“Your missing?” Confused, I looked from the woman to Eirnan, back and forth. “I don’t understand. Am I ill? Hallucinating? Was I in an accident? How can this be happening? What exactly is happening?”
Maida patted my shoulder. “‘Tis crazy you are not, Riley — is it? The O’Hara’s have been cursed for centuries. Legend has it that Eirnan the Black, the original Eirnan, offended the Fairy Queen by refusing her hand in marriage. She opened the time slip. Never have we heard of someone coming to us through it, dear. We usually lose two or three a year to the slip. The first to disappear was the young woman Eirnan the Black married instead of the Fairy Queen. Mary was her name. One afternoon, she went out for a walk and was never seen again. She left two children behind. Her husband, in a fit of grief, declared that all first born sons were to bear his name — Eirnan, and charged all to follow to somehow make his offense right and close the slip.”
“You’re from the future,” Eirnan stated, more for confirmation, I thought, than as a question.
“Yes.”
“Perhaps our people are going to the future.” He drummed his fingers against the top of the well-worn tabletop. I took more notice of my surroundings now, in an attempt to memorize everything so I could remember them when I came out of this — whatever this was.
“Tis late. The light of day would see us all better for a good night’s sleep. I’ll take Riley along with me,” Maida suggested.
Eirnan scowled. “No, Maida. We know nothing of Riley. She will stay with me. ‘Tis my responsibility to see to the clan’s safety.”
“‘Tisn’t proper.” But Maida’s protest fell on deaf ears, or so I assumed for all the attention Eirnan paid her complaint — None. He gave me no time to protest either, for he surged to his feet, pausing only long enough to lift me out of the chair. I resigned myself to being carried against his hip again.
“Maida, if you don’t mind taking the food tray up to my rooms?” And with those words, he strode to the massive stone staircase and climbed upwards. Silence reigned behind us. I managed to catch a peek of Maida following at a sedate pace, a studied expression of blandness on her face.
* * * * *
A 5-Star Review for Perp Bride! (Available on Amazon: CLICK!)
This heroine is Stephanie Plum on crack. She’s your best friend who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. She’s a woman with a heart of gold and fists of steel. The book is irreverent and both tender and tough. Alcie has given up her life as she knows it in New York only to take up residence in a town she despises but can’t escape. She shocks some people and endears herself to others. Her niece and nephew adore her, the cop who arrested her 10 years prior is crazy about her, and she shines brightly despite the trials she endures.
If you like romance, snark, and don’t mind characters who speak colorfully, this book is for you. I loved it.”
Writing For My Sanity 