Rendezvous With Yesterday

by Dianne Duvall

  Beth waited for him to speak. Gave him time to gather his thoughts.

  His nearness went a long way toward soothing the butterflies in her stomach. His warmth. His strength. His scent.

  Drawing in a deep breath, she savored it, that bewitching aroma that was Robert’s alone. Unclouded by cologne, it appealed to her senses more than the mightiest of aphrodisiacs.

  It still astounded her—how swiftly she had come to know it. To know him.

  And to love him so completely.

  Drawing in a deep breath, Robert raised his head and straightened his shoulders. “There is another reason I asked Dillon and Alyssa to come here, beyond desiring their presence at our wedding.”

  “Okay.” For some reason, she suddenly wanted to flee the conversation. “What might that be?”

  A muscle in his jaw jumped. “I asked them to come because I believe Alyssa may be able to help you.”

  Help her? Help her how? Alyssa was a healer. Beth wasn’t sick. What exactly did Robert think Alyssa could help her with?

  Her stomach sank as a possible answer hit her.

  Alyssa was perfect, right? Hadn’t Robert waxed freaking poetic every time he had spoken of her?

  Stepping back, she broke his hold and struggled to quell the hurt that rose within her.

  It was only logical, right? Beth was from the future and knew very little of the social customs of this time. It shouldn’t bother her that, despite his assurances to the contrary, Robert thought she needed some work in order to fit in, that he wanted her to become more like Alyssa.

  But it did. It really did.

  “So, you asked her to come here and, what, train me?” No amount of effort could keep the resentment from her voice. “You want her to help me be more like a lady? To be more like her?”

  Robert’s mouth fell open. “What?” He looked so aghast that she knew she had guessed incorrectly.

  She eyed him uncertainly. “That isn’t why she’s here?”

  He actually started to look a little angry.

  Or maybe a lot.

  “Beth, have you never believed me when I told you I love you?”

  She frowned. “Of course I believed you.”

  “Nay, you did not,” he protested with a scowl. “If you believed me, such would not have even occurred to you. You would know that there is naught I wish to change about you. I love you as you are.”

  Beth held up her hands. “Look, we both know everyone thinks I’m weird.”

  “I care naught what anyone else thinks!” he practically bellowed, startling her into silence. He was getting that red-in-the-face, murderous look that came over him whenever he thought someone maligned Alyssa. “I love you! I love everything about you. Your wisdom. Your wit. Your laughter. Your strength. Your beauty. Your scent. Your touch. There is naught about you that is not perfect and anyone who suggests otherwise will find my sword embedded in his belly!”

  Wow.

  Just… wow.

  He actually seemed hurt that she might think he wanted to change her. “I don’t get it,” she broached hesitantly. “You said you thought Alyssa could help me. If you weren’t talking about etiquette lessons, what did you mean?”

  “I meant—” He clamped his lips shut. Pacing away from her, he raked his fingers through his hair as he was wont to do when troubled.

  “Robert?”

  His back to her, he propped his hands on his hips and lowered his head. When next he spoke, his voice was low. Reluctant. As though she forcibly dragged the words from him against his will. “You told me that the day you traveled back in time, a man came to you, garbed all in black.”

  She nodded slowly. “The monk? Or the guy dressed like a monk? Yeah. I mean, aye. But it wasn’t real, remember? It was a hallucination.”

  He turned to face her. “I believe it was real, Beth. I believe the man in the dark robe came to you, healed you, and carried you back in time.”

  What?

  She frowned. “Okay. Let’s say he was real. What does that have to do with Alyssa?”

  “I believe Alyssa’s brother was the one who brought you to me. The one who brought you back in time.” His throat worked. “And if I am right, she can summon him here to Fosterly to take you home again.”

  Beth stared at him, uncomprehending.

  The gears that powered her brain ground to a screeching halt, preventing her from processing whatever Robert was trying to tell her. She didn’t want to process it. “I don’t…” Closing her eyes, she shook her head slightly to clear it. “You think the man I thought I saw after I was shot… you’re saying that was Alyssa’s brother?”

  “I believe so, aye.”

  Opening her eyes, Beth stared at him.

