The Mammoth Book of Irish Romance Part 30

Esras leaned back and crossed his arms. The temperature dropped. Tendrils of sea mist crawled over the cliff into the garden and drifted between the stalls like wraiths bringing a damp salty taste to the air.

After a long awkward silence, Peter heaved a resigned sigh. "Go and put on a d.a.m.n dress, Kate. And hurry up."

Kate hesitated in an agony of indecision. She didn't want to be filmed, yet she could barely contain the shivers of pleasure running through her. Esras wanted her to be his queen. Of course, she wouldn't have minded if he'd chosen Claudia. After all, this was partly being staged for the television show.

"Kate," Peter said in a warning tone. "I'm getting old here."

"I didn't choose a dress," she said weakly.

"Look on your bed," Esras said, his eyes gleaming with amus.e.m.e.nt.

Taking the stairs two at a time, Kate ran up to her room with Claudia's make-up artist Tina on her heels.

On her bed, she found a beautiful deep-blue dress with a satin bodice decorated with a sparkling beading design and overlaid with tulle draping. "Oh, yes," Tina said. "The man has got an eye for colour. This will go perfectly with your dark hair and blue eyes."

After stripping off her jeans and T-shirt, Kate stood obediently while Tina fastened her into the dress. She squeaked in protest when Tina undid her bra and pulled the straps off her arms. "I can't go out there bra-less." Her mother would never be able to hold her head up in church again if her friends saw the show.

"The dress has spaghetti straps." Tina held up Kate's tatty bra with a pointed look.

With a sigh of acceptance, Kate plopped down in front of the dressing table. She watched in the mirror while Tina brushed her long dark hair and quickly applied make-up. Her teardrop pearl gleamed in the reflection, tempting her to think of Esras.

When Kate stood up for inspection, Tina raised her eyebrows. "You look pretty good when you make an effort. You have the most amazing pearly skin. Watch your back, though. Claudia's going to be as mad as h.e.l.l with you for stealing her thunder."

Holding up the hem of her dress, Kate raced down the stairs and out the front door. The chatter outside hushed, making her pause. Everyone stared at her. One of the cameramen gave her a thumbs-up, and Peter smiled. "OK," the director said, "keep it steady. You're not running to catch a bus."

As if in a dream, Kate listened to the instructions she normally heard from the other side of the camera. On her cue, she started walking towards Esras. He rose from his throne and held out a hand to her. Her heart thundered as his fingers slid around hers and he steadied her as she stepped on to the dais. A group of Esras' people surrounded the throne. The beautiful women shone in brightly coloured dresses while most of the men wore grey or white. Faelan produced a small gold circlet decorated with tiny blue sh.e.l.ls, and Esras placed it upon her head. His fingers lingered against her hair, stroking the strands back from her eyes.

"There you are now," Esras whispered. "Doesn't that feel right, my love." His fingers brushed her shoulders and then trailed down her arms before curling around her hands.

The cameras and the people watching faded away as Kate gazed up into the emerald depths of his eyes. Faelan started to chant in a language she didn't recognize, while the rest of Esras' people joined in with occasional words.

Kate couldn't take her gaze from Esras' face. She had thought he was not much older than she was, but she had been wrong. His green eyes held a depth of knowledge that belied his youthful appearance. Even as warmth swirled through her body at the thought of touching his golden skin, a brush of warning slid down her spine. He touched a deep part of her that she'd pushed to the back of her mind and locked away, the fanciful part of her that adored her grandmother and made her mother angry.

Faelan stopped speaking and stepped aside. Esras pressed his lips to hers in a quick chaste kiss for the cameras, which was over before Kate had a chance to enjoy it, and then handed her into the smaller sh.e.l.l-clad throne.

Facing the onlookers, Faelan announced, "King Esras Mac Lir, rightful heir of the sea G.o.d Lir, has chosen his queen. All hail the Sea-Fairy King and Queen."

While Esras' people and the villagers cheered, Kate watched her colleagues working. Her cheeks flushed to think she would be the star of this episode of the series. She prayed her mother would be proud of her performance and not embarra.s.sed by it.

Claudia strode forward and thrust a microphone under Faelan's nose. "I suppose the King chooses a different queen every year," she said, casting Kate a malicious glance. "Presumably it just depends on who happens to be available and willing."

Faelan frowned at her before glancing at Esras for permission to answer. "No. When the King pledges himself to his queen, he does so for life."

Four.

Faelan's words took a few seconds to sink into Kate's brain. She blinked at him, opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. Surely she'd misheard. When Faelan stepped away to be interviewed by Claudia, Kate turned to Esras. "I'm confused. Don't you choose a different queen at each Midsummer's Feast?"

