The clicking of Claudia’s heels and her occasional throaty laugh faded into the distance. Esras angled his head. For long moments, he stared at Kate with those incredible green eyes as though he could see right into her mind and into her soul.

Her hand wrapped around her grandma’s pearl and it seemed to pulse inside her fist. It was almost as if the pearl had come to life.

«You’re Kate Sullivan, aren’t you? We spoke on the phone.» A slow smile spread across his face like the sun rising on a new world. She blinked. For a moment, it looked as though flickering rainbows danced around him.

«How did you recognize me before you heard my voice?» she asked.

His smile widened and he flicked up his eyebrows in a wouldn’t-you-like-to-know expression. «Let me show you to your room.» He went to the door and held out a hand to her. After an awkward pause, she slipped her fingers into his because it seemed rude not to.

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, disoriented by the surroundings, wondering at the significance of his holding her hand. He obviously had an unconventional attitude to intimacy. Was it possible he expected to jump straight into bed with her? Heat blossomed low in Kate’s belly and her skin felt too tight. She cleared her throat. «What about my bag?»

«That’s already been taken to your room.» He gave her an amused smile. «Don’t worry. I’m not going to eat you, Kate.»

«Oh.» She bit her lip.

He tightened his grip on her hand and tugged her up the grand staircase in the centre of the entrance hall.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Esras led her along a wide corridor, threw open a door, then released her hand and stood back for her to enter.

The huge bedroom had a pearly sheen to the white walls, while the bedding, upholstery and carpet were all marine shades of green and blue. A king-size bed with a white and gold headboard dominated the space, the rest of the furniture continuing the white and gold theme. She was pleased the room contained a desk that she could turn into a workstation. She preferred not to share the production team’s mobile office. It always became a pigsty within hours of arriving on location.

As promised, her battered suitcase and bag sat on the bed.

«Bathroom’s over there.» Esras pointed at a door on the far side of the room.

She rested her hand on her laptop bag. «Thank you. This is. luxurious.» Kate gazed around knowing she would have little time to enjoy the comfort. She waited for Esras to leave so she could get on with her work.

When he didn’t move, she glanced back at him. His gaze was fixed on her pearl pendant, a curious expression on his face. «What brought you home, Kate?»

She stared at him, taken aback for a moment. «Home? Did you know my grandma? Do you know something about the pendant?»

His knowing gaze returned to her face. «Don’t you?»

She shook her head slowly. «I didn’t know my grandmother was born in Knocknapog until six months ago when she died and left me her pendant.» She cupped the gleaming pink teardrop in her palm. «I thought it was just jewellery. But there’s something strange about the pearl. I feel. antsy when I take it off, but it doesn’t feel quite right to be wearing it either.»

«That’s because the pearl wasn’t made for you. You should have your own, Kate.» He opened the door and held his hand out to her again. «Come with me and I’ll show you what it is.»

She hesitated a moment, but she’d come here for just this reason, to find out more about the pearl. He led her back down the stairs, then along an inner hallway to an older part of the house. He stopped outside a low wooden door and snapped back the three bolts securing it. An unearthly glow seeped into the darkened hall as he pulled the door wide. She followed him down a narrow winding stairway, the only light a luminous glow from the shells embedded in the walls.

After a little while, he paused and turned. «Do you need a rest? It’s quite a drop, two hundred steps.»

At her headshake, he moved on. The rushing of water sounded in the distance. As they descended farther, the noise grew louder and a cool breeze carried the scent of the sea up the stairwell.

«I’ve always loved the sea,» Kate said, almost to herself.

Esras turned and flashed her a smile. «Of course. You’re one of Lir’s people.»

Even as a little frisson of excitement passed through her, she shook her head. Esras had introduced himself as a descendant of the sea god Lir. Now he was trying to involve her in his delusion. But if she thought that, why did she instinctively trust him?

They emerged into an underground cavern lit only by the same luminous glow as the steps. The sea hissed in and out of an opening in the rocks. They had descended from the top of the cliff, where the manor house stood, to sea level and must now be inside a cave under the cliff.

