Page 99 of A Rogue in Twilight
“Love and treasure are sometimes one and the same.”
Riona, quiet and gentle, stepped forward. “We can make no barters or manipulate humans where love is present. You had to find it and realize it. But if the treasure had not been found, we would have had to ride forever, seeking, demanding.”
“And now we must let you go,” Niall said, drawing Riona back to his side.
Riona nodded. “If you stay too long inside our magic, the glamourie will take you over, and you will not want to leave.”
“Go,” Niall said. Elspeth embraced them again, and James took their hands. Then they stepped back, and within the moment, turned to mist.
Taking Elspeth’s hand, James guided her up the slope toward sky and sunlight.
They stood at the top of the garden overlooking Struan House.
With her handin James’s, Elspeth stared, stunned to find herself in the rocky grotto where water trickled and late-blooming heather flourished. Glancing back, she saw that the rock wall behind them was solid, with no portal to another world. They had not even needed the blue agate still tucked in her pocket.
“We came rather farther than expected,” James said, looking about.
She laughed. “Magic. We may have to get used to it.”
“I can only try,” he drawled, and they walked downward. “Careful.”
“Just here,” she said, “I slipped and fell in the awful weather, and landed at your feet in the mud.”
“And a better day there never was, my love.”
“I wonder if the others are back yet,” Elspeth said, peering at the house.
“We will have to explain how we came to be here rather than meeting them out in the hills far from here.” He led her down the slope.
Hearing the dogs bark, hearing shouts, Elspeth saw the door at the back of the house open. Patrick and Fiona emerged, flying across the lawn, waving, calling.
“Where have you been?” Patrick asked.
“We were so worried!” Fiona embraced James and then Elspeth. “Thank God you are safe! I dreamed you were lost in a cave in the mountain, captured by the fairies—just as in the fairy tales Grandmother used to tell us.”
“We waited, but you never met us,” Patrick said. “We were frantic, and sent people to search for you. Someone suggested you had gotten lost and found another way back home.”
“We did,” James said. “I hope you did not wait long.”
Patrick frowned. “James, you have been gone for three days! We were beside ourselves, and about to send out yet another search party. But it was Donal MacArthur who said we should wait, that you probably found another vehicle and took your time.”
“Three days?” James asked. “Impossible.”
“We lost our, ah, sense of time when we got lost,” Elspeth said hastily.
“It is such a relief to see you, and I am just grateful you came to no harm,” Fiona said. “Donal MacArthur will want to know. He was the least worried of all of us. He said he knew the mountain best, and knew you would find a way home if you missed us.”
“He was right,” Elspeth said.
“Even Cousin Nick met us out in the hills yesterday to continue looking.”
“Eldin?” James asked.
“He said he was only interested in fairy gold, and made rather a sour jest of it, but I thought he seemed worried,” Fiona said.
“What about Charlotte Sinclair? Is she still here?” James asked.
“Charlotte,” Fiona said, “decided you are a useless cad who fell for a simple Highland lass. She has gone back to Edinburgh with Sir Patrick, her new interest.”
