“He is not in love with me!”
“You think not?” Tris got up to get her more tea. “I’ve never in my life seen Colin act obsessed as he does around you. Even when we were kids, he was always the steady one. When one of us would come up with some harebrained scheme, the others would agree to go along with it, but not Colin. He never cared if everyone was against him but always had his own values.”
“He took a job from his father that he hated.”
“Colin has a very, very strong sense of family.”
“Jean . . .”
“That was purely physical and Colin was dazzled by her,” Tris said as he filled a mug with hot water.
Gemma looked glum. “If Jean is dazzling, what am I? The bland, boring consolation prize?”
“You are love,” Tris said as he put milk in her tea and took it to her.
“But we’ve known each other a very short time.”
“You’re right,” Tris said as he sat down beside her. “It’s a known fact that in order to fall in love, you have to know a man two-point-six-eight years.”
Gemma couldn’t laugh. “What am I going to do? This isn’t what I planned for my life. I wanted to wait until my dissertation was finished, until after I had a good job. Then I was going to look for a man to spend my life with.” She looked at him. “But Mrs. Frazier wanted grandchildren so she wished for them.”
“You don’t think unprotected sex had anything to do with it?” Tris asked.
Gemma groaned. “I’d rather think this was caused by magic than by my own stupidity.”
Tris laughed. “Okay, it’s getting late. I’m going to drive you home. Tomorrow I’ll get your car to you and I’ll bring you some vitamins. Let me know as soon as you tell Colin, and I’ll get Rachel to help with your diet. You need to eat well.”
When he helped her to stand up, she looked at him. “A baby?”
“That’s right. A big, happy Frazier baby. Wonder what he’ll wish for when he grows up?”
“Don’t remind me.” She started toward the door, Tris close beside her. “I guess we know why the wishes were activated. Your niece pulled the lead away from the Stone and the genie escaped.”
“Guess so,” Tris said. “Have you thought of any baby names yet?”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said. “Colin is my friend as well as my cousin, and I was dreading the day he’d come to me and say that he and Jean were going to get married. I always wondered if I’d be able to pretend that I was happy for him. But now he’s had the good sense to . . .”
“I know,” Gemma said. “You don’t have to say it.” They were at Tris’s car and he helped her into the passenger seat. “You won’t tell anyone about this, will you?”
“I would never reveal the secrets of a patient or a friend. Until you personally tell me it’s okay, I won’t say a word. Buckle up. You have two people to worry about now.”
23
GEMMA THOUGHT SHE wouldn’t sleep much after Tris left her at the guesthouse, but she did. In fact, she fell across the bed and was asleep in an instant. When she awoke early the next morning, the first thing she thought of was that when she’d first arrived in Edilean she’d so much wanted to belong to the place. Had that been a wish from her heart? Had Nell’s blinking necklace “heard” her? Had it known that she was destined to be a Frazier by marriage? Colin’s grandfather said the wishes included “ladies.” So maybe the Stone did include wives. In that case, she thought she should call Ariel in California and tell her to take a pregnancy test.
Gemma lay in bed and ran her hand over her flat stomach. She couldn’t imagine it growing with a child. But according to Dr. Tris, that was just what was about to happen.
She put her hands behind her head and looked at the ceiling. So now what happened? she wondered. Of course the first thing was to tell Colin.
On the other hand, what if he did what Tris had hinted at and asked her to marry him out of a sense of duty? What kind of marriage would that be if he spent his life feeling that he’d been forced—or tricked—into marriage?
Gemma got up and as she showered, the idea that she was expecting a baby seemed like a fantasy. She didn’t feel in the least ill, and wasn’t there supposed to be morning sickness? She put her hand on her stomach. “Are you so determined to be different that you’re going to make me ill in the evenings?”
She got out of the shower, dressed, ate a solid, good-for-you breakfast, and started to work. She was writing about what she’d found out about the first Shamus Frazier, and as she wrote, she nearly forgot her life-changing news. In the quiet of the library, she could put aside her concerns about her future.
At one point, she couldn’t resist looking at what was possibly the Heartwishes Stone. It was such a small thing, a little oval cage, no bigger than the tip of her little finger, and inside was the tiny rock that glistened when she held it up to the sunlight. Could this little object really and truly grant wishes?