day to get back. And that would put an end to their careful plans for Newquay’s Moon and the surrounding villages.
Why was nothing ever simple?
He mulled it over. The possibility that they were under attack was something he held at the back of his mind with trained rigidity. If it were true, there was nothing he could do about it, and there was no sense getting worked up. It would only cloud his thoughts. And he had work here to do.
“I knew you’d come today.”
James turned on his heel, and his heart leapt into his mouth. Beth stood a mere arm’s length away, her work tunic tumbling in the breeze. Her ash-blond carpet of hair sailed on the air. A basket of peaches was tucked under her arm. She had managed to get within only feet of him and he hadn’t heard a thing.
Nobody could sneak up on him.
Home and the others evaporated from his thoughts with an almost-audible poof. He resisted the urge to pinch himself, at the same time holding his tongue until he was sure his throat wouldn’t spasm. She joined him on the ridge and the two of them stood looking over the orchards in silence for a while, neither of them looking at the other.
“How’s that?” he said finally.
She pointed skywards, to the birds passing overhead. “They always show up before you. Harbingers.”
“I ought to watch that.”
“Not exactly stealthy.”
“Why not hang up a sign?”
He could feel her eyes moving over him. His skin buzzed as though she had run a hand from his scalp to his loins. “How long are you here?”
Lucian’s handwriting popped back into the front of his mind. His hand hovered over his pocket. “Not long,” he said grimly.
She nodded, turned back to look at the orchards. “Some people enjoy the company of visitors. If they ask when you’ll be back, what should I tell them?”
His heart skipped a beat. “Depends on how our talks go with your good mayor.”
“If you were to hazard a guess?”
“I can’t think of anything that would keep us away for long.”
“Oh? What could you possibly want with a dump like this?”
James stole a glance at her, smooth flushed cheeks highlighted against her alabaster skin. “It isn’t all bad,” he said. Before he knew it he was inching closer, unable to stop himself, his feet moving of their own accord. All thought of what it could mean for the mission, the politics, for her, all forgotten.
She too had turned from the horizon and was facing him. Her eyes danced over him, and he realised that it wasn’t only her cheeks that were flushed. Her neck was blushing a vibrant pink, and her chest heaved under all that cloth. The air was filled with their ragged breathing, and as though caught by invisible hands, they began to fall towards one another.
The hill, the sky, the grass; all of it was gone, vanished. All that he saw was her dirt-streaked face, those stainless-steel eyes, and thick young lips. His throat tightened, his knees trembled, and despite all his long years of scholarly training, he stumbled closer, longing for nothing more than to fold himself into her, to run his hands over every inch of her skin.
He was going to do it. They were a foot away, then inches, then the heady well of lavender and talc blinded him, and finally the warmth of her breath caressed his cheek. He closed his eyes.
“Excellent!” Malverston’s voice came crashing in through the purple haze that had fallen over James’s mind. “People, come, come! We have word!”
James whirled to see the mayor’s bulbous mass come crashing outside with Alex in tow, his arms held wide and his head thrown back with rancorous glee. A tankard of ale swung at his hip, and even from this distance, James could make out spots of food stuck in the knots of his beard. “Come, come! Great celebrations all around.” A moment later, irate. “Get out here!”
In seconds doors all over town opened, and ant-like heads popped up among the orchards far down the hill. Then they were herding back to the square, as though drawn by the same magnetism that had almost clamped James’s lips to Beth’s, great thick clods of people that entirely destroyed the privacy the ridge had enjoyed only seconds ago.
Beth stepped away hurriedly and made to follow.
“Wait!” he said.
Her eyes warned him no. “You’ll be back soon?” On top of the genuine concern of her frown, he caught the faint glimmer of