As Elise turned, she spotted the lad Elijah. He leaned against a small wood ledge, his bare feet braced for balance as he concentrated mightily on a piece of wood he was whittling with a knife. As she drew closer he threw her a bright grin, holding up his work piece to show her, then bending his head to it once more.
Elise was not certain what the piece of wood was going to be. "How is your carving coming along, Elijah?"
A serious determination settled on his face. Darien had shared with her he had lost his father three years past to a freak accident. Given Elijah's natural love of the sea, Darien allowed him to serve as cabin boy from time to time on short trips.
"I'm making me little brother a soldier."
"He'll love that," she said with a smile, touching the boy's soft blond hair. "You've made him something very special."
"Mr. Darien said if I keep working on it, before I know it, it'll be what I want."
Looking at it, Elise hoped Darien was correct.
"I'm sure it will turn out just as you wish," Darien said from behind them.
Elise tossed him a smile in greeting.
Carefully, Elijah folded his knife and dropped it into his breeches pocket. With a big grin he launched himself into Darien's arms.
Darien caught the boy, then placed him back on his feet.
"Come on, let me see how you are progressing, young man."
"It is almost done. What do you think?" The boy held out the piece of wood expectantly.
Elijah watched them, the two blond heads so alike as Darien squatted beside the boy, carefully turning over the piece of wood to inspect it.
"You are right," he said, nodding now. "It is almost done. Here, hand me your knife a moment. I see a small nick which we must smooth out."
As Elise watched, Darien carefully carved a groove down the middle to give definition to the soldier's legs. He handed the boy back his knife.
"There, now do the same for the arms, one on either side and I would venture a guess you will have this completed by the time we reach shore."
Elise continued on her walk, totally undone by the look of pure devotion on Elijah's thin face. Darien would have made a wonderful father to her daughter Isabeau. A deep anguish, one she thought long suppressed, pushed to the top of her chest.
"What is it that troubles you Elise?" Darien fell into step beside her. "Do you not care for children?"
She halted in surprise. "Oh, Darien, I love children." She stopped speaking, frowning, then shook her head and walked on.
"Go on," he urged, "you do not need to mince words with me."
"It may shock you, Darien," she said with a glint in her eye, "to know just how independent I have become. Quite unlike most of the women of this time."
"I can see that," he said with a slight grin. "How did this happen?"
"Out of necessity." She looked out to the sea, the sound of the water rhythmic as the waves hammered the ship. "I was dropped in the other time with nothing but the clothes on my back. I certainly had no skills other than by performing menial labor."
"Mandine did this to you."
"I was lucky," she went on, ignoring him. "The family I lived with, they call it foster care, truly cared about me. They sent me to school and I earned a teaching certificate. Mandine told me the woman, Alexandra, was my real birth mother. The mother I thought died right after I was born."
"Your birth mother was also in this time?"
"When she stood at death's door in this time, Mandine sent her to the future. She lived."
"Did your mother tell you this?"
"No. Mandine said her memories didn't survive. She never knew." Elise smiled. "People used to remark about our resemblance, and we thought it amusing, but I also recall it made me feel as if I really belonged."
"What happened to your mother?"
"She passed away a few years ago. She lived a good life. She remarried. Declan was a good man. He loved her dearly. He loved me also." Elise smiled with the memories. "In time, they left me the house which I now own. I live in this other time in the same area, but in the twenty-first century. I never leave for very long. I am always pulled back to the mountains. My cottage rests at the base of the mountain. Declan, my dad in this time, raised horses."
He remained silent a moment. "Tell me more of this other life."
"I am a published author." She smiled. "I found my niche, as they say. I write sweet romances, love stories that are set in this time. I've been quite successful," she admitted.
"A scholar. I must read your stories."
"I have quite a following."
"Do you live alone?" She felt his tension, his eyes searching.
"I do now." She met his eyes squarely. "After being in that time ten years, I met someone. He was a wonderful man, gentle and caring. We married."
Darien gripped the rail. "You said 'was'."
"He died when -- that is, we were only married five years. He was not a well man when we married. Our marriage was born out of friendship and perhaps loneliness on both our parts." Elise wet her lips, tasted the salt of the sea and perhaps of her own tears. "We never consummated the marriage. He was injured, his voice and his spine. I prefer not to go into the details, but he is the reason I learned sign language. We had a good friendship based on trust and respect. It never became more than that." She cleared her throat. "I was lonely. If circumstances had been different I might have consummated the marriage. I will never know."
Darien's eyes had a far off look to them. "We have a daughter," he said in a low voice.
Elise nodded.
"She is in this other time."
"Yes."
"Mr. Darien, Sir, excuse me Sir --" Elijah ran toward them, a look of excitement on his face. He pointed over the side.
They turned together to discover what Elijah had become excited about. While they had been in conversation some of the mist had lifted. The sun began to burn through the fog that remained. On the horizon and drawing closer they could see a large ship.
"Whaling ship," murmured Darien.
