Spellbound Falls (33 page)

He swiped at the moisture gathered in his eyes and nodded.

“Well then, don’t you think he would immediately realize what she was doing?”

“But why can’t
you
just fall in love with him?” he blurted out, throwing himself against her and wrapping his arms around her neck. “Because I really, really like you, Miss Olivia. And my dad does, too. I
know
he does.”

“Henry,” she whispered past the lump in her throat, trying to gently pull him away.

His arms tightened around her. “And you and Sophie could move to Midnight Bay with us, because I just know you’ll like the ocean. And we could build a fire pit in the back and have cookouts and make s’mores all the time.”

His tiny body was shaking so badly that Olivia also started shaking.

“I promise, I won’t ever whine or pout and I’ll do everything you tell me to.”

Oh God, what a mess. “Shhh, honey.” She stopped trying to move him away and simply hugged him. “Please don’t get all worked up over this, Henry. You have my word: Your daddy’s not going to marry anyone who doesn’t love you as much as he does.” She gave a forced laugh as she patted his back. “And I know your auntie Caro will certainly have something to say about who he marries.” She leaned away enough for him to see her smile. “She’s not letting him change your first name, is she?”

Henry sucked in a deep breath, trying to get control of his sobs. “Sh-she said hell would freeze over first, only I don’t think that’s possible because Hades is in charge of hell. He’s Zeus and Poseidon’s brother, and that means he’s powerful enough to keep the fires burning so bright the ice would just melt.”

Wonderful; another dastardly god for the boy to look up
to. Olivia cupped his cheeks in her hands. “That’s why Carolina said what she did, to tell you it’s never going to happen. What I’m trying to point out is that you have me
and
your auntie Caro to make sure your dad doesn’t fall in love with the wrong woman.”

Henry’s eyes widened. “Oh no, he doesn’t intend to
love
his wife; he only needs to like her enough to get married before Grampy forces us to marry Gadzalina.”

“Ah, I see,” Olivia said with a nod, afraid she did see. God, she hoped Mac didn’t suddenly decide
she
would make a good replacement for Godzilla.

“Miss Olivia.”

She gasped. What if that’s why he’d tried so hard to impress her with the expensive cabin and… and all-night sex marathon?

“Miss Olivia.”

Oh God, what if last night had been an
audition
?

She stood up, looking toward cabin ten. “Where’s your father now, Henry?”

“He and Auntie went for a walk around Whisper Lake. Miss Olivia,” he said, tugging on her pajama sleeve only to take a step back when she looked down at him.

Olivia quickly turned her glare to a smile.

“I was going to ask if… um, never mind,” he said, taking another step back when Sophie came barreling out of the house.

“Come on, Henry,” the girl said as she continued past them at a run. “Let’s go see if Mr. Sam will let us brush our horses.”

Henry started after her, but stopped and turned back to Olivia. “You won’t tell Dad that I cried, will you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with having a good cry once in a while, Henry,” she said, considering she had every intention of making Mac cry the very first chance she got. He might have been taking casting calls on the couch for the role of Mrs. Oceanus, but she hadn’t been auditioning for anything but a temporary lover. “Don’t worry; I won’t say anything to him. What was it you wanted to ask me?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I was going to ask if you think I need to wear pajamas to bed. Because last night Auntie got all upset when I just stripped off and crawled under the covers.” He made a disgusted face. “She made me wear one of her shirts and my underpants because I don’t own any pajamas. Well, I used to have pajamas because Miss Maddy bought me some with Sesame Street puppets on them, but Dad left them in Midnight Bay because he said men are born naked and we’re supposed to sleep naked. He says our bodies need to breathe at night.” He took a step toward her. “Dad told me to ask my mama if it was okay, because he said she didn’t mind when he slept naked with her. So I asked, and my heart told me Mama said that if I’m old enough for sword lessons then I’m too old to wear bedclothes like a baby.”

How… wonderful.

Henry suddenly ran up to her, his face having gone as pale as new snow. “I meant
music
lessons, Miss Olivia, not sword lessons. Okay?
Music
lessons.”

“Okay, Henry.”

He squinted up at her, color springing back into his cheeks. “So, do you think I need to wear pajamas?” He touched her sleeve. “I can see that you do. And Sophie wore some last night.” He frowned when Olivia sat down on the stoop again as she wondered what to tell him. “Are pajamas only for women and babies? And men are supposed to sleep naked?”

“Well,” she said, trying to come up with an answer. “I suppose both your father and your aunt Carolina are correct,” she said, giving a negligent shrug to make this a small problem in his mind. “If your dad says men sleep naked, then he should know, seeing how he’s a man. But your aunt knew it wasn’t appropriate since you had a guest staying with you, especially a girl guest. So maybe your father can buy you pajamas for when you have a sleepover or spend the night at a friend’s house. That way nobody gets offended.”

“Henry!” Sophie hollered from the lane. “I thought you
were right behind me. Come on! Sam’s bringing out our horses so we can brush them!”

“I’m coming!” Henry hollered back. He gave a slight bow. “Thank you, Miss Olivia. I think that’s a perfect solution.” He shook his head, looking quite sad again. “It’s too bad you couldn’t just fall in love with my dad. I think you would make a good theurgist’s wife.”

