Give Me (Wyrd and Fae #1)(27)

Halfway up the stairs, the tuning of instruments and vocalizing warm-up exercises carried down to them, and a lute and baritone began jamming on a pretty melody. Cade was about to take Lilith’s hand when she grabbed his forearm.

“Do you hear that?”

“You don’t like madrigal music? It’s a group of teachers from the local secondary school. It isn’t Albert Hall, but they’re practically celebrities here.”

“No—I mean, it’s not that. I do like it, very much. I just wondered if you heard it.”

“You’re not hallucinating.” Great gods. He hoped she didn’t think he was insinuating that the human consciousness within Igdrasil was imaginary. Even if that’s what he believed.

She relaxed her grip and he caught her hand as it dropped, as naturally as if they were long-time friends—or lovers. At the top landing he took a deep breath and said, “If you’d indulge me just a minute.” He scooped her up off her feet. She wrapped her arms around him, her head on his chest.

Could she tell how his heart pounded? He’d only meant to lift her over a few broken treads. The way she made him feel, he could hold her in his arms forever. Move, you git. It was but a few paces to the roof.

“Cade, it’s like fairyland!”

He set her on her feet, relieved. “That was the desired response.”

The caterer had strung tiny white lights in two fake potted trees near the table. More than that, the night sky was cooperating, cloudless and amazing. Cygnus was on fire, the stars a dazzling canopy over the tiny village and the dark woods beyond. The moon was a full blue-white disc.

It was too late for tourists, but lights shone at Glimmer Cottage. He couldn’t shake the feeling that old Elyse was aware of his dinner date—and had taken an interest. He accepted glasses of champagne from the steward and handed one to Lilith. “It’s interesting you should use the word fairyland. The house actually has two names.”

“Bella told us one of them: Bausiney’s End.”

“Ah, Bella. They do like to be involved. I think of them as the French sisters from He Knew He Was Right.”

“You too?” Lilith’s laugh was delightful—that she laughed at his jokes was delightful. She said, “Bella fancies herself an expert on all things Tintagos. She’s desperate to become the next wyrding woman. She has swallowed the Handover story whole.”

“It won’t do for sibling relations if one of them is chosen.” Apparently Lilith had not swallowed the Handover story whole. Good. And even better if she would stay away from Glimmer Cottage tomorrow, just in case.

“Not a problem,” she said. “Cammy would rather be your woman than the wyrding woman, I do believe.”

“Good heavens.” Not in a thousand years. “I’m afraid we wouldn’t suit.”

“How sad.”

“Cammy wants a stylish husband, you see, and I’m far from it. This place isn’t called Bausiney’s End for nothing. It’s in as poor a condition as the rest of Dumnos County. With our atmospheric conditions—”

“The famous atmospheric conditions.”

“Exactly. We’re denied the advantages of the modern age. We don’t draw many businesses when mobiles and wireless are impossible.”

“I thought I’d go crazy being offline,” Lilith said, “but I love it. I feel like I belong to myself, if that makes any sense.”

“Detached from the hive mind.”

“That’s it.”

Her smile was lovely. Everything about her was lovely. At the table, he pulled out a chair for her. Instead of across from her, he sat near her at a corner.

“Speaking of houses with names, I know there some in the United States,” she said, “but I can only think of Fallingwater. The White House, I suppose.”

“You have Mount Vernon,” Cade said. “And Monticello.”

Their knees kept touching.

“And Hill House.” She smiled as if she were joking.

“I don’t know that one.”

“It isn’t real,” she said. “From the Shirley Jackson novel. The movie terrified me when I was little. The original, not the remake. It’s about ghosts who take over a house and possess the people who stay there.”

“Pesky ghosts,” he said. “Always wanting to live the lives they were denied.”

The waiter brought the starter and refilled their glasses.

“I wonder what my ghost wants.”

“That’s a good question. Your ghost is unfamiliar to me. We do have two legendary ghosts in Tintagos, but they always travel together and they’re only seen every few hundred years. Enough to keep the story going. Your ghost seems to be on her own.”

“Yes. I dreamed about her before I came. I…I think she made my reservation at the Tragic Fall.”

“Your ghost made your reservation.”

She put down her fork, her brows knitted together. “You really will think I’m nutso. I can’t explain it any more than I can explain the person inside the tree.”

“You win. I do think you’re nutso, as you put it.” He didn’t care. “But as promised, I like you anyway.”

“Whew!” She laughed and finished her champagne. Her fingernails were freshly painted, an icy pink color. She’d done her fingernails in the time before he picked her up. She did fancy him. “But I went far off the tracks there,” she said. “You were going to tell me why your house is called Bausiney’s End.”