Chapter 6
Amethyst was not a absolute innocent. Several centuries of observing the inhabitants of the world had allowed her to witness everything -goog and evil- that human beings did to, and with, one another. She should not have been shocked when Kai took her for a prostitute, but she was both shocked and hurt.
"I can't believe you said that"
She looked so distressed and her voice was trembling so that Kai, who'd decided the ad was a ruse, almost apologised. She was such a damn good actress, He was sure Hilary had to be at the bottom of this deception. Even though Laura's younger sister had left Hollywood after inheriting Swann Ranch, she still wrote screenplays and the occasional made-for-television movie. She'd know lots of would-be starlets who'd be willing to go to bed for a part. Or even rent money.
He was a little disappointed that Hilary, who knew better than anyone how much he'd loved Laura, would think that a warm female body in his bed would make up for all he'd lost. But then again she's lived in Tinseltown for a long time, maybe amoung the lotus eaters, Sex wasn'ttaken so seriously.
"It was Hilary wasn't it?" he asked, deciding toget the game playing over with.
"Hilary?" Amethyst asked blankly.
"She's the one who hired you. She's the one who sent you here."
"I told you, I came because of that ad-"
"Yeah, the one in the Rim Rock record" That brought up another possibility. "Which means Tysona had to be in on the scheme too"
"Tyson?"
"Tyson Granger. He's publisher of the paper" He was also a old friend. "He's getting married to Noel Giraudeau"
"Princess Noel Giraudeau?"
The stunning blonde, the papparazzi had dubbed the Ice Princess had once gone on a photo safari with the Princess of Wales, Amethyst remembered the occasion all too well because when the Prince of Wales had opted out of the trips at the last minute, AMethyst had harbored doubts about his commitment to what she's hoped was a true love match. WIth the crystal clear view of hindsight, Amethyst realised she should of given up on the relationship right then.
"Yeah"
"From what I've seen - in the papers-" Amethyst said quickly as his eyes narrowed again. "The Princess seems to be a lovely woman"
"Inside and out" Kai confirmed, his expression softening slightly at the mention of the woman who'd expressed such concern for him over these past months. "And since I don't think she'd agree to the scheme, Hilary and Tyson must of done it on their own" He was also certain Hilary's new husband, Rei Kon, would not have had anything to do with such a illegal arrangement. Although he admittedly hadn't been thinking all that clearly in those days immediately following Laura's death, the one thing that had sunk in was that the Whiskey River's sheriff definately took his job seriously.
"i'm not a prostitute" she lifted her chin. "And I definately didn't come here to have sex with you"
He gave her another long look. Just when Amethyst's nerves were at breaking point he shrugged. "Too bad"
Before she could come up with a response to that, he stood up, pulled his shearling-lined jacket from a hook on the wall and shrugged into it.
"Where are you going?"
He threw her a look over his shoulder "I figured I'd go out and feed the horses. Unless you've changed your mind about the sex?"
"No" She bit her lip to keep from asking him to please be patient. Just a little longer.
As he watched her small white teeth worrying that soft pink flesh, Kai felt the old age attraction of male for female and decided it was definately time to leave.
"Too bad" He repeated, then left the cozy warmth of the kitchen.
As she watched him disappearing into the swirling white snow, Amethyst closed her eyes and wished, for a fleeting moment, that she was a mortal woman. One who could take him to his bed and soothe the pain that never left his haunted eyes. A ragged pain she feared he could feel all the way to his soul.
Minutes passed. Although she was admittedly a little out of practise when it came to computing earth time when the grandfather clock in the front room tolled the hour on a pleasing peal of westminster chimes, Amethyst was sure Kai had been outside far too long. Standing at the window, she shut out the blizzard and tried desperately to focus on him. But there was nothing. Only a deep black void behind her lids that changed to a blurry white world when she opened her eyes.
"Whats wrong?" she wondered outloud. She glanced up, half expecting an answer, disappointed when none was forthcoming. "Why can't I see him?"
A though occured to her, more chilling than the weathe. What if he'd done what he was about to do when she'd first arrived? What if he'd killed himself? Or even worse, what if he'd shot himself but was still alive, barely clinging on to existance, his life force slowly draining away, so weak she was unable to sense it?
