Chapter Five

Tessa sat in the same rowboat Eagan had ferried her across last evening. She breathed in the breeze sliding over the sea, trying to rid herself of the taint from Cecilia's accusations.

Her mother had dealt with new mothers like Cecilia. The best way to deal with them was to reassure them and leave. One wasn't likely to turn a woman's mind when she'd already decided there must be someone to blame if her babe wasn't perfect. And the midwife was a reasonable target since she wasn't a family member or friend.

She'd been glad to see Eagan outside the door when she emerged, leaving the fretful mother with Lady Ava and her daughter, Meg. As far as Tessa could tell, Cecilia and her babe were strong and healthy. There was no further need for her to remain, especially when her only role now was as a whipping post.

Eagan pulled easily on the oars as they faced one another. His muscles strained against his tunic as they bulged in his arms, and his shoulders moved with confidence and strength. Tessa hadn't been able to stop thinking about those arms wrapping around her last night. Had he been affected by their brief encounter by the fires?

"Did you sleep well last night?" she asked.

He pulled several more strokes. "Nay."

Her hands gripped the sides of the boat, and her brows rose. "Why not?"

"Do ye want the truth or the polite response?"

Tessa smiled. "Save polite responses for court. I'd rather have the truth."

His brow rose to match hers. "Even if the truth is bawdy?"

"Bawdy is my favorite," she said, her smile authentic.

He leaned forward, pausing in his rowing. "I couldn't sleep with my jack wishing for another kiss from ye."

She laughed. "Your jack wants a kiss, too?" She laughed harder at his surprised look.

"I suppose he does," he finally said and began rowing again.

The journey across the strait to Wolf Isle was choppier than the smooth passage the night before. Tessa steadied herself in the middle, and Eagan put more power into cutting through the growing whitecaps. Tessa turned her face toward the open sea beyond the coast of Wolf Isle. 'Twas habit after a year of looking for her father's return, but the horizon remained unbroken.

When they reached the floating dock tied to a pier, Tessa quickly climbed out of the boat, wishing to be on dry land again.

"Throw me the rope," Eagan said, pointing to it. He tied the boat to the dock and followed her out. The tang of low tide rot wrinkled her nose, and she climbed the ladder to the long wooden pier above, seeing the barnacles and seaweed trapped around the wooden pilings set deep in the rocky bottom.

She hurried up the long pier toward the forest bordering the rocky shore. The remaining red and gold leaves fluttered down with the wind. Most had already fallen, leaving the trees pointing to the sky like naked skeletons.

Before she could stride away, Eagan caught her wrist. For the briefest moment, her stomach tightened. "Tessa," he said, and she turned to him. He was handsome with his youthful face and rugged, muscular frame. His hair was light and would surely catch the sun when it finally came out from the heavy clouds that seemed to shroud Scotland most of the time.

"Should we…" he started, dropping her hand. "I mean, will ye…act like we are courting here on Wolf Isle? Or was that only to keep me safe from the lasses on Mull?"

She smiled. "Keep you safe? Are there hordes of females here on Wolf Isle that wish to marry you?"

He didn't blush, but his brows and tight mouth showed embarrassment. Eagan ran one of his large hands through his hair, and she wondered if it was soft. It looked clean like he'd bathed that morn.

"Nay," he said, "but my family…" He closed his eyes briefly, shaking his head. "They pester me continuously."

She looped her arm through his, enjoying the feel of his strength. "Then we are courting for as long as you like." Or until I leave with my father.

His body relaxed against her. "That's gracious of ye."

"Maybe in exchange, you can come to Grissell's to help me finish fixing up my cottage. Some things need repairing."

The space between his dark brows pinched. "We've told Grissell we'll help whenever she needs—"

"She hasn't wanted anyone to see me."

"Why?"

"Her thoughts are her own, but perhaps she didn't want me to interfere with the curse." She shrugged. "At first, Grissell and I thought I'd be here for a couple of months. Maybe she worried over my becoming attached to your welcoming family." She thought of the girls who'd come to interrogate her.

"But Captain Lemaire hasn't returned?"

She shook her head, feeling the heaviness of sorrow in her chest. The one family member she had left in the world hadn't returned. Storms were frequent on the open sea, and she'd heard tales of pirates hunting for ships. Her father had survived for decades on the water, but 'twas still dangerous.

A movement along the forest caught her eye, and she dropped Eagan's arm, realizing she'd grabbed it at some point. "Orpheline," she called, running ahead to meet her bébé.

