The Heartwood Box: A Fairy Tale (10 page)

“Excuse me!” she cried, shocked.

“Excuse
me
!” he cried
back
.
“Is it possible my new sister is entertaining improper thoughts
?
I was referring,
of course
, to the excellent sandwiches prepared by our local tavern-keep, Mr. Richards, who I believe is a dear friend of your father’s.”

Genevieve turned
scarlet
at this
.
She was stammering out an apology when she realized that Donal was barely managing to restrain his mirth
—
at her expense! 

She shook her head and then said more tartly than she should have, “
As
it happens, I do not care for tongue
.
Is there anything else?” 

“You truly don’t care for
tongue
?
What are
we to do?”
Donal said in an
alarmed
tone
.

He really was too bad!

“Do you have anything else or not?”

“I’m afraid tha
t there is nothing else except…
.
”

He unwrapped a second basket
.
Genevieve moved closer so she could peer in
.

“Cherries!” she exclaimed, all annoyance at Donal’s nonsense forgotten
.
“But they’re not due to ripen for another week
.
Mama asked specially for me.” 

The basket was filled to overflowing with cherries so dark they were almost black
.
She closed her eyes: the fragrance was mouthwatering.

“Honestly, I should have been oracle to
O
ur Lady Titania,” Donal intoned mournfully
.
“So I have told Declan many a time, though he chooses to ignore my advice
.
Before I’d ever heard the lovely name of Genevieve, I had a vision, yes a vision, that Damian’s bride would be partial to cherries, so before I left, I asked to speak to Roderick, our cook
.
‘Roderick,’ I said, ‘we must have cherries for Damian’s bride
.
N
o matter how reluctant she may be to marry my lazy lout of a brother, she won’t be able to resist him if she tries the cherries from the Black orchard.’  And what do you know, a basket
of cherries
was delivered before breakfast
.
Ours always arrive a few weeks before the valley’s.”

Genevieve couldn’t help bursting out laughing at this brother who looked so like Damian but was capable of such good-humored absurdity
.
He held out one of the cherries, swinging it by the stem like a string before a kitten
.

She nibbled her lip
.
Genevieve absolutely adored cherries, and it
had
been almost an entire year since she’d had a fresh one
.
She couldn’t help glancing about for Damian, though, whom she suspected would echo her mother in insisting that she eat a “proper” lunch before she had dessert
.

Donal was looking decidedly mischievous
.
“Just a few couldn’t hurt
.
I promise I won’t tattle.”
He held
the cherry
to her mouth
.
“Open please.”

T
he lure of cherries was
too much to resist
.
Geneviev
e obeyed
and couldn’t help a soft moan: compared to these, the valley cherries tasted like bland
,
long-storage apples
.
She gave Donal a guilty look as she tried unobtrusively to spit out the pit
.

“No, no, my dear
.
To do justice to the Black cherries, you must
properly dispose of the pit.”
He ate a cherry himself and then shot the pit from his
mouth
.
He held another to her lips
.
“
T
ry again.” 

Within minutes, Donal had hand-fed her half the basket
,
and the two were deep in a contest of who could spit their pit the farthest
.
In the meantime, her white dress
had become
liberall
y sprinkled with juice
and had acquired a multitude of twigs and even a caterpillar
.

She finally managed to hit
the tree that was their target
and clapped
,
holding
out her mouth for another cherry, when
they were interrupted by an angry voice demanding, “Have you visited the
altar
yet?” 

She looked up to see Derek, his face dark as thunder.

“As you can see, I have been keeping our lovely new sister company,” Donal said mildly.

“You must make your devotions,” Derek said coldly
.

“And you think I should do that now
?
” Donal
replied
with that veiled irony he seemed master of
.

The look that Derek returned was hard as granite
.
“I will stay with our brother’s bride.” 

“I will leave you two to become acquainted then.” 

Donal smiled humorously, but underneath Genevieve could have sworn she caught a glimpse of something… canny
.
It would be a mistake to underestimate this comical new brother of hers
.

As soon as Donal was gone, Derek wordlessly unwrapped one of the sandwiches
,
cut it into small pieces
, and sat directly in front of her
.
Did he intend to feed her
the
sandwich as Donal had the cherries
?

“No, thank you…” she protested, trying to sound polite
.
“Please
,
I don’t care for tongue…
.
I had a large breakfast.” 

