Spellbound Falls (17 page)

Henry swallowed, his face brightening. “Sophie told me there would be horses here this summer, and that we’ll get to go on trail rides.” His expression turned sad. “Mama and I used to go riding every day, sometimes even if it was raining. And though he was just an old carriage horse, Champ seemed to enjoy my riding him.” He smiled sadly. “Sometimes when I’d start to lose my balance, he would stop and wait for me to right myself so I didn’t fall off.”

Warming up to his memories, Henry snickered. “He didn’t like it when I used to grab an overhead branch and swing off him, though. He always stopped and turned around, looking for me on the ground.” Unshed tears pooled in his eyes again. “I’m never going to see him again, am I? Champ’s been dead for hundreds of years now.”

Mac crouched down beside him. “You will have many pets come and go in your lifetime, Henry. And you can only cherish them while they’re here and hold fond memories of them when they’re gone.” He tapped the boy’s chest. “And just like your mama, Champ is with you as much today as he was back in your original century.”

“Would he be upset with me, do you think, if I enjoy riding other horses?”

“Far from it, son. Your old friend is proud that you’re using the skills he taught you, and expects nothing less than for you to become an expert horseman.”

Henry drove his spoon into his cereal. “Then we must do an excellent job on the stable today, as Champ always insisted on having the freshest hay from the loft and a spotless water bucket.” He stopped with the spoon halfway to his mouth. “When we buy our house in Midnight Bay, will it have a stable?”

Mac straightened. “If it doesn’t, we will certainly build one.”

“And maybe when we leave here in the fall, Sophie will want us to take a couple of Tinkerbelle’s kittens with us,” Henry added, his expression calculating. “Every barn needs plenty of cats to keep the mice out of the grain.”

“I’m sure we won’t have any trouble finding some cats,” Mac said. He pulled out a chair and sat down, dropping Olivia’s note on the table and picking up the one Eileen had left him. “It appears we’re on our own for the next week, as Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin have gone on a trip.” He smiled at Henry’s sudden concern. “Eileen says the kitchen’s all ours, and that we are free to raid the pantry and fridge for our meals.”

“I noticed there’s a restaurant in town,” Henry said. “Or maybe Miss Olivia can cook for us.” His expression turned calculating again. “It would be nice if the four of us took our meals together, don’t you think?”

“What I
think
is that we should start looking through those recipe books,” Mac said, gesturing at the bookcase at the end of the counter. “And finally get serious about learning how to feed ourselves.”

Henry stopped with his spoon halfway to his mouth again. “But why would we waste our time learning how to do women’s work? Once we move to our new home we’ll have servants to do all our cooking and cleaning.”

Mac nearly choked on the sip of juice he’d just taken,
setting the glass on the table with a chuckle. “I suggest you refrain from using the term
women’s work
, young man,” he said, forcing himself to look serious. “Especially in front of Madeline and Eve when we get back to Midnight Bay. And I doubt you would endear yourself to Olivia and Sophie if they hear you saying it. The distinction between men’s work and women’s work is nearly nonexistent in this century, Henry. Today women can even be warriors if they want, and some of the world’s best cooks are men.”

Henry set his spoon in his empty bowl. “But that’s just not practical. Most women would barely be able to lift a sword, much less fight an entire battle with one.”

“Swords are ancient weapons,” Mac explained. “Have you not seen both men and women on television using handguns and rifles? Guns and explosives and something called missiles are the weapons of choice today, and quite often warriors don’t even see the enemy they’re fighting.”

“But that’s not right,” the boy said, his eyebrows rising into his hairline. “It’s not very noble to kill a man without looking him directly in the eyes.”

“Last I knew, nothing about war is noble,” Mac said quietly. “Which is why as theurgists, we endeavor to find peaceful solutions.”

“Then how come Grampy doesn’t just use his powerful magic to stop the wars?”

“We can’t actually interfere in humanity’s right of free will, Henry. In fact, it’s our job to protect that very right.” Mac leaned forward on the table, wrapping his hands around his juice glass as he wondered how they’d gotten on this subject. Hell, was it even possible to have such a philosophical discussion with a six-year-old? “What’s the point of being born if we’re to be nothing more than puppets on a string, with no control over our lives? Every decision a man makes and every action he takes, large or small, has consequences, Henry. And those consequences—good or bad—spread out like waves on the ocean, sometimes traveling great distances to affect others.”

“What kind of decisions?” he asked, his brows knitting
into a frown. “Let’s say I decide to stop brushing my teeth? How would
that
affect anyone else?”

Sweet Prometheus, he could see it was going to be a long day.

Where in hell was Olivia when he needed her?

“You don’t think your wife will mind being married to a man whose teeth suddenly start falling out?” Mac snorted. “Assuming you could get a woman to marry you with such foul breath.” He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms on his chest. “Let’s consider a more serious decision a person might make. What if I had decided
not
to stop and help Olivia when I saw that man attacking her?”

Henry went very still. “But she could have been badly hurt or even killed.”

Mac shrugged. “Why should I have cared? I didn’t know Olivia, so wouldn’t it have been better to simply drive by and not involve us in some stranger’s trouble?”

“But, Dad! If anything happened to Miss Olivia, Sophie would be an orphan.”

“So?”

The boy glared at him so fiercely, Mac was surprised they both didn’t burst into flames. But then Henry took a deep breath, and Mac stifled a smile when he saw a twinkle appear in the boy’s eyes.

“I know you would never walk away from someone in trouble,” Henry said with all the authority of a loyal son. “You’re just trying to make me see what would have happened if you hadn’t stopped to help Miss Olivia.”

