Aislinn kept breathing. She was afraid that if she didn’t stay on top of things, though, carefully instructing her lungs to inflate, they might not. One thing stuck out in the confusion her mind had become. If he’d really been around all that time, maybe he could help figure out how to send the dark ones back to their worlds. And keep the Lemurians in Taltos.
“I’ve been working on how to do that.”
She rounded on him. “Do. Not. Do. That. Just because you can read my mind, don’t. Unless I give you permission.” She thought about it for a moment and added, “Or if things are truly desperate.”
“Ready to eat something?”
His rapid shift of topics was dizzying, and it pissed her off that he didn’t acknowledge her request for the privacy of her thoughts. When she focused on her midsection, though, it felt hollow. She shot him a wry grin. “More than ready.”
He got up, went to a sideboard, and carried two plates filled with berries and biscuits over to where she sat. Strips of dried meat were laid over the bread.
“When did you do all this?” She broke a biscuit in half and stuffed it into her mouth. “Mmmmm, pine nut flour. I hated it at first, but it grows on you.”
He shrugged. “When you were in my head. It’s not easy, letting someone sort through my thoughts, nor is it anything I’ve allowed before. I never thought you’d stay so long. I needed a diversion, so I made us a meal. Would you like mead to wash everything down?”
Her mouth was full, so she nodded and looked around for Rune and Bella. Before she could ask where they were, he said, “They wanted to hunt, so I opened a passageway for them to leave.”
“Do you suppose they’re all right?”
Resettling himself next to her, he nodded. “Yes, Bella would let me know if she ran into trouble.”
“What about all the stuff you told me before?” she asked.
“What stuff?” He cocked an eyebrow, mimicking her tone.
“You know. Stuff that made it sound like you had a normal life with a university teaching job and a wife and two children—” Her eyes widened. “Your children must have had magic. How’d they end up in the vortex?”
“It was all true,” he said carefully. “The children weren’t mine. She had them before we married. And I’m used to making it sound as if I’m normal. It’s how I’ve gotten by all these years.”
“What about other children?” Aislinn persisted. “Surely...” Her voice ran down.
“I have been careful about that.”
“Good. Maybe it means I’m not pregnant.”
A corner of his mouth turned down. “You’re not. Conception is a simple enough thing to control.”
She ate in silence, questions rioting—no, make that stampeding—through her head. “What were you doing here all those lifetimes before the dark ones broke through? Uh, no, how about starting with when you came over from Europe.”
“It’s the United Kingdom, not Europe. And that would have been in the late seventeen hundreds. Although I did travel back and forth, once I determined I hadn’t lost my magic by migrating to the New World.”
“So, did you just sort of fade from life to life? Didn’t people notice when you, ah, didn’t die?”
He shot her a look. It said he’d indulge her this once, but there’d be a finite number of stupid questions he’d answer. “Let’s just say I planned well. And I have been many things. It gave me a certain latitude to blend in.”
“Have you ever told anyone else who you are?”
He shook his head. “Not since I arrived here. In the Old Country, everyone knew who I was—at least up until the sixteen hundreds or so. After that, people stopped believing in magic.”
“Why’d you tell me?” She wasn’t certain she wanted to hear the answer.
“Because you are…different.”
She waited, but he didn’t elaborate. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I am not sure. There is something…ethereal about you.” He drew in a breath and then blew it out sharply. “I believe you are only at the barest beginnings of discovering who you are. It’s something I’d like to help you with.”
She bristled. “That’s easy. I’m Jacob and Tara Lenear’s only child.”
“And are ye now, lass?”
“Either talk one way or the other,” she snapped peevishly. “Stop going back and forth.”
“You’re frightened,” he said in American English.
“No, I’m not.”
He looked at her, and she saw the truth of his words reflected in the depths of his eyes. He laid a hand over hers. “It is a lot to take in all at once. Why don’t we switch to a more neutral topic?”