She?d looked like an angel sleeping, and he had spent some time memorizing the golden glow of sunlight on her skin. The slightly saucy teasing had him smiling though, and he brushed a stray curl back from her cheek and leaned over to kiss those softly smiling lips gently.

It was a few long moments before he broke the kiss and slid out of the bed, loose-woven cotton pajama bottoms slung low on his hips. He tucked the blankets in snugly where he had been laying, and pressed another kiss to her temple. ?Ya stay there?n res? fer a few more minutes, m?love? I?ll go bring up some?a tha? frui? an? pastries ya go? yesterday.?

The scent of warmed cinnamon and pecans wafted up the stairs ahead of him, and he entered the room carrying a tray bearing a plate with two pecan rolls and a bowl of mixed, sliced fruit. He grinned as she finally pushed herself to a half-sitting position against the pillows, blinking lazily. The tray was balanced carefully as he eased back onto the bed next to her.

?So ya ready fer an entire day?a doin? nothin? at all, m?own?? His eyes as he looked at her were bright, happy, and his grin was infectious ? it was clear that whatever her reply, he was more than ready for this day of rest.

The remaining pastry was quickly devoured ? he was indeed hungry ? and he twisted enough to set down the tray on the bedside table before he wrapped his arms back around her and rested his head back against the headboard. He only intended to wait a few moments before getting back up, but the sun was warm on his face and the woman was comfortable in his arms? he drifted back into sleep.

It was almost two hours later when he woke again, this time to find Sianna?s lake-blue eyes studying his face as intently as he had studied hers. It was his turn to grin at her, cheerfully. ?Now who?s doin? th? starin?, huh?? He couldn?t help teasing her a bit before he kissed her. He eased out of her embrace and stood, too restless to stay in bed any longer.

?Ya wan? ta waste th? whole day inside, m?love? I?m thinkin? tha? it?d be nice ta spen? some time ou? with th? las? of th? roses. Mebbe ya can read ta me from somethin?. Fairy stories ?r somethin?.? He really was in a good mood as he got dressed quickly, pulling on an old pair of jeans ? torn through at the knees and the fabric worn enough that it felt closer to the cotton of their sheets than to denim. He followed that with a plain white wife-beater, and glanced over at Sianna to see if she was ready.

She smiled back at him from across the room, hair in a loose tumble over one shoulder, wearing a long-sleeved tunic and loose pants. Her outfit was seductive in its easy simplicity, and he just looked at her for a moment before he smiled slowly. ?Ya look good in tha?, Si. Real good.?

It was only a matter of moments to grab one of the blankets from the trunk where the extras were stored, and he slung it over his shoulder and headed down the stairs two at a time. Sianna had preceded him by seconds, just long enough to grab the picnic basket they had packed the night before. They headed into the small backyard by unspoken consent, the heady scent of roses filling the air around them.

He chuckled a bit at her teasing, finishing the half-sandwich he had been devouring rapidly. A few roses met their demise at his hands before he tired of it and rearranged himself ? no longer across the blanket from her, but rather with his head resting in her lap, one knee propped up and the other leg straight out. He picked up the small book idly, flipping through its pages slowly.

A shower of rose petals on his face prompted a grin up at her, and his voice was coaxing as he offered her the book. ?Weren? ya goin? ta read ta me fer a while? I was lookin? forward ta hearin? ya tellin? a story fer me.? Emerald eyes sparkled up at her, and he reached up with his empty hand to rest his palm against her cheek. Her face was framed by the fall of her hair, and backlit by the sun ? threads of light gave the impression of a halo from his angle, and his smile deepened at the sight.

More rose petals on his face were his answer, and her teasing voice, ?Are ye telling me tha? ye honestly want tae be plucking petals? I thought ye were bored with tha?, mo cridhe. Mayhap I should be asking ye tae read tae me??

His voice was persuasive as he offered the book again, his expression hopeful, ?Bu? m?love, ya go? a much better voice?n me, an? I go? a horrid accen?. Ya can? wan? ta listen ta tha? fer long. Ya do th? readin?? Please?? The faint note of embarrassment underlying his words revealed the truth behind his protests, though he mostly masked it with humor. He turned his hand to run the back of it along her jaw and down her throat before he replaced his palm on her cheek. The small book was still held slightly aloft in his other hand.

The Luck Child

Aidan, Osric, and Teigue, were the cow-herds of Eterscel, a high king of Scotland. Aidan was old and gentle, Osric was young and fierce, Teigue was an omadhaun-- a fool. They watched the cattle of the king and chased the wild beasts from them. At night they slept in little wicker huts on the edge of the forest.

