“I’ll do it,” she whispered. Instantly she watched the unspoken message get relayed to the two men who nodded and entered the pub.
When Georgie turned back to her, he drew her into his arms and held her. Daisy leaned her cheek against his chest, feeling his shoulders shake, and felt the joy and the power of the gift she had given him.
***
Although the sun was blistering hot, Ella spent the entire morning in the garden. It was cooler in the shade, but mostly she was there because Lawrence was not. She’d managed to avoid him at breakfast and was determined to slip back into her room for a bath—good Lord it was hot in the Keys with no air conditioning!—without running into him.
The garden by day was a pleasant and orderly refuge full of ficus trees, traveller’s palms, and ginger blooms. The scent of a working fireplace made her look skyward to see that some madman had a fire going somewhere in the house. Unbelievable! It was so hot you could fry clams on the cobblestones out front.
Deciding she would never get used to how the people in 1825 behaved, Ella couldn’t help think that she’d been optimistic to believe she could stay the rest of the week in the house. After her bath, she’d go check out what 1825 Key West had in the way of hotels.
Then she would put her mind to getting back to her own time, although how she was going to begin to do that she had no clue. A finger of fear traced down her spine at the thought of remaining in 1825. Was Adele right? Would they really lock her up for being different?
She shook the pessimistic thought from her head. She needed to set her mind to addressing her problem of getting back home—not clutter it up with fears that may be groundless. And as far as she could remember, home was Atlanta.
If I’ve done it once, surely it can be done again. Her best bet seemed to be to track down a shaman or witch doctor of some kind—she had heard Adele talking about a fortune-teller who worked the harbor—who might be able to give her some enlightenment.
She wasn’t at all sure it was possible but she had to do something.
She opened the back door that led from the garden to the house and peered inside. She could see the maid, Daisy, dusting something in the hallway, but there were no other sounds. The judge was probably still in town at his office. Both Lawrence and Adele should be in the far library, which they used for her lessons.
Ella crept inside and gently closed the door behind her. The maid turned at the sound, her duster held high and smiled at Ella as if they were friends.
Which is very weird when you consider she’s the only likely candidate for whoever has been lurking around outside my bedroom door in the middle of the night, Ella thought, as she hurried up the narrow wooden stairs to the bedrooms.
As she approached her room, she saw that the door was open. If Daisy is downstairs dusting, then who is in my bedroom? In two steps, she stood in the doorway and watched as Lawrence stood with his back to her tossing the contents of her valise into the fire he’d made in her bedroom fireplace.
“What the hell are you doing?” She gasped as she ran into the room and grabbed the valise from his hands. It was empty. “What have you done with my things?” She looked into the fireplace in time to see the photo of the woman and baby curl up and dissolve into flames.
“It’s for the best, my love,” Lawrence said. But he backed away from her all the same.
She turned on him, her eyes blazing. “What have you done with my jewels, you bastard?”
“Ella, dearest, please mind your lang—”
She reached out and slapped his face as hard as she could. “My letters? The dog tags? What have you done with them?”
“I…the little beaded tag necklace I assume to which you refer I threw into the harbor. No one will be buying you adornments except me. The letters and photographs were inducements to remember another life, which was making it difficult for you to adjust to this one.”
“And my jewels? Were my jewels making it easy for me to adjust to life without you?”
“Adele advised me, my dear, and I must say it made absolute sense.”
“Absolute sense because without them I can’t leave, you mean?”
“I…well...but it’s for your own good. We are engaged.”
“We are bullshit, and what you have done is against the law.”
“It isn’t, actually. As your fiancé, I have every right to control your finances, not to mention your state of mind—which the Morton’s family doctor can confirm—is not stable.”
Ella stared at the smoldering fireplace, her passport and photos now ash. She didn’t see the jewels, but if he’d thrown the dog tags away earlier he probably didn’t have the gems on him now. She was trembling with rage and knew that was a state where she did not do her best thinking.
She turned and left the room, the sound of him calling her name ringing in her ears and ran down the stairs and out the front door. She had no hat, no purse, no money and nowhere to go. Blinded by the fury of what Lawrence had done, she ran without thinking in the direction that Adele had once warned her about.
The heat pounded her uncovered head, prompting a solid, unrelenting headache before she had walked ten minutes. When she calmed enough to look around, she was satisfied that Lawrence wouldn’t think to have gone this direction to find her.
The next thought came into her brain like a searing lightning bolt. It was accompanied by an excruciating longing that made her stop and grasp the side of a brick walkway that bordered the road.
Somewhere in this world, she had a child.
The thought came to her from the depths of her anger and shot to brain central as accurately as her next breath.
She was someone’s mother. She leaned against the brick and her hand went to her abdomen. There was no physical way of detecting the difference. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she thought her breasts were a little larger than they had been. But in the whirling vortex of all her new experiences, she hadn’t spent much time thinking about it.
Now, without any evidence to support it other than her own undeniable belief, she knew she had a child.
