“You’ve got love in your eyes.” She turned into his arms when he moved to her—and looked wistfully at the bed. “Rainy morning. It’d be nice to snuggle in for an hour and have my way with you.” She tipped her head up for a kiss. “But it looks like I’m having breakfast with the queen.”
Moira was, as was her habit, sitting by the fire with a book when Glenna entered. Moira looked up, smiled sheepishly.
“Shame on me, taking you from your husband and your warm bed at such an hour.”
“Queen’s privilege.”
With a laugh, Moira gestured to a chair. “The food will be along. One day, if the seeds I brought and potted thrive, I’ll be able to have the orange juice in the mornings. I miss the taste of it.”
“I’d kill for coffee,” Glenna admitted. “Then again, in a way, I am. For coffee, apple pie, TiVo and all things human.” She sat and studied Moira. “You look good,” she decided. “Rested, and as Hoyt said, ready.”
“I am. Yesterday, there was so much inside my head and my heart, so it was all so very heavy. The sword and the crown were my mother’s, and only mine now because she’s dead.”
“And you’ve had no time to grieve, not really.”
“I haven’t, no. Still, I know she would want me to do as I have, for Geall, for all, and not close myself off somewhere to mourn for her. And I had fear as well. What manner of queen would I be, and at such a time.”
With some satisfaction, Moira looked down at her rough pants and boots. “Well, I know what manner of queen I’ll try to be. Strong, even fierce. There’s no time to sit on a throne and debate matters. Politics and protocol, they’ll have to wait, won’t they? We’ve had our ceremony and our celebration, and they were needed. But now it’s time for the dirt and the sweat of it.”
She got to her feet when the food was brought in. She spoke to the young boy—still sleepy around the edges—and the serving girl who was with him.
Spoke easily, Glenna noted. Called them both by name as the food and dishes were laid out. And while they both looked puzzled by their queen’s choice of dress, Moira ignored it, dismissing them with thanks—and orders she and her guest not be disturbed.
When they sat together, Glenna noticed that Moira, who’d picked at her food for days, ate with an appetite to rival Larkin’s.
“It’ll be muddy and miserable for training today,” Moira began, “and that’s good, I’m thinking. Good discipline. I wanted to say that while I’ll be participating, and likely every day now, you and Blair are still in charge of the thing. I want everyone to see that I’m training, just like the rest. That I’ll get dirty and bruised.”
“Sounds like you’re looking forward to it.”
“By the gods, I am.” Moira scooped up eggs she’d coached the cooks to prepare as Glenna often had. Scrambled up with chunks of ham and onion right in them. “Do you remember when Larkin and I first came through the Dance to Ireland? I could plant an arrow an
ywhere I liked, nine of ten, but any one of you could plant me on my arse without half trying.”
“You always got up.”
“Aye, I always got up. But I’m not so easy to plant these days. That’s something I want everyone to see as well.”
“You showed them a warrior when you fought and killed the vampire.”
“I did. Now I’ll show them a soldier who takes her lumps. And there’s more I want of you.”
“I thought there was.” Glenna poured them both more tea. “Spill it.”
“I’ve never explored the magic I have. It isn’t much of a thing, as you’ve seen yourself. A bit of a healing gift, and a kind of power that can be opened and reached by others with more. As you and Hoyt have done. Dreams. I’ve studied dreams, read books on their meanings. And books on magic itself, of course. But it seemed to me there was no real purpose for what I had other than to offer some ease to someone in pain. Or a way of knowing which direction to take to find a buck when hunting. Little things. Small matters.”
“And now?”
“And now,” Moira said with a nod. “I think there’s a purpose, and there’s a need. I think I need all I have, all I am. The more I know what’s in me, the better I use it. When I touched the sword, when I put my hand on its hilt, it poured into me. The knowing that it was mine, had always been mine. And a power with it, like a strong wind, just blowing into me. More through me, I think. Do you know?”
“Exactly.”
Nodding again, Moira continued to eat. “I’ve neglected this because it wasn’t a particular interest. I wanted to read and to study, to hunt with Larkin, to ride.”
“To do the things a young woman enjoys,” Glenna interrupted. “Why shouldn’t you have done what you liked to do? You didn’t know what was coming.”
“I didn’t, no. I wonder, if I’d looked deeper, if I might have.”
“You couldn’t have saved your mother, Moira,” Glenna said gently.