“Until mistresses went out of favor.”
“Actually, that didn’t seem to dampen things. By then it was the sixties and the parties just kept rolling. I think some of the women who lived here were making money upstairs… but Gran never says that directly.” She raised an eyebrow and looked at him for confirmation.
“Yeah. There was a lot of action upstairs but without spending a lot of time digging I wouldn’t be able to separate it out—I don’t want to do that. That’s people’s private lives.” He grimaced. What he could do wasn’t normal and he didn’t want to be peering into the raunchy bits of history. “But I’d say your suspicions are correct.”
She gave a single nod as if happy to be unraveling her family history. He knew his, both fairy and human, but couldn’t be open about it. Or at least hadn’t been able to be open until Lydia. He picked up another slice of pizza and waited for her to continue. It was so rare he actually got the full story instead of just the highlights as impressed upon the furniture or as seen by mirrors.
He stopped before taking a bite and realized what had been missing from his visit tonight. The house had been silent. “Where’s your ghost gone?”
“What do you mean? I thought you said it wasn’t a ghost?” But now she was sitting up listening, the past forgotten.
“It’s not. But I haven’t heard it all night… in fact, I haven’t sensed a single thing.”
“That’s good, right?”
“No. Your ghost has been here for years. Why leave now?”
They both went silent. All Caspian could hear was the beating of his heart. The Grey that had been in the house was gone. Had Dylis scared it away? Had Shea scared it away or had it found what it was looking for?
“Where’s your fairy?”
“She’s working, trying to help find the mirror.”
“Ah.” She glanced around the kitchen. “I’m now creeped out because there isn’t a ghost in the house.”
He flicked her a smile. “It’s odd, that’s all.” And he didn’t like odd as there was usually a reason and it wasn’t usually a good reason when it came to fairies. “No reason not to stay.” Staying here was more enticing than going back to his house where Shea could be lurking. Although at least his house was protected by the silver tea set. Maybe it would be smarter to go back to his place. He met Lydia’s gaze and held it. “Unless you’d rather go back into town, you could always come to my place?”
There was a pause and for a moment he thought he’d crossed a line he shouldn’t have. Callaway House was like neutral ground. She didn’t live here, so the only impressions he got of her were recent or so old it didn’t matter. Knowing his lover had had previous lovers was very different from getting glimpses of them. It happened all through his twenties until he married. It made dating difficult—and dating was hard enough. Or maybe he’d just never been good at it. Fairies didn’t seem to date, so maybe there was a bad dating gene he’d inherited.
“As tempting as that is, I’m not going to be chased out of the house because there are no fairies tonight. Last night there were too many, tonight not enough. I feel like Goldilocks.”
He laughed.
“Have you always seen fairies?” Lydia asked.
“Yes. I thought it was normal until I was about five. After that I tried to pretend I couldn’t see them. Sometimes not very well.”
“And the psychometry?”
He frowned. “I was still a child, maybe ten. At first it was small things. But I went through a really bad phase of being sucked into visions and not knowing how to get out. My mother freaked, my father thought I was daydreaming and didn’t get it. My brother used to tease me mercilessly. Dylis helped me.”
“So your mom knew it was because of the fairy blood?”
“Yeah. That was when she told me the truth about my father, but Dylis had told me years before.”
“Do you want to meet him?”
Not now with the deal with Shea hanging over his head. “There was a time when I did. When I wanted to know why he’d left me and when I thought I’d be better off in Annwyn, but not anymore. I have no desire to go to Court and be surrounded by fairies.”
She sipped her soft drink and he could see the questions forming in her mind. She wanted to know more about Court. Humans might have forgotten about Annwyn, but when something reopened that door old longing rose up. That was why it was so easy for fairies to trick the unaware into going to Annwyn and giving up their souls, or firstborns while still in the womb.
“So why are you human, not fairy?”
“Dylis didn’t explain?”
She shook her head. “No, she made me memorize a bunch of rules.”
That sounded like Dylis. “Those rules could save your life. Did she tell you about iron and water?”
“Yes.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out an iron bolt.
Caspian put his hand out and she placed it in his palm. There was a jolt of pain as he fisted his hand around it for a few heartbeats. He could feel his skin heating. Then he handed it back and showed her the red burn marks. They would heal overnight, but it would prove his point.
“I am fairy. Iron burns me. But I don’t have a fear of running water like they do.”
“You said you were human.”
“No, I said I was mortal. There is a difference. I was born here; I am a changeling. If my father had taken Mom back to Annwyn to give birth, I’d have been a soulless fairy. Fairies need humans to breed.”
“You make it sound so… cold.”
“Fairies aren’t like you. They have different morals, different ethics, their world is based on power and deals. Their word is their bond. The King’s word is law. They deal in death. The Victorians did every human a great disservice in reducing fairies to humanoid butterflies.”
“You speak as though you are one of them.”
“I am, and yet I’m not. I have to stop myself some days from being too much like them. The curiosity is always there. I make deals for a living. I’m not excusing it, but you need to realize I’m not simply human with a bonus touch of magic. I am a mortal fairy.”
She leaned back in the chair and looked at him. He was pretty sure he’d just put the iron nail in the coffin of their relationship. He probably shouldn’t have pushed so hard, but it was nice to be honest for a change and he didn’t want to trick her into thinking he was human when he wasn’t—no matter how hard he pretended.
“So what will your children be?”
That wasn’t the question he’d been expecting. But he’d asked Dylis once, not that Natalie had ever suggested they have kids. “Human—with a touch of magic. They won’t be able to see fairies, and they won’t be bound by Annwyn’s laws.”
Lydia nodded as if happy with the answer. She was weighing him as a prospective partner. Already. The idea was far too tempting. He didn’t want to think that far ahead and risk it all falling apart. He desperately wanted to lock his heart away again but it was already too late. He’d offered it to her when he’d started telling her the truth. The kitchen became warm. He could feel the pull between them, thickening with each breath. One of them had to move to break the spell. He needed to. He needed to step away before he fell in too deep.
“Just the attic to go.” He hoped there wasn’t much in there, as he was done for the day. Checking all the mirrors in the morning had left him tired, and while he hoped Shea wouldn’t bring mirrors every morning, he knew it was a wasted wish.
She nodded, but he saw the flicker of disappointment in her eyes. Had she expected him to sit and answer every question tonight? He couldn’t be what she expected him to be because he wasn’t and never would be, but at the same time he didn’t want to spend all their time together talking about fairies.