The hint of mischief that usually sparkled in his eyes faded to be replaced by a deadly serious gleam that sent flashes of warning through her. "No, Kate. I usually preside over the festivities alone."

She shook her head. "Then why choose a queen this year?"

"Because you came. I told you last night: you belong with me."

Conflicting emotions ricocheted around inside her, stealing her breath. "But that ceremony . . . it wasn't . . ." She swallowed so hard her throat hurt.

"The Union of Opposites ceremony bound us as one," he said.

Kate jumped up, her legs trembling, plucked off her delicate gold crown and tossed it down on to the throne. When Esras reached for her hand, she s.n.a.t.c.hed it away. "This doesn't have any standing in law. I can leave whenever I want."

Kate had expected a clever reply to her angry tirade; instead, tiny lines formed between Esras' eyebrows as if he were puzzled. "But you accepted my invitation to be queen."

"I didn't know you were serious!"

Suddenly she realized the crowd had fallen silent. A quick glance around confirmed her fear that everyone was watching them and even worse, the camera was still rolling. Heat flooded her cheeks, part anger, part embarra.s.sment. When her mother saw Kate's starring role on television, she was going to have a coronary.

"Come inside. I'm not discussing this in public." Kate stepped off the dais gingerly, wary of her unsteady legs, and tried to keep her expression calm as she headed for the front door of Knock House.

The crowd stepped aside to let her pa.s.s. Most of Esras' people eyed her with confusion, a few with disappointment. The villagers looked curious while her production-crew colleagues positively gloated over the unexpected conflict that added spice to the show.

As soon as she and Esras were inside with the door closed, she rounded on him. "What in h.e.l.l's name do you think you're playing at? This is a performance; we're pretending."

He opened his mouth but she didn't give him a chance to answer. "We've only known each other for a few hours. I can't imagine why you thought there was anything serious between us."

"Calm down, Kate."

"Don't try to tell me it's got anything to do with the pearl you made. You might be able to fool most people with your magic tricks. I'm not so easily suckered."

Esras set his crown on a table, then unfastened his cloak and draped it over a chair before turning back to stare at her. His a.s.sessing gaze probed her. "Why are you so angry, Kate?"

She threw up her hands in exasperation. "First you pretended to throw Grandma's pearl down a well. Then you conned me into believing you'd made another one especially for me. Now you've got me to dress up and go through some freaky ceremony, and you're trying to tell me to take it seriously. You're nuts!"

"Why are you frightened of following your heart?"

Kate pressed her fingers to her temples. "I am following my heart. Working in television is my dream. I'm a d.a.m.n good production a.s.sistant."

"Do you enjoy your job?" Esras asked in an annoyingly reasonable tone of voice.

Who did the man think he was? A psychiatrist? "Of course I do," she snapped back.

Esras stepped closer to her, bringing with him the salty fresh-air scent of the sea. "Does your work bring you pleasure? Does your work make you feel more alive than you've ever felt before?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Everyone knows working in television is tough to start with. The rewards come later." And there was no way she could give up her dream job. Not when her parents had subsidized her by letting her live at home until she moved up the career ladder far enough to support herself.

"I only invited Barthurst Productions here because of you, Kate."

"What?" She blinked at him.

"The first time I spoke to you on the phone, I heard the music of the sea in your voice and knew who you were."

He stepped closer and raised a hand. His fingertips brushed the teardrop pearl hanging in the valley between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Tendrils of heat shivered across her skin.

"You're one of the Rainbow People descended directly from King Manannan Mac Lir and Queen Fand." He kneeled at her feet and pressed a kiss to her hand. "You have more right to rule the people of Lir than I do, my love."

Five.

Kate's anger dissolved at the note of sincerity in Esras' voice. However crazy she thought him, he obviously believed everything he'd told her. Her head wanted to be mad, her heart had softened the moment he knelt and kissed her hand.

She sighed. "Oh, Esras, can't you see this isn't going to work? I have a job. I'm leaving with the Barthurst people tomorrow."

He climbed to his feet again. She didn't resist when he eased her closer and enfolded her in his arms. She pressed her cheek to the hard plain of his chest, breathing his enticing male fragrance while listening to the steady beat of his heart. When his lips touched her temple, she closed her eyes, not wanting to admit that she could easily get used to this.

"Kate, why don't you want to accept who you are? Your grandmother must have told you something about her life in Ireland."

Happy memories of Grandma swam inside Kate's head like a shoal of sparkly fish. She remembered sitting at her grandmother's feet when she was a little girl. While her mother worked, her grandmother had cared for her. The old woman had spun such magical tales of fairies and leprechauns and people who lived in a city beneath the sea the Rainbow People.