“No, I’m trying to point out that I had a
choice
, and how my decision to stop had consequences that affected not only Olivia and her daughter, but also you and me.”

“How did it affect me?”

“You and I have known each other what… three months?” Mac leaned forward on the table again when the boy nodded. “And did you not form an opinion of me within a few days, which has shifted and deepened in the time we’ve been together?”

Henry nodded again, now looking confused.

“So were you surprised that I stopped to help Olivia?”

“No. I would have been surprised if you hadn’t. And… and disappointed.”

“Even though I have constantly been telling you that as theurgists, it’s not our place to meddle in people’s lives?”

“But you meddle all the time. You gave Miss Fiona and Gabriella their lives back and brought them to this century, and you told all the big juicy lobsters to crawl into Mr. Trace’s traps so he could sell them for lots of money.”

Mac once again found himself wondering how they’d gotten on this subject, and how in hell he was going to get off it. Hadn’t it started with horses or something?

No, it had started with Henry’s distaste for burned food.

He gave the boy a tight smile. “And now Fiona and Gabriella have to live with the consequences of
my
actions, don’t they? And so must I.” Mac leaned back in his chair, folding his arms again. “So the point of this little discussion, I believe, is that I’ve decided there will be no servants cooking and cleaning for us when we settle into our permanent home.”

Henry gasped. “But we’ll starve!” His face suddenly darkened and his eyes filled with guilt. “I need to tell you that every morning you left me with Miss Fiona, she would make me a big, delicious breakfast. And she let me sneak cookies and tarts upstairs, which I hid in my bedroom for later.”

“You ate a
second
breakfast every morning?” Mac asked in disbelief.

“Um… no, not a second one,” Henry admitted, looking down at his cereal. “I sneaked the food you cooked for me under the table to Misneach.”

Mac stood up with a burst of laughter and snatched Henry up in his arms. “You made that poor pup eat burned toast and rubbery eggs?” He shook his head. “Either Misneach is a very good friend or the beast doesn’t have one discerning taste bud.”

His eyes level with Mac’s, Henry blinked at him. “You’re not angry?”

Mac shifted the boy to one arm and picked up the bowl and glass from the table and carried them to the sink. “No, I’m not angry. In fact, I’m touched that you wanted to spare my feelings.” He turned serious, giving Henry a squeeze. “But it only proves how much work there is ahead of us if we have any hope of surviving until I get back in the good graces of your Grampy Titus.”

“
Then
can we have servants?” Henry asked as Mac strode outside with him in his arms. “And we’ll go live in Atlantis, and I can travel back and forth through time with you to all the different centuries?”

Mac stopped in the middle of the driveway. “We’re not going to live in Atlantis, because… well, because I’ve outgrown my father’s home. And even after my powers are restored, we’ll still spend most of our time in Maine in this century. We need to put down roots, son, and I can’t think of a better place for us to call home. We have many good friends here, and I find the technology of this century to be rather enjoyable.”

“But what about the women?”

“What about them?” Mac asked, setting the boy down.

“Do you find the women in this century enjoyable, too?” Henry frowned up at him. “Because if you don’t pick out a wife soon, Grampy’s going to pick one for you.” The child gave a shudder. “And I’d rather
we
chose her, because the lady Grampy had picked out for you before he decided on Miss Fiona instead was…” He shuddered again. “She scared the hell out of me, Dad,” he whispered. “I don’t think Gadzalina would have any problem lifting your sword, and I never once saw her smile.”

“What are you talking about? Who’s Gadzalina?”

“She’s the woman Grampy sent for right after he stole me away from my uncles. He brought Gadzalina to the ship to take care of me so he could finish slaughtering the demons trying to kill you. And I heard him telling her how honored she should feel that he’d chosen her over all the other beautiful women on the island to be your bride.” The boy scrunched up his face. “If Gadzalina is Grampy’s idea of a
beautiful woman, maybe instead of learning how to cook we should put our energies into finding you a bride, as I certainly understand how
that
consequence will affect me.”

Mac scrubbed his hands over his face, trying to wash away the image of just how close he’d come to being married to an Atlantean… beauty. Sweet Prometheus, some of those women were bigger than warriors and a whole lot scarier than he was.

And Titus wondered why Mac had spent the last several thousand years fighting his matchmaking efforts.

“Does your bride have to be a virgin?” Henry asked. “Or will any woman do?”

Mac dropped his hands in surprise. “Do you even know what a virgin
is
?”

Henry’s cheeks turned a dull red. “I think it means a woman who hasn’t had any children, especially any bastards like… me.”

“You are not a bastard,” Mac growled, looking around before he dropped to his knees and took hold of the boy’s shoulders. “You are
my son
.” He took a steadying breath and even managed to smile. “And your definition of a virgin is incomplete. She’s actually a woman who has never… who hasn’t… who . . .”

Dammit, where in hell was Olivia? Mac took another deep breath, trying to remember what the books had said about explaining sex to children. He sighed. “Why don’t you go find Olivia, and while you spend the morning helping her work through her own list of chores, you can ask
her
what a virgin is.”

“She can explain it better because she’s a woman?”

“Partly. But mostly because she’s likely already had this discussion with Sophie.”

“Then why don’t I just ask Sophie when she gets home? And that way instead of scrubbing and painting the cabins I can help you get the stable ready for the horses.”

Mac stood up, shaking his head. “I don’t think you should be discussing virgins with Sophie. Now quiet yourself to see where Miss Olivia is right now.”