Lacybourne Manor (69 page)

“How delightful,” Phoebe
murmured.

“Well, I’ll be,” Mags
muttered.

Colin leaned forward apparently
not ready to have Sibyl out of touching distance for more than a
few moments. He pulled her down to the couch and settled her into
his side again.

“I wonder if Japan has fallen
into the sea,” Sibyl whispered under her breath.

Marian shook her head. “I don’t
think so.” And then she smiled and stared intently at Sibyl. “The
book says more, my dear.”

“What does it say?” Mags leaned
forward eagerly.

Marian closed the book and
continued to watch Sibyl. “There is more to this new legend.
Apparently, a witch from another time watched over the doomed pair,
coming to Royce before the terrible event happened, informing him
of the plot and helping him to thwart the evil plan.”

Colin’s body stiffened
and Sibyl immediately thought,
uh oh
.

“What?” Colin uttered that one
word in a low and even voice.

“I think, and I’ll have to
check the Book of Shadows because I’m sure Esmeralda will tell me
more, but I think that Sibyl was destined to save Royce and
Beatrice and this is why history has shifted without calamity for
what was actually meant to be has now happened. They simply had to
wait for her to be born so she could go back to Royce and warn him.
Then they could live their lives together. Which, by the way, they
both lived to be a ripe old age and Royce sired four children by
his Beatrice.”

Colin, clearly not listening to
these additional words, patiently repeated himself, “What?”

Sibyl felt the stirring of
unease.

Marian turned her eyes to
Colin. “What I mean to say is, they weren’t actually supposed to
die but they had to wait for Sibyl to be born, for you two to meet
and your love to bloom, so she could save them. I don’t think Japan
has fallen into the ocean because
that
was not the way it was
supposed to be,
this
is!” she finished triumphantly.

Colin was not getting the
answers he desired. “I understand that but what I’d like to know,
Marian, is more about the part where Sibyl goes to Royce to warn
him. When did that happen?”

Sibyl tensed and Colin’s arm
around her tightened significantly, pinning her in place by his
side.

“The book doesn’t spend much
time on specifics of the legend, just facts as they were known. The
Book of Shadows will tell me more but the legend does say, rather
romantically, the witch from another time came to Royce, inhabiting
Beatrice’s body directly after Beatrice and Royce consummated their
marriage.”

Colin’s arm became a steel
band.

“Oh my,” Mags uttered, her
voice filled with humour.

Sibyl shot off the couch and
whirled and looked down at Colin. The muscle in his jaw was back to
jumping spasmodically.

“Colin,” she said
soothingly.

He slowly rose.

“Did you go back to him?” he
growled.

She took a step back.

Colin took a step forward.

Then she admitted, “Kind
of.”

He took another step
forward.

She took another step back.

“Exactly what do you mean by
‘kind of’?” His voice was more than a little peeved.

She tried to smile at him.

He ignored her smile and took
another step forward.

“When did this happen? Did it
happen tonight? Did it happen after we’d –?”

She took another step back.

“Um… kind of.” She drew out the
words as long as she could.

His eyes flashed.

He took another step
forward.

She turned and ran from the
room, thinking this was her best course of action.

Colin strode quickly from the
room, following Sibyl and muttering distractedly to the assemblage,
“If you’ll excuse us.”

“Not at all,” Phoebe told the
space where his tall departing frame was only moments before.

The three women who were left
in the room looked at each other and then they burst out
laughing.

Then Colin came back into the
room and their laughter died.

He strode to Marian’s chair and
looked down at her.

She looked up.

Then, quietly he told her, “You
should know, that thing had its blade at her throat, it glanced
off, didn’t even come near it.”

Marian’s mouth parted in
surprise. Even
she
didn’t know she was that good.

“Thank you,” Colin went on
softly, his eyes on the woman warm and shining with gratitude.

Then without another word, he
strode back out of the room.

“You’re welcome,” Marian
whispered to the space where his body was only moments before.

* * * * *

Royce Morgan descended the
stairs in the dead of night, leaving Beatrice exhausted and
sleeping peacefully in their bed.

As he moved down the
steps, he saw Esmeralda Crane stood in one of the semi-circular
windows, staring thoughtfully out into the night.

Instead of her making the trip
back to her cottage in the dark after the events of that eve,
Beatrice had insisted the witch stay at Lacybourne with them. Also
at Beatrice’s stubborn demand, Old Lady Griffin was there, Royce
heard her loud snores as he walked by her chamber moments
before.

He quietly strode across the
Great Hall and stopped to stand beside the witch, looking out into
the dark night and joining her for a moment in her silent
reverie.

After some time, he spoke.

“Is she safe?” he asked softly,
his deep voice rumbling low.

Esmeralda knew exactly to whom
he was referring. “Yes, I believe she is.”

She was watching him and she
could swear to the goddess that she could actually see the tension
leave his powerful frame.

“And her betrothed?” he
enquired.

“Yes,” she answered
quietly.

Royce Morgan nodded.

Then he turned and walked back
across the room with wide, ground-eating strides and ascended the
stairs, two at a time, to rejoin his bride.

It was then Esmeralda Crane
turned back to regard the night and when she did she allowed
herself to smile.

Mallory had been caught by a
sunbeam of which there were a great deal in doggie heaven.

Being thus, he immediately
deposited his big body on a soft bed of grass and took a
snooze.

This was rather irritatingly
interrupted by a Chihuahua.

“The Big Dog wants to see
you.”

Mallory lumbered up and headed
to the enormous tree where the Big Dog liked to hang out. Although
he much preferred to stick with his nap, one didn’t really keep the
Big Dog waiting.

“Mallory,” the Big Dog woofed
when Mallory arrived.

