Belladonna

sex?"
    Recognizing Lee's effort to lighten the mood, Michael said, "Are we talking brag or lie?"
    Lee closed his eyes and smiled. "Whichever provides the best story."

Chapter Twenty
    "I 've never seen a landscape do that," Glorianna said. As Kenneday's ship sailed closer to the White Isle, she watched the island fade like a mirage in the early morning light.
    "It's not a comfort to hear you say that, Glorianna," Michael scolded. "Couldn't you tweak the truth a bit and say it doesn't happen often?"
    She pulled her scarf up to cover the bottom half of her face, both to hide her smile and to warm up skin that was chilled by the brisk sea air. Then she pushed the scarf back down long enough to say, "It doesn't happen often."
    Michael looked at the now-empty sea beyond the bow of the ship, then looked back at her. "I'm thinking there's not much sincerity in that answer."
    This time she laughed out loud. "Half the time I'm not sure if you're teasing or really mean what you say. You're a hard man to please, Magician."
    "Not so. I don't ask for much, I'm grateful for what I'm given, and I'm willing to give a great deal in return."
    Glorianna looked away, glad for the cold air that soothed her suddenly burning checks. The man wasn't talking about enjoying each other for a few nights of sex. And yet, there was always that bittersweet resonance in his words. "You barely know me."

    And she barely knew him.
    The heart has no secrets, Glorianna Belladonna. Not even yours. That's why he scares you. If you let him, he'll slip into your life — and you'll slip into his — as if you had always been there for each other. As if there had always been love's shining light welcoming you home.
    "I can hear the music in you," Michael said quietly. "It's a glorious song, as heartbreaking as it is beautiful, so full of sorrow and joy. A man could listen to that tune for a lifetime and not grow tired of it."
    "I don't know what you're saying."
    He took a step closer, his body now sheltering hers from the wind. "You know exactly what I'm saying, and it scares you. If it's any comfort, it scares me too. Maybe it should. Love is not a small thing. It can change a life."
    "It can change the world," she whispered.
    "Maybe it can." For a moment, he looked troubled by her words. Then he stepped back and smiled. "Well. I'd best let you gather your thoughts. Kenneday said he'd hold this course so you could see the White Isle vanish and reappear, but he's fidgeting like an old maid with the effort not to ask you when you're going to do your magic, and your brother is giving me a look that makes me want to punch him in the face or buy him a drink, I'm not sure which."
    "What have you got against Lee?" Glorianna demanded, feeling her temper ruffle in automatic defense of her brother.
    "I've got nothing against the man," Michael replied "In fact, I like him. But being your brother, he feels honor bound to be a pebble in my shoe."
    Before she could decide where the tease ended and truth began, Michael walked away and Lee came toward her, carrying the White Isle stone she and Caitlin had removed from the Garden before they set sail out of Raven's Hill yesterday morning.
    "I don't want this place" Caitlin had said when they paused at the bottom of the hill behind the cottage. "If as you say, this place is tied to me in some way, I want to be shed of it."
    "Caitlin," Glorianna said in quiet warning, feeling Ephemera gathering itself to manifest the girl's will. "You lived here."
    "And wanted to leave the way Michael did. We survived here. Had to, because it was all we had. That's not the same as belong to a place."
    No, Glorianna thought, it isn't the same.
    "I don't care if I'm supposed to be the guardian or Landscaper or sorceress or whatever you choose to call it," Caitlin said defiantly. "I don't want the dead feeling that fills my heart when I think of Raven's Hill. I don't want this place. Let someone else be its caretaker."
    The words had no sooner left Caitlin's mouth when Glorianna felt Ephemera change the resonance of the world around them, Caitlin gasped and stared at her in fearful wonder.
    "You did this'' Glorianna said. "Not me."
    A heartfelt choice. Even though it had not been done with care and had been spurred by dark feelings, Caitlin's rejection would not leave the village floundering. Which was as clear a message any that the girl had not been the right person to hold this landscape.
    Now that Caitlin's heart was no longer interfering,