One Enchanted Evening

by Lynn Kurland

  “Leave it, love,” he said, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear. “Whatever it is, leave it for now. We’ll go home, walk along the strand, then work out our future. Together.”

  Pippa nodded, because she could do nothing else. The truth was, she couldn’t do anything at the moment besides get them north in one piece. The future would just have to take care of itself for a while.

  Though she couldn’t help but wonder how extensive the gift shop was at Artane and if they might have a big book on the history of all those born in the keep for her to peruse for pertinent facts about the man sitting next to her, a man apparently torn between touching her and fussing with the radio.

  It might mean the difference between life and death.

  For them both.

  Chapter 25

  Montgomery generally had no trouble concentrating on the thing before him to the exclusion of all else. He could ignore with ease conversations, bloodshed, and the babbling of his brothers if swordplay or life demanded his full attention. Unfortunately, that skill seemed to have deserted him over the past three days. He’d been torn between poring over the map Pippa had bought that first afternoon, watching the scenery fly by, and staring without pause at a woman he could hardly watch without feeling his heart break a little more with each moment that passed.

  He closed his eyes, but that left the motion of the car making him slightly ill, so he turned his attentions to the map he held. They had taken a fairly circuitous route north, mostly because he’d been curious as to the condition in the future of places he’d known in the past. Those stops had been substantially more unsettling than he had expected, so they had quickly turned their attentions to the great houses and estates that had been built long after his time, which had suited him better. He had submitted to a brief shopping trip to purchase extra clothes, though it had galled him to use funds that were not his own.

  Pubs had been pleasant diversions, though he had eschewed the ale in favor of drinks that didn’t immediately make him want to retch. Their accommodations had been nothing short of kingly and he wondered how it was that his modern-day kins-men took for granted the luxuries they enjoyed. He supposed the noises of modern life made up for that, though he would admit that the previous night had been better, with quieter chambers and a quite lovely morning repast prepared by a woman who obviously knew her way about a kitchen.

  Which left him nothing, he supposed, but to give in and do what he truly wanted to do, which was stare at the part of the future that intrigued him the most.

  Pippa’s brow had unfurrowed in direct proportion to how far away from the south and its environs they had traveled. There were fewer cars, true, but he supposed the reason she was happier was that she’d become accustomed to Stephen’s car—and she hadn’t plowed it into a tree, which had also been one of her worries. His only worry was that he would soon beg her to pull over and then ravish her before he could get them both in front of a priest.

  Assuming she would want to stand in front of a priest with him.

  He hadn’t dared ask her that specifically, lest he be forced to face things he wasn’t ready to, such as what century they would live in and who would pay the price for that choice. He wished it could have been neither of them, but he knew that wasn’t possible.

  He turned his mind to other, more pleasant ruminations, such as contemplating the fact that while he’d known before that his heart was given, the last three days had only convinced him of it beyond all doubt. Persephone Josephine Alexander was a sparkling, intoxicating, delightful creature worthy of Faery’s glittering halls, and he could hardly believe she might possibly be his.

  “What are you looking at?” she asked, glancing at him with a smile.

  “Your jeans.”

  She raised her eyebrow. “What do you think of them now?”

  “They are scandalous,” he said lazily, sliding his hand under her hair to trace equally lazy circles on her neck.

  “Stop that.”

  “Nay.”

  She laughed and pushed his hand away. “Stop it, Montgomery. I’m trying to concentrate.”

  “We’re in the moors. Not a tree in sight.”

  “Then we’ll wind up sinking like the crown jewels, so stop it.”

  He considered. “What am I allowed to touch?”

  “The map,” she said in exasperation. “Where are we?”

  He set the map in the backseat. “I don’t need a map to tell me that. We’re twenty leagues from home, give or take a bit. We should be able to see the castle soon in the distance. I don’t suppose we can just cut across those fields, though, can we?”

  “Not in this car.” She drove on for a bit, then pointed ahead. “Look up there. I think it’s the sign for Artane.”

  Montgomery shook his head. If his father had any inkling his castle would find itself written there plainly on a road sign almost eight hundred years from the time he’d built it, well, he would have shaken his head as well.

  And he might have caught his breath, just as Montgomery felt himself do once they turned off the main road and started toward the coast. Artane rose up in the distance, still enormous, still guarding the lands about it for leagues.

  Pippa looked at him. “That’s it?”

  He could only nod.

  “It’s spectacular.”

  “Aye,” he managed.

  She was silent for a moment or two, then reached over and put her hand on his. “I understand there’s a purveyor of particularly tasty fish and chips in the village, if you’re interested in a brief distraction.”

  “I’m going to fat.”

  She laughed. “I’ll chase you up and down the beach if you’re that worried. And we don’t have to go eat. Stephen just texted me earlier with the address. I think he wants to make sure you don’t starve.”

  “He just intends to eat through my larder should he find himself at Sedgwick during a century not his own,” Montgomery said with a snort.

