Stone Heart (11 page)

Angus' appetite was unbelievable. He easily downed four hamburgers and a large plate of French fries. Then he drank two chocolate shakes. Karen had to promise to serve him the same thing for supper before she could get him to leave the restaurant. Apparently, these were what he considered staples in his new diet. She shook her head and had to smile.

Three hundred years without food would make her hungry, too. But that was the
only
thing that would. She hadn't felt like eating a real meal in many weeks. The doctors told her that was to be expected. It didn't occur to her until now that her pain medicine wasn't quite so necessary. She'd relied on it less since meeting Angus and seeing his former, hideous form the first time.

As if he could read her thoughts, Angus turned to her and paused before asking, "Was I verra' offensive looking?"

"What? What are you talking about?" she glanced at him as she sipped her bottled water.

"As a statue. Was I that hard to look upon? I heard villagers speak ill of my appearance while I still stood in the old kirk yard. 'Tis why they moved me. And you remarked upon my appearance just before you bespoke the spell. Tell me true, Karen."

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She wanted to be tactful, but he was watching her closely.

"Well ... you were a
gargoyle
."

"Aye. I knew this from villagers who spoke around me while I was cursed. But how did I look?"

She sighed, shrugged her shoulders then let him have it.

"You were pretty revolting. But then ... a lot of gargoyles affect me that way. In my opinion, they all look sort of menacing."

"Tell me more," he insisted.

"All right." She paused and wished he hadn't asked. "You had a leering devil's face, horns on your head, two stupid-looking, tiny wings on your back, and there were stone chains wrapped around four heavy, lion-like legs." She waited for him to respond, but he didn't right away. It seemed as though he was contemplating this information before commenting.

"The Sorceress who bespelled me wanted my stone appearance to be a reflection of the life I led. She succeeded."

"I don't believe that. You've been a complete gentleman with me and anyone else we've encountered. There's nothing menacing about you, except your size. You have half the people in the restaurant smiling at you. Even the woman at the hotel desk thought you were a hunk. A complete side of beef." Karen added the last part as a way of expressing her own opinion without his knowing.

"What is the meaning of the word
hunk
and why would the lass have thought me something fit to be served as a meal?"

Karen laughed. "Those are
compliments
. I'm telling you that the girl thought you were extremely attractive. You were 93

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kind and irresistibly handsome. Didn't you notice how she looked at you?"

"Ah, yes. I noticed her expression, but was not sure she really thought me handsome so much as she simply lusted.

She should be more careful casting suggestive looks. I ignored her, but someone else may not. Someone, like the man I once was, might take advantage of the looks she did cast. That would no' be something she bargained for."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, lass, that I once would have taken advantage of a girl who looked upon me in such a way. Whether she wanted my affections or no'. That is one of many reasons why the Sorceress saw fit to make a horrifying sight of me. The face you saw was that of a lecher. The leer represented my lack of propriety, and the wings were made small to represent my fall from whatever grace exists on this Earth. The chains bound me in that state and were meant to hold me forever."

Karen shook her head and her hair swung over her shoulder. "I don't believe that! The person you're describing wouldn't have saved a little girl's pet and earned her lifelong devotion. And if the Sorceress had thought you were
that
bad and she had the power, why didn't she just kill you?"

Whatever anyone else thought of him, this kind giant was incapable of any sort of harm, as far as she could tell.

"What she did was
worse
than kill me. I wanted to die.

Many times." He paused. "Then you came and I knew redemption. I have had a very long time to think over the wrongs I have done to others. I will spend the rest of my life trying to purge them."

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"I don't care what you say, or what you've done in the past. You're not capable of hurting anyone. I won't ever believe that."

His heart warmed at her words of loyalty though he knew they were misplaced. "You don't know me a'tall. Believe me when I tell you I have done unspeakable things, Karen.

Nothing was beyond me. Nothing."

"Even if I believed what you're saying, that was
then
. It was a long time ago," she argued. He looked away as if the landscape was more interesting than the conversation they were sharing. Before he did, she glimpsed a terrible pain in his eyes. There were so many questions she wanted to ask him. Questions about her ancestor and what had happened while he was cursed. But clearly, he didn't want her to continue the conversation.

After traveling for another hour, and practicing his driving skills some more, he stopped on a hillside near an open field.

He quickly opened the door and scanned the horizon. She got out and gasped in surprise.

"A crop circle! Oh, Angus, isn't it fantastic? I've seen pictures of them, but I never thought I'd actually get to see a real one." She was about to say she wished for a camera, but what would be the point in taking pictures she couldn't enjoy for long?

"Aye. It also means we're verra' near where members of the Order exist, and that I'm to proceed with caution."

"These things are made by the Order?" she whispered, as she gazed in wonder at the intricate design. The grain crop had been flattened to form three increasingly larger circles 95

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connected by a straight line. There were small, evenly spaced crescent shapes fanning out from either side of the middle circle.

"They are made by the Order," he confirmed, "and we're being
warned
."

"You mean
we
in a general sense don't you?"

He shook his head. "You and I are being told exactly how to proceed and to do nothing which endangers the Order."

Too late, he saw her eyes widen and an expression of alarm cross her face. Too much excitement was not good for her, and the last thing he wanted was for Karen to come to harm. He carefully guarded his next words and kept the tone of his voice quiet. "'Tis the same for anyone coming into the Order after a long absence," he lied. "We are always warned to be careful, no' to lose our way and to draw no attention."

