“I’m sorry. I can’t seem to help it.” Diana turned in her seat so that she faced the opposite side of the cabin. Her shoulders trembled.
“Hell, Auntie. Looking the other way does no good.” Gallowglass unclipped his seat belt and crouched by her leather recliner. He patted Diana on the knee. She grasped his hand. The power pulsed under her skin. It had abated somewhat since the astonishing moment when she’d wrapped the sire of the de Clermont family in a briar patch, but it was still all too visible. Gallowglass had even seen it through the disguising spell Diana wore until she boarded the jet.
“How was Marcus with Jack?” she asked, her eyes still closed.
“Marcus greeted him as an uncle should and distracted him with tales of his children and their antics. Lord knows they’re an entertaining bunch,” Gallowglass said under his breath. But this wasn’t what Diana really wanted to know.
“Matthew was bearing up as well as could be expected,” he continued more gently. There had been a moment when it appeared Matthew was going to strangle Hubbard, but Gallowglass wasn’t going to worry about something that was, on the face of it, an excellent notion.
“I’m glad you and Chris called Marcus,” Diana whispered.
“That was Miriam’s idea,” Gallowglass admitted. Miriam had been protecting Matthew for centuries, just as he had been looking after Diana. “As soon as she saw the test results Miriam knew that Matthew would need his son at his side.”
“Poor Phoebe,” Diana said, a note of worry creeping into her voice. “Marcus couldn’t have had time to give her much of an explanation.”
“Don’t fret about Phoebe.” Gallowglass had spent two months with the girl and had taken her measure. “She’s got a strong spine and a stout heart, just like you.”
Gallowglass insisted Diana sleep. The aircraft’s cabin was outfitted with seats that converted to beds. He made sure Diana had drifted off before he marched into the cockpit and demanded to know their destination.
“Europe,” the pilot told him.
“What do you mean ‘Europe’?” That could be anywhere from Amsterdam to the Auvergne to Oxford.
“Madame de Clermont hasn’t chosen her final destination. She told me to head to Europe. So I’m headed for Europe.”
“She must be going to Sept-Tours. Go to Gander, then,” Gallowglass instructed.
“That was my plan, sir,” the pilot said drily. “Do you want to fly her?”
“Yes. No.” What Gallowglass wanted was to hit something. “Hell, man. You do your job and I’ll do mine.”
There were times Gallowglass wished with all his heart he’d fallen in battle to someone other than Hugh de Clermont.
* * *
After landing safely at the airport in Gander, Gallowglass helped Diana down the stairs so that she could do as the doctor had ordered and stretch her legs.
“You’re not dressed for Newfoundland,” he observed, settling a worn leather jacket over her shoulders. “The wind will shred that pitiful excuse for a coat to ribbons.”
“Thank you, Gallowglass,” Diana said, shivering.
“What’s your final destination, Auntie?” he asked after their second lap of the tiny airstrip.
“Does it matter?” Diana’s voice had gone from resigned to weary to something worse.
Hopeless.
* * *
“No, Auntie. It’s Nar-SAR-s’wauk—not NUR-sar-squawk,” Gallowglass explained, tucking one of the down-filled blankets around Diana’s shoulder. Narsarsuaq, on the southern tip of Greenland, was colder even than Gander. Diana had insisted on taking a brisk walk anyway.
“How do you know?” she asked peevishly, her lips slightly blue.
“I just know.” Gallowglass motioned to the flight attendant, who brought him a steaming mug of tea. He poured a dollop of whiskey into it.
“No caffeine. Or alcohol,” Diana said, waving the tea away.
“My own mam drank whiskey every day of her pregnancy—and look how hale and hearty I turned out,” Gallowglass said, holding the mug in her direction. His voice turned wheedling. “Come on, now. A wee nip won’t do you any harm. Besides, it can’t be as bad for Apple and Bean as frostbite.”
“They’re fine,” Diana said sharply.
“Oh, aye. Finer than frog’s hair.” Gallowglass extended his hand farther and hoped that the tea’s aroma would persuade her to indulge. “It’s Scottish Breakfast tea. One of your favorites.”
“Get thee behind me, Satan,” Diana grumbled, taking the mug. “And your mam couldn’t have been drinking whiskey while she carried you. There’s no evidence of whiskey distillation in Scotland or Ireland before the fifteenth century. You’re older than that.”
Gallowglass smothered a sigh of relief at her historical nitpicking.
Diana drew out a phone.
“Who are you calling, Auntie?” Gallowglass asked warily.
“Hamish.”
When Matthew’s best friend picked up the call, his words were exactly what Gallowglass expected them to be.
“Diana? What’s wrong? Where are you?”
“I can’t remember where my house is,” she said in lieu of explanation.
“Your house?” Hamish sounded confused.
“My house,” Diana repeated patiently. “The one Matthew gave me in London. You made me sign off on the maintenance bills when we were at Sept-Tours.”
London? Being a vampire was no help at all in his present situation, Gallowglass realized. It would be far better to have been born a witch. Perhaps then he could have divined how this woman’s mind worked.
“It’s in Mayfair, on a little street near the Connaught. Why?”
“I need the key. And the address.” Diana paused for a moment, mulling something over before she spoke. “I’ll need a driver, too, to get around the city. Daemons like the Underground, and vampires own all the major cab companies.”
Of course they owned the cab companies. Who else had the time to memorize the three hundred twenty routes, twenty-five thousand streets, and twenty thousand landmarks within six miles of Charing Cross that were required in order to get a license?
“A driver?” Hamish sputtered.
“Yes. And does that fancy Coutts account I have come with a bank card—one with a high spending limit?”
Gallowglass swore. She looked at him frostily.
“Yes.” Hamish’s wariness increased.