  We’ll need to be prepared was what he intended to say next, but he forbore. He hadn’t spoken to her about their immediate future past a traveler’s curiosity about what he wanted to see and where she wanted to stay, though he supposed they would need to broach more serious subjects soon.

  “Do you want to stop for a minute and catch your breath?” Pippa looked at him with worry plain on her face. “I would understand.”

  He looked at her in surprise, then shook his head. “ ’Tisn’t Artane,” he said, then realized he should assuredly shut his mouth or he would say more than he wanted to. “I think too much.”

  “I understand,” she said with a faint smile. “I do, too.”

  He covered her hand with his own until she needed it back, then he ventured the appalling familiarity of putting his hand on her knee. She didn’t seem to mind it, so he took the opportunity to familiarize himself with a bit more of her leg.

  “Lecher.”

  He laughed out loud and his gloomy thoughts were banished. “I will have you know that I am the most proper of knights, never taking liberties where they are not offered freely.”

  “And just how many liberties have you taken, Montgomery?” she asked tartly.

  “I would tell you, but then you might tell my brothers and I would never be able to show my sweet visage at their halls again without raucous and unrelenting laughter greeting me.”

  “Phillip told me you have a continual stream of women throwing themselves at you, in and out of your bedchamber.”

  He felt his mouth fall open. “When did you speak to him about that sort of thing?”

  “He thought I should know.”

  “The little wretch,” Montgomery muttered. “I should say I hope he’s safe, but after that I think he deserves what happens to him.” He paused. “I told Ranulf to take him and the rest of the lads to Segrave.”

  “I never asked you the details of your abrupt departure,” she said, glancing at him briefly. “Was it the usual thing?”

  “Cousins wanti
ng to kill me?” he asked. “Of course. I couldn’t be so fortunate as to have them fight amongst themselves until none remains.”

  She watched the road for a bit, then cleared her throat. “This isn’t any of my business, of course, but I wonder if your father gave you Sedgwick because he thought you had the negotiating skills to bring warring factions together?”

  “I would like to believe that,” he said wryly, “but I think he intended to give the keep to my twin brother, John. When John disappeared, he was left with me.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “You’re a twin?”

  “Didn’t I tell you?”

  “You most certainly didn’t,” she said. She watched the road for another moment or two, then spoke quietly. “Where did your brother go?” she asked. “If you don’t mind my asking.”

  “I don’t mind, though I will admit that I haven’t spoken freely of it to anyone else.” He had to take a deep breath or two before he could go on. Even though he was certain his audience would understand, actually talking about the events surrounding John’s disappearance was still difficult.

  “Montgomery, you don’t have to tell me anything,” she said quietly.

  He shook his head. “You should know, I think.” He shot her a quick smile, then plunged into his tale before he thought better of it. “Several years ago—eight, to be exact—John and my father argued, though I’m not sure over what. John demanded his inheritance, left the keep, then disappeared. We searched, of course, but ’twas all to no avail. My parents grieved for almost a year, then took themselves off to France for a distraction.” He shrugged. “They return now and again to Artane, but my father has essentially turned over his title to Robin.”

  “Can he do that?” Pippa asked in surprise. “Does the king allow it?”

  “When you are Rhys de Piaget, you find you can do quite a few things,” Montgomery said dryly. “And my father flatters Henry by sending him lavish gifts now and again, so His Majesty is pleased to allow my father his little oddities.”

  “You de Piagets use that word a lot.”

  “I would like to say ’tis without justification, but I cannot.” He leaned his head back against the seat. “So, my brother is no more, and I have been given a castle I cannot easily claim.”

  “But it sounds like your father has confidence in you,” she said. “I also understand that you are quite a favorite of the king because he values you for the many languages you speak and your ability to sway everyone in the room to your point of view without their having realized what you were doing.” She shot him a look. “Phillip says it’s your delicious wit and lovely eyes that do it.”

  “He talks too much.”

  “He loves you,” she said with a smile, turning back to the road. “You should know, however, that he grilled me on my accomplishments, though I can’t imagine why. Does he audition all the women you date?”

  Montgomery turned in his seat to look at her. “I never said I wanted to date you, Pippa.”

  She blinked. “You don’t?”

  He frowned. She looked a little taken aback and he couldn’t fathom why until it occurred to him that he hadn’t made himself clear. It also occurred to him that she was thinking too much about things they hadn’t even begun to discuss. “Stop the car, Persephone.”

  “You are the bossiest man I’ve ever had the misfortune—”

  He put his hand over hers on the gearshift. “Pull over, love.”

  She shot him a dark look, then found a place where she could pull the car off the road. “I need to stretch my legs,” she muttered as she turned the car off and opened the door. “And get some air.”

  He knew what she needed, and it wasn’t air. He pulled the keys out of the ignition, then crawled out of the car, pocketing the keys before he had to run rather fast to catch his escaping chauffeur. He caught her by the hand, then pulled her around and into his arms.

  “You’re weary,” he said quietly. “You have done all the labor of getting us here and I have given you no rest from it. We should have taken more time.”

  “I’m fine.”

