Charmed (17 page)

“Ooh …” Charmed, Jessie pressed it against her cheek. “Are you a magician?”

“Certainly. Isn’t everyone?”

“Uh-uh. I’m a fairy princess.”

“That’s good enough. And is this your escort for the evening?” he asked, glancing up at Boone.

“No.” Jessie laughed gaily. “He’s my daddy. I’m really Jessie.”

“I’m really Padrick.”

He straightened, and though his eyes remained merry, Boone was sure he was being measured. “And you’d be?”

“Sawyer.” He offered a hand. “Boone Sawyer. We’re Anastasia’s neighbors.”

“Neighbors, you say? Well, I doubt that’s all. But come in, come in.” He exchanged Boone’s hand for Jessie’s. “See what we have in store for you.”

“Ghosts!” She nearly bounced out of her Mary Janes. “Daddy, ghosts!”

“Not a bad attempt for a layman,” Padrick said kindly enough. “Oh, by the way, Ana’s just taken Nash and Morgana upstairs. We’ve having twins tonight. Maureen, my passion flower, come meet Ana’s neighbors.” He turned to Boone as a striking amazon in a scarlet turban came striding down the hall.

“I imagine you’d like a drink, boyo,” Padrick said to Boone.

“Yes, sir.” Boone blew out a long breath. “I believe I would.”

*  *  *

Hesitant and uneasy, Mel knocked on the door of Morgana’s bedroom, then poked her head in. She wasn’t sure whether she’d expected the clinical—and, to her mind, frightening—aura of a delivery room or the mystical glow of a magic circle. Either one she could have done without.

Instead, there was Morgana, propped up in a big, cozy-looking bed, flowers and candles all around. Harp and flute music was drifting through the room. Morgana looked a bit flushed, Nash more than a bit pale, but the
basic normality of it all reassured Mel enough to have her crossing the threshold when Ana gestured to her.

“Come on in, Mel. You should be an expert at this now. After all, you helped Sebastian and me deliver the foal just a few months ago.”

“I feel like a horse,” Morgana muttered, “but that doesn’t mean I appreciate the comparison.”

“I don’t want to interrupt, or get in the way or— Oh, boy,” she whispered when Morgana threw her head back and began to puff like a steam engine.

“Okay, okay.” Nash gripped her hand and fumbled with a stopwatch. “Here comes another one. We’re doing fine, just fine.”

“We, hell,” Morgana said between her teeth. “I’d like to see you—”

“Breathe.” Ana’s voice was gentle as she placed crystals over Morgana’s belly. They hovered in the air, gleaming with an unearthly light that Mel tried to take in stride.

After all, she reminded herself, she’d been married to a witch for two months.

“It’s all right, babe.” Nash pressed his lips to her hand, wishing desperately for the pain to pass. “It’s almost over.”

“Don’t go.” She gripped his hand hard as the contraction began to ease. “Don’t go.”

“I’m right here. You’re wonderful.” As Ana had instructed him, he cooled Morgana’s face with a damp cloth. “I love you, gorgeous.”

“You’d better.” She managed a smile and let out a long, cleansing breath. Knowing she had a ways to go, she closed her eyes. “How am I doing, Ana?”

“Great. A couple more hours.”

“A couple—” Nash bit off the words and fixed on a smile that was sick around the edges. “Terrific.”

Mel cleared her throat, and Ana glanced over. “I’m sorry. We got a little distracted.”

“No problem. I just thought you’d want to know Boone’s here—with Jessie.”

“Oh.” Ana mopped her own brow with her shirtsleeve. “I’d forgotten. I’ll be right down. Would you send Aunt Bryna up?

“Sure. Hey, Morgana, we’re all with you.”

Morgana’s smile was just a tad wicked. “Great. Want to change places?”

“I’ll pass this time, thanks.” She was edging toward the door. “I’ll just get out of your way.”

“You’re not going to be gone long.” Struggling against panic, Nash rubbed the small of Morgana’s back and looked pleadingly at Ana.

“Only a minute or two. And Aunt Bryna’s very skilled. Besides, we need some brandy.”

“Brandy? She’s not supposed to drink.”

“For you,” Ana said gently as she slipped out of the room.

The first thing Ana noted when she reached the parlor was that Jessie was being very well entertained. Ana’s mother was laughing her lusty, full-bodied laugh as Jessie recounted her class’s escapades at the school Halloween party. Since Jessie was already cuddling two stuffed animals, Ana deduced that her father had already been up to his tricks.

