He took my hand and lifted it to his lips. “You will always have my heart, Rose.”
“I want more,” I said, thrilled by the spark of his lips upon my hand. “We summoned the Goddess to bless our union, and she did. She looks down upon us with favor, yet you allow another to become your betrothed?”
He stared at the ground. “ ’Twas not my doing, Rose.”
“Do you not remember your last words to me? That we were to be married forthwith?”
“I do,” he said sheepishly. “But ’tis not so simple a matter.”
“Aye, there are complications, but I have come to help you through them.”
His blue eyes sparkled with regret. “I’m afraid you can’t help, Rose. No one can help me. I have learned that a man cannot cross his elders or defy his clan. I need the approval of my coven, and they have vowed not to give it.”
“Aye, I face the same challenges,” I said, thinking of my ma and the coveners who wanted to rail against rival clans. “But this is no surprise, Diarmuid. We talked of it often. ’Twill not be easy, but you must remain steadfast and strong, lower your head and charge, like the ram in yonder field.”
“Would that I were a ram, destined to chew grass and laze in the sun.” He reached for his throat and nervously squeezed the pentagram concealed by his shirt. “Instead, I am a marriageable lad, a property of my parents dangled like a carrot before a horse.”
“Tell me you don’t love her,” I said.
“She has her fair attractions,” he said, cutting me.
My knees nearly buckled beneath me. Was this my love, the one who had pledged his love in the Goddess’s circle? He had promised to love me and only me. He was supposed to see only my charms.
Did he kiss her the way he had kissed me? Did he touch her and. oh, excruciating torture! I could not think of such things now. Think of the spell, I told myself. Your reason for being here—your baby.
“But mostly, it is the ease with which my life will progress if I take her hand.”
His words gave me some relief. I realized it was time to tell him. “Yet I offer not a life of ease, but a sign of our bond.” Boldly I took his hand and placed it on my belly. “There is a child within, Diarmuid. Do you feel it stirring?”
He gasped, stepping closer to me. There was power in his touch, magnified all the more by the glow of the child growing inside me.
“The Goddess has given us a babe, a sign of our union. ’Twill be the child that unites the Wodebaynes and the Leapvaughns. Perhaps our child will unite all clans. Oh, Diarmuid, this is how the Goddess intended it. Could you deny such a powerful destiny?”
“I could not,” he gasped. “I will not.” His face softened as he stroked my belly. “A man does not abandon his child, no matter what the obstacles.”
My spirits lifted. He understood. He knew that our baby was a sign from the Goddess.
“We must marry now—today!” he said, pulling me into his arms for a kiss. Then he pulled away and dropped to his knees to kiss my belly. “My child. Goddess be praised!” He kissed the baby over and over again.
I smiled. “How would you marry? In a church? Or do you think one of our covens would add a highly unusual handfasting to the Lughnassadh rites?”
“We’ll do it any way we can,” he insisted. “Mayhap your village is best, away from Siobhan and my family. We’ll go to the Presbyterian reverend first—tonight. Surely he will help us.”
My heart lifted. Diarmuid was coming home with me. We would be together—married!
“After that we’ll arrange a handfasting,” he went on. “No one dare deny us once we’re together. I must first run home for a few belongings, then I shall meet you.” He glanced up, gauging the position of the sun. “Let us meet at our circle in the woods before the sun sets.”
I put my hand in his hair, loving the feel of it. “Would that we could travel together.”
“Aye, but your presence would raise too much of a stir at my cottage right now. We’ll meet in the woods at our circle before sunset.” He stood up and kissed me again. “Oh, Rose, you are the world to me. After today we shall never be separated again.”
“Never,” I said, thinking of the words of the love spell. “Never.”
The journey back to my own woods was cooled by afternoon breezes and dreams of lingering in Diarmuid’s arms. On the way I stopped at the brook for a drink of water, then headed off to prepare the circle for our formal reunion. I swept the circle, then decided to rest on the moss for a while, as the long journeys had taken their toll on my strength. I sat there chanting from the love spell and picturing Diarmuid in my bed each morning when I arose. Where would we live? Perhaps Ma would have us once she got over her initial anger. Besides, she would want to be near the babe, to help nurse her, then to teach her the ways of the Goddess as she grew older. Listening to the sounds of the woods—to the trill of birds and the rustle of wind in the trees—I dozed off.
When I awoke, it was dark but for the sickly glow of a yellow moon.
Where was Diarmuid? I sat up suddenly, and my sacred place seemed like a strange wilderness. My life force hammered in my chest as reality hit me.
He was not here. Was he coming?
What had happened? “Oh, Goddess, keep and protect him,” I whispered, sure that something dreadful had happened to him. There could be no other explanation. I had seen the determination in his eyes, I had felt his commitment. Nothing could stay him from me. Nothing but. something terrible and evil.
I stood up, brushing dust and seeds from my hair. I would return to Diarmuid’s village. I had surely missed the coven circle, but I planned to miss many more in my life with Diarmuid. Who knew where our adventures would take us? And right now he needed me. I had to go to him.
Darkness closed in around me as I crept through the woods, following my familiar landmarks to the road. I started on my way, wending over a rise. Glancing up, I saw a girl my own age approaching.
Swanlike neck. Flaxen hair.
Siobhan MacMahon.
I was gripped by hatred for her—everything about her, from her sun-kissed hair to her long, graceful neck. But as she caught sight of me, I realized that perhaps I was being unfair. Perhaps, in Diarmuid’s troubles, he had sent her to come for me. Perhaps she was the messenger of my love. I stepped toward her, eager for news.
“Hark!” I called out to her. “Have you come in search of me, Rose MacEwan?”
“Aye.” She drew close, a sourness pinching her mouth. “I have come in search of Diarmuid’s harlot.”
I felt stung.
“I have just come from him, the poor lad,” she said. “He was about to ruin his life by running off with a woman who could satisfy only his base desires. A Wodebayne! Such foolishness. I stopped him in the nick of time.”
“How did you stop him?” I asked, afraid of the harm she might have done to him. “Did you hurt him?”
“ ’Twas not necessary. I needed only to sate his desires to remind him of his attraction to me. He’s fine. Sleeping like a babe, if you must know.”
I felt my hands clenching into fists at the implications. Had she lain with him? I could not believe it to be true. He had sworn to be my first and last love and I his. “I don’t believe you,” I said. “I do not believe a word you are saying.”
“Aye, but then, you Wodebaynes aren’t bright, are you? That’s what I told him. Why throw away a beautiful life with me so that you can waste away with a savage, uneducated Wodebayne?”
“Perhaps he does not want to be counted among warmongers like the Vykrothes?” I jabbed.
She cocked her head, as if weary. “He is perfectly fine with my clan. That’s part of his problem. Diarmuid gets on with everyone. At least, every lass. I guess you might call it the charm of the Leapvaughns. They do like to trick us. You are not his first little mistake, you know. He has had others before you.” She folded her arms contentedly. “But he always comes back to me.”
A mistake? A trick? Her words darted through the air like arrows. I sized her up. If I were to battle her, I felt, I would win, and the temptation to cast her to the ground was irresistible.