Chapter 6
“You should at least go see it before you sell it.” Millie placed steaming plates of scrambled eggs and still-sizzling bacon on the table, then slid onto the padded bench opposite Hannah.
“I said you could feed me. Not lecture me.” Hannah scooped a heaping spoonful of fluffy eggs onto her plate.
Her friend could be such a nag at times, but she sure could cook.
She added several slices of thick, hickory-smoked bacon, crisscrossing them on the crispy mound of hash brown potatoes in danger of sliding over the edge of her plate.
She always ate whenever she was worried.
“Gravy? You promised sawmill gravy too, remember?”
Millie wrinkled her nose while eyeing Hannah’s overflowing plate. “How can you eat like that and still be so tiny? No wonder everyone hated you in high school.” She slid back out of the booth and headed to the kitchen.
“Everybody hated me?” Hannah repeated as the bubbly blonde came back through the swinging doors. “I thought everybody hated Geena because she was the first to get boobs.” She reached for the gravy and spooned it over the mound of food on her plate.
Millie shrugged. “We hated her first. But then it was you because you ate anything that didn’t bite you first and never gained an ounce.
” She sat back down and began filling her own plate.
“Now, don’t you think you should at least go see that place before you sell it?
I mean, come on! It’s freaking Scotland! ”
“Exactly.” Hannah slathered a dollop of butter across a steaming buttermilk biscuit the size of her hand. “Jasper Mills is my home. My roots are here.” She pointed the buttery biscuit at her friend. “I told you what happened on the bridge. Were you not listening?”
Millie stared off into space, waving her empty fork back and forth while she chewed.
“Oh, I listened.” With a deep sigh, she sagged against the cushioned back of the booth.
“I also imagined what it must’ve felt like to be wrapped in those arms and crushed against that hard, muscular chest. I mean damn. ”
Hannah rolled her eyes and licked the melted butter dripping down her thumb. “Give me a break.”
“What? Come on now! Okay, we won’t talk about his drool-worthy body or that gorgeous, raven-black hair, but you can’t tell me you didn’t at least notice of those eyes of his.
I mean—seriously. Yes, you have sworn off men, but you’ve still got some hormones in there somewhere.
Vibrators can’t take care of everything.
” Millie nudged Hannah with her foot as she tossed another biscuit on her plate.
“I have never seen such an icy set of baby blues in my life. He’s like a wolf.
And the way he moves? Constant predator mode.
Like a pirate. Or a vampire. Or both. Wouldn’t that be hot?
A vampire pirate who could make you immortal with one luscious bite while holding you captive at sea. ”
Hannah shook her head as she licked the strawberry preserves off the top of her biscuit, then reloaded it with blackberry jam. “You have read too many romance novels.”
Millie tapped her plate with the tip of her knife then circled it over all the food on the table. “Then why are you gorging yourself like there is no tomorrow? The last time you ate this much was when you decided to let Jake pop your cherry.”
Hannah stopped chewing. Suddenly, the delicious food lost all flavor. She wished she could spit it in the floor. With a hard swallow, she dropped the biscuit back on her plate, then pushed it to the center of the table.
Millie covered her mouth; her eyes growing wide. “I am so sorry. I didn’t think—please—I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Hannah waved the words away.
“I’m not as hungry as I thought.” She pulled a paper napkin from the dispenser and wiped her mouth while sliding out of the booth.
Millie shouldn’t feel bad. Sad thing was, she was right.
The last time this sort of gorging occurred was the very time Millie said.
So what was her psyche trying to tell her?
Millie crossed the room, fetched a dish tub, and started clearing the table. “You need to see that land. What if you get rid of it then wish you hadn’t?”
Hannah helped stack the dishes in the bin.
“There are so many questions he hasn’t answered.
That Guild of Barac’Nairn is still a mystery.
And then what he did at the bridge when that sudden wind snapped off those trees.
I heard nothing, Millie, not a sound. You know how the animals always warn me.
How did he sense what was about to happen? He never answered that either.”
“Well…” Millie paused while balancing a few more dishes in the bin. “I hear it’s a really long flight to Scotland.”
“So what is that supposed to mean?” Hannah followed her into the kitchen.
“If you have him hostage on a long flight, he will have to answer your questions. He can’t avoid you on that plane.” She slid the bin onto the counter, then turned and fixed Hannah with a concerned look. “Didn’t you say he told you he was familiar with your family history?”
Hannah caught her lip between her teeth. “I wonder if he knows how Granny died? Or what killed Mama?”
Millie gave her a knowing look, then turned back to the sink and started scraping the dishes.
“Admit it. Both were strange deaths that were never explained, especially for a close-knit community like we have here. Maybe you better stick pretty close to this Taggart de Gaelson. Aren’t you about the same age as your mother when she died? ”
Hannah nodded and scrubbed her arms as a chill washed across her.
The terrible memory remained crystal clear even though she had only been six years old when it happened.
They had found her mother dead, propped against a tree, out beside the lake.
She had been writing in her journal and just died.
Autopsy was inconclusive. No heart attack.
Nor an aneurism. Not even a stroke. Her mother had been in perfect health for a young woman.
She was merely dead. The one strange bit of evidence was that every hair on her body had turned a snowy white.
Even her thick, black eyelashes. It was as though the dark blonde woman had suddenly become an albino.
Another startling discovery was her once vibrant green eyes turned solid black.
Granny had never alluded to what killed Mama until a few years ago, when she turned eighty. The next day, she died the same way.