"How could they know we're here? How do they know about
me
?"

"Someone may have come looking for me on the three-hundredth anniversary of my curse. Having nowhere else to go and no means of surviving, being with my own kind is only logical. They know that I would seek them out. But dunna'

fear. If they wanted to harm us, they would have found us and done so." He waved his hand in the direction of the field.

"They simply want us to be careful and no' alert the authorities to our presence. In my time, no outsider knew of the Order." He looked the circle over again. "I believe this must still be the case."

"Oh, I'm
certain
know one knows about them. The way communication is today, that kind of news would be all over 96

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the world in hours. But you're taking me to them," she pointed out. "
I'm
an outsider."

He smiled and pushed a strand of hair out of her face. "We are both being invited. So much time has passed that their rules about certain outsiders must have changed. Perhaps they will allow some outsiders to find them if they are trusted.

In any case, you will no' be harmed." He would never allow it.

She shook her head. "I'm not worried about me, Angus. I don't want you in trouble with these ...
people
... because of me."

It was suddenly very important that she knew something of what she would be seeing. The shock could hurt her. He led her back to the car and motioned her back behind the wheel with a nod. When they were inside and he knew he had her full attention, he tried to think of the words he would use. He would have to draw on very old memories and hope his descriptions were still accurate. "Karen, when you broke my curse, you said something about your knowledge of the Order. Tell me again what you know."

"I was told what I thought were a lot of fairy tales about magical beings. Fairies, Gnomes, Trolls..." her voice trailed away. For several moments, his expression revealed his struggle to tell her without causing stress, and she suspected he was trying to avoid a repeat of the fainting incident she'd had on the night his spell was broken. For the first time since her childhood, her congenital heart problem caught up with her, and Karen felt cheated. Since there was nothing Angus or anyone else could do about her health, she didn't want to be coddled to save her from pain. The end would come one way 97

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or another. Pity was an unacceptable response. It made her angry. She wanted to spend the last of her time being treated as a normal person and to hell with what happened. No pity and no regrets.

"Angus, just tell me and quit treating me like an invalid.

I'm not at that point, yet, and I don't like being treated as if I am. You and I both know how ill I am, so babying me isn't going to make things better. It'll just piss me off. Now tell me everything," she demanded.

How brave she is
. In that moment, he knew he had never met anyone more spirited or courageous. His heart broke a little. "All right, Karen. I'll tell you what I remember." He didn't tell her that he didn't, for a moment, believe the present Sorceress would have changed the old rules which allowed an outsider to come among them. Not without a price. But the invitation had been issued. That much he
had
read in the crop circle's design.

Angus told her of the different creatures he could remember. He tried to relay the Order's hierarchy so that she would understand the Sorceress and her absolute position of power. Still, he realized that things within the Order itself may have changed. They could not have survived in this world of new wonders without having done so.

Karen appeared to take the information in stride. She displayed no fear, or any outward sign of reluctance. As far as he was concerned, this was to her credit. He realized that true strength was not a quality which came from force.

Rather, it was a virtue born of a heart full of kind and gentle courage. Karen had a great deal of this. She seemed unafraid 98

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of anything, and Angus greatly admired her spirit. He would try to instill this characteristic in his own personality.

* * * *

Angus started to lift Karen's luggage containing some of his new things, and a bag of what Karen referred to as '
take
out'
food.

"No need for you to carry all that, sir," the registration clerk informed him. "I'll have someone take it up to your room." He motioned toward several porters in the lobby, and an attendant came forward.

Angus nodded and turned to find a young girl ready to take their things. "Ach, I canna' let a bonny lass like this carry m'things when I am perfectly capable of doing so." He picked up the baggage to keep the girl from lifting them.

The girl blinked at him, then looked at the registration clerk.

He, in turn, looked at Karen and she burst into laughter.

She realized she had never laughed quite so much in her life.

Metaphorically, that was a very good thing for her heart. "It's okay. He'll take our things for us." Karen watched the girl porter look at Angus. There was a mixture of confusion and admiration in her gaze.

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"Well, sir, uh ... What ... Whatever you say, then," the registration clerk stammered, cleared his throat then loudly snapped his fingers at the girl. "Lead them to their room, Julie. And don't be as
lazy
about it, as you usually are."

Angus put the luggage back on the ground, approached the desk and looked straight into the man's eyes. He tried to remember things were very different in this new world. Still, time and his punishment had taught him that human beings should be treated with more care. "
Please
, sir. Do no' snap your fingers at the lass as if she were nothing. Do you no' pay her a wage?"

"Well,
certainly
... that is, the hotel does. But I'm the manager..." the man began.

"Then she is in your employ," Angus interrupted, "and you should show that respect which you would want given to yourself. Where I come from, snapping fingers at another is reserved for the lowliest dog. And calling someone lazy in front of others is an insult. Ya' ken?" He tried to keep his voice soft and calm. There was no use starting an incident.

But he recognized a bully when he saw one. He had
personal
experience.

Karen looked around. There were several porters and some cleaning staff standing nearby. They openly grinned at the lecture the manager received, though they lowered their heads and pretended they hadn't heard. In truth, Angus had tactfully tried to keep the reprimand quiet, but he was such a commanding figure that others stopped to stare. The lack of bustle caused his voice to carry into the lobby. Karen only hoped the incident would go no further.