meal.
Alec shoved a potato across his plate. Poor man. He must be terribly uncomfortable.
“No’ hungry, MacQuarrie?” Wallace asked. “Cook will be inconsolable if ye send back yer whole plate. Prides herself as the best in four counties.” He patted his stomach as though that was all the proof anyone needed to confirm such claims.
“Oh, no. It’s wonderful. But I only recently ate.” Alec’s gaze dropped to the neck of Sorcha’s gown and a warm rush washed up her cheeks, she was sure. He hadn’t recently eaten. But he would probably like to. And soon.
She’d like it quite a bit herself.
“Are ye all right, Sorch?” Wallace asked, his eyebrows arching together with concern. “Ye doona look well.”
Sorcha fanned her face. “It’s a bit warm in here, is all.”
“And we’ve been makin’ ye talk nearly nonstop.” Her father frowned. “So, let me tell ye what ye’ve missed…” As he began to drone on about all the things that had happened in her absence, Sorcha tried to figure out a way to help Alec with the food on his plate. Then she had a brilliant idea.
A nice potted plant sat in the middle of the dining room table, its vines and leaves trailing delicately over the sides of its container. Sorcha reached over and gently rubbed the plant, which woke beneath her fingers. She giggled as it rubbed itself on the back of her hand like a cat that’d missed her.
“Stop playin’ with the plant, Sorch,” her father grumbled.
“And eat yer dinner.”
“Yes, Papa,” she conceded with a small smile.
But with a quick mention in her mind, she told the plant exactly what she wanted it to do and then laughed inwardly at the reaction she expected from Alec. She watched out of the corner of her eye as a sneaky little vine slid across the table and tickled the underside of his palm. He jumped in his seat and then immediately looked up from his plate. His eyes met hers, a warning in their dark depths. He was so adorable when he was discomfited. She wanted to wiggle in her chair with excitement.
The tiny little vine sneaked across the table and under the edge of his plate, then reached over the edge and snatched a small potato with its greedy little grasp. Then it retreated into its container with its prize. One potato down, only three more to go.
Alec mouthed at her to stop her antics, adding a violent slash of his hand when her father wasn’t looking. But she was having way too much fun.
After the little vine had absconded with all of his potatoes, it moved on to his salmon. The fish proved to be much more difficult to grasp, however, so the vine had to enlist the help of a few leaves onto which Alec could rake the salmon from his plate. Then all of the bits disappeared.
Sorcha was positively delighted when dessert arrived.
Raspberry creams had always been one of her favorites.
But the cream would prove to be much trickier to remove from the dish. She gave it a lot of thought and smiled when she finally figured out what to do.
Soon the cream was delivered and Wallace, as she’d hoped, devoured two servings of the dessert before Sorcha could even put a spoon to her own sweet treat. Of course, Alec hadn’t touched a bite of his. A switch would be simple, especially as it looked like Wallace might steal the one in front of Alec right out from under his nose. So Sorcha encouraged a pretty little flower to slide over to Alec’s dish, drop itself directly into the gooey mess, and swish around so that its leaves were coated.
All the while, Alec looked positively mortified, but her father and Wallace were discussing the latest shipping investment and were much too engrossed to even realize she wasn’t paying attention to them, much less that she was tormenting Alec with her powers.
Alec shot her a storm-filled glance when the little flower, laden with heavy, creamy dessert moved up his waistcoat and bumped the end of his nose, leaving a blob of its gooey pink mess behind. Alec swiped at it with his napkin and grumbled beneath his breath. She asked the flower to do it again, only this time he moved his head to avoid the plant and it caught his cheek.
Sorcha covered her mouth as a giggle finally escaped her.
“Sorcha,” her father boomed from beside her.
“Yes, Papa?” she asked, forcing her gaze away from Alec’s disaster of a