Kate's breath trembled as memories she had denied and tried to forget flooded back. She remembered ribbons of coloured light flowing around Grandma as she spoke. How the old woman would capture the light in her hands and mould dolphins and seahorses out of the rainbows.

Then one day her mother had come home early and caught the end of a story. There had been screaming, shouting, and tears. And no more stories. Ireland had become a taboo subject.

That's when she'd been sent to the convent school, and the endless ch.o.r.es and lectures about hard work had started. She could hear her mother's favourite advice: Forget your grandmother's fanciful ideas. Work hard and you'll get your reward in heaven.

"You must have had an inkling that there was something here for you, or you wouldn't have come," Esras whispered.

"I came to find out about the pearl." Had she also hoped to recapture the sense of magic from Grandma's stories?

Esras' fingers stroked circles on her back, managing to both soothe and stimulate in equal measure. "Do you trust me, Kate?"

Her head said no because her mother would disapprove of Esras and everything he stood for. But even as the word "no" formed in her mind, from a level deeper than mind where instinct ruled the word "yes" rose to her lips.

He withdrew slightly and cupped her face in his hands, staring down into her eyes. "If you trust me, really trust me, to keep you safe, I'll give you unquestionable proof of who you are." He leaned down and brushed his lips lightly across hers.

A shock pa.s.sed through her out of all proportion to the chaste kiss. The tight, hot ball of yearning in her stomach expanded, making it hard to breathe. She'd had boyfriends before, but she'd never felt this immediate, overwhelming need to touch and be touched.

"Kate," he prompted. "Do you want proof of who you are?" She sucked in a breath, held it a moment before she had the control to speak. "Yes," she whispered. "Show me."

Six.

Esras took Kate down the spiral stairs to the sea cave beneath Knock House again. She didn't ask him how he intended to prove that she belonged to a race of sea fairies. Just asking such a question validated the crazy idea.

In the cave, Kate inhaled the salty sea air and paused to enjoy the rhythmic swish as the water hissed through the opening that led out to the vastness of the Celtic Sea.

She glanced around but saw nothing other than the undulating water and the rocky shelves and nooks in the cave wall that she'd seen the first time they came down. "Where is this evidence?"

"Patience, my love," he said with a smile. "We need to get in the water."

"What? Swim?" Kate stared into the shadowy green depths. As a child, she'd adored swimming in the sea. After years of living in London, she'd almost forgotten the pleasure of sand beneath her toes and the power of the sea moving around her body.

Kate looked down at the silky blue dress, which was the most impractical garment she'd ever worn and certainly unsuitable to swim in. "I haven't got a bathing suit."

"You don't need one. Just take off your dress."

Kate's eyebrows shot up. He must have noticed she wasn't wearing a bra. "If you think I'm skinny-dipping with you, you've got another think coming."

His eyes slid down her body, lingering on her barely covered b.r.e.a.s.t.s; he gave a wry grin. "Can't blame a guy for trying."

After shedding his grey jacket, he unb.u.t.toned his silky shirt before pulling it off, leaving himself bare-chested. He held out the shirt. "Put this on. It's not ideal to wear for swimming, but it's better than a long dress."

He turned his back. Kate quickly slipped out of her dress and draped it over a rock, before donning the shirt. At least she was wearing panties that could pa.s.s for bikini bottoms.

Esras turned back and scanned her from head to foot appreciatively. Then he flicked open the b.u.t.ton on his trousers and began to undress himself. A burst of shocking hot need arrowed through Kate. She should turn around while he undressed, but she couldn't take her eyes off him as he slid the grey trousers down his thighs and stepped out of them. His underwear was plain white cotton. She stared for so long that by the time she managed to tear her gaze away her cheeks were flaming.

Crouching, he scooped water over his head. Her eyes tracked the drips that trickled from his hair to his chest and snaked down his golden skin over the ridges and dips of his muscular torso to soak into his underwear.

When she looked back at his face, his eyes sparkled and his lips curved in a wicked smile.

"You tease," she accused.

He gave her a satisfied male grin and held out his hand.

She hesitated. "We can't be long. The director will go ballistic if we don't go back soon."

Esras shrugged. "There's plenty going on at the feast for him to film." He held out his fingers. "Hold on to my hand until I tell you it's safe to let go."

"But if we're only going swimming . . ."

Esras' smile dropped away. The serious intensity she'd seen in his eyes earlier returned. "Trust me, my love. Hold my hand."

"What are we going to do?"

"All I can promise you is that you'll enjoy it." Clasping her hand firmly, he stepped into the water. Kate followed, the first shock of cold quickly pa.s.sing as she went deeper.