Spellbound Falls [5] For the Love of Magic Read Online Free PDF Page B

suffocating Rana with his attention.
    “Hey,” Duncan said over his shoulder, “try having
twin
daughters.” He turned to face the two other expectant fathers. “It was bad enough they found two babes at the ultrasound last week, but I had to physically restrain Peg when they couldn’t find any extra appendages.” The highlander shook his head with a chuckle. “She still managed to grab the device out of the technician’s hand and run it over her belly, all while yelling at me to watch the monitor for signs of exterior plumbing.” Duncan checked to make sure they weren’t about to run over any boats or navigational buoys, then shot Nicholas a grin. “I don’t suppose ye could put in a word for me and see if Providence couldn’t put some stones on those babes? Big ones,” he clarified, holding his fingers in a large circle, “so they’ll be the first thing Peg sees at our next ultrasound.”
    Nicholas sat up straighter. “I thought Peg was going to let Mom start caring for her. My Julia is looking forward to having a home birth with a midwife.” Nicholas glanced at Mac. “Olivia’s using my mother, isn’t she?” He looked at Duncan again when Mac nodded. “That was the whole point of my parents moving here. Rana asked Mom to stay on after Lina gives birth and open a women’s clinic. And midwives can usually tell the sex of a child just by how a woman is carrying.”
    “Carrying
twins
?” Duncan thought to clarify as he turned back to the wheel.
    “Their gender matters not,” Titus said. “Peg will love them unconditionally.”
    “Aye,” Duncan said with a sigh. He slowed the engine back to an idle as they neared the uninhabited eastern shoreline halfway down the forty-mile-long inland sea. “Grab the binoculars out of the holders on the benches and try to look like tourists in awe of this ninth
unnatural
wonder of the world,” he instructed. “Oh, Mac, I promised Ray Byram a weekend stay in one of your hotel suites for letting us use his new boat.”
    Mac stopped the binoculars halfway to his eyes. “Didn’t Olivia’s secretary marry Ray Byram last summer? But as an executive employee,” he continued when Duncan nodded, “Lucy is entitled to a free weekend at Nova Mare each year.”
    Duncan grinned. “I guess she forgot to tell Ray about that little perk.”
    “We’re back to my original question,” Titus said, taking the binoculars Nicholas handed him. “Who exactly are we disguising ourselves from?”
    “And more importantly, why?” Mac added.
    “Ye know the small colony that set up camp near the Turtleback town line shortly after the earthquake? Well,” Duncan said when Mac nodded, “this past winter they started acting weirder than usual.” He pointed at the island they were passing as the boat idled between it and the eastern shoreline. “And from what I’ve been able to learn, they’ve started holding secret ceremonies out here.”
    “People gathering in ceremony is now a crime?” Mac asked as he scanned the densely forested island with the binoculars.
    “Well, no,” Duncan admitted.
    “Are they performing human or animal sacrifices?” Titus asked.
    “I guess they feel whoever they’re worshipping is also a vegetarian,” Duncan said with a chuckle, only to just as quickly sober. “I did find what looked like an altar when I checked out the island a few nights ago, but no signs of blood. Just some clay pots filled with grain and a pile of rotting vegetables.”
    “Then what is your concern? Why are we spying on a bunch of hippies?”
    “Hippies?” Duncan said in surprise. “I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong decade. No, the wrong
century
. The only hippies left are wrinkled and bald and have traded in their Birkenstocks for orthopedic shoes.” He gestured at the smoke rising from several chimneys across Bottomless, now that the western shoreline was no longer blocked by the island. “Near as I can tell, this is a good old-fashioned cult, complete with a