So what am I doing in 1825? Is the baby back in 2013? Is he… A smile came unbidden to her lips. It’s a boy. I have a little boy. How I know that I don’t know, but I know it. She wrapped her arms around herself and rocked with the joy and wonder of her new knowledge.
I’m a mother!
She took two more steps and thought, the photo in the valise. And then the anger returned because Lawrence had destroyed the photo—her only picture of her child. When she realized that, she thought for a moment that she might be able to go back to the house and murder him. She took a long steadying breath and set her shoulders.
I’m never going back. There’s nothing for me there now but ashes.
She walked toward the harbor, as it was now clear this was where the street was leading. The gulls were closer, and the topmasts of the ships in the harbor were visible over the clapboard and brick houses that lined the street.
Where am I going? No money. No friends. No idea of how to get home. No idea of where home is…
“Oy, matey, take a look at ‘is one! Here’s one don’t look like she’s had too much!”
“I seen her first! Hullo, luv. We ain’t got money but we can promise ye a long hard ride!”
Ella slowed her steps as she approached the men. There were two on one side of the street and one on the other. They looked rough, dirty and scarred. The one nearest her had most of his teeth missing.
“Take ‘er in the alley. Us three first. Grab ‘er! She looks like she can run fast!”
Ella swiveled to dash back the way she’d come. One of the men had already started to run for her and she feared his arms were long enough to snag the tail of her skirt, but it was either run or—
She slammed to a stop to avoid the two men who had been creeping up behind her. Now there were five. Before she could think which way to bolt, she felt a strong arm snake around her waist from behind and jerk her off her fee
t. She arched her back to try to break his hold and reached behind to grab for anything she could—eyes, hair, nose. He jerked his head away from her and swung her over his hip where she could do no damage.
“Back off, mates,” he said firmly. “This one’s mine.”
It was the voice more than anything. As soon as she heard him speak, a once-familiar image came charging through the mists of confusion and fear and the adrenalin-charged jumble of terror. She twisted around to see his face, but she knew before she laid eyes on him that it was him.
“Rowan!”
21
Ella fought to get to her feet and see his face. She was aware of the other men—only minutes before insidious menaces to her—now crowding around the two of them like they were at a family reunion.
“Oy, matey, is that ‘er, then?”
“Arrr, she’s a looker, mkubwa. Well done, lad!”
Ella felt herself trembling as images and memories came crashing back to her in swift seconds. Her baby! Halima! Cairo! And her dearest Rowan…who had been lost and was now holding her in his arms, his eyes devouring her with a hunger that matched her own.
He looked like he’d aged ten years. His face was bronze-dark, his blue eyes bright and snapping. His hair was long and he looked as thin as she’d ever seen him—wiry and hard. What was there was all muscle.
“Rowan,” she said again as he crushed her into his arms, holding her so tightly she found herself fighting for breath. “It’s you. It’s really you.”
“How can it be that you’re here?” he whispered into her hair, his hands roaming her back and shoulders as if to prove to himself she was no phantom. “You came after me?”
“If you’d asked me that five minutes ago,” Ella said, laughing in spite of herself, “I couldn’t have told you.” She pulled away and looked into his eyes. “Oh, Rowan,” she said. “I forgot I even lost you and now I’ve found you.”
“God’s teeth, mkubwa, go on and take the room over the Lime and Pistol. We’re heading back to the ship.”
Rowan waved to the men, his eyes never leaving Ella’s. “How did you know I was here? How the hell did you find me?”
“Long story. Let’s get off the street and I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”
He reached down to grab her legs and swung her into his arms. “I’m not letting you out of my sight for even a minute,” he said, “in case this is all a dream.”
Ella wrapped her arms around his neck. She didn’t look at her surroundings as Rowan strode down the street and slipped into a back alley. She didn’t question how he knew where he was going. Or care. She was safe and they were together and nothing else mattered now. She clutched him and buried her face in his stained and ripped shirt, the smell of him reviving her senses all over again until she could no longer hold the tears back.
Rowan bounded up the rickety, wooden, outdoor stairs with her still in his arms and kicked open the door. The one-eyed Tunisian, Argo, sat on the floor, a hookah pipe in his hands. He looked up in confusion.
“Out, Argo. Now,” Rowan said.
“Cor, that’s something desperate, mate.”
“Now.” Rowan set Ella down on her feet and the shipmate, barely as tall as Ella, gathered up his pipe and hat and slipped out the door. Rowan shut the door and wedged a chair under the handle. Before he took the two steps back to her, she was in his arms. She felt him lift her up, his arms hard and powerful under her bottom. Their lips met hungrily as if this were the true identification process.
Ella felt the room swirl around her as Rowan carried her to the bed and eased her down onto her back.
“Talk later,” he rasped hoarsely, his eyes glazed with want.
He thinks this isn’t real, Ella thought as she jerked his shirt open across his chest. He thinks I’m going to disappear. She slid her hand into the front of his pants and wrapped her fingers around his cock, hard and ready. He groaned.
“I’m real, Rowan,” she whispered into his ear.
