Belladonna (26 page)

Michael turned in a slow circle, but the way she had designed the beds that represented her landscapes made it impossible to see all of the garden from any one place.

"I wouldn't want her to face the dangers of the journey," he said, "but I wish my sister could see this garden. She found an old walled garden on the hill near the family home, and she's struggled for years to make something of it."

She could still hear him talking, but Glorianna was no longer listening to the words. "Your
sister
has a garden like this?"

"Oh, nothing so grand, but this place reminds me of her bit of garden."

Guardians and Guides,
she thought.
There are Landscaper out there who don't know who they are or what they can do when
they play with a bit of land. Especially if they come from the old bloodlines and are like me.

Raven's Hill. A garden. A resonance that tangled with her own on the White Isle. And a man who had dared the river in order to find her. A dream lover who wasn't just a dream.

"Glorianna?" Michael reached for her. She took a step back. "What's wrong?"

"You came seeking Belladonna. Why?"

A blush stained his cheeks. "I've seen you in my dreams. Loved you in my dreams."

She could feel the warmth of his hands — a memory held within a dream.

"I came to find the answer to a riddle — and I found you. 'Heart's hope lies within belladonna.' " He looked around the garden. "I'm thinking the answer to defeating the Well of All Evil is right here in this garden. Because this garden is your heart, isn't it, Glorianna Belladonna?"

She felt breathless. Felt light enough to float with the clouds — and heavy enough to break the earth as she sank into it.

A test of the river to prove he was worthy of what he sought.
A different kind of Landscaper
who might be able to show her an answer she couldn't see by herself. And maybe —
maybe
— someone with whom she could share her home and the island.

Someone who could accept Belladonna as well as Glorianna.

"I think I need to hear the whole story of how you ended up here, but I would rather you tell it to the whole family at the same time," she said. "So we'll have to go to my mother's house."

"She lives on the island?"

His hopefulness was so transparent that she had to smile. "No, she lives in Aurora. We'll have to cross over to that landscape."

He paled. "Cross over. Then it's a ways from here."

"Yes, in some ways it is a ways from here," she replied. "And in others it's no farther than a heartbeat away."

He took the step that brought him close enough to brush a finger along her cheek. "Well, that's true of a good many things, isn't it?"

Who are you, Magician?
"Yes," she said. "It is."

"D
amn
the darkness," Michael said, bracing his feet as if that would help him regain his mental balance. Glorianna had told him that reaching Aurora and her mother's house required nothing more than taking a step between here and there, but he'd expected a little more ceremony. He'd expected a little more warning than "hold my hand and take a step forward." Although why he should keep expecting something more was a puzzlement.

Face it, my lad. You just don't want to look this straight in the eyes and admit you've never known half of what must have been
going on around you.

"I don't hear the falls anymore," he said, turning in a circle to look around. Nice house, but not too grand. Well cared for grounds and ...

He felt his heart skip a beat when he saw the stone walls on the other side of a narrow brook.

"My mother's walled garden," Glorianna said, "Come to the house. By now you'd probably like a bite to eat."

"I would, thank you." He'd been grateful when she'd taken him up to her house on the island to freshen up and put on a clean shirt before making this visit to her mother. And he'd wondered if it had been her own manners or a customary lack of hospitality that had left out an offer of food or drink — until he realized her embarrassed mutter about reaching her mothers house in time for the midday meal meant she'd checked her larder while he'd been washing up and had found it a bit too bare.

Which made him wonder if that was due to a lack of attention on her part or a lack of means to keep food on the table. Maybe he could offer to till some ground for a kitchen garden. Of course, after they were married, he could —

Whoa! Slow down, lad. Just because your heart has settled on the matter doesn't mean she's thinking of sharing home and
hearth with the likes of you.

"I don't think my mother is serving meals out in the garden today," Glorianna said, sounding amused. "If you want food, we have to go into the kitchen."

"What? Oh." How long had he been staring at that garden while he'd been dreaming up a future that...

You won't grow old together,
some part of him whispered.
Except in your dreams.

Why not?
he asked that shadow self, feeling defiant.
No one else has put a ring on her hand. She might settle for the likes of
me.

"Michael?"

Pulling himself out of the argument going on in his head and heart, he smiled at her without answering the "what's wrong?"

question he'd heard in her voice. They hadn't gone more than a few steps when he stopped again and studied the trees and the shape of the land. "I think I was near here early this morning."

"If Sebastian was your escort to the bridge that led to Sanctuary, you were" — Glorianna turned slightly and pointed — "less than a mile from here m that direction."

"That ripe bastard," Michael muttered.

Her green eyes chilled, warning him off.

"You have feelings for him." Seeing the truth of that scraped at him enough to ignore the warning chill. "When he was whispering to you in the moonlight, did he mention he has a wife?"

"Well, he was whispering," she replied with insincere sweetness. "I may not have caught everything he said."

Michael clamped his teeth together to keep from saying something that might have her showing him the door before he ever got the chance to know her —or for her to know him. Because he wanted to know her, both for himself and for ...

Ah, Caitlin Marie. Now that you're lost in a world gone mad, I finally found someone who might understand your heart.

When they reached the house, Glorianna opened the door just enough to poke her head inside and ask, "Anyone flying about?" He didn't hear an answer, but she swung the door open, stepped inside the kitchen, and said, "Sebastian, darling, when you were whispering sweet nothings to me in the moonlight, why didn't you tell me you had a wife?"

As Michael stepped into the kitchen, he registered the presence of other people in the room, but his focus was on the ripe bastard sitting at the table looking much too much at home. It gave him a mean pleasure to see Sebastian turn red and choke in response to Glorianna's words.

