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resent that. Just for your information, I do not smell. I bathed in the River Twyne five days ago,” he said proudly, bobbing his head up and down, reaching to place his hat back on his head.

    “Oh, Lachlan,” Molly said in disgust, wrinkling her nose. “You’re never going to get a lady love with that poor body hygiene. “

    Lachlan flung his hands up in the air and let out a strangled cough. Morganna had tightened her grip on him, and his face was turning an interesting shade of red.

    “I could make you a pretty pair of dancing slippers that would be the envy of everyone in attendance at Lady Ainslie’s Spring Ball,” he offered. His moss-green eyes bulged right out of his head and a vein throbbed in his temple.

    Morganna narrowed her eyes dangerously, lifting him clear off the floor.

    “In all likelihood, you wouldn’t make me the second slipper, you conniving Irish,” she sneered.

    “Morganna, couldn’t you take this up with Lachlan somewhere else?” Molly butted in. “I mean, I just finished a hunt, and I’m tired. I’ve got some memories to wipe, and then I must get some sleep. “

    “No, Mary. This cannot be done anywhere else. Lachlan’s a slippery little leprechaun; if I let him go now, I may never find him again,” Morganna huffed, pursing her lips.

    Molly winced as Morganna used her birth name. No one ever dared call Molly by her birth name, and Morganna was the only one that ever used it in the human world.

    “What does this look like, Lachlan?” Morganna asked, putting her open-palmed hand in Lachlan’s face.

    His eyes filled with mischievous laughter and he chuckled. Then, they widened and sobered at the livid expression that had replaced Morganna’s angry one.

    “It looks to me to be dust,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “If you ask me, Morganna, you’re due for a good hand washing. “

    His eyes twinkled merrily, and Molly groaned, realizing that the little jokester was close to getting clobbered.

    “You little imp, I’m going to throttle you senseless, and this time I won’t get softhearted!” Morganna raged.

    Molly quickly put her hands on both of their shoulders.

    “Calm down,” Molly soothed. She darted a gaze over her shoulder at Collin. He seemed completely enraptured by the whole spectacle. “What did Lachlan do to tick you off like this, Morganna?”

    “He bet that if he lost, he would give me the gold coin that would lead me to one of his cherished pots of gold,” Morganna explained, gradually increasing her already tight grip on Lachlan. “And then, as soon as I took it, he vanished. And as soon as he vanished, the gold coin turned into dust before my very eyes! No one tricks the great and powerful Morganna Du Lac without paying greatly for it!”

    Molly felt her patience wearing thin. Sighing, she looked over at Morganna.

    “First of all, Morganna, shame on you. You should know better than to enter into any sort of game with a leprechaun, least of all the bloody King. And you, Lachlan, you should be LADY PENDRAGON MARLEY MATHEWS 25
    old enough to learn that your sly tricks get you nothing but heartache. It’s one thing to trick a human, but you tricked a witch, and a gruesome grumpy witch at that. “

    Lachlan laughed, and Morganna continued to seethe.

    Molly turned her head at the sound of Collin shuffling further out into the hall, and she bit her lip to keep from saying anything she might later regret.

    “The great and evil witch, Morgan Le Fey,” Collin breathed.

    Morganna stared at Collin as if he were a dragon, with two fire-breathing heads. Now he’d gone and done it. Molly groaned; she so didn’t need this.

    “Pardon me?” Morganna asked, looking at Molly incredulously. “I assure you, young man, that I am by no stretch of the imagination evil. You have never seen true evil in its purest form and you have no right to label me as such!” Morganna loosened her hold on Lachlan and instead directed her attention to