In Death 16 - Portrait in Death

when he saw it was you, and it's one of the loveliest things I've ever seen. It's a fine picture to have in my head, for he's my sister's child, grown man or no, and I want what's good for him. You seem to be."
     
     
"We seem to be good for each other, God knows why."
     
     
She smiled now, bright and pretty. "Sometimes it's best not to know all the reasons. I'm glad you came, so I had a chance to look at you, and see the two of you together. I want more chances with him, and you'll be a large part of letting that happen, or preventing it."
     
     
"Nobody prevents Roarke."
     
     
"Nobody," Sinead said with a nod, "but you."
     
     
"I wouldn't do anything to get in the way of something he needed. He needed to come here. He'll need to come back. Maybe you weren't looking in the right place when he introduced me to you, when he looked at you. He already loves you."
     
     
"Oh." Her eyes filled up before she could stop them, and she blinked, wiping at them quickly when she heard him coming back in. "I'll fix you some food for the journey."
     
     
"Don't trouble." Roarke touched her shoulder again. "There's plenty of it on the shuttle. I've made arrangements to have the car I drove here picked up."
     
     
"Well that'll be sad news for my Liam, who thinks it's as fine and fancy a machine as ever built. I've something for you." She reached in her pocket, closing her fingers over the treasure as she turned to him. "Siobhan didn't take all her things when she went to Dublin. She was going to come back and get them, or send for them, but, well, one thing and another."
     
     
She pulled out a thin chain and the rectangle of silver that dangled from it. "It's just a trinket, but she wore it often. You see this is her name, in Ogham script. I know she'd want you to have it."
     
     
Sinead pressed it into Roarke's hand, closed his fingers around it. "Safe journey then, and... ah, damn it."
     
     
The tears beat her, plopped onto her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around him. "Come back, will you? Come back sometime, and keep well until you do."
     
     
"I will." He closed his eyes, breathed her in. Vanilla and wild roses. He murmured in Gaelic as he pressed his lips to her hair.
     
     
She gave a watery laugh, pulled back to swipe at her cheeks. "I don't have that much of the Gaelic."
     
     
"I said thank you for showing me my mother's heart. I won't forget her, or you."
     
     
"See that you don't. Well, be off then before I start blubbering all over you. Good-bye to you, Eve, keep yourself safe."
     
     
"It was a pleasure to meet you." She took Sinead's hand in a firm grip. "A genuine pleasure. The shuttle runs both ways, if you decide to come to New York."
     
     
Roarke pressed a kiss to her temple as they walked to the field, and the waiting copter. "That was well done."
     
     
"She's a stand-up."
     
     
"That she is." He looked back toward the house, and the woman who stood in the back doorway to wave them off.
     
     
***
     
     
"You should get some sleep," he said to her when they were settled on the shuttle.
     
     
"Don't start poking at me, pal. You're the one who looks like he's been on a week's bender."
     
     
"Might stem from the fact that I've consumed more whiskey in the past two days than I have in the past two years, altogether. Why don't we both stretch out for a bit?"
     
     
She jiggled her foot, checked the time, did the math. "Too early to call Central and check in. I'll be back in a couple hours anyway, won't even have missed any time."
     
     
"Just missed sleep." He engaged the mechanism that turned the wide sofa into a wide bed.
     
     
"Too revved to sleep."
     
     
"Is that so?" Some of the light she loved was back in his eyes. "Well, what can we do to pass the time, help you relax? Cribbage, perhaps?"
     
     
Her eyes narrowed. "Cribbage? Is that some perverted sexual activity?"
     
     
He laughed, and grabbing her, tossed her onto the bed. "Why not?"
     
     
But he was gentle, and so was she. Tender, as she was. They watched each other as they touched. So she could see the shadows that had haunted him these last days lift away, and leave that deep and vivid blue clear again.
     
     
Love, she thought, the act of it, could chase away ghosts for a while, tuck the dead away. Here was life, with him filling her, life as she surrounded the hard length of him, and their fingers linked, their mouths meeting.
     
     
Life, he thought, while she rose to him so he could only sink into her.