by Louise Clark
Daniel whitened as Liz brightened with excitement. After all these years Andrew had found a way to use the club he’d never had a chance to wield when he first met his distant descendants.
Cody ignored this exchange. He’d been thinking about the possibilities and the whys and hows of the beacon ability. “Then it might be something hormonal? A body chemical that triggers some kind of inherited receptor in a recessive gene?”
Andrew stared at Cody as if he’d spoken in a different language. Which, perhaps, he had. Shaking his head, Andrew said, “I leave the aye or nay of that up to you, Master Scientist. I’ve done my part. Now then, Faith, would you grill me one of these fine cuts of beef? I believe Mistress Chloe has provided me with as much information as she will allow. I want to go back to claim my Mary Elizabeth. And I want to do it on a full stomach.”
“You would want to become a Beacon?” Daniel said, turning to Elizabeth. “You want to be a freak like Faith is?”
“Here now,” Andrew said warningly, his features hardening.
“Daniel Hamilton, shame on you!” Chloe cried.
Trembling, Faith tried to slip out of Cody’s embrace. He kissed her hair, tightened his hold. “Seems to me,” he said, outrage and contempt clear in his tone, “that the freak in this family is you, Daniel. Not your daughters. Not your wife. You.”
Faith stilled. Liz gasped. Andrew laughed.
Daniel surged to his feet. “This is ridiculous!”
Faith took one of Cody’s hands, then the other and kissed each before she shifted them aside so she could leave the shelter of his arms. “You’re right, Dad, all of this is ridiculous. There are no freaks in this family, only people with passionate emotions that develop in different ways. Why it happens doesn’t matter. That it happens, does. I’ve spent most my life trying to be what I’m not. The perfect student. The best daughter. An ordinary office manager. I’m not any of those things, I never was. All I am is Faith Hamilton, a girl who did her best in school, who loved her daddy, but was never quite sure she had his love in return. An office manager who worked really hard for her company, but who wasn’t even considered for a senior position when it came up. A woman who was attracted to a man, but figured she wasn’t good enough for him because she was different.
“A woman…” She turned, caught Cody’s hand, and smiled at him. “…who took a risk and discovered that being different was okay.”
“More than okay,” he said, his voice husky.
Daniel’s color had returned to normal, but he still looked disgruntled. “That’s all very nice, but—”
“You know, Hamilton, I’m getting tired of you. Lay off Faith.”
Chloe pointed a finger at her ex. “Cody has a point—”
“I know you’re going to be my father-in-law and I’m trying to be polite, but you’re making it extremely difficult.”
“What!” squealed Liz, clapping her hand over her mouth to muffle the shriek and giggle that followed.
Faith echoed the word, but more faintly. “What? Cody? Are you proposing to me?”
He blinked, then smiled that rueful half-smile that made her hot right down to her toes. “Yeah, I guess I am.” He patted his jacket pockets, found what he was looking for, then pulled out a blue velvet box. “This isn’t quite how I envisioned this evening.” He gazed around the room at the faces of Faith’s family. Liz, bright with delight, Chloe bemused, Andrew grinning so widely that there was danger his bruised face might split. “But…” His gaze fell on Daniel’s shocked expression and hardened.
He flipped open the box and took out a ring. The massive diamond glittered under the hard kitchen lights. Faith stared at it, mesmerized.
“Faith, I know I have lots of flaws. I tend to focus too intensely when I’m working and I’m not very neat. I like my freedom and I don’t do the corporate schmoozing thing very well. I know you’re dedicated to NIT, and that’s okay—”
“I’m not dedicated to NIT, Cody. I work there. Well, I used to work there until Ava fired me.”
“As long as you don’t make me do the social climbing—” He paused. “What did you say? Ava fired you?”
“She tried.” Faith laughed. “She has to check with Ralph first.”
Unexpectedly, Daniel spoke up. “Is the woman mad? Why fire one of her best employees? Was it office politics? Did she think you were after her job?”
“Daniel, be quiet!” Chloe said indignantly. “You are interrupting Cody.”
“He is, but it’s a good question,” Cody said. He raised his brows. “Was it office politics, Faith?”
