Enchanted by Nora Roberts Page A

“This place you’ve chosen to spend some time is beautiful. You’ve always chosen well, Liam, and you will always have a choice.” She slanted a look up at him. “The woman is lovely, and pure of heart.”
    “Did you send her to me?”
    “The one day? Yes, or, I showed her the way.” Arianna shrugged and walked back to sit on the rock. “But did I send her here? No. There are powers beyond mine and yours that set events in order. You know that.” She crossed her legs, and the long white dress she wore whispered. “You find her attractive.”
    “Why wouldn’t I?”
    “She’s not the usual type you’re drawn to, at least to dally with.”
    He set his teeth. “A grown man doesn’t care to have his mother discuss his sex life.”
    “Oh.” She waved a hand dismissively and set her rings flashing. “Sex, when tempered with respect and affection, is healthy. I want my only child to be healthy, don’t I? You won’t dally with her because you worry it will involve more than sex, more than affection.”
    “And what then?” Anger simmered in his voice. “Do I take her, engage her heart only to hurt her? ‘An it harm none.’ Does that apply only to magic?”
    “No.” She spoke gently, held out a hand to him. “It should apply to life. Why assume you’ll harm her, Liam?”
    “I’m bound to.”
    “No more than any man hurts any woman when their hearts bump together. You would take the same risks with her.” She angled her head as she studied his face. “Do you think your father and I have loved over thirty years without a scratch or bruise?”
    “She’s not like us.” He squeezed the hand he held, then released it. “If I take the steps, if I let us both feel more than we do now, I’d have to let her go or turn my back on my obligations. Obligations you know I came here to sort out.” Furious with himself, he turned back to the sea. “I haven’t even done that. I know my father wants me to take his place.”
    “Well, not quite yet,” Arianna said with a laugh. “But yes, when the time is right, it’s hoped you’ll stand as head of the family, as Liam of Donovan, to guide.”
    “It’s a power I can pass to another. That’s my right.”
    “Aye, Liam.” Concerned now, she slid from the rock to go to him. “It’s your right to step aside, to let another wear the amulet. Is that what you want?”
    “I don’t know.” Frustration rang in his voice. “I’m not my father. I don’t have his … way with others. His judgment. His patience or his compassion.”
    “No. You have your own.” She laid a hand on his arm. “If you weren’t fit for the responsibility, you would not be given it.”
    “I’ve thought of that, tried to come to accept it. And I know that if I commit to a woman not of elfin blood,I abdicate the right to take those responsibilities. If I let myself love her, I turn my back on my obligations to my family.”
    Arianna’s eyes sharpened as she studied his face. “Would you?”
    “If I let myself love her, I’d turn my back on anything, on everything but her.”
    She closed her eyes then, felt the tears welling in them. “Oh, it’s proud I am to hear it, Liam.” Eyes drenched, she laid a hand on his heart. “There is no stronger magic, no truer power than love. This above all I want you to learn, to know, to feel.”
    Her hand closed into a fist so quickly, her eyes flashed with annoyance so abruptly, he could only gape when she rapped his chest. “And for the love of Finn, why haven’t you looked? Your powers are your gifts, your birthright, and more acute than any I know but your father’s. What have you been doing?” she demanded, throwing up her hands and whirling with a spin of white silk. “Prowling the woods, calling to the moon, spinning your games. And brooding,” she added, jabbing a finger at him as she turned back. “Oh, a champion brooder you ever were, and that’s the truth of it. You’ll torture yourself with the wanting of her, go keep