“And is the secret to ion propulsion sitting under three feet of snow right now?”
“Yes.”
He stopped undressing her. “Ye solved the puzzle? Then we have to go get it!”
He started to get up, but Grace pulled him back. “No, we don’t. Podly’s been holding the secret for twenty years; I think it can wait another couple of weeks.”
“Twenty years! Ye solved the problem twenty years ago, and you’ve been letting it orbit the Earth all this time? Grace, that’s been your life’s work!”
“Don’t get so excited,” she soothed, cupping his cheeks and setting her thumbs over his lips. “I didn’t find the answer, Camrydid—when she was twelve.”
He tried to sit up, but she held him over her. “One day when Camry was twelve, she was down in the lab with me, working on a project for her school science fair. But then she started looking over my shoulder and asking me one question after another about what I was doing. And when I told her the particular problem I was having, she merely pointed at the screen and asked why I simply didn’t transpose two seemingly disconnected integers in the equation I was working on.”
She gently patted his cheeks when he frowned, and gave a soft laugh. “Don’t ask me to explain it right now, or we’ll still be in this bed come spring. Anyway, it might have been a question from an unschooled child, but it was pure genius. I reversed the numbers, which forced me to change several more, and within an hour I knew I could make ion propulsion work.”
“And why didn’t ye shout it to the world?”
“Because unlocking the code actually created a whole new set of problems. I couldn’t really claim I had mastered ion propulsion, because I hadn’t figured out how to actually controlit.” She sighed. “Ions can be used for more than just propulsion, Grey; they can also be used as a weapon. I wasn’t ready to go there, because I wasn’t sure the world was ready to go there.”
“And now?” he asked. “If Camry and Pascal find Podly like ye hope, and they discover the secret, is the world ready now?”
“Don’t you think I’ve been asking myself that question all this time?”
He reared up slightly. “So that’s what you’ve been doing for the last twenty years, when ye locked yourself in your lab? Instead of trying to figure out how to make ion propulsion viable, you’ve been working on how you can keep it from being used as a weapon?” He frowned again. “Have ye succeeded?”
“Almost. But I’m sure that if Camry, Luke, and I put our heads together, we can hand the world a propulsion system that can be used for space travel.” She cupped his cheeks again. “And if some other scientist takes our work and turns it into a weapon . . . well, I’ve finally made peace with the fact that all I can control is mycontribution to mankind, which will be a more efficient propulsion system.”
“And if Pascal doesn’t feel the same way?”
“Then he will have to live with his decision, as every scientist must.” She smiled. “But sometimes we simply have to trust the magic, don’t we, when it starts messing with us? If you look at all the coincidences that brought Luke to our door, you have to realize there’s no such thing as a coincidence.”
Grey groaned, laying his forehead on her. “If you’re trying to tell me that Winter or Matt had anything to do with any of this, I swear I’ll—”
Grace placed her finger over his mouth. “Not them,” she said with a laugh. “I believe it’s someone even more magical.”
“Who?”
“On the winter solstice, when my house is overflowing with allmy children and grandchildren, then I will tell you who I think it is. Make love to me, husband. Take me traveling beyond the stars under yourpower.”
Chapter Three
At about the same time a half-frozen Lucian Pascal Renoir was walking across the drawbridge of Gù Brath, Camry MacKeage was being dragged toward the beach of Go Back Cove by three massive dogs and one clueless dachshund that thought it was God’s gift to the world. As soon as she saw that the beach was completely deserted—which wasn’t surprising, considering it was only a few degrees above freezing—Camry unsnapped all four leashes and released her charges.
“Go on!” she shouted, racing after them with a laugh. “Run until you drop so we can get home and take a nap. I have to tend bar tonight!”
She ran along behind them for maybe a mile, until a stitch in her side forced her to stop. It was as she was bent over with her hands on her knees, watching her panting breath condense in the cold air, that she heard what sounded like someone sobbing.
Camry straightened and looked around but saw only the dogs racing back toward her, their having discovered she was no longer following. She headed toward the dead grass and dormant rugosa rose bushes separating the beach from the old county road, her ear chocked in the direction the sound was coming from. She suddenly stopped at the sight of a girl, huddled shivering inside a totally inadequate jacket, her face buried in her knees.
“Hey, there,” Cam said, slowly approaching.
The girl snapped her head up, her crystal blue eyes huge with surprise.
Cam stopped several yards away when the girl frantically looked around, as if searching for an escape route. “Hey, it’s okay,” she said gently, shoving her hands in her pockets. She shrugged, smiling at the girl. “I’m sorry if I startled you. I thought the beach was deserted.”
The three large dogs descended on Camry, kicking up sand as they screeched to a halt and started wrestling with one another at her feet. The dachshund, its tongue whipping its cheek as it panted to catch up, suddenly changed direction.
“Tigger!” Camry cried just as the dachshund launched itself at the girl.
The previously sobbing young woman caught the small dog with a gasp, then gave a strangled giggle when Tigger started washing her face.
The three other dogs, suddenly realizing there was a new toy on their beach, took off. Camry lunged after them, but was able to grab only one by the collar. The other two plowed into the girl, sending her onto her back and forcing her to cover her face to protect herself from their slobbering tongues.
“Max! Ruffles! Get off her!” Cam shouted, her lone captive dragging her to the girl’s rescue. She finally had to let go of the whining German shepherd in order to deal with the black Lab and golden retriever. She pushed the two larger dogs off the girl and scooped Tigger up in her arms, then had to use her knee to shove away the shepherd, who was determined to get in a few slobbers of its own.
Desperate to save the girl from getting licked to death, Camry set Tigger down, grabbed the hysterically giggling young woman, and hauled her to her feet. “Jeesh, I’m sorry,” she said, trying to push away the excited dogs. “They won’t hurt you, I promise.”
The girl instantly sobered and blinked at her.
“They’re really just four-legged cupcakes,” Cam said, grabbing Max’s collar when the Lab knocked the girl back a step. Cam shoved the dog away, then picked up a short piece of driftwood. “Fetch!” she shouted, flinging it toward the beach.
The three large dogs immediately shot after it, but Tigger sat down and started whining, staring up at the girl. The young woman picked up the dachshund and hugged it to her chest.
“I’m Camry. And that bundle of ecstasy you’re holding is Tigger.”
The girl said nothing, merely rubbed her cheek against Tigger’s fur.
“Do you live around here?” Cam asked, scanning the road behind the low dunes for signs of a car—although she wasn’t even sure the girl was old enough to drive.