“Sort of. She wanted to fire you, Cody, not me, and she was going to use Uncle Andrew’s visit as the excuse. I couldn’t let her do that.”
“You sacrificed your job for me? Faith!”
She put a finger on his lips to silence him. Shaking her head, she said, “My job at NIT doesn’t matter, Cody. You matter. I love you. I couldn’t let Ava the Oppressor take you down. You love the work you are doing at NIT. I want you to keep doing it as long as you choose to.”
“Wait. Back up a step. You love me?”
She nodded, smiling. “A minute ago, you listed your flaws. You didn’t list your greatest strengths—your open mind and your trust. When Andrew arrived you didn’t ask who he was or why he was dressed so strangely—”
“My clothes are perfectly respectable,” Andrew said.
Faith ignored him. “Or why he had to go everywhere I did, although I’m sure you wondered about all those things and more.”
“I did,” Cody said.
Faith nodded. “Yes. I needed help and you gave it to me, for no other reason than I needed it. You helped me see that two people who were very different could still work together as one. I think, if I hadn’t already been in love with you, that Uncle Andrew’s visit would have tipped me over the edge.”
“Glad I could be of service,” Andrew said, toasting them with his glass before he drank.
“Shut up, Andrew!” Liz said.
“Shhh,” said Chloe, to silence them both.
Cody cocked head and raised his brows. “Are they always like this?”
Faith laughed, a little shakily. “Always. You have to learn to ignore them.”
Cody looked at her parents and sister, then his gaze landed on Andrew and lingered. When he looked at Faith again, he smiled that sexy smile that had such a devastating effect on her. “Or out-do them.” She looked at him questioningly and he laughed as he dropped to one knee. “Faith, we began because I lusted after your gorgeous body—”
“What! Have you and my daughter had…had…”
“Sex, Daniel. The word is sex,” Chloe said. “And while I’m not a fan of casual—”
“Will you let him finish?” Liz demanded.
Faith raised her eyes heavenward and shook her head. Cody grinned. “But we’re here now because I fell in love with your heart and your spirit and everything that makes you so special. You honored me tonight by trusting me with your secret. Will you honor me further by agreeing to become my wife?”
Liz moaned with satisfaction. For once the others were silent. Faith smiled down at Cody. “You look very silly on the floor, you know.”
“So much for romance,” he said dryly.
She laughed and dropped down opposite him. “Yes. Oh yes, Cody.” She took his face between her hands and kissed him. The ring slipped from his fingers and bounced free, landing on the floor with a tinkle on the hardwood.
“Good thing Faith doesn’t have a dog,” Andrew observed. “Those two half-wild hounds of mine would have been upon that ring in an instant. One of them would have had it in his belly by now.”
Faith and Cody broke apart. Cody picked up the ring, kissed it, then put it on Faith’s finger. “Can we get rid of them?”
Faith laughed. She touched the ring tentatively, possessively. “Yes, but not yet. I am so happy! I want to celebrate. With you, with my family. I want to pick a wedding date—”
“Soon,”
said Cody.
“Small,” Daniel said.
“And ask Liz to be my bridesmaid—”
“You bet,” said Liz.
“Am I invited too?” Andrew demanded.
“I hope you’ll be my best man,” Cody said, easing into the spirit of things.
Faith’s eyes sparkled. “Oh, yeah.” She smiled and tilted her head, adding softly, “And then, Cody my love, after we’ve eaten and drunk and laughed as a family, I want to take you away and talk to you about our honeymoon.”
He caught her meaning immediately. He curled his mouth into a smile filled with promise. “My place or yours?”
“Doesn’t matter.” She laughed softly. “As long as we’re alone.”
“Are they talking about sex again?” Daniel demanded.
Andrew reached into the cupboard for glasses. Chloe headed for the refrigerator. As she opened it, she said tartly, “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Daniel. Grow up. Faith is an adult woman. There’s nothing wrong with her being intimate with the man she loves.”
“After they’re married!”
“Yeah, right. Get real, Dad,” Liz said. “Mom, what can I do to help?”
Cody said, “It will always be like this, won’t it?”
Andrew handed around glasses of wine.
“It’ll only get worse when we have kids of our own.”
Cody paled. “Oh, man.”
