’ve no brew to mask the taste.”

“Thank you.” Nicole came over and drank the infusion, making a face after she finished it before she went over and climbed onto the narrow bed.

“Your herbs work very fast.” She smiled drowsily up at him as he draped her with the soft woolen blanket. “Thank you, Healer.”

He brushed some hair back from her brow. “Sleep.”

Once she closed her eyes Duncan left her, and busied himself adding some newly-dried heather blooms to a crock where he stored them. Yet try as he might, he couldn’t keep his gaze from straying to Nicole, or imagining her changing shape to become one of Derdrui’s half-Fae shifters. He could test her now while she slept to assure she was mortal, but that seemed to him as underhanded as the laird’s proposal to have his wife read her thoughts.

Why should Lady Joana’s ring seek out an enemy?

Duncan had never looked closely at the ring Nicole wore, so he went to the pallet, tugging back the blanket until he exposed her hands. She held them tucked around her waist, and when he tried to ease her right hand into view she turned suddenly toward him, and slipped her arms around his neck.

The unexpected movement brought Duncan’s face so close to hers their noses nearly bumped. This close he could see the faint blue traces of the veins under her delicate skin, and the fine fringe of apricot lashes meshed together along her eyelids. Although he tried to remain absolutely still, the warmth and softness of her sank into him, filling him again with the carnal bliss he’d never before known.

No mortal had ever inspired such passion in him.

His gaze dropped to her breast, where lay the red stone leaf pendant that Jamma had given to her. Its twin lay locked inside his cabinet of Fae curiosities—or was it the same one? Could the same necklace come back through time to join itself?

Carefully he removed himself from her hold and went to the cabinet, opening the locking mechanism before he opened the doors. The niche where he had placed the pendant Julianne had found stood empty now. Since no one else knew how to open his cabinet, he guessed it had vanished as soon as Jamma had found the pendant Nicole had apparently brought back in time with her.

He glanced at the sleeping woman as he locked the doors again, and then went and knelt down by the pallet. When he lifted the pendant and held it on his palm, the surface remained a blank, glossy red. Whatever it had been created to do, it seemed harmless, and still he wanted to tug it from her neck and lock it away so there could be no chance she’d be harmed.

She’s no mine. Slowly he rose and went to his work table. I cannae keep thinking of her thus.