He reacted immediately, wrenching her skirts up and ripping her underclothes down her legs. She parted her thighs as he rammed into her, taking her with all the force and power of ownership. She came in uncontrollable spasms on the second thrust arching her back and letting the waves of ecstasy radiate from her core and ripple through her body. She wrapped her legs around his back as he rode her to his own finish crying out in raw triumph as he did. After it was over, she held him tightly with her legs and arms and felt him tremble.
“You’re home, babe,” she said. “You’re finally home.”
***
An hour later, he’d taken her two more times and each time Ella felt his power and control build until he collapsed on top of her spent but not shaking. She kissed his face and squirmed out from under him, looking at her surroundings for the first time.
“You live here?” she asked, glancing at the rough wooden walls and worn rug on the floor.
“No, I live on a boat,” he said, his voice gravelly and low. His eyes were closed.
“Is that a pirate boat? Were those…friends of yours…pirates?”
He opened one eye. “How do you know about that?”
“I was in Casablanca looking for you. I was told you were taken captive by a pirate named Sully.”
“You were in Casablanca in 1825?”
“I was.”
“You left the baby?”
“I had to. Oh, wait! What’s today’s date?”
“I must have left my Day-Timer in my other suit.”
“No, it’s important. I’ve been seriously out of it for the last week but I have a death certificate back in Cairo that says you die on November 1.”
Rowan opened both eyes. “Okay, we need to find a calendar. How do I die?”
“I don’t know.”
They didn’t speak for several moments and it was when she heard the soft burr of his snore that she realized, even with the knowledge of imminent death, Rowan had fallen asleep. She watched his face, relaxed but newly lined in sleep. He looked exhausted and weathered. Of course he would after crossing the Atlantic in a four-month sail through every kind of weather. Imagining him on the pirate boat—as she had done many times before arriving in Key West—her heart filled with pride and love…and anxiety. She leaned over and kissed his full lips.
How she had longed to see this face. How desperately she had prayed to feel his strong arms around her. She kissed him again, her heart full of the grace she felt showering down upon her.
Now if we can just get back to 1925 Cairo.
She closed her eyes with the sound of his rhythmic breathing in her ear, so familiar, so reassuring. She didn’t know how long she slept, but she awakened to the feeling of Rowan’s fingers slipping into the slick wetness between her legs. She gasped, still half asleep, as he thrust his fingers, thick and hard inside her and she felt herself falling into the rhythm of what he was doing to her. Her body responded immediately. She groaned until she felt the tip of his cock, rock hard and insistent, poised between her legs and she angled her hips up and spread her legs to receive him.
His breath was warm and scented against her cheek. “Tell me it’s really you,” he whispered hoarsely.”
“It’s really me,” she gasped, “needing you in me, now.”
He rolled them both over so that Ella was on top. She grabbed his cock and slipped him inside of her, her head flung back to enjoy every inch of the slide. She groaned and began to move up and down on him, at first languorously and then urgently. Rowan clapped his hands on her hips to keep her in motion on him as she began to lose control.
When she came, emitting a low series of whimpers that pushed Rowan over the edge, he roared his own release until she collapsed on him.
When she had the energy, she lifted her head to look into his eyes. He smiled and gave her naked bottom a squeeze. “You sure I don’t die in bed?” he said.
“That’s not funny, Rowan.”
“I know.” He pulled himself up to a sitting
position and leaned in to kiss her. “I love you so much, El,” he said. “A part of me still can’t believe you’re here.”
“I know,” she said, returning his kiss. She leaned back against the rough clapboard wall that the bed was jammed up against. “How did you fall off the ship going to London?”
Rowan shook his head and his eyes looked around the room as if trying to find his clothes. “I don’t even know. One minute I’m on board exploring the ship and the next I’m waking up in a lifeboat with a splitting headache.”
“I guess we’ll never know.”
“What about you? Where are you staying? When did you get here?”
Suddenly Ella remembered Lawrence. She realized that the bastard totally took advantage of her memory loss. She felt a flush of anger.
“Babe?”
She saw Rowan was dressing, and from the dying light outside they’d been there for several hours.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “When I crossed over to 1825 I lost my memory. I didn’t remember you or Tater or Egypt or anything.”
“Holy shit.”
“Olna said it might happen. It was because I traveled too recently.”
“When you went to Casablanca.”
“Which I had to do or else I wouldn’t know where you’d been taken. But I’m not going to be able to go back immediately.”
Rowan was nodding as if thinking. “Do you have any money?”
“I did but…I lost it.”
“You were robbed?”
“You could say that.”
“I don’t suppose you brought something for me to travel back with?”
Her anger at Lawrence erupted into a barely suppressed rage when she had to tell Rowan she’d lost his dog tags, too. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“No worries,” he said, looking nonetheless worried. “I got something that’ll work back on Die Hard.”
When Ella gave him a questioning look, he said, “That bastard Sully took my wedding ring and my lighter. You remember, the one you gave me?”
“Of course. And you think he still has it?”
“I don’t know but it’s all I’ve got. A mate told me he sold the ring in Nassau.”
Race to World's End (Rowan and Ella Book 3) Page 19