"Can we watch them, can we?" the boy asked in growing excitement.
Darien shrugged, turned to the first mate who had also come to stand at the rail.
"We have time on our side, do we not, Joquin?"
Joquin nodded.
"Then give the order to follow the whaling ship at a distance."
Elise, of course, had never seen a whaling ship in action, but instead of sharing Elijah's exhilaration she felt instead a rising dread.
As they drew near she could see there were four smaller boats in the water, up to half a dozen men in each. The men were rowing and pulling the oars for all they were worth as they moved to follow their prey.
Some way ahead of the boats she caught a glimpse of a gray-white hump rising above the water. With a gasp of astonishment, for she had never seen a whale breach so close, she watched breathlessly as an enormous whale half-rose and then flopped on its side like some giant performing mammal, water rising around it in white plumes, a wall of water engulfing the men who pursued it.
Tensely, Elise stood by the rail, saw the men in their small boats as they propelled the boat with almost superhuman effort across the rolling waves. The boats were like toboggans on snow, gliding up over the waves and then abruptly down as they rode against the sea.
The whale rose to the surface, coming up almost under one of the boats. Elise thought they would be overturned. A wall of water from the slap of the whale's enormous tail covered them, the boat went under, but then abruptly bobbed up like a cork. The men stood in the boats, harpoons at the ready.
They drew nearer, then the bright steel flew through the air, hitting its mark, embedding in the gray side of the whale, piercing its hide. A second blade of steel bounced off the creature like a harmless toothpick, and for that Elise was silently grateful.
The boat with the rope attached to the harpoon embedded in the whale suddenly flew across the water as the whale swam off. The water was red,
but Elise couldn't turn away. From all sides the small boats closed in on the massive whale, harpoons and blades flying toward the creature. Slowly, gradually, all movement ceased and the great creature lay still except for the rolling movement of the waves.
She turned away, feeling sick to her stomach. The whale had no chance against the determination of man.
"You look pale, Elise."
"I shouldn't have watched. I feel bad for the whale. In the present time we would watch the whales come to the surface again and again."
"There is whaling?"
"In some countries, but there are laws that govern how and where whaling can take place. Of course there's still abuse, but there's great concern the whale will become extinct. However, people do charter boats in the hope of spotting whales."
"In my early days at sea, I worked on a whaling ship," he admitted, then shrugged. "It was not work of which I was fond, but it was a trade I tried my hand at for a time."
"It looks extremely dangerous."
"Yes, it is that. Many a man has lost his life when pitted against the combination of the whale and the sea."
They left the whaling ship behind them, their course once more set for more northerly seas. Elise looked back one more time at the men in their small boats as they worked tirelessly to tow their prize to the larger ship.
For Elise, seeing the whale killed enforced the notion that was becoming more and more solidified in her mind. She had spent more of her life in a more modern century then she had in the place she was born. She did not belong in this time.
"We will be home soon," Darien said.
Home. Where would home be when all this played out?
#
With a soft word, Darien halted his horse beside the creek. Dismounting, he allowed the animal to graze. Troubled by his own thoughts, he sat upon a boulder, leaning an elbow upon an updrawn knee.
With Elise in his house, in his life, it seemed so easy a situation to resolve this inner turmoil. Why then did he continually fight against that which he wanted deep in his heart? He had always gone after that which he wanted, so why would now be any different? Was it just a matter of pride that kept him fully from her?
Damnation, he loved her, had always loved her. Why deny or hide it? Was it pride that got in the way? He had loved her these twenty years and more. Many times he had felt as if he hated her also. And now he had no choice but to believe what she told him. All of it she'd said or none of it. He clenched his fist. He had a daughter. But she was in this other time. Sadness and a touch of anger twisted through him to think he would never meet his daughter.
Darien mounted his horse and headed northeast, away from home. Two rabbits skittered through the brush, zigzagging away from him. Darien pulled his shotgun from its scabbard and took aim. He needed only one more for dinner. He never took more than he needed.
The rabbit dropped, and its companion ran ahead to live another day. Darien jumped from the saddle, and turned to untie the feed sack on his saddlebag.
He thought he heard something and listened. He could see nothing. The area was overgrown, the old path indistinguishable, testimony to the fact not many had passed this way. Darien had not been along this path in many a year -- really, not since the last time he and Elise had taken it together.
It had been deliberate on his part. He'd wanted to erase all the memories, the pain of the past. This area held too much history for star-crossed young lovers.
Something drew him on, some elusive voice beckoning to him. He had paid attention to that inner voice before and it had saved his hide a time or two. He had no reason to doubt its validity.
Darien wended his way along the barely discernible footpath, his horse trailing behind him. He had spent many a day thusly since their return from the sea. Perhaps it was only fitting that today he journey this way… to the Spruce Woods.
His steps quickened and he began to experience an eagerness to see the building, the old sap house, as it stood now. He walked through knee-high ferns, their gentle fronds giving way. At last he saw the abandoned sap house. Forlornly, it sat in the small clearing.