Making romantic matches that failed was a bad enough stain on her permement record. There was no way Amethyst was going to allow a assigment to die. And even as she ran out into the snow in search of him, she knew that her need to find Kai, to save him, went a great deal deeper than mere duty.
The Icy wind whipped away his name as soon as it escaped her lips. Unaccustomed to mortal form, She's forgotten about the need for any kind of overcoat and desperately tried to recall the temperature at which human man blood froze.
She conjured up a vision of a jacket, the twin of kai's shearling-lined one, blinked and was bother suprised and troubled when she didn't immediately find herself wrapped in it's warmth. She blinked again. Nothing.
Distressed and confused, she waved her ice-cold hand, deciding that her only hope was to stop the blizzard. But the snow continued to drift down like feathers shaken from a huge down pillow overhead and the temperature continued to drop.
As much as she longed for the safety and warmth of the house, Amethyst was even more concerned about Kai's safety. Her feet felt like blocks of ice and as she made her way through the drifting white snow, hopefully in the direction he had taken, she found it more and more differcult to keep her legs moving.
She fell once, stumbling to her knees in a deep drift. She pushed herself to her feet and kept on going. After stumbling a second time, it was even more differcult to stand up but she made it. Only to fall a third time.
"Damn you Kai." She muttered on something between a sob and a wail. "I've never, in all my life, been given such a impossible assignment"
She wasn't going to fail, Amethyst assured herself as she struggled to her feet again and continuted trudging forward. Now the wind was blowing ice in her face that stung like needles against her cheeks. She began to wonder if she'd gone the wrong way. Surely the barn wasn't this far from the house?
She looked around her but saw nothing but a white curtain in all directions. She made a cone out of her hands and called out his name. But as before , the only answer was the howl of the wind in the tops of the whitefrosted pine trees.
Disorientated, she tried to remember the direction she'd seen him take when he'd left the kitchen but she was exhausted from the cold and effort and discouragement.
She cried out as she stumbled over a downed tree that had been buried by the snow. Snow she'd thought she'd been oh-so-clever in stirring up in the first place. She was on her hands and knees when she realised she had no strength to go another foot. She sank back into the snowbank feeling more along than she'd ever felt in her life.
Sunny was far from alone. Two fairy godmothers - one tall and spare, the other short and pleasingly plump- watched her desperate struggles.
"Are you certain this is the thing to do?" Andromeda asked "It's been a very long time sinc eht girl has visited earth, it's obvious she's forgotten mortal survival skills"
"She won't need them" Harmony said with her usual unwavering confidence.
"But perhaps if we could slow the storm-"
"No" The smile gracing the face of the legendary fairy godmother was almost beatific. "Amethyst was the one who conjured up the storm. She was the one who asked to be mortal. She'll have to learn to live with the consequences"
"Then she will live?"
"Of course. I have very special plans for our Amethyst. Plans that will solve both our problems"
Harmony's smile widened and her eyes danced marrily. It had been a long time since she'd experienced the joys of a seemingly impossible assignment. She's always believed in going out while you're on top, whcih was why she'd retired after the prince had taken pretty, sweet, admittedly dim little Cindy to his palace, where they had gone on to live happily ever after.
Kai Hiwatari was definately no prince. At least not the chivalrous knight-in-shining-armor type that filled the gilt edged pages of fairy tale books. But Harmony knew him to be a special man, imbued with a steely integrity and capable of a deep and abiding love love, even if he believed he had no more love to give.
the trick was to find him a equally special woman, a brave, intelligant resouceful woman. One spirited enough to stand up to him and patient enough to prove to his that he was better than he thought he was.
Who better than Amethsyt to tempt and torment him even as she taught him to trust again?
"I still wonder if we should have told her the truth" Andromeda continued to fret. Such worry was uncharacteristic but Amethyst was a special case. Although she tried not to become emotionally attentioned tot he students who were assigned to her for a brief time before moving up in the hierarchy, it had been impossible not to grow fond of the alkways optimistic open hearted fairy godmother.
"It's better this way"
"But what if she actually manages to make a match? What if she matches Kai with the wrong woman? She has ahistory of doing that"
"Ah but she isn't the one making this match" Harmony reminded her long time friend "I am"