Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
E sme had renewed the wards, drunk a cup from her flask of gunpowder tea, and was heading toward home when she saw another familiar figure out enjoying the dry bright weather.
Better yet, there was a joyful bark as she got closer. Tobias called the dog back but Winter ignored his master, running up to head butt Esme in her thighs until she dropped to her knees to make a proper fuss. She sunk her fingers into the fur around his ears and neck and scratched vigorously.
‘I don’t know what’s got into him,’ Tobias said, mock-cross. ‘He’s behaving like a puppy.’
‘He feels better, don’t you?’ Esme said to Winter, who answered her by attempting to lick her face. She dodged in time, but was thrilled he was moving so quickly. His muzzle was still shot through with grey hairs, but his eyes were clear and his nose damp and shiny with good health. As if keen to demonstrate his miraculous recovery, he jumped up and ran in an excited circle.
‘Heel!’ Tobias said sharply and the dog came and sat by his side, head low and ears back. His demeanour was contrite, but Esme estimated Tobias had about three minutes of good behaviour before Winter would be off chasing rabbits.
‘I just renewed the wards,’ Esme said. ‘Everything seems fine.’
‘Thank you,’ Tobias said. ‘Beautiful day for it,’ Tobias said. He took in a deep, appreciative breath.
Winter’s tail was thumping the ground and he let out a soft ‘woof’. ‘All right, go on,’ Tobias said to the dog, who jumped up and began investigating the rutted ground and clumps of plant life to the side of the path.
Esme hesitated. There was something she wanted to ask Tobias, but she felt as if the subject didn’t belong beneath the bowl of blue sky with the fresh clean island air moving her hair.
‘What is it?’
She smiled ruefully at Tobias’s perceptive nature. ‘There’s still something I don’t understand. Kate Foster, Elin-whatever-her-name-is, is human. How could she remember this place? Or stay more than two nights? I swear I’ve been keeping up with the wards.’
‘We are a place of safety,’ Tobias said. ‘You know that. Kate was wearing a magical glamour, and her soul was saturated in past magical use. It must have been enough to convince the wards that she required sanctuary. The wards can’t be expected to discern the difference between benign or evil intent. That’s down to us.’
‘I should have seen it,’ Esme said in a rush. ‘I let you down.’
Tobias patted her hand. ‘You have never let me down. It’s just not possible.’
Suddenly, she was trying to swallow around a lump in her throat. Esme blinked back tears, turning to watch Winter in his ecstatic investigations of the clearly suspicious gorse.
Luke’s favourite reading chair had miraculously escaped Kate Foster’s liberal application of petrol. He had a mug of tea and his John le Carré to finish. It had been a busy couple of weeks of cleaning and fixing and airing out the building, but now the familiar scent of warm wood and old paper was once again asserting itself. The new window gleamed and the window display with driftwood and little twinkling lights looked cheerful and welcoming.
He was halfway through his tea and one chapter down when the front door opened. He replaced his bookmark and stood up to greet the customer.
Bee had a bag full of books that she put onto the counter. ‘If you still need stock,’ she said. ‘Things I’ve bought over the years and always meant to return for a swap.’
‘That’s very kind,’ Luke said. ‘I will pay you for them, of course.’
‘No need,’ Bee waved a hand. ‘Consider it a housewarming gift.’ She raised a single eyebrow. ‘Too soon?’
Luke laughed.
Bee turned to admire the window, the gleaming shelves, the neatly arranged books. ‘You’ve done a good job getting this place back in order.’
Her sincerity made him suddenly choke up. He managed a nod in thanks and then mumbled something about having had plenty of help.
‘It shouldn’t have happened,’ Bee said, not looking at him. ‘I should have seen the hex coming to you.’
Luke knew that Bee meant the words literally. ‘Your sister saved my life,’ he said. ‘I’m not complaining.’
Bee nodded briskly. ‘I can’t fulfil that debt. It’s between you and Lucy, and she won’t share. I can, however, do you a favour. I wish to make amends.’
‘There’s really no need…’
‘You still want to find your brother?’
Luke closed his mouth.
Bee pursed her lips, hesitating for a second before she spoke. ‘The head of the Crow Family owes me a favour. I’m going to call it in.’
One downside of living in a very close community was that it was difficult to go on a date without everybody else being on it, too. Luke knew that if he and Esme tried to have a romantic dinner at The Rising Moon, they would end up with half the village joining in. And if he spoke to Seren about wanting to stay private on a table just for two, they would simply have a curious audience for the whole awkward event.
