Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (104 page)

No, it was definitely more tantalizing than
she had expected. In fact, Viviane felt a bit dizzy.

“
Why did you come?” she
whispered, her voice a faint shadow of its usual
strength.

“
To fetch you,” he
murmured, his eyes glinting. “Why else?”

Viviane’s knees melted. He
had
come
just for her. She was right.

Perfect!

Niall lifted one hand to ease an errant curl
back from her cheek. There was a heat in his eyes that made
Viviane’s heart stop, yet she stood rooted to the spot, as though
she had been turned to stone.

Her heart hammered as he leaned closer, she
closed her eyes when the warmth of his fingertips slid down the
length of her neck. Viviane lifted her face and parted her lips,
wanting only Niall’s kiss. He leaned closer, her heart raced, his
breath fanned her cheek, she trembled.

“
Refills!” Paula chirped so
close behind that both she and Niall jumped. Their hostess smiled
cheerily and shoved the frosty glasses into their hands before she
danced away.

Viviane blinked, licked her lips and let the
frost of the glass disperse the fire smoldering within her. She
took a deep breath and reminded herself that they weren’t
alone.

Yet.

But she could fix that, as soon as they
returned to Ganges. She would take Niall to her room, Viviane
decided impulsively, she wouldn’t let him stay anywhere else. He
had ridden into the unknown in pursuit of her and now they wouldn’t
be separated again. Her breath caught as she wondered whether she
would take him to her bed tonight, let alone what he would do about
it if she did.

Viviane slanted a glance through her lashes
at her knight and made a fairly good guess.

Niall meanwhile sniffed his drink
suspiciously. “And what is this concoction?”

“
It’s good,
really.”

“
Aye? And what will it do
to me? Is it a potion to cloy my wits?”

“
No, nothing like that!”
Viviane laughed and her words spilled forth with haste now that she
was reassured. “It’s kind of tart, both sweet and sour, and very
cold. Like ale, but different -” she pursed her lips “- so not
really like ale at all. And that’s salt on the rim, which makes an
oddly pleasing tingle in contrast to how sour the drink is. It’s
called a marguerita, although I don’t know why.”

“
So you have not been
struck dumb after all,” Niall mused. He flicked a glance her way.
“Though your speech has become most odd during this
time.”

Viviane felt herself blush scarlet again,
but she couldn’t stop talking now that she had begun. “Well, I
didn’t really have a choice, you know. I have to at least try to
blend in, or not arouse suspicions that I don’t belong here. What
could I do but dress as they do and speak as they do? I’m not a
fairy or a sorceress myself and you would think that even a lesser
immortal could tell that with just a glance, but still there’s no
reason to draw attention to myself.”

“
Indeed.” Niall’s gaze
lingered on her as though she were a puzzle he was trying to
solve.

“
Indeed!” Viviane nodded
firmly. “You know, you should try your marguerita, you wouldn’t
want to hurt Paula’s feelings. It’s not precisely what you would
expect and, to be honest -“ she lowered her voice and leaned closer
“- I did wonder at first just what to expect, since our hostess
is
one of the fey.”

“
The fey?” Niall repeated
tonelessly.

Viviane had the sense that he was trying to
keep his surprise from showing, though why he would be surprised by
such a statement, she just couldn’t imagine.

What other explanation could there possibly
be?

“
Yes! Why, it’s perfectly
obvious.” Viviane hastened to explain as he glanced across the
deck. “She seems both old and young at the same time, which is, I
understand, one of the characteristics of the little people. Not to
mention, of course, her tiny build.”

Viviane sipped beneath Niall’s watchful
eye.

In fact, he watched her so carefully that it
was almost as though he was ensuring her response before he drank
of the brew. She took another swallow, purely to reassure him that
it really did taste good, and felt a languor steal through her
body.

“
You believe our hostess is
one of the fey, merely because she is wrought small?”

It was clear from his tone that Niall did
not share her conviction.

