Page 7 of Charmed
“I know.” Morgana twined her fingers with Ana’s. “But I feel better when you tell me. Just as I feel safe knowing you’ll be there when it’s time.”
“You know I wouldn’t be anywhere else.” She brought their joined hands to her cheek. “But is Nash content with me as midwife?”
“He trusts you—as much as I do.”
Ana’s gaze softened. “You’re lucky, Morgana, to have found a man who accepts, understands, even appreciates, what you are.”
“I know. To have found love was precious enough. But to have found love with him …” Then her smile faded. “Ana, darling, Robert was a long time ago.”
“I don’t think of him. At least not really of him, but of a wrong turn on a particularly slippery road.”
Indignation sharpened Morgana’s eyes. “He was a fool, and not in the least worthy of you.”
Rather than sadness Ana felt a chuckle bubble out of her. “You never liked him. Not from the first.”
“No, I didn’t.” Frowning, Morgana gestured with her glass. “And neither did Sebastian, if you recall.”
“I do. As I recall Sebastian was quite suspicious of Nash, too.”
“That was entirely different. Itwas,” she insisted as Ana grinned. “With Nash, he was just being protective of me. As for Robert, Sebastian tolerated him with the most insulting sort of politeness.”
“I remember.” Ana shrugged. “Which, of course, put my back up. Well, I was young,” she said with a careless gesture. “And naive enough to believe that if I was in love I must be loved back equally. Foolish enough to be honest. And foolish enough to be devastated when that honesty was rewarded with disbelief, then outright rejection.”
“I know you were hurt, but there’s little doubt you could do better.”
“None at all,” Ana agreed, for she wasn’t without pride. “But there are some of us that aren’t meant to mix with outsiders.”
Now there was frustration as well as indignation. “There have been plenty of men, with elfin blood and without, who’ve been interested in you, cousin.”
“A pity I haven’t been interested in them.” Ana laughed. “I’m miserably choosy, Morgana. And I like my life just as it is.”
“If I didn’t know that to be true, I’d be tempted to work up a nice little love spell. Nothing binding, mind,” she said with a glint in her eye. “Just something to give you some entertainment.”
“I can find my own entertainment, thanks.”
“I know that, too. Just as I know you’d be furious if I dared to interfere.” She pushed away from the table and rose, regretting for a moment her loss of grace. “Let’s take a walk outside before I head home.”
“If you promise to put your feet up for an hour when you get there.”
“Done.”
The sun was warm, the breeze balmy. Both of which, Ana thought, would do her cousin as much good as the long nap she imagined Nash would insist his wife take when she returned home.
They admired the late-blooming larkspur, the starry asters and the big, bold zinnias. Both had a deep love of nature that had come through the blood and through upbringing.
“Do you have any plans for All Hallows’ Eve?” Morgana asked.
“Nothing specific.”
“We were hoping you’d come by, at least for part of the evening. Nash is going all out for the trick-or-treaters.”
With an appreciative laugh, Ana clipped some mums to take inside. “When a man writes horror films for a living, he’s duty bound to pull out the stops for Halloween. I wouldn’t miss it.”
“Good. Perhaps Sebastian will join you and me for a quiet celebration afterward.” Morgana was bending awkwardly over the thyme and verbena when she spotted the child and dog skipping through the hedge of roses.
She straightened. “We have company.”
“Jessie.” Pleased but wary, Ana glanced over to the house beyond. “Does your father know where you are?”
