“I misspoke,” he told her. “I mean in the early morning, just before dawn. I often stop by on my way to check the progress on our cottage, just to see if anything’s changed at the cliff.” He looked over to include Grey. “If I place my hands on the rock and concentrate, I can make out a vibration coming from inside.” He looked to the far wall, and Winter saw him rub his fingers together on his right hand.
“Actually, the granite feels unusually warm, and I can hear faint tapping sounds coming from inside.” He looked back at Grey and shook his head. “I’ve tried to place the sound, but I can’t.”
“So you think something is going on in there?” Megan asked. “That the cave still exists and someone is working inside it?”
Daar stopped stuffing food in his mouth long enough to glare at Matt. “Who else have ye angered over the centuries?” he asked.
Matt looked startled. “No one,” he said. “I haven’t angered anyone…else.”
“The vibration you felt,” Winter asked, drawing his attention. “Is it the same energy we sensed near the pine?”
“It feels the same,” Matt said, though he was shaking his head. “Whoever it is, he’s much more powerful than either of us, I’m afraid. He’s able to cloak his identity even from me, and he’s made the cliff impervious. I tried getting inside from a different direction, but I couldn’t get within ten feet of the original cave.”
Winter grinned crookedly. “You keep calling the energy a ‘he.’ Maybe it’s a ‘she.’ Maybe that’
s why you can’t wiggle your way around her power.”
“Neither can you.”
“Not yet,” she said, filling her fork with potato and popping it into her mouth, smiling at Matt’s frown as she chewed.
Daar stopped eating long enough to ask Matt another question. “What were ye doing up on TarStone yesterday? Ye made a terrible racket that shook the mountain hard enough to knock my lantern off its peg, and ye caused a landslide that missed my cabin by only a few yards.”
Again, Matt looked surprised, then suddenly turned narrowed eyes on Winter. She quickly popped some turkey into her mouth, chewed, then said, “Megan, would you pass me the cranberry sauce, please?”
“Winter?” Matt growled.
At the sound of the doorbell, Winter rose to answer the door. “Hello, Tom. We’d given up on you, I’m afraid, and have already sat down to eat.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, pulling off his cap and inclining his head in apology. “I lost track of time.”
He looked toward the dining room. “Is there anything left?”
“There won’t be if you don’t beat Daar to the dessert,” she said with a laugh, slipping her arm through Tom’s to escort him into the dining room once he hung up his coat.
“I’m sorry,” Tom repeated to the table of people as he walked over to the empty chair beside Matt. “I lost track of time,” he told them, a gleam in his eyes as he looked at Winter. “I got involved working on Winter’s birthday gift.”
“Oh,” she said, clasping her hands in delight and looking up the table at her parents. “Tom is carving something special for my birthday. He’s keeping it under a sheet in his workshop and won’t let me in, but I saw just enough to know it’s nearly as large as a small car. Tom, there’s really no reason to wait to give me my gift.”
Tom chuckled as he began filling his plate with food. “I know it’s quite a difficult concept for you to imagine, Winter, but patience can be a useful virtue.” He gave her a wink, then scanned his gaze up the table. “Did any of you hear that loud noise on the summit of TarStone yesterday morning? I was hiking into town and I swear I heard thunder, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.” He looked at Matt.
“At first I thought it was your jet breaking the sound barrier, but I saw you driving down to your cabin not ten minutes later.”
“I heard it,” Daar piped up between bites before anyone could answer. “Something caused a powerful landslide that pretty near cleaned out my cabin.”
“It could have been seismic activity,” Megan quickly offered with a smile, reaching over and poking Winter’s thigh. “We get tremors every now and then, when the land rebounds from the weight of the old glaciers.”
“Even a small tremor could trigger a landslide,” Grace added, winking at Winter.
Winter just kept eating, deciding that maybe she should start driving to the next county to practice her magic. She had been able to master some things, like masking her own vibrations of energy at least enough to hide her pencil from Matt. And she had finally conquered fire—well, mostly. But learning to think like a man was about as likely as her learning patience.
“I have an announcement,” Matt said, drawing everyone’s attention. “Our cottage is finished. It cost me a bundle in bonuses, but the crew pounded the last nail and put on the final coat of paint yesterday afternoon. We can move in tomorrow.”
“But tomorrow is the first official shopping day of Christmas, and my busiest day of the year,”
Winter said. “And both Megan and Mama have to help me out in the gallery. We can’t move in tomorrow.”
“You don’t have to lift a finger,” Matt said. “I’ll move us in.”
“And hang the curtains?” Grace asked, giving Matt a skeptical look. “And unpack all the boxes and set up the kitchen and bathroom? We’re going to be busy right up until Christmas.”
“Don’t you wish there really was such a thing as magic?” Tom interjected with a smile. “That we could just wave a magic wand and make everything happen just like that?” he said, snapping his fingers in the air.
Winter could only blink at her friend, and when she looked over and saw the gleam in Matt’s eyes, had to cover her mouth with her napkin so she wouldn’t burst into laughter.
Yes, if only they had a magic wand…or two.
Matt sat on the couch facing the brightly burning fieldstone hearth that dominated the north wall of their cozy three-room cottage, frowning at his wife draped across his lap. “You aren’t falling asleep on me, are you?” he asked, giving her a small shake. “This is our first night in our very own home. We should be dancing naked in front of the fire.”
“You dance,” she said drowsily, snuggling deeper into his embrace. “I’ll watch.”
“Poor baby. Hard day at work?” He tenderly stroked her thigh. “Were you sick again today?”
“Only queasy, because I didn’t have time to throw up,” she said with a tired sigh. She looked at him and smiled. “I did finally call Heather, and she said having morning sickness is a good sign that the baby is settling in for a long and happy stay.”
“Heather’s the doctor, right? Your oldest sister who lives in California?” He laid his hand across her flat stomach when she nodded, his fingertips spanning her waist from hip to hip. “Seven daughters,”
he said with a chuckle. “Your poor papa.” He smiled when she frowned. “You’re not going to take after your mama, I hope. I want at least a few sons.”
“It’s the man who donates the Y chromosome,” she told him, her frown deepening as she wiggled around to see him better. “How come you know so much about the twenty-first century, about stuff like physics and business?”
“I’ve been living here for almost three years now.”
“Since Kenzie came? You came here when he did?”
“No, shortly after.”
“Did you come to Pine Creek? How come I never saw you?”
“I only came here four times a year, and stayed just the twenty-four hours Kenzie was human.
The rest of the time I spent out in the world, learning as much as I could about modern society and technology, gathering wealth and knowledge while waiting for when you were ready.”
“Ready? For what?” she asked in surprise.
“Me,” he said, leaning down and kissing the tip of her nose. “And actually, you did see me a few times in the last couple of years.” He nodded toward the hearth, to the large painting hanging over the mantel. “Even though I was damn good at masking myself, you were still able to sense my energy. I’
m right there in Moon Watchers,in the top left corner.” He frowned when she looked from the painting to him. “I don’t like that you made me a fairy, and I’ve a mind to make you repaint my image.”