And with that he headed down the path, leaving Olivia gaping after him.

Henry thought his father was a theurgist?

Olivia set her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in her palms with a frown. And what was that thing about sword lessons, anyway? Was Mac teaching Henry how to fence but had told him not to say anything, afraid she’d think it was too dangerous for a six-year-old?

But didn’t fencing involve a foil or something, not a sword?

She snorted. She couldn’t quite see Mac waving a sissy foil around. But she certainly could see him wielding a long, thick sword like King Arthur’s Excalibur or one of those highland swords on the covers of the romance novels she liked to read.

And the scary thing was, the idea of Mac coming here from some long-ago century wasn’t all that disturbing to her. Because really, the man certainly walked and talked and acted like a throwback to the bygone age of chivalry, right down to his giving her a token of his affection.

Olivia leaned over and pulled up her pajama leg to touch the thin gold chain. What had made him choose an ankle bracelet? And come to think of it, when had he chosen it for her? He hadn’t left Inglenook all week except for last Sunday’s picnic, and she’d only suggested they go out to dinner yesterday morning.

Oh God, had he asked his sister for something to give his date, and Carolina had given him one of her bracelets?

Olivia turned the chain to the clasp so she could take it off to see it better. Only there wasn’t a clasp. Nothing. The thin gold rope went directly into the setting holding the
stone, making the bracelet impossible to get off without breaking it.

“You’ve got to be friggin’ kidding me,” she growled, sliding the chain around her ankle, looking for some sort of clasp. Only there wasn’t one. Nothing but a tiny gold medallion with an aquamarine stone set in the center of… she lifted her ankle onto her knee to study the medallion.

What in hell
was
that? Because honestly, it looked like the stone was set in the center prong of a pitchfork or a… a trident, maybe?

She sat up, her gaze going to cabin ten. Didn’t Poseidon carry a trident?

Mythological bedtime stories. Formal mannerisms. Arranged marriages. Swords. Odd terms and old-fashioned speech patterns, like how Mac and Henry and Carolina posed their questions sort of backward and rarely used contractions—although she supposed that was common if English wasn’t a person’s first language. But that didn’t explain words like
theurgist
instead of
wizard
and… and what in hell did
ma-REE-tah
mean, anyway? She didn’t even know if it was French, Greek, or Swahili.

And why couldn’t she get this damn ankle bracelet off?

For that matter, how come Mac’s truck was out to get her?

And three albatrosses walking down a road in the middle of the night in Maine?

Really?
Tame
albatrosses?

Albatrosses that Mac didn’t want her turning over to the authorities.

So, had she been living out here in the woods so long that anything foreign or different was suspicious? Or was she getting semihysterical over nothing because she had stepped way, way outside her comfort zone last night?

Hell, maybe she was drunk on too much sex all at once!

Olivia slid her foot off her knee and took a calming breath. Could she stretch her imagination, Mac had asked her this morning, enough to see the gift they’d been given? And could she listen to the message of the albatrosses, as it
might be something she’d been waiting a very long time to hear?

Except the only thing she was hearing right now was her gut telling her there was something very weird about the Oceanuses.

And that more had happened last night than just the beginning of an affair.

Olivia dropped her face in her hands on her knees. Honest to God, Mac hadn’t left just a few small marks on her body or placed a pretty shackle around her ankle last night; he’d somehow managed to sneak past her carefully guarded line of defense and make her want something she hadn’t even dared to hope for.

But the really scary part was that even Mac’s strangeness wasn’t enough to scare her off. Because if there was one thing Olivia’s mama had taught her young daughter before she’d died, it was that the most powerful and precious gifts often come out of nowhere, usually when least expected and almost always the last thing expected.

Which rather described Mac, didn’t it?

He was so intent on trying to figure out why he’d gotten the cold shoulder from Olivia at dinner that evening, Mac nearly missed the fact that they were being followed. He lifted Henry off his shoulders and set him down on the moonlit path, putting a finger to his lips to signal they needed to stay quiet. He took Henry’s hand and put it in Carolina’s, then urged them to continue walking toward Inglenook ahead of him.

Had whoever was out there been stalking them all the way from the clearing and seen Henry’s lesson? With Carolina noisily cheering the boy on, coaching him when to attack and when to retreat from his father’s advancing sword, there was a good chance Mac wouldn’t have realized they were being watched.

Whoever it was had the skills of a hunter, as he sensed rather than heard the footsteps touching the forest floor with deliberate care a good fifty paces behind them. Carolina looked over her shoulder, and Mac nodded over his own shoulder as he moved his fingers like walking legs to let her know what was happening.

“Caro, why don’t you tell Henry how Prometheus gave man the gift of fire, and how angry that made Zeus,” Mac said in a normal tone, gesturing at her to keep walking. “Tell him how that led to Zeus ordering the creation of woman to plague man,” he added with a chuckle.

Carolina gave a very loud snort and began swinging Henry’s hand between them so he’d face forward as she and boy continued down the path. “Well,” Carolina began, “Zeus was so angry that mortals had been given the powerful gift of fire, he ordered Hephaestus to mold a woman out of water and clay and give her the even more powerful gifts of beauty and grace and charm.”