"Daylight!" Sebastian said when he was able to breathe again. "Who would have said a thing like… Oh.
You."

"Yes, it's me," Michael said, approaching the table as Sebastian rose to face him. "Despite your little trick this morning, you haven't seen the last of me yet."

"That's obvious since you're here," Sebastian replied.

"And it's obvious to me that your kind have no respect for the marriage vows."

"My kind?
My kind?
I wouldn't be slinging mud if I were you, Magician.
Your
kind takes off his wedding ring when he comes to the Den and pretends he doesn't have a wife, but we figure it's better to have the succubi play with the randy human goats than have those men making promises to girls in their own landscapes. The girls would get their hearts broken — or worse; the succubi just give those men what they came for and lighten their pockets in the bargain."

"And you think that's honorable?"

"It's honest."

"That's enough." A black-haired, green-eyed man wedged himself between them and shoved hard enough to push Michael and Sebastian back a step.

Two against one, Michael thought bitterly. Brothers or first cousins, if the family resemblance was anything to go by. But if he was going to get a beating, he was going to take one last jab at earning it. Looking at Sebastian, he said, "You shame your house and your family."

Cold fury leaped into Sebastian's eyes. Michael braced for whatever a pissed-off wizard would do to him. And then ...

"Why is everyone shouting?" Lynnea asked, stepping into the kitchen.

Michael took a step back, distancing himself from the interrupted fight. How long had she been standing there? Did she know about Sebastian and Glorianna? Or had his own ill-considered words revealed her husband's betrayal? He'd be delighted to see the ripe bastard shut out of the marriage bed, but Lynnea didn't deserve having her heart trampled. And it didn't speak well of Glorianna's heart that she would act the friend while helping herself to another woman's husband. Which might be Sebastian's fault entirely, him being the incubus and all.

Fool. You should have held your tongue and just done a little ill-wishing so Sebastian would get what he deserved.

"Michael?"

At first glance, he thought the person coming into the kitchen behind Lynnea was a feminine-faced bop, but the voice ...

"Caitlin?" He stepped around Sebastian and the other man. His little sister was
here,
alive and well. "Caitlin Marie?"

He knew that particular smile, had looked for it each time he'd come home from his wandering. Her smile of welcome.

He snatched her off her feet and hugged her hard, feeling laughter bubbling up while tears stung his eyes
.
He set her down, and leaned back to get a good look at her and assure himself that she was, indeed, well. Which is when the little detail that had caused him to mistake her gender really registered.

"By the Light, girl! What did you do to your hair! You've cut it so short people will be mistaking you for a boy."

"No, they won't," Teaser said, suddenly appearing in the doorway beside Lynnea. "Not with a nice pair of tits like she's got."

Michael spun around, pushing Caitlin behind him. "And what business do you have to be noticing her titties?"

Teaser shrugged. "I'm just saying."

Caitlin gave him a shove, which made him turn and stare at her. Raising her chin, she said defiantly, "I don't want to look like a girl — and I'm not going to be any man's whore."

Before Michael could roar about that, someone grabbed his ear and tugged him to a place at the kitchen table.

"Sit," an older, dark-haired woman said, ignoring his yelp when she gave his ear another tug. "All this shouting over foolishness. And now you've got the birds upset."

That's when he focused again on the room in general and realized the noise filling the kitchen wasn't coming from anything human.

He sat long enough for her to release his ear. Then he popped up from his chair, intending to give Caitlin Marie — and Teaser

— a piece of his mind.

The dark-haired woman whacked him on the head with a wooden spoon. "Sit!" she said. "You too, Sebastian. Lee. Teaser."

Each name was accompanied by her pointing to a chair. "Glorianna, you and Caitlin Marie need to talk, so you girls go into the parlor. Lynnea, you go with them. And the rest of you
be quiet!"

In the hush that followed, Michael looked at Glorianna and recognized a woman who was working up to being well and truly mad. He figured her anger was going to be generously heaped on
his
head for making everyone aware of Sebastian's infidelity, but he intended to do his best to see that the ripe bastard got a fair share of it.

"I think the Magician and I need to discuss a few things and clear the air," Glorianna said.

"Mud wallow?" Lee asked.

"Lee!"

He hunched his shoulders when the older woman smacked the table with her spoon. Then she looked at Glorianna. "And I think you need to speak to Caitlin Marie. You may be a powerful Landscaper and a Guide of the Heart, but in this house you are my daughter, and you will do as you're told."

The air snapped and crackled between the two women.

Lynnea put an arm around Caitlin's shoulders. "Let's go into the parlor like Nadia asked." She and Caitlin disappeared into another room.

Glorianna hesitated for one more crackling moment, then followed them.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves," Nadia said, glaring at the men around her kitchen table. "You're grown men and you're acting like ... like ..."

"Hooligans?" Michael suggested, giving Nadia his charming smile.

She whacked him on the shoulder. Apparently charm didn't work with the women in this family.

"Hooligans," Nadia said. "I don't know what that means, but it sounds like the way you're behaving. Yes. Hooligans."

"Thanks very much," Lee said dryly. "Now you've taught her another name to call us when she's annoyed about something."

Nadia gave Lee a whack.

"He started it," Sebastian said, pointing at Michael. "Coming in here and acting all pissy. Accusing me of being unfaithful —

and with my cousin no less."

Cousin?
Glorianna hadn't said anything about being Sebastian's cousin. In fact, she ... No, a prick of jealousy had spurred his assumption that she was defending a lover. But after making what he considered to be an honest mistake, she had helped him down the wrong path by not correcting that assumption. "She's got some brass to be blaming
me,"
he muttered.