Charles Bewitched by Marissa Doyle Read Free Book Online Page B

so close—in fact, it was quite
nice. He moved his face a little so as not to snuffle in her ear, which he was
sure she wouldn’t like, and breathed her in. “Like…like moonlight…and fresh-cut
hay…and pearls,” he heard himself say, and nearly fell over in surprise. What
had he just said to this girl?
    “Oh!” she said, drawing back
and smiling up at him. She had a soft dimple in her chin, he noticed. “That’s
lovely. I didn’t know human senses could be that discerning.”
    He wasn’t sure that his
were…and what did pearls smell like, anyway? It was what had come into
his mind as he moved his face against her soft hair…and dash it all, he needed
to stop this and start thinking about looking for Persy.
    “So…um…you said your mother
is human.” He wondered fleetingly whom she might have been. Someone from
nearby? But he’d never heard stories of anyone disappearing from this area.
    “Yes! Could you tell?” She
looked up at him from under her lashes.
    “Well…you’re less…less…um….”
How could he diplomatically point out that she didn’t have hooves or horns or
the skin of a lizard? “Less…ah, ethereal.” There. That sounded like a good
word. “More…real.”
    “Is that good?”
    “Yes,” he said firmly, and
meant it. “So…do humans come here often and…and stay?”
    “No, not often. It’s hard to
find good ones, but when we do, we’re very happy. Adding some human blood to
our lines is good for us.”
    “Like manuring the fields,”
Charles couldn’t help murmuring.
    She smiled as if pleased
with his cleverness. “Exactly! Which is why it’s important to find the right
kind. In fact, that’s why we’re dancing tonight—to celebrate that my brother
has taken a bride.”
    Cold excitement gripped him.
“Really? A human one?”
    “Yes—isn’t it nice? He was
too busy to take her when he first found her—the wights had been giving us some
trouble—but now he has. It was more than time for him to marry. I shall enjoy
having a niece or nephew…at least, I suppose I shall.” Her mouth drew down in a
small frown. “Maybe he’ll stopping treating me as the baby of the
family, then.”
    Ha. It wasn’t just humans
who had that problem, it seemed. “I had to put up with that, too.”
    “Oh. So you know .”
She tucked her hand confidingly into his arm and propelled them into a stroll.
“Do you have a perfect elder brother who is insufferably right all the time?”
    “No, I have elder sisters.
They did seem awfully bossy at times when I was younger. But they don’t do it
to me anymore, because they’re busy with their own lives.” And maybe, just
maybe, they had been right to be bossy with him. Once or twice.
    “Oh.” That seemed to cheer
her. “So now that he has his bride, then he’ll leave off being…bossy? I do like
that word!—to me. Until it’s time to find me a husband…and I shan’t let him be
bossy over that .” The feathers in her coronet danced as she gave her
head a little toss. “The problem is that he truly is terribly wise and
strong and all that. He slew dozens of wights all by himself and
destroyed their nest so that I doubt they’ll be troubling us for a long, long
time. And he was so clever about getting his wife—see, there they are. I hope I
shall like her once she settles down. It would be dreadful if she were stupid
and lumpish.”
    They had moved around the
edge of the clearing and approached the group he’d been straining to see,
seated under the torches. Now he could see that one member of the group,
dressed in a flowing gown of green like a figure in a medieval tapestry, wasn’t
so much sitting as reclining in her chair…he gave a little gasp as he saw that
it was indeed Persy.
    Seated close to her was
another figure, a tall, dark-haired man with a narrow, handsome face who leaned
close to her, whispering occasionally in her ear and stroking her hand, which
lay inert in his.
    It was the man he’d seen in
the