…

A fawn, still wearing its spots, pranced once where it waited at the forest line, its little tail waving. Tessa ran, stopping to crouch mere inches from it, and the red deer walked into her open arms. The image was startling: a raven-haired young woman hugging a spotted fawn like a woodland fairy. She stood, lifting its little body against her chest, and turned to him, her smile joyful.

"This is Orpheline. It means orphan in French, because she was left without a mother." Tessa kissed the fawn's head as it bopped her playfully with its black nose. "But I call her Orphy for short." Tessa set the fawn down, and it pranced around her while keeping a wary eye on Eagan. Tessa laughed. "I missed you, too."

He crouched down. "I have a way with animals," he whispered. "Will she come to me?"

"Wild animals distrust all humans, so don't take offense," she said, but the fawn sidled up to her.

"Are ye not human then?"

She turned her green eyes to him. There were small flecks of gray in them like splinters of granite. Her lashes were long like the fawn's, and for a moment he considered she might be the mythological Sadhbh, who was transformed into a deer to birth a fawn that could change into a lad.

She smiled. "I'm human, though I sometimes wish I were not." She turned back to the deer. "I found Orphy when someone trapped her mother, killing her."

Eagan frowned, irritation itching within him. "We don't set traps during fawning season, and we don't shoot hinds."

She shrugged. "Someone did." Tessa stood, and Orphy dodged about, running back to the forest line with the instinctual fearfulness of prey. "I should return to Grissell."

A tightness quivered within him like a plucked bowstring. He didn't want her to go yet. "If we're courting, I should take ye to Gylin to meet everyone formally." Her ethereal nature made him wonder if she'd disappear once she left his sight, like a will-o'-the-wisp vanishing in the forest.

"Uncle Eagan!" came a voice from the path. The fawn skittered away deep into the forest, blending into the dropping foliage. Laughing children surged in a little group down the path from Gylin Castle and the village of Ormaig. His nieces, younger sisters-in-law, and his five-year-old nephew, John. The little pack seemed to run everywhere together, watched over by Aggie, who had just turned thirteen. Today, Dora, the eighteen-year-old sister of Anna and Lark, carried Anna and Callum's daughter, Elizabeth. And two-year-old, Richard, toddled after them, gripping Aggie's hand.

Normally, he'd have run into them, pretending to be a bull, plucking them off the ground to toss around. But he didn't want to leave Tessa, imagining her disappearing into the forest with her fawn.

The children surrounded them like a flood released on the world. Tessa laughed. "We meet again." She curtsied, bowing her head to Pip, Aggie, and little Hester, who giggled. "And now all of you." She spread her arms in graceful arches on either side of her and turned in a circle, taking them all in. "'Tis like a fairy circle, and we're in its center." She grabbed Eagan's hand as if malicious sprites surrounded them.

The children laughed while Aggie and Dora studied Tessa more carefully. She was different from the ladies they'd encountered before, although since Eliza's pirate crew had taken up homes in Ormaig, Wolf Isle had its share of strange people.

Tessa curtsied low and rose as if greeting royalty. "I am Tempest Ainsworth, but you may call me Tessa."

"Do you cause tempests?" Pip asked, swirling her hands up above her head as if mixing the clouds into a frenzied storm.

"Only when kings and princes make me angry," she replied. Giggles rippled among the group.

"Ones that crash ships upon the rocks?" John asked, his eyes wide.

She leaned before him. "Of course, but only in my bathing tub."

"Do you cause a great wind?" Dora asked, a sly tilt to her lips.

"That would be Callum after he eats Anna's egg pie," Aggie said with a little snort.

"I will keep that in mind," Tessa said with a mock-serious frown. Then she nodded to each lass. "I know Hester, Pip, and Aggie. Now are you"—she pointed to John—"King Henry?"

John wrinkled his nose. "I'm John."

"King John," she said, bowing over an extended leg, her toe pointed in leather boots, as if she were a knight at court.

She turned to Elizabeth in Dora's arms. "And you must be Princess Elizabeth."

The little girl nodded and hid her face against Dora's neck. "Her name is Elizabeth." The little girl peeked past Dora's red hair, and Tessa curtsied to her. Immediately, Elizabeth turned, her little hands out to Tessa, and Tessa took her from Dora, holding her on her hip as if she'd always belonged there.

Dora shook her arms. "She gets heavy." She smiled. "I'm Dora, Anna and Lark's sister."

"And my sister," Aggie said. "And that is Richard." Aggie pointed to Eagan's nephew, who was jabbing a stick in the air.

"I see he is fighting off a pirate to keep us safe," Tessa said and turned in a circle, Elizabeth in her arms. Eliza and Beck's son laughed heartily as if he were a thirty-year-old sailor instead of a lad of almost three.

And, just like that, Tessa Ainsworth had bewitched them all.