“You gave me names.” The homey task calmed her, as she’d known it would. When her gaze lifted to his again, it was direct and patient. “That’s not what I meant.”
He studied her, then nodded. Whether she could handle it or not, she deserved to know. “Do you know how far out in the sea you are?”
“A mile, two?”
“More than ten.”
“Ten? But it couldn’t have taken more than twenty minutes to get here—and in rough weather.”
“More than ten miles out is Dolman Island from the southwest coast of Ireland. Here we straddle the Atlantic and Celtic Seas. Some say the silkies come here, to shed their hides and sun on the rocks in human form. And the faeries come out of their rafts under the hills to dance in the moonlight.”
Allena slipped the stems of shorter blossoms into a squat bottle. “Do you say it?”
“Some say,” he continued without answering, “that my great-grandmother left her raft, her palace under the hill, and pledged herself to my great-grandfather on the night of the summer solstice while they stood by the king stone of the dance on the cliffs. One hundred years ago. As a hundred years before, another with my blood stood with his woman in that same place to pledge. And a century before that as well, and always on that same night in that same place when the star shows itself.”
She touched her pendant. “This star?”
“They say.”
“And in two days it’s the solstice, and your turn?”
“If I believed my great-grandmother was other than a simple woman, that I have elfin blood in my veins and could be directed to pledge to a woman because of the way a star shines through the stones, I wouldn’t be in this place.”
“I see.” She nodded and carried one of the vases into the living room to set it on a table. “So you’re here to prove that everything you’ve just told me is nonsense.”
“Can you believe otherwise?”
She had no idea what she believed, but had a feeling there was a great deal, a very great deal, that she could believe. “Why couldn’t I walk away from here, Conal? Why couldn’t you?”
She left the question hanging, walked back into the kitchen. She took a sip of her tea, felt the hot flow of whiskey slide into her, then began to select her other arrangements and put them where she liked. “It would be hard for you, being told this story since you were a child, being expected to accept it.”
“Can you accept it?” he demanded. “Can you just shrug off education and reason and accept that you’re to belong to me because a legend says so?”
“I would’ve said no.” Pleasing herself, she set bottles of heather on the narrow stone mantel over the simmering fire. “I would have been intrigued, amused, maybe a little thrilled at the idea of it all. Then I would have laughed it off. I would have,” she said as she turned to face him. “Until I kissed you and felt what I felt inside me, and inside you.”
“Desire’s an easy thing.”
“That’s right, and if that had been it, if that had been all, we’d both have acted on it. If that had been all, you wouldn’t be angry now, with yourself and with me.”
“You’re awfully bloody calm about it.”
“I know.” She smiled then, couldn’t help herself. “Isn’t that odd? But then, I’m odd. Everyone says so. Lena, the duck out of water, the square peg, the fumbler always just off center. But I don’t feel odd or out of place here. So it’s easier for me to be calm.”
Nor did she look out of place, he thought, wandering through the cottage placing her flowers. “I don’t believe in magic.”
“And I’ve looked for it all my life.” She took a sprig of heather, held it out to him. “So, I’ll make you a promise.”
“You don’t owe me promises. You don’t owe me anything.”
“It’s free. I won’t hold you with legends or magic. When I can leave, if that’s what you want, I’ll go.”
“Why?”
“I’m in love with you, and love doesn’t cling.”
Humbled, he took the heather, slipped it into her hair. “Allena, it takes clear eyes to recognize what’s in the heart so easily. I don’t have them. I’ll hurt you.” He skimmed his fingers down her cheek. “And I find I’d rather not.”
“I’m fairly sturdy. I’ve never been in love before, Conal, and I might be terrible at it. But right now it suits me, and that’s enough.”
He refused to believe anything could be so simple. “I’m drawn to you. I want my hands on you. I want you under me. If that’s all, it might not be enough for you, or for me in the end. So it’s best to stand back.”