And yet I was reminded, even then, of my other allegiances. The spirits were drawn to my heightened state and started whispering in my ear. I was furious. How dare they! Am I never to be allowed any privacy? I sent them away, refusing to listen or to speak with them. I warned them that if they did not respect my right to a private life as a woman, they would lose my friendship and service as a witch forever. Either they believed me, or they felt suitably uncomfortable at invading my personal life, I cannot know which. In any case, they departed, so that I could give myself to Bram, body, heart, and soul.

As if sensing he is being watched, Bram stirs. He stretches his strong arms, and his eyelids flutter open. He offers me a slow smile.

“Don’t you know it is considered the height of rudeness to stare?” he asks.

“I seem to remember coming under your scrutiny for hours at a time, day after day. For weeks, in fact.”

“That was different. You were posing for an artist, not sleeping while somebody gazed at you.”

“Somebody?”

He laughs quietly, slipping his arm around my waist to pull me to him. The sensation of his skin against my own again is every bit as thrilling as the first time I experienced it.

“A very lovely body,” he murmurs into my hair.

At once I feel a longing for him coursing through me. He is so strong, and yet touches me with such tenderness. He smells of life and vigor and desire and my thoughts start to spin away as he kisses my throat, my shoulder, my breast.

When at last we lie wrapped in each other’s arms again, letting the breeze from the open balcony doors cool our damp skin, I know that I was right, this time, to follow my heart. Father always taught me to trust to my mind, to judgment born of thought, of reason, of knowledge. He would allow the use of a witch’s instinct, yes, but a woman’s yearning? The compulsion to love? To adore and be adored? Never. And yet it is right for me to be guided by this. For now I have an ally in life. Someone who cares about me above everything and accepts me for what I am, even if that is beyond his true understanding. Whatever lies ahead, I will not face it alone. Gradually I will help him to see that what it is I do is not so frightening, not so disturbing. He will be my safe haven. When I am adrift in the stormy seas of magic and the spirit world, it will be Bram who calls me home.

Moonlight falls through the open curtains. Slipping from under the tangled sheet I pull my cream silk night-robe around me, tying it at the waist.