She certainly hoped he’d been discreet.

“Things are well upstairs?” Bryna said quietly as they passed in the doorway.

“Perfect. You’ll be a grandmother before midnight.”

“Bless you, Anastasia.” Bryna kissed her cheek. “And I do like your young man.”

“He’s not—” But her aunt was already hurrying upstairs.

And there was Boone, standing by the fireplace, where the flames crackled cheerily, drinking what was surely one of her father’s concoctions and listening, with an expression of fascinated bemusement, to one of her uncle Douglas’s stories.

“So, naturally, we took the poor soul in for the night. Storm being what it was. And what did he do but go screeching out in the morning, shouting about banshees and ghosts and the like. Touched,” Douglas said sadly, tapping a finger to his head, where an orange silk hat now resided. “A sad and sorry tale.”

“Perhaps it had something to do with you clanging about in that suit of armor,” Matthew Donovan commented, warming a brandy in his long-fingered hands.

“No, no, a suit of armor doesn’t resemble a banshee in the least. I imagine it was Maureen’s cat screeching that did it.”

“My cats do not screech,” she said, insulted. “They’re quite well behaved.”

“I have a dog,” Jessie piped up. “But I like cats, too.”

“Is that so?” Always willing to oblige, Padrick plucked a yellow-striped stuffed kitten from between her fairy wings. “How about this one?”

“Oh!” Jessie buried her face in its fur, then delighted Padrick by climbing onto his lap and kissing his rosy cheek.

“Da.” Ana leaned over the sofa to press her lips to his balding head. “You never change.”

“Ana!” Jessie bounced on Padrick’s lap and tried to hold up her entire menagerie at once. “Your daddy’s the funniest person in the world!”

“I like him myself.” She tilted her head curiously. “But who are you?”

“I’m Jessie.” Giggling, she climbed down to turn in a circle.

“No, really?”

“Honest. Daddy made me a fairy princess for Halloween.”

“You certainly sound like Jessie.” Ana crouched down. “Give me a kiss and let’s see.”

Jessie pressed her painted lips to Ana’s, flushing with pleasure at her costume’s success. “Didn’t you know me? Really?”

“You fooled me completely. I was certain you were a real fairy princess.”

“Your daddy said you were his fairy princess ’cause your mama was a queen.”

Maureen let out another peal of laughter, and winked at her husband. “My little frog.”

“I’m sorry I can’t stay and talk,” Ana told Jessie.

“I know. You’re helping get Morgana’s babies out. Do they come out together or one at a time?”

“One at a time, I hope.” She laughed, tousling Jessie’s hair, and looked over at Boone. “You know, you’re welcome to stay as long as you like. There’s plenty of food.”

“Don’t worry about us. How’s Morgana?”

“Very well. Actually, I came down to get some brandy for Nash. His nerves are about shot.”

With an understanding nod, Matthew picked up a decanter and a snifter. “He has my sympathy.” When he passed them to her, she felt a jolt of his power and knew that, however calm his exterior, his mind and his heart were upstairs with his daughter.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of her, Uncle Matthew.”

“No one better. You are the best I’ve known, Anastasia.” His eyes held hers as he flicked a finger over the bloodstone she wore around her neck. “And I’ve known many.” Then a smile touched his lips. “Boone, perhaps you’d walk Anastasia back up.”

“Be glad to.” Boone took the decanter from Ana before they started out.

“Your family,” Boone began, shaking his head at the foot of the stairs, unaware that she’d stiffened.

“Yes?”

“Incredible. Absolutely incredible. It isn’t every day I find myself plopped into the center of a group of strangers, with a woman about to give birth to twins upstairs, a wolf—because I swear that dog is no dog—gnawing what looks like a mastodon bone under the kitchen table, and mechanical bats flying overhead. Oh, I forgot the ghosts in the foyer.”

“Well, it is Halloween.”

“I don’t think that has much to do with it.” He stopped at the top of the stairs. “I can’t remember ever being more entertained. They’re fabulous, Ana. Your father does these magic tricks—terrific magic tricks. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how he pulled it off.”

“No, you wouldn’t. He’s, ah … very accomplished.”

“He could make a living at it. I’ve got to tell you, I wouldn’t have missed this party for the world.” He cupped his free hand around her neck. “The only thing missing is you.”

“I was worried you’d feel awkward.”