One day as Teigue was gathering dry sticks for his fire he saw a very young child lying wrapped in a mantle at the foot of a pine tree. He went over to the child and it smiled in his face. He left off gathering sticks and sat down beside it. Osric came to see what was keeping Teigue.

"A fool's errand is long a-doing," he said. "What are you loitering here for, when the meat is waiting for the fire and the fire is waiting for the sticks? "

"I have here," said Teigue, "what is better than meat, a gift from the Hidden People."

Osric looked at the child.

"We have little use for a nine-months' infant," he said.

The child smiled at him.

"Where could we keep it? " Osric asked incredulously. " I will make a house for it," said Teigue, "a little house in the middle of the forest, that no one can find but myself."

Sianna?s voice was a gentle lilt in the air, and Johnny smiled as he listened to her. He reached up to offer her a grape and smiled as the story came to life in his imagination. He could already picture the start of a series of figures telling the Luck-Child?s story.

"'Tis a pity the child should perish in the forest," said Osric. "Of a truth the house must be built."

Aidan came. He lifted the child in his arms and looked at the mantle wrapped about it. The mantle was thickly embroidered with gold flowers.

"This is the child of some queen," he said. "One day great folk will come seeking her."

"I will not let the great folk take her away," said Teigue. "She is my Luck-Child. She is Osric's Luck-Child too, and we are going to make a house for her, and she will bring us good luck every day of our lives."

"She is my Luck-Child too," said Aidan. "We three will make a secret house in the forest, and there we will keep her from prying eyes."

They sought out a place, a hidden green spot in the forest. They made a house, and there they nurtured the child in secret. Year by year she throve and grew with them.

Teigue brought her berries and taught her to play on a little reed flute. When she made music on it the wild creatures of the woods came about her. She played with the spotted fawns, and the king of the wolves crouched before her and licked her hands.

Osric made a bow for her, and taught her how to shoot with arrows, but she had no wish to kill any beast, for all the forest-creatures were her friends.

Aidan told her stories. He told her how the sun changed into a White Hound at night, and Lugh the Long-Handed put a silver chain on it and led it away to his Secret Palace, and it crouched at his feet till the morning, when he loosed it and let it run through the sky again. He told her how Brigit counted the stars so that no littlest one got lost, and how she hurried them away in the morning before Lugh's great hound came out to frighten them. He said that Brigit came in the very early mornings to gather herbs of healing, for it was she who gave the secret of healing to wise physicians, and it was she gave power and virtue to every herb that grows. He said that once the high king's poet had seen Brigit and had made a song about her and called her 'The Pure Perpetual Ashless Fire of the Gael.'

After another grape was offered, Johnny balanced the cluster on his chest next to the bowl slowly filling with rose petals. He reached over and picked up one of the remaining blooms without looking ? white, barely tinged with a blush of pink. Silver mesh on his fingertips brushed lightly over the petals for a moment before he reached up and tucked the flower into the dark curls of Sianna?s hair ? the rose was almost the same shade as her skin.

The Luck-Child loved to hear Aidan's stories. She loved them even when she had grown quite tall and wise and was no longer a child.

Teigue was sorry that she grew up so quickly. He sat down one day and began to lament and cry "ochone!" about it.

"Why are you lamenting and crying 'ochone'?" said Osric.

"Because my Luck-Child has grown up and the Hidden People will see that she is no longer a child. They will take her and make her a queen amongst them, and she will never come back to us. Ochone! Ochone!"

"If the chiefs and warriors of King Eterscel do not see her," said Osric, " she is safe enough: and if they do come to take her I will not let her go without a fight."

Aidan heard them talking.

"Do not speak of trouble or sorrow when you speak of the Luck-Child," he said. "One day she will come to her own, and then she will give each of us his heart's wish."

"I will wish for a robe all embroidered with gold," said Teigue. "What will you wish for, Osric?"

"For a shield and spear and the right to go into battle with warriors."

"What will you wish for, Aidan?

"Oh Tiegue, I will wish to sit in the one dunhill with the Luck-Child, and hear the poets praising her.?

"I will go and tell the Luck-Child our wishes," said Teigue, "so that she may know when she comes to her own."

He ran to the little hut in the forest, and the Luck-Child came out to meet him. She laughed to hear of the wishes, and said she would have a wish herself in the day of good fortune, and it would be to have Teigue, Osric, and Aidan, always with her. She took a little reed flute and began to play on it.

"Listen now," she said to Teigue, "and I will play you music I heard last night when the wind swept down from the hills."

Teigue sat under a pine tree and listened.

Johnny lay with his head in Sianna?s lap and listened. He was spellbound ? this story was like none of those that he had heard growing up. He?d noticed the hints of other stories in the ones that Aidan told the Luck-Child, and he already knew he would eventually ask to hear those, as well.