“A toast!” Andrew said, holding up his glass. Everyone stopped. “To Cody and Faith. May their love span the centuries and bring them the happiness they deserve.”
They raised their glasses, each of them smiling, even Daniel. “To Cody and Faith!” they chorused.
And drank.
The End
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Forward in Time, Book Two
Andrew stepped through the center of the beacon into Faith’s kitchen. She was standing by the stove and she wasn’t alone. Her sister Liz, mother Chloe, and father Daniel were seated at the table where her lover and now fiancé, Cody, was opening a bottle of wine.
“Andrew!” Faith frowned. “Is there a problem?”
“Of course there’s a problem or he wouldn’t be here,” Daniel said, disgust in his voice.
Cody finished pouring a glass of wine and brought it to him. There was amusement in his eyes. “Your timing is impeccable, Andrew. I can hardly wait to see how my parents react to you.”
“Oh!” Faith put her hand to her mouth. “They’ll be here in a half an hour!”
Andrew sipped his wine as Cody went back to pouring. “I’ll not stay long enough to be introduced to your excellent parents, Master Cody, my friend. I’ve a request to make and then I’ll be on my way.”
Cody picked up two glasses and handed one to Faith. “Since you didn’t know that we were having a family introduction and wedding planning session tonight, is there any particular reason you decided to visit?”
He couldn’t lie to Cody, whom he admired. “It is Mary Elizabeth. Her father has locked her in her room and he is feeding her only the barest of necessities. He has found a suitor for her, but she refuses to accept the fellow’s offer of marriage. Strand wishes to starve her into obedience.”
“That’s terrible!” Liz said.
“You can’t tell him anything,” Daniel said.
Faith opened the oven door and pulled out a cooking tray filled with sausage rolls. “Unfortunately, he’s right. The less you know about your future, the better.”
Chloe sighed. “You have to be patient, Andrew.”
“Patient! How can I be patient when the lady I love, a gentle kind lady who has done nothing wrong but to be born the daughter of a great beast of a man, is being abused by one who should be her steadfast protector?”
There was silence, then Cody said slowly, “That is a problem. I suspect the answer is less than you desire, Andrew. And more than you would allow, Daniel.”
Faith slid the sausage rolls onto a waiting platter, then held it out to Andrew. He took one and munched. The ease of food preparation was one of the best things about the twenty-first century, he reflected. Along with vehicles that moved swiftly along paved roadways and information machines that held all the knowledge of the universe within their depths. “Let me use your computer, Faith. I need to know the date of my wedding.”
“You already know it’s in New York City,” Chloe said. “Why do you want to know the exact date?”
“New York City is far distant and the man Strand wants to affiance Mary Elizabeth to is a colonel of Dragoons—”
“Jonathan Bradley,” Chloe said, thoughtfully. “He becomes a viscount.”
“He is to be a lord?” This was getting worse and worse. “No wonder her brute of a father is so determined to force her into wedlock. I will have to steal Mary Elizabeth away, but to get her to New York without being captured by Bradley and his mounted soldiers is well nigh impossible!”
“I’ve wondered about that,” Cody said.
“If I know the date, I will know if I should try to spirit her away by sea or try the longer, slower overland route. I will also know when we must escape her father’s clutches.” He looked around, deliberately making eye contact with each of them. “Don’t you see? Everything hinges on that date. Everything.”
CLAIM TIME FOR LOVE
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Also by Louise Clark
The Forward in Time Series
Make Time for Love
Claim Time for Love
Discover Time for Love
A Turbulent Time for Love
The Nine Lives Cozy Mystery Series
The Cat Came Back
The Cat’s Paw
Cat Got Your Tongue
Let Sleeping Cats Lie
Cat Among the Fishes
The 9 Lives Cozy Mystery Boxed Set, Books 1-3
About the Author
Louise Clark’s time travel romance series, Forward in Time, includes both contemporary and historical settings, as well as humor, passion, and hot heroes. Her experience writing both contemporary and historical romance made writing a time travel series a natural. As well, her love of travel meant the books are set in different locals, from historic Boston to the badlands of the American West, and beyond.
For up-to-date information on her latest release, please visit www.louiseclarkauthor.com or become a subscriber to her newsletter HERE.