“No. Though it does kind of scotch my plans to lure you into some shadowy corner and make you shiver
with some bloodcurdling story so you’d climb all over me for protection.”

“I don’t spook easily.” Smiling, she twined her arms around him. “I grew up on bloodcurdling.”

“And uncles clanging around in suits of armor,” he murmured as he brushed his lips over hers.

“Oh, that’s the least of it.” She leaned against him, changing the angle of the kiss. “We used to play in the dungeons. And I spent an entire night in the haunted tower on one of Sebastian’s dares.”

“Courageous.”

“No, stubborn. And stupid. I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life.” She was drifting into the kiss, losing herself. “At least until Morgana conjured up a blanket and pillow.”

“Conjured?” he repeated, amused by the term.

“Sent up,” she corrected, and poured herself into the embrace so that he would think of nothing but her.

When the door opened beside them, they looked around like guilty children. Bryna lifted her brows, summed up the situation and smiled.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I think Boone is just what we need right now.”

He took a firmer grip on the brandy bottle. “In there?”

She laughed. “No. If you’d just stay there, and let me send Nash out for a moment or two. He could use a little man talk.”

“Only for a minute,” Ana cautioned. “Morgana needs him inside.”

Before Boone could agree or refuse, she slipped away. Resigned, he poured a snifter, took a good swallow himself, then refilled it when Nash stepped out.

He pressed the snifter on Nash. “Have a shot.”

“I didn’t think it would take so long.” After a long breath, he sipped the brandy. “Or that it would hurt her so much. If we get through this, I swear, I’m never going to touch her again.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I mean it.” Despite the fact he knew it was an expectant-father cliché, he began to pace.

“Nash, I don’t mean to interfere, but wouldn’t you feel better—safer—if Morgana was in a hospital, with a
doctor and all that handy medical business?”

“A hospital? No.” Nash rubbed a hand over his face. “Morgana was born in that same bed. She wouldn’t have it any other way with the twins. I guess I wouldn’t, either.”

“Well, a doctor, then.”

“Ana’s the best.” Remembering that relaxed him slightly. “Believe me, Morgana couldn’t be in better hands than hers.”

“I know midwives are supposed to be excellent, and more natural, I imagine.” He moved his shoulders. If Nash was content with the situation, it wasn’t up to him to worry about it. “I guess she’s done it before.”

“No, this is Morgana’s first time.”

“I meant Ana,” Boone said on a chuckle. “Delivering babies.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. She knows what she’s doing. It’s not that. In fact, I think I’d go crazy if she wasn’t here. But—” He took another swallow, paced a little more. “I mean, this has been going on for hours. I don’t know how she can stand it. I don’t know why any woman stands it. Just seems to me she could do something about it. Damn it, she’s a witch.”

Manfully masking another chuckle, Boone gave Nash an encouraging pat on the back. “Nash, it’s not a good time to call her names. Women get a little nasty when they’re in labor. They’re entitled.”

“No, I mean—” He broke off, realizing he was going over the edge. “I’ve got to pull myself together.”

“Yep.”

“I know it’s going to be all right. Ana wouldn’t let anything happen. But it’s so hard to watch her hurting.”

“When you love someone, it’s the hardest thing in the world. But you get through it. And, in this case, you’re getting something fantastic out of it.”

“I never thought I could feel this way, about anybody. She’s everything.”

“I know what you mean.”

Feeling better, Nash passed the snifter back to Boone. “Is that how it is with Ana?”

“I think it might be. I know she’s special.”

“Yeah, she is.” Nash hesitated, and when he spoke again he chose his words with care. Loyalty, split two ways, was the heaviest of burdens. “You’d be able to understand her, Boone, with your imagination, your way of looking beyond what’s considered reality. She is a very special lady, with qualities that make her different from anyone you’ve ever known. If you love her, and you want her to be a part of your life and Jessie’s, don’t let those qualities block you.”

Boone’s brows drew together. “I don’t think I’m following you.”

“Just remember I said it. Thanks for the drink.” He took a steadying breath, then went back in to his wife.

“Breathe. Come on, baby, breathe!”

“I am breathing.” Morgana grunted out the words between pants and couldn’t quite manage to glare at Nash. “What the hell do you call this if it’s not breathing?”

Nash figured he was past his own crisis point. She’d already called him every name in the book, and had invented several more. Ana said they were nearly there, and he was clinging to that as desperately as Morgana was clinging to his hand. So he merely smiled at his sweaty wife and mopped her brow with a cool cloth.