Heading to the mainland in his car, the tyres crunching on the frost-rimed road and the low winter sun shining on the expanse of sand and sea on either side of the narrow causeway, and Esme in the passenger seat next to him, he felt as if he was flying.
They had been chatting easily enough, but he still had a ball of nerves in his stomach and he hoped she liked the restaurant he had chosen. A family-run Italian place with excellent reviews, mid-list prices, and an unpretentious menu. They were having a late lunch, rather than dinner, so that they could head back across the causeway before the tide closed it. If all had gone well, she might even invite him into Strand House and offer a glass of wine. His mind wouldn’t let him think about what else might happen at that point. He knew that agreeing to a chaste daytime date was a huge deal for Esme, and he was willing to go as slowly as she needed. As long as she didn’t hit the brakes completely, he could cope with anything.
‘Can we stop?’ Esme asked, in a horrible echo of his thoughts.
They had just joined the mainland, the road surface changing to the smooth tarmac of civilisation, and he wondered if it had triggered panic. He felt sick.
‘Just for a minute?’
She was smiling at him, not seeming unhappy, and he told himself not to spiral.
‘Sure.’ There were wide turning points just off the road on either side. The Northumberland council’s way of ensuring that nobody was forced to continue on the causeway if they didn’t want to. Or had realised that they had drastically misread the tide table. The spaces were empty, a freezing January day not exactly drawing the crowds. He angled the car so that they were facing back across the causeway, wanting to show Esme that it was no problem if she had changed her mind. The thought brought a fresh wave of crushing disappointment, but he pushed it down. Whatever she needed. If this was too much, then he would take her straight home. He would leave her alone, even as it broke his heart. Whatever Esme needed to be safe and happy was exactly what he would do. There was something comforting about this clarity, and he felt calm when he turned in his seat to face her. He was ready to see the apology in her eyes and to meet it with equanimity.
‘I wanted to see it from this point of view and I wasn’t sure if it would be too dark on the way back. The island. I hardly ever see it from a distance like this and there’s something… I don’t know. Affirming, I suppose.’ She was looking out of the windscreen, and he did the same.
The island was just visible, rising out of the silvered sand, against a pale opalescent sky. As he watched, it seemed to sink in and out of existence, as if it was resisting being seen. A trick of the light and cloud. ‘It’s beautiful,’ he said, surprising himself.
‘It really is.’
He dragged his gaze from Unholy Island to Esme and found her looking back at him. Her lips were parted slightly and her eyes bright. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Something seemed to shine from within, her skin and the whites of her eyes seeming to have a touch of the same unearthly opalescence as the sky.
‘Do you want to go back?’
‘And miss our date?’ Her forehead creased a little. ‘Do you?’
‘No,’ he said quickly. ‘I just don’t want you to worry if you’ve changed your mind. I don’t want you to feel pressured.’
The smile that broke transformed her face from an unearthly beauty to something earthier and unmentionably sexy. He felt his body responding as his heart began hammering with an answering rhythm. If it was any other woman, he would be reaching for her right now. Instead, he held himself in check. Esme wasn’t a woman you lunged at clumsily in a car.
The click as she undid her seat belt was loud in the quiet. And then she was leaning across to him, reaching her hands around his neck, and he met her halfway. He cradled her cheek and jaw with one hand and tipped her head back, the other hand finding the back of her neck. When their lips met this time, there was no hesitation, no restraint. It was as if this was exactly what they were meant to be doing, and both of their bodies knew it.
Happiness exploded behind Luke’s closed eyes.
When they pulled apart, just a little, he rested his forehead very gently on hers, reluctant to pull fully away and back to the cool air of his side of the car. He didn’t feel the need to ask if she was okay as Esme was leaning into him, smiling with her eyes so loudly that he couldn’t mistake it. He knew his own expression mirrored hers and that he probably looked like a dazed idiot.
‘I have food,’ Esme whispered.
He caught his breath, wondering if she meant what he thought she might mean. ‘You want to skip the restaurant?’
Her smile grew a little, but there was uncertainty in her eyes, too. ‘Maybe. If you want? We could just go home. Right now. To my place. Eat there.’ She took a little breath that almost broke all his gentlemanly restraint.
‘I hate restaurants,’ he said with complete solemnity.
She laughed, uncertainty banished, and he kissed her again, before releasing her. He waited for her to buckle her seat belt and revelled in the smile she shot at him as he put the car into reverse and then steered onto the causeway, toward the island. ‘Let’s go home.’
THE END