She followed him along a tunnel leading deeper into the rock and they came out in a small grotto. Above the murmur of the sea, she heard a swishing, sucking sound. They stopped at a circular opening in the rock floor. Water swirled inside the hole, flickers of light and dark dancing in its depths. «The Whirlpool of Lir,» Esras whispered.

The pearl resting on Kate’s chest lifted towards the well, tugging at the chain around her neck. «Ahh!» She grasped it and hung on as it tried to jump from her hand.

«Don’t be frightened.» He put an arm around her waist, pulling her against his side. Her skin hummed with his nearness and she leaned into him, enjoying the thrill of touching him even while her heart pounded with uncertainty.

«Give me Lir’s favour.» Esras held out a hand.

«My grandmother’s pearl? What are you going to do with it?»

«Trust me.» He leaned closer and stroked the back of his fingers across her cheek. She breathed in the scents of salt, sea and fresh air from his skin, combined with a musky masculine fragrance. She stared at him, mesmerized, and her worries drifted away.

She unfastened the chain from her neck and placed it in his palm. He then removed the pearl from the chain. Before she realized what he was going to do, he dropped the pearl into the swirling waters.

«No!» Kate put a hand over her mouth, staring into the water. She turned her shocked gaze on Esras. «What have you done? Grandma left that to me.»

«She wanted you to bring her pearl back here,» he said gently.

«I know, but»—

«She wanted Lir’s favour returned to him.»

Kate stared into the water, tears pricking her eyes. The one memento she’d had of her grandmother was lost forever.

«Kate.» Esras stroked some hair that had escaped from her ponytail back behind her ear. «She wanted you to have your own favour from Lir. from me.»

Esras crouched and scooped a handful of the surging water into his palm. Instead of leaking between his fingers, the water formed a ball. He shaped it, scraping away blobs of water as though they were jelly. When only a small tear-shaped piece of water remained, he stroked it, chanting under his breath. Rainbows danced around him, glowed on the mother-of-pearl at his neck, glittered in the heart of the water droplet in his palm.

Eventually, the colours faded and the cavern was once again lit only by the luminous glow from the walls. Esras held up a pink-tinged pearl teardrop and then threaded it back on her chain. «This one will feel right because I made the favour for you. Wear it by your heart and you will never be far from me — or the sea.»

Kate let him refasten the chain around her neck and rubbed her fingers across the pearl. Tingles danced up her hand, spread across her skin, setting her nerves on fire until she longed to feel the soothing cool stroke of the sea over her body.

«How did you make this from water?» she asked.

«Pearls are always shaped by the sea, Kate.»

She stared down at the pearl, her mind churning with conflicting emotions. She prided herself on being practical and down-to-earth. The things Esras said and did clashed with everything she believed, yet she couldn’t deny what she’d seen with her own eyes — could she?

His fingertips slid beneath her chin and lifted her face so she couldn’t avoid meeting the bottomless green of his eyes.

«I’m your King, Kate. You belong with me.»

Three

Kate spent a terrible night tossing and turning, unable to sleep. The image of Esras with rainbows dancing around him plagued her mind. By morning, she had convinced herself that the rainbow light had simply been reflections from his mother-of-pearl necklace and his making the pearl had been a trick. He obviously hadn’t thrown her grandmother’s pearl in the water at all. He’d hidden it. Then by sleight of hand, he’d made her believe he’d created another one.

If he was loony enough to believe he was descended from a sea god, he was likely to be the type of man who’d pretend to have magical powers.

And like a complete idiot, she’d allowed herself to be sucked into his fantasy world. After working in television for two years, she should know better than to believe everything she saw.

Kate joined her colleagues and sat at one of the plastic tables by the catering van with her styrofoam cup of tea and an egg and bacon breakfast roll. She breathed the sea air, marvelling at the fantastic view of white-topped waves on the green Celtic Sea. From the rocky headland where Knock House stood, the land sloped down to the village of Knocknapog: a small harbour surrounded by a scatter of slate-roofed cottages with bobbing fishing boats riding the waves in the bay.

On the lawn in front of Knock House, Esras’ people and some of the villagers had started to erect stalls and tents for the Midsummer Feast.