I frowned at her. “Don’t worry about it. It just means she’s crazy about him, too.” She looked like that explanation helped. “You two aren’t married in this world?”

“No!” She jumped as if the words held an electrical charge.

“Why not?”

Her eyes started to fill with tears.

Oh, great.

“Don’t tell me he doesn’t love you. I saw the way he looked at you out there.”

“He loves me.” Her voice was soft.

Then I remembered that Gene had been married once, briefly, when he was very young, long before he’d met Suzanna.

“Is he married to someone else?” I took her hand, ready to provide best-friend comfort and support.

“No! He loves no one except me.”

“Then what the hell is the problem?”

“You.” Her voice was a whisper.

“Me!” I glowered at her. “You mean that damn Rhiannon—not me.”

“I am sorry. You are right. Rhiannon, and not you.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“Once she discovered our feelings for each other, Rhiannon forbid the marriage. And she forbid the love. She would not let me be alone with him. Ever. She said I belonged to her and no other.” She shrugged her shoulders sadly. “She said when she was finished with my services, Carolan could have me. That he could wait until then.”

I was momentarily speechless.

“And so he has waited,” she finished sadly.

“That selfish bitch.” I shook my head at the absurdity of keeping them apart. “With all the damn men she had, you’d think she’d let you have one!”

“Oh, she would have let me have any other man. Just not Carolan.”

“But you wanted no one except him.”

She shook her head. We both drank our wine. Another thought popped into my head.

“Alanna, you don’t have any children?”

“No, of course not. I have never been married.”

I just stared at her and kept my mouth shut. How could I tell her that in another world she and the man she loves are happily married with three beautiful girls? I couldn’t. Once again I felt the weight of Rhiannon’s decisions hanging heavily on my conscience.

“He must hate me.” I hadn’t realized I’d spoken the words aloud until Alanna nodded slowly in agreement.

I stood abruptly. “Well, this I can fix. Marry him. Today.”

Alanna shot to her feet. “Bu-but there is no time for a ceremony.”

“What has to happen for you guys to get married?”

“A priest or priestess must speak an oath to bind us together.”

“I’m a priestess. Right?”

She blinked like she was starting to understand. “Yes.”

“So I can perform the ceremony,” I said matter-of-factly.

“Yes,” she repeated, looking faint. “But now cannot be the right time—we are readying ourselves for war.”

“Sounds like a perfect time to get married.” I looked hard at her. “You don’t want to wait till after the fighting, do you?”

“No.” I saw fear shadow her eyes.

“Then come on.” I prodded her toward the door. “After this mess with the vampire-things gets cleared up, you can renew your vows.” She wasn’t saying anything, just nodding in a kind of dreamy way. “I’ll throw a big party—it’ll be great.” I hastily decided that being the preacher was probably going to be almost as much fun as being the maid of honor.

We emerged from the bathing room and I paused only long enough to get my bearings. Striding purposefully to my chamber I was humming “Here Comes the Bride” to myself, and enjoying Alanna’s dazed but happy expression. Being the Good Guy is a hell of a lot more fun than being the Bad Guy (something John Wayne certainly knew).

The maid who looked like Staci was just finishing supervising the laying out of my breakfast table. Smelling the enticing aroma of some kind of honeyed hot cereal made my stomach growl. I gave her an appreciative grin and remembered to call her Tarah. She surprised me by responding sluggishly, and she walked a little unsteadily as she left the room.

“You think the girls have been drinking too much?” I asked Alanna after the servants departed.

“What?”

“Never mind.” She had that dazed expression still plastered on her glowing face, and I didn’t think she’d heard anything I’d just said. And, anyway, sometimes wine creeps up on a girl (purely by accident). I was a real bitch to even mention it.

“Come on, eat something before you fall over.”

We had just dug into breakfast (well, I’d dug in—Alanna was picking at her porridge) when two sharp raps sounded against my door.

“Come on in!” I yelled though a mouthful of sweet mush (it tasted kind of like oatmeal, only wilder—if that makes any sense).

My guards held open the doors and ClanFintan, followed by Carolan, entered the room. I had meant to watch Alanna’s blushing reaction to her soon-to-be husband’s entrance, but I found myself having what I liked to think of as a Star Trek Moment. ClanFintan’s presence caught me like he was a big ol’ black wormhole in space, and I was a little shuttle-craft. For you unknowing civilians, that meant he sucked me to him like a Hoover.

“Hi!” I sounded like friggin’ Gidget.

He took my hand in his and raised my palm to his lips in a gesture that was becoming as familiar as it was intimate.

“Hello.” His voice wrapped around me and made me shiver.

After his kiss, my fingers laced with his and he stroked my wrist slowly with his thumb.

“How is Dougal?”

A grimace of pain moved across his face. “It is not yet real to him.” He shook his head sadly. “He and Ian were seldom separated. It will be difficult for him to bear.” Then he squeezed my hand and said, “I hear you are keeping him busy. That was wise—it will give him less time for thought.”

“I’m glad you’re not upset with me for ordering around Dougal and Connor.” I smiled into his eyes, and the rest of the world melted away. Really, and don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.

Alanna cleared her throat and I remembered I wasn’t a character in a book (sigh). I looked around ClanFintan’s large body and saw that Carolan was standing quietly by the door, his eyes watching me warily. It was disconcerting to have a man who I would normally be friendly with treat me with such suspicion, so I decided that I would use the same tactic with him I had used with Alanna. I’d just act like myself and let him catch up—so to speak.

“Carolan, come on in.” I smiled warmly as his eyes narrowed. “We need your expertise.”

Alanna was sitting on one chaise facing me, and I was sitting on the other. ClanFintan had stopped within reach of the food (and of me). Carolan moved slowly to join us and I gestured in the direction of Alanna’s chaise.

“Have a seat. Are you hungry?”

He halted next to the table, not looking at Alanna. “I would rather stand, Lady Rhiannon,” he said stiffly. “And, no, I have broken my fast.”