  He kept her close with one hand and stroked her hair with the other. “I do not want to date you, Persephone. I want far more from you than that.” He paused. “I’m not unaware of the difficulties that presents for both of us.”

  “Montgomery,” she said with a sigh.

  He took her face in his hands, tipped it up, then bent his head and kissed her very gently.

  She trembled. Or that might have been him. He honestly couldn’t have said. He just knew they were both in trouble. He might have been something of a novice at bedding women, but he’d certainly kissed more than his share of them. He took Pippa’s hands and put them up around his neck.

  “Heaven help me,” she breathed.

  He smiled against her mouth, then made serious inroads into proving that he was most definitely not just interested in a casual alliance with her.

  By the time he lifted his head and looked down at her, he wasn’t sure he would be walking well—or at all—any time in the near future. He rested his forehead on her shoulder.

  “Are you carrying me back to the car, or am I carrying you?” he asked weakly.

  “I’m completely unaffected.”

  She looked a little cross-eyed, but since that was how he felt, he couldn’t fault her for it. He swept her up into his arms, narrowly missing her elbow in his nose as she threw her arms around his neck.

  “I’ll drive,” he said confidently.

  “You will not.”

  “I believe, lady, that you forget who is lord in this relationship.”

  “This is the twenty-first century, bucko. I’m emancipated.”

  He walked back to the car, set her on her feet, backed her up against the Mercedes’s lovely silver side, and kissed her again. Repeatedly. Until he felt some small bit of ground had been gained. When he lifted his head and looked down at her, she looked thoroughly kissed, not completely unhappy, and almost compliant.

  “No,” she said languidly.

  “How hard can it be?” he asked, slipping his hand under her hair. “I have the keys.”

  “Yeah, but you don’t know how to use the clutch—” Several minutes later, he looked at her again. She didn’t open her eyes.

  “You know,” she remarked, “you can’t just kiss me every time you want to get your way.”

  “Why not? It works for my brothers.”

  “No.”

  “Persephone, you are a stubborn case.”

  “Divas often are.”

  He marched forward into the fray, as it were, with enthusiasm and no small bit of determination. And he had to admit, as the morning began to wear on, that if he didn’t regain some sort of control over himself, they were going to be finding a priest that afternoon.

  He retreated and examined the battlefield. Pippa was collapsed against the car, looking as if she’d been chocolate left out in the sun too long.

  “Well?” he asked pointedly.

  She managed to squint at him. “You’re going to get me in big trouble.”

  “I have a sword. Stephen will respect that.”

  She pursed her lips. “All right. Drive up and down this very long stretch of very straight road twenty times without creaming his car, and I’ll think about letting you drive through town.”

  He grunted. “You forget—”

  “That you don’t have a license and that this thing’s packing about four hundred horsepower,” she said pointedly.

  He considered the absolute improbability of that for a moment or two, then conceded the battle. He swept her up in his arms and carried her around to the passenger side whilst he still could. He saw her inside, leaned over to buckle her in, then found her fist curled into his shirt.

  “What?” he asked.

  He wasn’t quite sure how it happened, but he wound up sitting on her lap long enough for her to kiss him quite thoroughly before she begged him to move.

  “I’m not
going to be able to drive properly if you don’t stop that,” he warned.

  She gave him a friendly shove. “Get out of here and go cool off. I’ll wait.”

  “It might take a while.”

  She laughed and shut herself inside the car. Montgomery walked around it a score of times until he thought he could think of something besides things he couldn’t engage in that afternoon, then slid in under the wheel.

  He was growing unfortunately fond of the twenty-first century.

  “Clutch,” Pippa advised.

  “I know,” he said. “I’ve been watching.”

  She put her hand on his leg. “Be careful.”

  He took her hand, kissed it, then put it back in her lap. “Stop touching me.”

  “You started this,” she pointed out.

  “Aye, and I’m paying a steep price for it, believe me.” He started up the car, then had to take a deep breath. And he wasn’t sure what had overwhelmed him more, kissing Pippa or putting the powerful beast in gear and actually driving down the road.

  “I’ve been replaced,” she said, sounding rather amused.

  “Only until we get to the keep, then you’ll need to run continually to escape me.”

  She laughed a little, then fell silent. Montgomery looked at her after a moment. She was simply watching him, affectionately and without worry.

  “Are you frightened?”

  She shook her head. “You’ll keep me safe.”

  “There aren’t any trees near the road.”

  “Well, I didn’t want to say as much,” she admitted, “but yes.”

  He drove, turned about, then drove a bit more until he’d completed a score of trips up and down that road that was indeed very straight. He pulled over, then looked at her.

  “Now might I go very fast?”

  “No,” she said immediately. “Just get us through town. Stephen says there’s a spot to park the car right next to the castle. We’re supposed to tell the lady at the ticket booth that you’re a guest of Stephen’s, or she’ll make us pay to get in.”

  “Pay?” he asked in disbelief. “To get into my own home?”

  “Welcome to the Future, cupcake.”

  Montgomery shook his head, then looked behind him before he pulled back onto the road.