But then, he didn’t know the whole truth
about this place.

Viviane was more than happy to explain.

“
Oh, it could be,” she
insisted. “After all, Paula believes in every manner of strange
thing! Already she has spoken of great mysteries with authority,
though I can’t even guess at what she means. Did you understand
what she meant by calling Derek an Aries?”

Niall shook his head slowly.

“
You see? She must be one
of the initiates, to just casually refer to things beyond
everyone’s understanding. And everyone here
is
an immortal
of some kind or another - you can tell with just one glance, even
when they don’t tell you so. Monty said he has known Barb forever,
and he said it just as easily as that, as though there was nothing
remarkable about it at all. I have met people who say that they’re
eighty years of age!”

Niall’s fair brows lifted in surprise and
Viviane nodded. “Imagine! They say they’re eighty years
young
and then they laugh, which just goes to show what kind
of expectations they have. I wonder whether they just start
counting over at some point, though I really can’t imagine when
that would be.” She frowned in thought. “Maybe when they arrive
here. What do you think?”

Niall’s expression was impassive. “I could
not fathom a guess.”

“
No, well, neither could I,
really.” Viviane smiled. “Of course, it’s because they’re immortal
that they’re so different from us. And so
incomprehensible.”

She gulped her drink again and thought that
maybe it was helping her to explain matters. “Although I don’t
think that Paula has any malice towards us, not at all. She must be
a good fairy. Not that I know very much about fairies, but my
mother always talked about them and it seems to me that she said
things like that about them, that there were good ones and bad
ones, and the good ones would aid you and the bad ones would vex
you. And that, of course, if
you
vexed a good one, well,
then even they could act like bad ones, just to get even.”

Niall chuckled beneath his breath and shook
his head.

“
What?” Viviane
demanded.

He slanted a steady glance her way. “I do
not believe that the fey exist.”

“
Shhh!” Viviane pressed her
fingertips to his lips. Her heart skipped a beat when her fingers
touched his flesh and their gazes met with sudden intensity.
Viviane tried to chatter on as though she was unaffected, for her
mother had always said it was unwise to let a man see his effect
upon you.

“
Don’t even think such a
thing! That’s the very worst thing you could possibly do. You don’t
want to insult them! Who could tell how they might turn upon us,
then. My mother used to tell stories of offended fairies that would
keep one awake half the night, and play tricks upon mortals and all
sorts of maliciousness. It’s only sensible, really, because even
mortals can be malicious if they feel that they’ve been insulted or
treated poorly.”

Niall nodded, then took a cautious sip of
Paula’s concoction. He rolled it around in his mouth as Viviane
watched, then nodded as he swallowed. “’Tis not all bad.”

She drank again as though to indicate her
agreement. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Paula knew most of the other
fey that are resident here…”

“
Other
fey?” Niall
interjected.

“
Well, of course! There are
hundreds if not thousands of fairies here, it’s so hard to keep
track of them all, never mind the wizards and sorcerors. They don’t
live alone!” She cast a stern glance to her companion. “Honestly,
you have to use your wits here if you’re going to blend
in.”

Niall’s eyes narrowed and he leaned closer,
his somber manner bringing Viviane’s tirade to a sudden halt. “And
where
are
we, that there are so many fey at large?”

There was a glint in his eyes that told her
he wasn’t prepared to believe the truth, at least not yet. Viviane
knew she had to persuade him to at least be careful, before he made
a mistake and was evicted. It wouldn’t be fair if her knight was
snatched away from her, right after he arrived!

“
Niall - do you mind if I
call you Niall? After all, it seems as though we’ve known each
other for a long time, probably because of all we’ve shared, and
besides, they don’t use titles here, at least not as much as I can
tell.”

He lifted one brow in acknowledgement and
Viviane hastened on, liking how his name rolled over her tongue.
“Well, Niall, you just have to believe me. And keep your thoughts
less skeptical, because you never know who could be listening. My
mother always said that they fey had sharp ears, that they could
even hear your thoughts if you weren’t careful, and that they never
missed a chance to straighten out the thinking of a skeptic…”

“
Viviane, where
are
we?” Niall interjected calmly.