As the sun moved lower in the sky, the last rays of light slanted with faded warmth across the small structure, lending it a strange, other-worldly appearance. Minuscule particles seemed to float in the air, gleaming as if with a life of their own, swirling and swirling, and yet there was no breeze. In that moment, if someone had told him this was a fairy glen where magic abounded, he would have been hard pressed not to believe it.
Darien let his sack drop to the ground. As he stepped closer, a sudden gust of wind whistled down from the rock ledges. It pushed the unbound hair off his collar, almost as if fingers played over his scalp.
He pushed the door open, and it gave way easily. Curious, Darien stooped with bent knee and looked at the hinges, wondering if someone lived hereabout and kept the old door primed. The hinges were twisted and rusted. It was a mystery to him that the door opened at all.
The old shack was in a sorry, dilapidated state. Even so, his mind was awash with memories of his trysts here with Elise. So real were the images in his head that he looked inside half expecting to see two young lovers.
Dry leaves crumpled beneath his boots. Now, even the wind grew silent beyond the thin walls. Despite what he had envisioned, the past had not materialized before his eyes. It was merely an abandoned shed standing alone at the base of the mountain.
Darien observed a gap in the back wall and chiding himself for his fanciful imaginings, he ran a hand along the rough walls, feeling the boards shift. He caught site of a brightly colored cloth caught against the gray, rotted wood. He pulled it, but it was impaled on a thick sliver of wood. He moved closer and his foot came down on something hard. Puzzled, he picked up the object and examined it closely. It was smoothly cylindrical and several inches long, with a small, oddly grooved wheel on one end.
He dropped it in his breeches pocket, resolving to study it closer at a later time. He pried the colored cloth loose and when he had it fully in his hand he realized it was a pouch. Deep red, it had flat black straps not unlike harness straps coming from either side.
Darien thought it the strangest type of leather he had seen, with bulky appendages on either end. Carrying the pouch with him, he opened his saddle bag and dropped it inside. It made a noise so he opened it further and found two objects inside.
Two peculiarly colored orange apothecary bottles. They were not the heavy glass he was accustomed to seeing but very light and almost transparent.
On the face of each bottle was printed Elise's name and a date. He closed his fist upon them. Darien shoved the pouch and bottles in his jacket.
Once mounted, he urged his horse into a ground eating canter.
#
Elise pushed the needle carefully into the delicate silk fabric, then pulled the thread through and knotted it. Holding the blouse up, she decided the patch would not show through. At least mending and sewing was something she had not lost touch with.
Booted feet were heard as they made their way quickly to the library where she sat. Looking up, she smiled at Darien as he strode into the room. He had an air of purpose about him that was easy to discern. He dropped something into her lap. Disbelieving, she looked up at him.
"You were at the sap house."
He nodded and reached into his breeches pocket.
"Yes."
Her fanny pack and medication bottles clunked onto the table beside her.
"Those are mine."
"So everything you told me was the truth."
"My lighter also," she mused. "I lost it in the sap house that first morning, but I couldn't find it."
"A lighter?" he repeated. "This small object is a light?"
Elise smiled. "No, well, not exactly. Let me show you." She flicked the small wheel, igniting the flame.
He stared at the flame, reached forward to run his fingers through it, as if disbelieving that fire could be so contained.
"It's
for lighting cigarettes -- cigars. Quite common in the other time."
"You smoke cigars?"
She laughed. "No. I used it to light camp fires, that kind of thing."
"What of the other, the bottles?"
"It's old medicine. I haven't needed it since I arrived."
"But what if you needed it? Why did you not ask me to retrieve it? I would have done so. You could have proven your story earlier if you had told me of what lay in the shack."
"I told you, you either believed me or not, with or without evidence."
"I already believed what you told me before I found it."
"It certainly didn't show."
"And for that I am sorry." He paced in front of her, angry at himself for doubting her. He turned back, his face grim. "You kept me in your heart all these years and I --" he looked away, fists clenched. "I used every means possible to cast you from mine. You cannot imagine what I wished visited upon you, Elise. I do not deserve you -- that you believed in me and came back."
Elise stood and went to him, placing her palms gently against his chest. "Don't. There was no way you could know until I came back and told you. If I had been left by you in similar circumstances, perhaps I would have felt the same."
"All those years that Mandine followed me. She must have known of my torment, yet she said not a word."
"What could she have said that you would have listened to?"
He was silent a moment, but then he nodded. "You are right."
"But now we've been given a new chance."
"Yes," he murmured. "At first, I did not believe you spoke the truth. In my anger, I convinced myself you knew only lies."
Darien pulled her into his arms. His fingers threaded gently into her hair, his touch creating an instant yearning that Elise could not deny. She put her head back against him, savoring the feel and scent of Darien.
Warm lips pressed a lingering kiss on her forehead.
"I do not wish to languish over any sense of remorse," he murmured huskily. "We cannot waste any more precious time."
Time Travel Romance Collection Page 46