A Celtic Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,65

and touched Morgan's cheek. "And hello, sweet girl. Have you come for a visit?"

Morgan smiled, purple eyes bright with confidence that Gran would give her everything she wanted. "Fowers."

"Of course, sweetheart. Any that you like." Moira looked up at Marcus, a clear message in her eyes. No one got to be rude in her presence.

Marcus ran through all of the words that had ever landed him cauldron-scrubbing duties. Quietly. And then tucked the package in the folds of his cloak and turned to face the music. "Good morning, Sophie. Cassidy."

Sophie, kind to the core, averted her gaze from his cloak. He was pretty sure that wasn't enough to save him.

Cass watched his face, puzzled. "Good morning. We were just out for a bit of a walk on the beach."

Her mind wasn't as sad today. Marcus scowled. He didn't want to know that. "We're going home." They weren't - the defiance in his daughter's head was perfectly clear.

"Were you bringing me a wee gift?" Moira reached for the package with innocent delight.

Damn. He'd forgotten that the seventy-four-year-old woman liked getting presents at least as much as the average toddler. "It's not for you." He waited a beat - she was going to be far too happy about what happened next.

He'd licked a cold railing in winter once. This was about to be worse. Taking a deep breath, Marcus handed the package to its intended recipient. "A small gift. I was hoping it would cheer you up." It was his last charitable act of the decade. Or possibly longer.

Cass reached for the pink monstrosity, eyes puzzled. The other three members of their motley little gathering watched in silence, fascinated.

And Marcus wished harder for teleporting skills than he ever had in his life.

He could not, however, manage to yank up his mind barriers tight enough to keep out what happened next.

Cassidy peeled off the outer layers of pink, carefully stuffing the paper in her pockets. And when she got to the simple frame inside, only stared.

Someone watching from a distance might have thought she didn't like it. The man uncomfortably linked with her mind caught the full force of her sad, tangled, overwhelmed, astonished gratitude.

And to his eternal shame, it made him babble. "I did it up on the computer. I'm not much of an artist, but digital renderings aren't terribly difficult." It had taken him half the night. "I should have put it in a tube so you could take it with you." Only an idiot gave a big glass-covered piece of dubious art to someone who spent their life on the road.

Moira moved to Cass's side, infernally curious, and lifted her hands to her cheeks, quite overcome. "Oh, my. It looks just like her."

Of course it did. He'd begun with a photograph of Nan borrowed from Sophie's camera. Not a good one, but adequate for his purposes. Finding some stock footage of Ireland hadn't been terribly more difficult.

He bent his head, embarrassed in every atom. He should have just given her a cookie. Or a puppy. Or any of the normal things people did to try to cheer someone up.

Cass looked up, astonished pleasure all over her face. "It's wonderful. You did this for me?"

"He's very talented," said Sophie quietly, throwing him farther under the bus. She moved to look at his work. "And I don't think I've ever seen one he's done that's quite this lovely."

Sophie was one of about three people in the world who knew he'd done all the artwork for his Realm high keep himself.

Cass reached out to touch the digitally painted face of her grandmother. "Could I get a smaller copy?"

A politeness. Something she could tuck out of the way more easily. Marcus reached for the portrait of the woman with Cassidy's eyes. "Certainly." Escape. Finally.

Her hands clenched on the frame. "No. You misunderstand." Cass cuddled the unwieldy square to her chest, eyes unnaturally bright. "I want this one. I'll treasure this one. I was hoping for another copy I could send to Nan."

Strange things were happening to Marcus's knees.

And he had no earthly idea what to say.

"Fowers." Morgan, blithely unaware of most of what was going on, wobbled impatiently from one booted foot to the other.

"Ah, do you want to go see the gardens, lovey?" Cass smiled down at the small girl. "Why don't you come with us, then? We were headed to pick some bouquets for the inn." She looked back up at Marcus, her eyes still riding high with emotions he didn't want