She lifted up her head to frown at him. He was watching her closely. She fumbled for words. “It was more like I tuned into a radio frequency, and the voice came through on that channel. I don’t know how else to explain it. It couldn’t have been physical, or the children would have heard it too. Right?”
He nodded, frowning as well. The brilliance of his gaze was muted into shadowed diamond sparkles. “Your radio frequency analogy is a good one. I heard it like telepathy, but it felt on a different level somehow than normal telepathy.”
“Chloe’s telepathic,” Grace told him, her throat constricting. “She isn’t very good at it yet. Most human children develop the ability after they develop physical speech patterns. Petra always used to say it was nature’s way of protecting young parents. Just think what it would be like to have a telepathic two-year-old having a screaming tantrum in your head.”
He gave her a small smile. It faded almost at once. “If you feel something like that vision coming again, you call me immediately. Pull hard at the connection, and I will know your need is urgent.”
She nodded. She didn’t see how she had any choice. As fast as the earlier vision had taken her over, he was the only entity she knew who could get here quickly enough to make some kind of difference. “I can’t lose control like that and leave the children unsupervised. You saw what happened with Chloe and the milk. If I pull really hard, when you come, look after the kids, do you hear? Make sure they’re safe.”
His expression turned fierce. “I have promised both you and the children protection, and you will all have it.”
Her eyes grew moist. She wouldn’t thank him again. She had thanked him enough, and anyway, he didn’t like it. Instead she leaned back against his hand.
He tilted his head as he studied her. “You are doing all this on your own, while looking after the children.”
She lifted one shoulder. “Not quite. Petra’s best friend, Katherine, kept the kids until I got out of the hospital and could bring them home. Remember Janice from yesterday morning, the one who babysat when I spoke with Carling and Rune? Janice belongs to a roster of witches who are on call to babysit whenever someone petitions to speak to the Oracle. They do it as part of their community tithe. More people are coming on Saturday to put in a quarterly work day. They’ll beat back the worst of the weeds and mow.”
She braced herself for another one of his contemptuous looks. That had stung when she didn’t even like him very much. Maybe she did like him after all, now that she had gotten to know him better. Now his disdain would hurt worse than a sting.
But he didn’t look contemptuous. Instead, his face tightened. He said, “It is good that you have some help. And now both you and the little ones have me for protection. But you are still too much alone in all of this. You should be surrounded with a House filled with associations.”
She had to press her lips tightly together and look away before she could say, after a moment, “Well, nobody expected things to turn out this way.”
The afternoon sunlight had deepened as they talked. From down the hall, Chloe started to chatter. She was talking to her toys, but Max burbled a wordless reply.
Grace turned back to Khalil. His hard face had eased into an indulgent smile again. “Thank you for the talk,” she said. As the words fell out, she clapped a hand over her mouth. “I swear, that one just came out. I’m sorry.”
Instead of looking angry or disgusted, this time he looked amused. He stood. “I will come back tomorrow to visit with the little ones.”
Grace stood too. “We’re going out. It’s story time at the library, and we have books to return, and…” He was listening to her with such close attention, she grew self-conscious. She ended, awkwardly, “Well, you don’t need to hear about all that.”
“What is their schedule in the evening?”
“Dinner at five, bed by eight.”
He raised his eyebrows. “May I come to visit with them before they go to bed?”
Grace was impressed. He actually asked; he didn’t dictate. She said, “Sure.”
He studied her for a moment, his gaze unreadable. Then she felt his presence slide along hers in a scorching, invisible caress. As she sucked in a breath, he inclined his head and disappeared.
She shut her mouth with a click. What was that—his version of a hug good-bye?
“Even Samantha was surprised when people appeared and disappeared without warning,” she muttered. “And she was a witch too. I am not Darrin. I’m not.”
There was nobody around to argue with her, so she went to get the children up from their nap.