Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

S hug returned to the kitchen to fetch a drink of water for a too-alert child and checked out the window again. The fog lingered, but now the lights were gone, and he felt better believing Alexandra had gone back to her hotel. If she'd needed a cup of tea and a shoulder to lean on, she would have stopped by.

If she came again tomorrow night, he'd join her whether she willed it or not. He'd just have to keep the news of her child from slipping out between his lips.

A child's footsteps creaked on the boards overhead, a reminder of simpler concerns. Normal things, ordinary things that kept the sadness at bay...for the now.

Alexandra's eyes fluttered open. Spreag hovered over her. Behind his head, stars tried to pierce through a thin cloud.

His brows pinched together. "Ye fainted, love."

That's right. She'd fainted. For half of a second, she'd thought it had all been a dream and they were home again, in Arizona, making love on a blanket in the backyard. A blissful half-second where the love of her life hadn't died at the hands of eight-foot-tall monsters who'd crashed a Highland wedding. But the mean bite of humid cold brought her back to the present.

Spreag moved his arms around her, then retreated, powerless to comfort or warm her.

"I'm fine," she said, and sat up.

"Ye should go inside," he said softly. "Ye're shivering."

"I just found you. I'm not leaving." Her voice was barely a whisper, afraid speaking clearly might shatter whatever magic kept him here.

"The house has a fireplace."

"Shug would see the light." She pulled her knees closer to her chest. "He'd come investigate."

He bit his lips together for a long moment, then nodded once. "Then let us return to the car and go."

Alexandra's head snapped up. "But...but I thought... You can't leave here, can you?"

He glanced away, guilty, then his eyes met hers again. "I've been with ye from the start. Just to see, mind." He waited for the news to sink in. "When the light came for me, I turned away. I'd done it before. It worked just as well the second time."

"You just turned away?" She had to know. "Why?"

He seemed surprised. "For ye, o'course. Because I couldnae bear to leave until I was certain ye'd get through the worst of it." He glanced pointedly around the property. "But it seems--"

"I'm not handling it well. I know."

He sighed and shook his head. "Makes me wonder."

"What?"

"If my stayin' nearby is the reason for it."

"Yeah, well, maybe I'd have been worse without you."

"Hard to believe that."

They smirked together.

"I know, right? I think they stopped renting out the room next to mine."

He nodded, still smiling, but the crinkles to the sides of his eyes told her his heart had broken for her. If her heart had broken a thousand times in the weeks since the wedding, she suspected his had done the same.

"Oh, Spreag." She leaned toward him, then stopped and let her chin fall to her chest. Trying to touch him would just break their hearts all over again. It had to be enough that he was there, that she could see him, talk to him, tell him how much--

"I love you." She looked up again. "I love you so much."

"And I love ye, lass. Far more than Heaven, it seems." He lifted his hand and ran it down the side of her cheek, slowly, as they both remembered how it felt and pretended they could feel it again.

She tried to suppress the shiver that wracked through her, but failed miserably.

"We have to go." He got to his feet and waited for her to do the same. "Got to get ye warm again."

"You promise not to disappear? I...I don't think I could survive it if you did."

"I vow I shan't disappear. In fact, I shall stay with ye as long as ye like."

Alexandra closed her eyes and wet tears flowed freely down her face. "What if that turns out to be forever?"

His eyes crinkled again. "Then forever it is."