“Cherries are not lunch,” he said accusingly,
holding
a piece to her
lips
.
“My brother gave his word that you would not skip any meals.” 

Genevieve flushed violently
.
H
e was treating her like a child
, but she
wasn’t sure how to refuse without being unforgivably rude
.
“Fine, just give it to me,” she said through her teeth, wondering at how angry she sounded, but by Titania, this Black brother was
difficult
.

T
o her consternation Derek said, “No,” and brought the piece closer to her mouth
.
Everything in his expression was daring her to defy him
.
Suddenly she wanted nothing more than to slap his face, but she managed to control herself and opened her mouth
and ate
the bite of sandwich
.

The meat tasted well enough, of course
—
Mr. Richards
took justified pride in his curing
—
but she’d always disliked the greasy richness of tongue, which even the sharpness of the mustard did nothing to cut through
.
She chewed slowly and swallowed
.

“Is that enough?” she
asked
, unable to keep the sullenness from her tone.

“No,” Derek said
.
“Y
ou will finish your sandwich
.
Next time you will think twice about having dessert before your lunch.” 

Genevieve looked him in the face, astounded at his gall, but all thought froze under his gaze
.
It was no longer angry but something else, something predatory
.
Like this morning,
she felt like a cornered animal
too scared to run away
.
Her mouth reflexively opened for another bite, which she chewed without tasting
, repeating until the sandwich was finished
.

The spell was broken by a cough
.
S
he looked up to see Donal watching them a bit too closely
.

Suddenly hands grabbed for her, causing
Genevieve
to
let out a loud shriek
.
She grimaced when she realized it was
Damian
.
She tried to slap at his hand
s, but he ignored her struggles
to pull
her onto his lap, gripping her wrists and holding them against
her waist
.

He nuzzled her neck
and then kissed the bare skin where her neck met her shoulder, just touching her with his tongue
.
Genevieve gasped at the pulse of desire that shivered through her body, and for a second her eyes closed
.

But then she recalled that they were not alone
.
She flinched and tried to elbow Damian and shake herself free
.
“Damian, let me go!” she cried
, but he just kissed her again
and forced her to settle
.

In the meantime, Derek had risen and was standing off to the side, while Donal took a seat in front of her again
.

“Did my cruel brother make you eat your sandwich,” he said mockingly
.

“I’ll get you for this, Donal Black,” she
snapped
.
She was sure he’d known Derek would make her eat that sandwich
.

“You’ll get me
?
You’ll get me
?
What are you nine?”
Donal scoffed.

Genevieve was so anno
yed she threw her napkin at him
but then worried that maybe she’d been too forward
.
But when she glanced over her shoulder, her disloyal, good-for-nothing betrothed was laughing at her too!  She glared at both of them, which unfortunately only caused Donal to explode in
loud
guffaws
.

When he finally caught his breath,
Donal
cried
,
“Oh Genevieve, sweetheart, if you could see your face
.
Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to scowl in case your face stuck like that?” 

“You…
y
ou…” she tried to come up
with
some truly
devastating
insult or threat, but s
he’d not grown up with brothers
and couldn’t think of anything worse than the all-purpose
“
I’ll get you
,
”
which she
recognized now
was pretty weak
.

“Peace
,
sister,” Donal cried
.
“After your sufferings at Derek’s h
and, you deserve some reward.”
He held up the basket of cherries
.
“We must show Damian and Derek the progress you’ve made spitting cherry pits.”

Genevieve was mollified
and could even laugh at their ridiculous argument
.
To Damian’s wry amusement, Donal insisted on holding up the cherries for her to eat,
and the three of them spent several hilarious minutes comparing shots
.

Only Derek remained stone-faced
.
N
either of his brothers seemed surprised
,
and Genevieve was too annoyed with him to mind that he wasn’t enjoying himself
.
He finally joined them when the basket was empty
,
and the three brothers set to eating their sandwiches, Damian refusing
to let her move from his lap.

“I notice that Damian and Donal
are
allowed to eat their dessert before lunch,” Genevieve said
tartly
.

Derek just glared at her, but Damian kissed her temple
and said, 
“I’m sorry, love
.
When I made that promise to your mother this morning I meant only to reassure her, forgetting that my younger brother would consider himself honor bound for the rest of his life to ensure you
never again miss
a meal.”