Demon's Curse by Alexa Egan

Author:Alexa Egan [Egan, Alexa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, Adult, Historical, cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9781451672909
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

13

Mac knelt by the fence, a nail between his lips as he fumbled for the hammer. Sweat stuck his hair to his head, and his back and shoulders ached, but between yesterday’s recuperation and the pleasurable activities of this morning, he felt less like a walking corpse and more like a man on a mission. Though right now, his mission was to make repairs to the cattle shed while Jory spread a final layer of chalk and peat over the ground before the cows were brought in for the winter.

He recalled similar farming duties completed side by side with his father, the air holding a crisp chill, a skein of geese flying low over an autumn sky to glide into the lake, the encircling mountains rising blue and misty from the holding’s green valley floor.

As if on cue, a woman’s voice lifted in song in a traditional ballad, one he’d heard his mother sing often. But today the voice belonged to Bianca: he knew even before she emerged from the kitchen doorway, hair bundled in a kerchief, her satins and silks replaced with a simple dimity gown covered by a snowy white apron. Their eyes met and she smiled, her cheeks stained with a sunrise blush.

His chest knotted, his hand tightened around the handle of the hammer, and for one poignant, perfect moment, peace and happiness were his.

* * *

Mac had long since disappeared with Jory, and Marianne had departed for the village with the girls. Grateful for time alone to muse on all that had passed this morning, Bianca sat on an upturned milk pail beside the byre, a bull calf watching her from behind his mother’s flanks, the cow’s breath steaming the chilly air. Frost nipped at Bianca’s snuffly nose and her toes had gone numb, but she merely pulled her shawl closer around her shoulders, plucking a stem of grass to flick between the fence boards to tempt the bullock.

“His name’s Jasper.”

She looked over to find the youngest Wallace son watching her with the calf’s same pose of reluctant bravery. She took his age for six or seven. Slight in stature, he bore the same red hair and high cheekbones as his father, but his muddy-brown eyes and wide mouth were all Marianne.

“Jasper’s a fine name,” Bianca said. “Did you give it to him?”

He sidled toward her, one toe dragging in the dirt, then the next, his fingers fiddling with a piece of twine. “Mum did. She names all the animals. But she says next spring I can have a spaniel pup and name him myself. I can’t decide between Idrin and Anoraeth.”

“They’re both very good names.”

“Idrin’s important and Da says he’s the father of us all, but I like Anoraeth better.” One more step. One more twirl of his twine. “His stories are more exciting. There’s one where he steals a magic ring from the Fey that lets him travel through time, and there’s another that has him visiting the land of the dead.”

“He sounds very brave.

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