Chapter 4 #2
“The duration of what?” Lexi asked while wrinkling her nose as the housekeeper drew closer. She smiled at Mrs. Shimmerhill. “And it’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am. Thank you for the tea, but are there any tomatoes in it? I’m sensitive to tomatoes, and I could swear I smell the plants.”
Mrs. Shimmerhill grinned, plumping her cheeks to an even rosier shade.
“That be my fragrance, mistress. Dinna fash yerself. There be no tomatoes in yer tea.” Her soft brown eyes sparkling, she offered Lexi a cup.
“’Twill do ye a world of good, mum. Dinna fash yerself about any dangers.
All within these hallowed walls are safe and would never seek to harm ye.
” She nodded at the tiger and laughed. “Especially not with yer wee guardian there. Beastie will nay allow any ill to befall ye.”
“I see.” Lexi took the cup and saucer, gingerly balancing them between her hands. “Uhm…that’s good to know.” She hazarded a sip of the tea and smiled. “Wow. This is very nice. Maggie would love this.”
Mrs. Shimmerhill accepted the compliment with a pleased nod before casting an inquisitive glance at Jeros, then hurrying from the room after a barely perceptible shake of his head.
“Is Maggie yer maid?” Jeros found himself relaxing in Lexi’s presence, but continued staring at her scars. He couldn’t seem to help himself.
“No. My friend. She is covering for me back home while I take a sabbatical here in Scotland.” She boldly returned his stare, as if understanding his need to look at her scars, but rapidly growing tired of it. And she was right to be. Where the devil were his feckin’ manners?
“Covering for you?” He wasn’t familiar with that term. “What is she covering? Something that might cause you harm?”
Lexi stared at him as if he had sprouted a unicorn horn. “She is taking care of my practice. Seeing my patients and clients while I am away. She is also helping the board with my horse farm.”
“What sort of board?”
She frowned. “We appear to be suffering from a slight language barrier, even though we both speak English. The board I’m referring to is kind of like a council that assists me in taking care of my family business. They help me manage Vinemagic Horse Farms.”
His admiration for her grew. This was no woman who thought herself above anything.
She would nay be found lolling about while servants tended to her every wish—a very strong issue he held against his fellow Fae royalty.
Lexi cared for animals and was wise enough to seek the counsel of others while doing so.
He liked the name of her farm as well. It had a pleasant ring to it.
And the soft hazel green of her eyes not only sparkled with intelligence, but a rare mix of patience and kindness.
A realization took hold of his heart and squeezed.
Lexi was a sanctuary—a sanctuary not only meant for the beasts of whatever world she inhabited, but a safe place for him.
He swallowed hard and blinked. He was staring again, but this time, he was hopelessly trapped in her gaze. “Forgive me. I dinna mean to stare.”
Her sad smile stabbed him like a razor-sharp knife. “Nothing to forgive.” She motioned to her face. “I’m used to it. I get it a lot.”
“That does not negate my apology for my rudeness, but this time it was the wisdom in yer eyes that snared me, not yer unfortunate scars.” Perhaps he shouldn’t speak of them, but he had never been one to dance about and avoid the obvious. “I admire that ye dinna allow them to define ye.”
“Mammaw always told me that I define myself. My scars don’t, and neither does anyone nor anything else, unless I give away my power and allow it.
” She took another sip of her tea and smiled; this time, it was not an unhappy one.
It was proud. “And Mammaw always taught me to never give away my power.”
“Mammaw?”
“That’s southern speak for grandmother. She raised me after my parents died.”
He bowed his head. “I am sorry for yer loss.”
“Thank you. Mammaw took the best care of me. Spoiled me rotten, in fact.” She shrugged.
“She nurtured me through several surgeries after the car accident that left me with these scars. I don’t remember much about my parents.
I was too young when the wreck happened.
My mother didn’t survive it, and my father took his life soon after.
” Her voice went quiet and somber. “Mammaw said he couldn’t handle the truth that he’d had too much to drink that night.
It was determined his alcohol level was definitely a contributing factor to the accident.
” She huffed a soft laugh and shook her head.