Oh, it was an unexpected delight to hear him
utter her name!

Even if he sounded a bit impatient when he
did.

But it seemed so vulgar to just blurt out
the truth and Viviane didn’t even know if it was supposed to be a
secret, or whether it was forbidden to even say the word
Avalon
.

Niall wasn’t looking away, though, just
waiting for his answer as though he’d wait for it all week if
necessary. And she supposed he did have a right to know. Viviane
licked her lips. She glanced to their companions, who seemed
markedly disinterested in their conversation, although you could
never be entirely sure.

“
This place is - “ Viviane
dropped her voice, glanced around to ensure once more that no one
was listening, then leaned dangerously close to Niall “ -
Avalon!
”

He choked in the act of sipping his drink
then. “Avalon!”

“
I know!” Viviane nodded
sagely. “Isn’t it amazing? I could hardly believe it myself when I
ended up here. And now we’re both here and
everything…”

“
Avalon!” he muttered
through clenched teeth. “Are you mad?”

Viviane straightened. “Shhh! Don’t get them
upset!”

“
Them?”

“
The immortal ones! I
told
you! They’re all sorcerors here and who knows what kind
of hexes they might loose upon us, especially if they thought that
we didn’t appreciate their hospitality.”

“
I would have expected more
from great sorcerors,” he mused with a significant heft of his
drink.

Viviane barely stifled the urge to swat
him.

“
Your irreverence could
cost us dearly!” she hissed.

“
Nay. There is no such
place as Avalon,” he insisted, with all the flexibility of a
mountain. “And there are no such things as fairies.”

Viviane tossed her hair over her shoulder,
not caring for his tone at all. “Of course, there’s such a place as
Avalon. There must be because it’s where we are.”

“
Aye?” Niall challenged,
his voice low. “Prove the truth of it to me.”

Viviane lifted her chin, intent on doing
precisely that. She ticked off points on her fingers. “The island
where we sailed from lies in the west. It’s shrouded by mist and
invisible to those mortals on the mainland, except on a day of rare
clarity, and people on the island say that the mainlanders are
always trying to come to island. But they can’t - because they have
to shed their love of material possessions and greed to enjoy the
spirituality of the island life. That’s what Monty says and he
should know - he’s a sorceror after all.”

Niall glanced across the deck at the
sorceror in question, his expression speaking volumes.

But Viviane pressed on. “And it’s hard to
navigate a safe passage through the islands - although they say
that it’s just people getting lost in unfamiliar waters, it’s
probably a protective spell. Immortals do that, you know, to
maintain their privacy. All the myths say so.” She took a
fortifying sip of the marguerita, watching Niall sip long and
slowly.

“
And there is no poverty on
the island; the elderly come there when otherwise they might die;
the shops are full of inexplicable marvels that anyone can buy for
themselves. The land is blessed with bounty, the hills are
wondrously green, the sky is flawless blue, the weather is perfect.
Apples
grow in unnatural abundance on trees that hang to the
ground with massive fruit.”

Viviane punctuated this with a stern glance,
for it was not insignificant. Her heart skipped to find Niall
watching her avidly.

“
And women abide upon that
island in great numbers. They are revered. Barb says that there are
many priestesses there, though I’ve yet to meet one. Finally, books
are so common that every man and woman can collect the most
beautiful manuscripts themselves.”

“
And they all are in
agreement with you?” her knight asked, shrugging toward their
companions. “They too believe themselves to be in
Avalon?”

Viviane had the feeling that he didn’t
believe her explanation. “Well, not exactly,” she had to admit.
“They call the island Salt Spring, for some reason. Perhaps there
is a magical spring that I have yet to see. Springs are always of
fresh water, after all, so that would be a marvel.”