The Burning Glass (49 page)

“What do you want to bet,” Jean said, “that
Ciara’s chart is a sketch of the Borders mapping properties, or
loyalties, or even troop movements from some past battle? Mary
simply re-used a piece of paper.”

“That’s one bet I’ll not be taking,” said
Michael.

Jean glanced at Alasdair, who pointedly
glanced at his watch. “I’d better get on out to the Western
Highlands and write something to earn my keep. Not this sort of
keep,” she added, with a look up at the gap-toothed parapets of
Ferniebank. “This one is Ciara’s, and she’s welcome to it.”

“You’d best get my jumper knitted before the
snow flies,” Alasdair told her. He shook hands with Michael, unbent
far enough to give Rebecca a small, reserved hug, and even tweaked
Linda’s cheek.

“Bye,” they replied as one. “See you back in
Edinburgh—safe journey.”

Jean settled herself in the car, belted
herself in, and after an inventory of her body decided that trading
mental aches for physical ones wasn’t a bad bargain, considering.
She took one long look back at the castle, the chapel, the
surrounding trees, the ever-moving river. Then she turned her gaze
on Alasdair. The reflection of his keen profile overlaid the facade
of the castle.

Last night they’d talked, and washed, and
eaten, drank, slept and woke, talked and made love and slept
again—nothing like a cocktail of danger and whiskey to loosen
tongues, in more ways than one. If a relationship was a
do-it-yourself project, then they were doing it themselves, the
hard way, one pebble, one grain of grit at a time. She smiled.

“Aye?” Of course he’d sense her smile against
the side of his face.

“If I’m the grit that provides traction to
your mental machinery, then you’re the grain of sand beneath my
shell. You know, the irritant that makes a pearl.”

He turned his head toward her. A tiny flame
flickered in the depths of his eyes, sunlight on the surface of a
fathomless ocean, but whether that indicated affection, impatience,
or both, she couldn’t tell. And it didn’t matter.

“Never mind,” she said. “Let’s go. And I do
mean ‘us.’ ”

* * * * *

After starting out in science fiction and
fantasy, Lillian Stewart Carl is now writing contemporary novels
blending mystery, romance, and fantasy, along with short mystery
and fantasy stories. Her work often includes paranormal themes. It
always features plots based on history and archaeology. While she
doesn’t write comedy, she believes in characters with a sense of
humor.

Her novels have been compared to those of
Daphne du Maurier, Mary Renault, Mary Stewart (no relation),
Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s colleague
Charles Williams.

Her fantasies are set in a mythological,
alternate-history Mediterranean and India. Her contemporary novels
are set in Texas, in Ohio, in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, and
in England and Scotland.

Of
Shadows in Scarlet
,
Publishers
Weekly
says, “Presenting a delicious mix of romance and
supernatural suspense, Carl (
Ashes to Ashes
) delivers yet
another immensely readable tale. She has created an engaging cast
and a very entertaining plot, spicing the mix with some interesting
twists on the ghostly romantic suspense novel.”

Of
Lucifer's Crown
,
Library
Journal
says: “Blending historical mystery with a touch of the
supernatural, the author creates an intriguing exploration of faith
and redemption in a world that is at once both modern and
timeless.”

Among many other novels, Lillian is the
author of the five-volume Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron
cross-genre mystery series: America’s exile and Scotland’s finest
on the trail of all-too-living legends.
Of The Secret
Portrait
,
Kirkus
says: “Mystery, history and sexual
tension blend with a taste of the wild beauty of the
Highlands.”

With John Helfers, Lillian co-edited
The
Vorkosigan Companion
, a retrospective on Lois McMaster Bujold’s
science fiction work, which was nominated for a Hugo award.

Her first story collection,
Along the Rim
of Time
, was published in 2000, and her second,
The Muse and
Other Stories of History, Mystery, and Myth
, in 2008, including
three stories that were reprinted in Year's Best mystery
anthologies.

Her books are available in both print and
electronic editions. Here is her
website
. Here is
her
Facebook
Group Page
. Here is a listing of more
Smashwords
books.