“Big Dog,” Mallory woofed
back.

“It appears you’re going back
down.”

Mallory groaned and slid into a
lying position. He hadn’t been in doggie heaven very long.

The Big Dog continued, “As you
died valiantly, you get to pick what you want to go back as. You
could even return as a human.”

Mallory lifted his head at this
news.

Any animal that was given
this choice went back as a human (just to see what it was like).
They also chose tiger (not enough food, Mallory thought, or
sometimes they made you do silly tricks at circuses), lion (still
not enough food and you had to run to catch it and it was usually
too hot where you lived or you were caged), a wolf (people were
scared of wolves and Mallory liked people) or a horse (Mallory had
been there and done that, although he’d done it well,
very
well,
it was a lot of lugging his big warrior around and then there was
the blood on those battlefields).

Mallory shivered at the
memory.

“I’ll pick dog again,” he told
the Big Dog and vowed to himself not to do anything brave and
fearless this time. He missed his mistress, she was very nice and
she always found the right spots to scratch behind his ears. And
Mallory also missed his new master, he liked him a lot. He would
have liked to have lived a few more years with them.

“As you wish,” the Big Dog
stated.

Then instantly, Mallory was
reborn, the last (of course, always lagging behind) of a litter of
Newfoundland pups.

Mallory thought it was fun
being a puppy but somewhat exhausting.

Then, one day, six weeks later,
he was lying contentedly in another sunbeam when he heard the woman
who watched over them say, “They’re over here.”

His brothers and sisters all
exuberantly ran to whoever it was that had entered the room.
Mallory lifted his head to have a lazy look at what was
transpiring.

Then he saw his tall, strong,
dark-haired master.

He jumped to his big, puppy
feet and ran to the man who was now crouching low over the gaggle
of puppies, examining them closely.

Mallory pushed his brothers and
sisters aside, surged toward his master’s hand and gave it a sloppy
lick.

Colin’s eyes immediately
shifted to Mallory.

“I’ll take this one,” Colin
stated.

“Are you sure? He was the last
one out; he’s a bit of the runt.”

Colin chuckled as his big hand
closed around Mallory and lifted him into his arms.

“That figures,” he mumbled.

Mallory was beside himself with
glee.

The pretty dark-haired lady
that came with his master held Mallory while Colin drove them back
home to Lacybourne.

Then he was put in a room for
several hours. He was happy there. The room had food, water, treats
and kids and people came in every once in awhile to coo over him,
play with him or take him outside.

And, of course, the sun was
shining brightly and there were some mighty sunbeams.

Then he had several hours to
himself and he used them wisely and took a long puppy nap.

Then the door opened and the
dark-haired woman walked in with a red-haired one. He knew both of
them and he ran to them and gave them as many puppy kisses as
they’d allow which, Mallory thought with delight, was a lot even
though they were both all dressed up in pretty frocks.

They tied a silly pink and
cream ribbon around his neck but he didn’t mind as it was rather
fun to try and reach it so he could chew through it.

“Take off that ridiculous
ribbon,” Colin ordered upon entering the room.

“But Colin, he’s a gift!” the
dark-haired lady said.

“Claire, take off the ribbon,”
Colin repeated.

“
The ribbon has to stay,
Sibyl will
love
it,” the red-haired woman declared.

Mallory could swear he heard
his master growl.

Then Mallory jumped from the
red-head’s arms and into Colin’s. His tail was wagging and his body
was wriggling and he tried to reach his master’s face to give it a
big, wet kiss.

Colin deftly avoided his tongue
as he followed the two women out of the room, into the hall and
toward the stairs.

He was still trying to lick his
master’s face when he heard the loving, familiar laugh. Mallory
froze, looked across The Great Hall, his floppy ears flying and saw
her standing under the two big portraits.

There were tons of people there
milling all over the place, drinking golden liquid from fragile
glasses and eating food (some of which, Mallory fervently hoped,
they’d drop to the floor). They were talking, laughing, joking,
smiling and having the times of their lives.

Most of them Mallory
knew, some of them he didn’t. But Mallory didn’t care. He only had
eyes for one of them and he had to get to his mistress
now
.

Everyone was slowly
stopping their chatter and turning to look as Mallory and Colin
descended the stairs. And then
she
looked and she saw and
Mallory was delighted as her face, already glowing, brightened to
magnificent.

She looked so pretty in that
cream dress with the pink flowers in her long, golden hair.

And she looked so happy,
happier than he’d ever seen her and she was normally quite
happy.

When they reached the bottom of
the stairs, she swept forward and the crowd parted as she ran
toward them.

And for the second time in his
life, Colin was upstaged by a dog.

“Oh my goddess!” she breathed,
snatching the puppy out of Colin’s hands.

She brought Mallory straight up
to her face and she looked beyond him at Colin with love shining in
her eyes.

“Oh Colin, thank you!” she
cried gleefully.

She
didn’t care if he licked her; she never did so
Mallory gave her a big, sloppy kiss right up the side of her
face.

Her body stilled before she
pushed Mallory away from her and held his squirming puppy body up
to her radiant face, looking directly into his eyes.

Hers were startled.

Colin’s arm came around her and
he kissed the top of her head.

Her eyes melted from hazel to
sherry as she brought Mallory forward and tucked him lovingly under
her chin then she wrapped her arms fiercely around his puppy
body.

She lifted her head and
kissed her husband on the mouth before she whispered, “Oh
Colin…
thank
you.
”

He muttered, “You’re
welcome,” and then
he
kissed
her
(this one took a bit
longer).

Then she dropped her chin and
looked at Mallory again.

And she said, in a voice only
Colin and Mallory could hear.

“Welcome home, my darling
Mallory.”

####