Page 96 of A Rogue in Twilight
Elspeth stared, entranced, then dropped in a curtsey. “Am I… Have you taken me away?” she asked, straightening.
“We lured you here and we will take you farther,” Niall said.
“I cannot go with you.” Elspeth stepped backward.
Her fairy mother lifted her hands. “Stay with us, dearest.”
“I cannot not. I am married. I will stay with my husband. Our souls are joined now. I love him. He loves me.”
Her voice sounded odd, and all seemed strange, as if she were dreaming, and yet not. And she knew the risk of refusal. “I will not go with you.”
“Eilidh,” her father said, reaching out.
“Elspeth! Where are you?” At the sound of James’s voice, she turned.
“Elspeth!” James calledagain. He had looked in both caves, had stepped outside, and returned, still looking. “Where are you?”
Going back into the smaller cave, he dropped to his knees to peer into the newly discovered pocket mine. It was utterly dark and silent inside. Concerned that she might have ventured in and fallen down the slope, he leaned into the. “Elspeth!”
After a moment, he heard her voice, sounding strange and faraway.James! Here! I am in here!
Puzzled, he began to crawl through restrictive opening, and heard her voice again, soft, somewhere ahead of him. He called her name once more. Her answer seemed to come from within the little gem-filled cave. Making his way down the ramp, he stood in the semi-darkness. Then a light flared, an odd glow that came from above and made the walls shimmer and flash with color.
Elspeth stood there with three people who were strangely clothed, as if they were in some theatre play. Their eyes caught his attention, great, large, luminous eyes in narrow faces, gleaming like jewels. As Elspeth looked at him, her eyes took on that silvery sheen he had sometimes seen there.
“My God,” he breathed, moving toward her—why did the room seem so large now, he wondered. “What is this?” He held out an arm and she went to him, tucked against his side, her arm on his back.
“Hush,” she whispered.
He stared at the three standing there so calm and eerie. “Who—”
“This is—the queen. And here are Niall MacArthur—and my mother, Riona.”
Astonished, frankly stunned, James wondered if he had fallen asleep, or had hit his head, or had taken too much whisky without recalling it. Niall moved forward and held out a hand. Tentatively, James grasped it, feeling a strong, firm, very human hand. But the man, handsome and fit, had an unearthly light in his gray eyes.
The small dark-haired woman came forward and extended her hand next. Her fingers were slim, cool. James suddenly realized he was holding a fairy’s delicate hand.
Surely he had fallen and broken his head. This could not be real.
“Elspeth,” he said. “Come with me. Our friends will be looking for us. Donal MacArthur will be looking for us,” he added, and glanced at Niall.
“We will see Donal soon,” the man said. “Seven years are nearly up again.”
“But the fairy spell is undone,” Elspeth said. “We found your treasure. This very cave. And—I love this man,” she said, holding tight to James. “You told Donal yourself that only love has magic strong enough to break a fairy spell.” She faced them, lifted her chin. James gazed down at her, proud, adoring, waiting for her to speak.
“This is James, Lord Struan,” she said. “I have married him for love. You have no hold over me or him or his lands any longer—if you ever had hold.”
“She speaks true,” the queen said then. “We cannot take her with us now. Love will pull her back. She has discovered it. But we will call Donal back to us again, and he may stay.”
“He can decide to stay with us,” Elspeth said. “He has that right now that you have the treasure. It was your bargain with him. It must be honored.”
“Again she speaks truly.” Niall had a compelling voice and a regal and ageless beauty. James could see a resemblance to Donal in features and sheer pride. “Eilidh, we owe you a great deal for finding the way back to our treasure room.”
“Once again we are free to enter this place,” the queen said. “Long ago the Fey mined the riches and magic of the earth. But we could no longer see it after the treachery of a thief of old.”
“Thank you,” Riona said.
“Of course,” James said, feeling a wave of absurdity. Logic told him this could not be real, yet he was seeing them, hearing them, strongly aware of their power and presence just an arm’s length away.
