Free Beguiled by Maureen Child Page A

toward her. His smile was wide and bright, his eyes shining with sincerity and his arms were open, still inviting an embrace she hadn’t given him.
    “You’re the Queen now, Maggie,” he soothed, his voice nearly musical. “I didn’t want to be in the way. I thought to wait until you had settled in before . . . reac quainting myself with my loved ones.”
    Loved ones. Maggie shot a look at Bezel and saw the pixie’s eyes roll so far back in his head, they practically disappeared. She knew just how he felt. Jasic was smooth and charming and handsome, and Maggie didn’t feel a thing toward him.
    Should she, though? Weren’t feelings for family grown and nurtured? Should you really be able to meet a stranger, think, “Oh, he’s my grandfather,” and turn on the affection? She didn’t think so.
    “Isn’t that wonderful?” Nora said, sniffling a little as she wiped away a stray tear. “So thoughtful. Putting you first, Mags. He’s been so brave. And so lonely.”
    Jasic’s features slid easily into a sorrowful expression as he wrapped Maggie in a hug she didn’t feel completely comfortable with.
    While he held her, Nora kept talking. “He didn’t come back before, because he didn’t want to upset Gran and Grandpa’s marriage. And then when they were gone, he saw that we were fine, so he didn’t want to upset us.”
    “A real giver,” Bezel muttered.
    Again, Maggie had to agree, but couldn’t really say so, since her face was currently buried in her grandFae’s shirtfront. She and Nora hadn’t been fine, after all. Nora had been married to a bona fide creep and Maggie had been struggling with her own sense of loneliness. No family nearby until Nora had divorced and moved home. If Jasic had shown up then, she might have welcomed him as he so clearly expected to be now.
    But things were different these days. She had more company than she knew what to do with and a grandFae showing up out of nowhere was really more trouble than blessing.
    Boy, she wished her best friend, Claire, were around. A psychic and a witch, Claire might have been able to get a vision telling Maggie exactly what Jasic wanted. But was there ever a witch around when you needed one? No. So she’d have to handle this situation on her own.
    Jasic patted Maggie’s back as she tried to pull free.
    “He came now,” Nora was saying as she walked to join them, “because he wants to know us. To be part of our family. He’s tired of being alone, Maggie.”
    Jasic lifted one arm to draw Nora close, too. He held them both as Nora finished.
    “He thinks Gran would have wanted him to be with us.”
    Maybe, but they’d never know for sure, would they? Maggie managed to squirm free and then stepped away from the group hug before Nora could start singing “Kum ba yah” or something. Maggie idly wondered whether she would have been this cynical a few weeks ago, then assured herself that yes, she would have been. Why was Jasic tired of being alone now ?
    Could it possibly be because his granddaughter was the Queen? Maybe he had hopes for a nice retirement or whatever in the palace? A quiet, more reasonable voice in her head asked, did it matter? Would it kill her to be nice? To help him out? No, she told herself, it wouldn’t. But she couldn’t help wondering why GrandFae was all of a sudden so lonesome for family.
    “Um, Aunt Maggie?” Eileen’s voice was quiet, hesitant. “Jasic—he said I could call him that—knows lots of stuff about Great-Gran and Otherworld, and he said he could help Mom and me get used to things over there, since we’ll probably be there a lot now that Quinn wants Mom to stay there until she has the baby and all and—”
    Maggie took an instinctive breath, as always impressed with just how many thoughts Eileen could cram into one sentence.
    “I’m not moving to Otherworld,” Nora said, easing away from Jasic to face Maggie. “Quinn can’t force me to, can he? I mean, you’re his Queen and everything. . .