“I wish Jake were here. He would know what to do.” Hannah went to the freezer and yanked open the stainless-steel double doors. “Is there any of that mint chocolate chip ice cream left? The one you listed to go with the special today?”
“You are going to puke.” Millie reached in the drawer for a couple of spoons. “And Jake would not know what to do. I wish you would stop making him out to be such a flawless hero.”
Hannah backed out of the freezer with two barrels of chocolate mint ice cream. As she turned to bump the freezer door shut, she shot Millie a wilting glare. “Don’t speak ill of the dead. Especially not Jake. You knew what kind of person he was.”
“Exactly!” Millie took one of the ice cream containers and thumped it onto the counter.
“Jake never treated you as good as you deserved and I never understood why you took it. You lost your mom when you were six and your grandmama raised you to be the most independent little brat in Jasper Mills. But when it came to Jake, you followed him like a starving puppy. Jake MacPherson barely looked down from his pedestal long enough to give you the time of day. It shocked the whole town when he returned from med school and married you. Everybody figured he’d come back with some big city trophy wife on his arm.
We all nearly fainted when you pulled your head out of Jake’s fan club long enough to go to veterinary school.
We hoped then you had finally gotten over him. ”
“Jake loved me!” Hannah tossed the other ice cream container onto the counter and stormed across the kitchen.
She couldn’t believe her best friend had the gall to stand there and say such things, even though a tiny voice in the back of her head agreed with everything Millie said.
“If you’re finished lecturing me on how you can’t believe my dead husband could have loved me, I think I’ll head home. ”
“That is not what I meant and you know it!” Millie smacked the counter.
“I admit Jake loved you in his own self-centered, egotistical way. When he had nothing better to do. I’m just saying he never showed you the attention you deserved.
You never put up with anyone else’s crap and yet you took his bullshit by the truckloads.
How many nights did we spend in this very kitchen, perched on these wobbly stools, eating ice cream because Jake didn’t have time to spend with you?
I bet I gained twenty-five pounds the first year you two were married. ”
Hannah stopped part way through the swinging doors, remembering the lonely first year of her marriage.
As much as she hated what Millie said, her friend had a point.
“I have no idea what to tell you. I guess everybody has a weakness and he was mine. Perhaps you’re right.
So he wasn’t such a hero. But I loved him, and now he’s gone.
So, let’s leave it at that. Okay?” Stepping back into the kitchen, Hannah released the door.
“Dish up the ice cream, will you? Double scoops. You’re looking a little thin. ”
“She canna sell it! Fold time and space and transport her here immediately. We will keep her here until she discovers the error of her ways. Are ye listening? Why do ye wait? Why do ye tarry when ye know we run so close on time?” Thaetus’s high-pitched screech nearly shattered Taggart’s amulet creating their connection in the center of the hotel room.
Taggart scrubbed his face with both hands.
Centuries had passed waiting for the stars to properly align and gift them with the Sullivan bloodline.
The first age of Guardians, the Alexanders, had turned dark and destroyed themselves long ago.
He worried his hands through his hair while pacing the confines of the tiny room.
“Ye ken as well as I that an unwilling Guardian will never do. I will get her to come around. She just needs a bit of time. The attack in the woods frightened her. ’Tis only natural she be put off by that which she doesna understand. ’Tis a well-known human trait.”
“Then explain it to her! The next clutch of Draecna are due to hatch in three Erastaedian double moons. ’Twould be nice to have a fully trained Guardian to ease them into the worlds and help them learn to power the portals.
Septamus grows surlier each day, asking where the Guardian is and what’s taking so blasted long.
He tires of the Guild members tending the nursery.
Ye ken how they are, Taggart. The last clutch tried to eat the Guild member bringing the wee ones into the world, then all but one of them died.
I dinna ken if ye’ve met the one survivor, but rumor has it he isna quite right. ”
Taggart passed his hand over the spinning purple jewel on the coffee table.
“Trust me, Thaetus. Hannah will come around. It is in her heart. I just need a little more time to warm her to the idea. And I could use some help from the Guild. Have them ramp up the protection surrounding the gateway. There must be no more intrusions from the other side.”
“Do ye think it was Sloan?” Thaetus’s voice became hushed and the spinning amulet dimmed as though the jewel itself feared being overheard.
“Who else?” A growl escaped him as he resumed pacing. “It might not have been his energy I sensed. But the forest reeked of his sinister essence.” The stench still clung to his mind like a greasy film.
“Ye looked into her heart?” Thaetus interrupted. “What in the name of Isla’s golden beard did ye think ye were doing looking into the woman’s heart? Take care, Taggart! 'Tis forbidden. Ye ken that well enough. No entanglements with the one ye are sworn to protect.”
“Do not presume to tell me how to do my job!” Taggart bared his fangs at the spinning gem.
“I looked into her heart to better understand her. The woman still grieves for a husband she lost to war. Do not question my dedication to the Guild. I am not only the Protector, but also the one who discovered the lost thread of the Sullivan line. Remember?”
“Aye, Taggart. Ye gave up everything for the cause. Ye even revealed yer true self and sacrificed yer precious Mia.” Thaetus’s voice echoed from the depths of the amulet; the transmission weakening as the spinning of the jewel slowed.
Taggart almost choked on a bitter laugh as he moved to stare out the window. “Mia sacrificed me. I had nothing to do with it.” A familiar ache gnawed at him. Thaetus would have to mention her name and stir up the old ghosts.
“Take care, Taggart. We will mind yer back as best we can. But bring the woman home soon.” Thaetus’s voice cut off as the amethyst rattled to a standstill on the top of the table.