“Wow. Talk about too much information. Now I need to ask you to forgive me. I don’t know why I suddenly spewed my life history. I don’t ever do that.”
“Never apologize for sharing whatever is on yer heart.” Jeros never told that to anyone, but with Lexi, he meant it with every fiber of his being. “How else are we to know each other?”
Lexi frowned. “Not to be rude, but why would that be important? Mairwen sent me here to look after your horse, and from the look of things, you are not a man who suffers from isolation.” She jerked as though startled.
“Oh my gosh, I just remembered the music. Did I pull you away from your guests in the garden?”
“Guests in the garden?” Now it was his turn to frown. “Why would ye ask that?”
“The music. And the lights. They led me here through the fog, through the dark forest.” She glanced around the room, her frown deepening as she eyed the flickering oil lamps and candles.
Then she swept a hard look across him, starting at the top of his head and ending at his boot tips.
“Uhm…it’s obvious you’re having some sort of historical costume party here this evening.
If you could point me to your phone so I can call Mairwen, I’ll let you get back to it.
Your guests will probably be arriving before too long…
although, I’m not really sure what time it is. ”
“I dinna ken for certain what a historical costume party is supposed to be, and I have no guests arriving this evening. And sunset is soon.” A rare knot of powerful emotions lodged in his throat, threatening to choke him.
She had heard his song, the song meant to call out to the other half of his soul and guide it to him.
No one other than his fated mate would ever be able to hear that special music.
When he played that particular song on his violin, it remained silent for everyone else, Fae and mortal alike.
“I see,” she said. But it didn’t sound as if she saw at all.
She shifted on the couch, glancing around the room again.
“Might I still use your phone?” With a nervous smile, she flicked her hand, encompassing the entirety of the place.
“Unexpected houseguests are the worst. I don’t want to impose on you any longer than I already have. ”
“Why would ye believe yer presence here an imposition?”
“Because I pretty much dropped into the middle of your life and somehow, an extraordinarily tame tiger followed me. I’m sure the zoo he belongs to is missing him. Or is he yours?”
“I told ye, lass. That beastie belongs to yerself. Or at least he is yer protector. Fae tigers belong to no one other than themselves and those they choose to guard. I have nothing to do with his presence here.”
She eyed him as if debating whether or not to call him a liar. “You are serious.”
“I am.”
“What you said about this animal is impossible. Tigers don’t change into domestic feline kittens.
And why do you call him a Fae tiger? I know of every subspecies of panthera tigris, but none are named Fae.
” She apologetically rubbed the mighty beast’s head.
“No offense. But there is no way you can be my little Aylryd.”
The fearsome tiger shimmered as if about to fade away like smoke, then a fluffy wee kitten with ginger fur and white stripes replaced him. Flipping his tiny tail, he squeaked with a pitiful meow, then leapt up onto her lap.
Mouth ajar and frozen in place, Lexi stared at the little cat until it stretched up and playfully batted at her nose.
She jerked as though suddenly awakened from a deep sleep, then hurried to put the kitten on the other end of the couch and scoot away from it.
It immediately scampered back to her, hopped onto her lap, and started purring.
“You cannot…be,” she told the persistent wee beast.
It purred louder.
She shifted her incredulous stare to Jeros, and he braced himself. “What is this place?” she whispered. “Am I dead or something?”
“Ye are not dead.” She needed to know that straight away.
He wasn’t quite sure how to tell her all that she needed to know.
But at least she was sitting on the couch, so if she fainted again, she wouldn’t hurt herself.
“This is Sevenrest. Ancestral home to my family. The Seventhsons. We rule Scotland’s Seventh Realm of the Seelie, the Fae of light.
Some might say we are the good Fae, but that is debatable.
I have known both good and bad Seelie just as I have known both good and bad Unseelie, the Dark Fae.
It is the year 1811 here in the Seventh Realm in the Highlands of Scotland, where we openly live among those of the earth—our version of yer earth.
A different sort of reality, ye might say. ”
She shook her head and held up both hands, waving away his words. “No. No. No. I don’t know what your game is here, but none of that can be true. 1811? Fairies? Whatever realm in the Highlands of Scotland on a different sort of earth. Just stop it. You are not even funny.”