Page 4 of The Stag & The Owl
“The honor is mine, Leif MacKinnon,” shesaid, staying where she stood and holding her hands up, palms out,to show they were covered in soil.
“This is Roark MacInnes,” her father said asa man with wavy auburn hair brushing his shoulders and a shortbeard of the same auburn curls stepped from behind the others.Theman from the ship yesterday.
“Princess Alina.”His voice was deep andrich, and he spoke with a heavy accent.Dressed in a clean whitelinen tunic and leather vest, he was tall, though not as tall ashis companion, built for power with a broad chest, slim waist, andstrong, muscular legs by the way his leather trousers fit him.Hisface and neck were covered with freckles matching his dark auburnhair, but the most arresting thing about him was his eyes.Theywere the color of rain, and Alina was standing on solid ground,drowning in them.
“Alina?”
“Huh?”She pulled her gaze from Roark’s andlooked to her father.“What?”
“I was about to explain to Leif and Roark howwe move the glass roof panes seasonally, but since they were youridea, I thought you might want to.”
“The, ah, glass panes,” she said, clearingher throat and gathering her wits.She pointed up to the ceiling.“As you can see, we have three separate panels of glass, all ofwhich can be mixed and moved with the other solid panels of theroof.”She glanced at her audience.Her father and Roark werelooking up at the panels.Anders and Leif were looking out the opendoor.
“We move the panels from season to season toget the best use of the sun,” she continued.“Today, we positionedone each west, south, and east.In the summer we put two panelsfacing north and one east, in the autumn, two south and one east,and in the winter, two south and one west.”
Roark held his hands up thumb to thumb,turning a slow circle around the greenhouse as if framing andfollowing the sun’s seasonal arcs.He lowered his hands.“Brilliant,” he said, grinning at Alina with the heat of a summersun.
Alina took a deep, cooling breath.“It, ah,gives me, gives us, the ability to start seedlings a moon earlierthan if we had to sow seed outdoors,” she said, warming to hersubject and Roark’s interest.Or maybe it was his melting grin.Sheturned to the herb bed.“I can grow many herbs year-round thatwould normally die out in the winter.”
Roark stepped over and stood by her,inspecting the herbs while her father gazed up through the glasspanes with the looking glass and Anders and Leif stood outside thedoor, talking between themselves.
“I saw you on the beach yesterday,” Roarksaid, his voice low.“Riding your horse.”
“I know.”
He smiled and she flushed from head to toe.She reached down and ran her fingers over the fennel leaves.Eitherthat or run them through his auburn waves.He reached down andtouched the feathery leaves too, his long, blunt-tipped fingersbrushing hers and sending a surge of awareness up her arm.Heleaned in closer to her.“You smell of cherry blossoms,” he said,his voice a husky whisper.
“I, ah, I was in the orchard earlier,” shestammered.He smelled of soap, sun, and salt air.“The firstcherries of the season have ripened.”
“Come on,” Anders called from outside thedoorway, causing Alina and Roark to startle.“The tables are set upoutdoors and they’re carrying out the food.I for one don’t intendto start the night’s festivities on an empty stomach.”
Alina met her father’s grin and shook herhead.Anders loved a good celebration.
“Did you bring masks for tonight?”Andersasked Leif as the rest of them filed out of the greenhouse.
“We did,” Leif said.“They’re in our packsback at the gate.”He slowed down to walk beside Alina, forcingRoark to walk behind them.“What will you be tonight, Princess?”heasked her.“I’ll be a bear.A big, strong, hungry bear.”
“I prefer to keep it a secret,” she said, andheard a male chuckle behind her.“I find it more interesting thatway.”
Roark and Leif took seats across from Alinaat her family’s table, giving her an unfettered view of the two menwho couldn’t have been more different.Where Leif was loud,outgoing, and overly sure of himself, Roark was quieter and tookthe time to think before he spoke.He watched and listened to whatpeople did and said, and though he didn’t seem to be shy orbothered by the attention he and Leif were attracting, he didn’tseek it either.
Except for Alina’s.
He watched her with those rain eyes andsmiled his bone-melting smile at her and spoke with her more thanhe did with anyone else at the table.Alina reveled in it whiletrying to politely ignore Leif, who insisted on interrupting theirconversation with some inane question or comment while ogling herlike she was some prized broodmare.Aware of her mother’sincreasingly curious gaze as she observed the three of them, Alinatried to focus on her meal, though she couldn’t help stealingglances at Roark, and he at her.
“How are you enjoying your food?”her fatherasked the men as a maidservant filled their cups with morebeer.
Roark glanced at Leif, who was busy oglingone of the maidservants.“The food is delicious, sir,” he answeredher father, “and I’m not just saying that because I’ve been eatingship food for a fortnight.”
Her father laughed.“Ah, yes, the food is oneof the few things I don’t miss about sailing, though I did enjoytasting many an exotic food in many far-off lands.”
“I would enjoy hearing of some of theselands,” Roark said.
Her father eyed Roark with his piercingeagle’s gaze, and to his credit, Roark didn’t shrink or shirk, butsat up straight and met and held her father’s gaze.“I think youwould much rather see some of those lands for yourself.”
“Not enough to become a sailor,” Roark saidwithout apology.“I’m more a man of the earth than the sea.”
Her father nodded.“May I see the lookingglass again?”he asked.“What do you call it?”