  He kept his expression blank. Only a slight tic in his jaw betrayed his unease.

  She must have misunderstood. He couldn’t be saying what she thought he was.

  Could he? Could she have been such a fool?

  Nausea struck, as did a fierce pounding in her head. Her breath shortened. “Alyssa’s brother can travel through time?” Her eyes burned as tears blurred her vision. “You knew? All this time, while I’ve been questioning my sanity and trying to understand what happened to me, trying to figure out how the hell I came here, you knew and you said nothing?” The pain of his betrayal pierced her breast and made her head swim.

  “Beth—”

  “Shut up!” Raising a trembling hand to her forehead, she drew her fingers across it. “I can’t believe this,” she whispered. “I can’t believe this. So… what? This was all a game to you?”

  “Nay, I—”

  “Bringing me here, watching me flounder and struggle to get my bearings, making me fall in love with you—”

  “Beth—”

  “Shut up!”

  It didn’t make any sense. Robert wasn’t cruel. He was not a cruel man. She would bet her life on it. She had bet her life on it, in a way. How could he have done this to her?

  Her head began to swim. “I can’t think. I feel dizzy.”

  Robert swiftly closed the distance between them and, taking her arm, guided her to one of the chairs before the hearth. As Beth sank weakly onto the polished wood, he knelt before her and took her icy hands in his own. “Beth, love, listen to me.”

  “I trusted you,” she whispered.

  “And your trust was not misplaced,” he vowed earnestly, his warm hands chafing her fingers to warm them. “Please, Beth, let me speak.”

  Robert had held her while she’d cried. Those first few nights when grief over losing Josh had seemed unbearable, when confusion and fear had overwhelmed her, she had crawled into his bed like a child seeking the comfort of a parent after a gruesome nightmare, and he had voiced not one objection. Despite the discomfort he must have felt when his body had responded to her own cuddled up against his, he had not pressured her for greater intimacy. Nor had he pressured her to explain her tears or grim silence.

  He had protected her. He had sheltered her. He had lied about where she had come from so others would accept her, and had done all he could to ease her transition into his world. He had shared his painful past with her, confessed the grief and regret he had felt over the deaths of his lover and their son. He had made her laugh and teased her and tried to please her in a thousand ways.

  And he had made love to her with such aching tenderness.

  It couldn’t have been a lie. It couldn’t all have been a lie.

  “Beth?”

  She nodded, giving him permission to speak, needing him to make it right.

  “I have told you of Alyssa, of her family and the other gifted ones,” he began. “How each was born with special talents or abilities the rest of us lack.”

  “You said she could heal.” Beth didn’
t know whether she acknowledged it or leveled an accusation.

  He nodded and switched to her other hand. “Alyssa and her grandmother were both born with the ability to heal with their hands. Her mother can scry the future. Her cousin Meghan can move things with her mind and her brother Geoffrey…”

  “Can travel through time,” she finished for him numbly. She would have withdrawn her hand, but Robert wouldn’t let her.

  “In truth, Alyssa has never disclosed her brother’s gifts. I believe she has avoided doing so because she thinks ’twill make me fear him.”

  “You said he brought me back in time.”

  “Sir Geoffrey meets the description of the man you saw after you were wounded. Tall. Dark eyes. Long dark hair. Garbed in the black robes favored by the gifted ones. You said such was uncommon in your time.”

  The robes were. “You don’t know for sure it was him?”

  “Nay. And I will not until Alyssa confirms it.”

  She took a moment to absorb that. “Have you suspected this all along?”

  Some of the tightness in her chest eased when he shook his head. “I knew not any of the gifted ones were capable of such an incredible feat. Not until you mentioned the man in black the morning we rode for Terrington. Ere then, I could find no explanation for what had brought you to me.”

  “That was three weeks ago, Robert. Why didn’t you tell me then?”

  “I knew ’twould trouble you, Beth. I knew you would worry and fret every moment of every day until Alyssa arrived and could answer your questions.”

  No sense in denying it. “So, you were trying to protect me?”

  He nodded. “If I am wrong… Had I told you, I would have raised your hopes for naught.”

  “And if you’re right?”

  He sighed and pressed his lips to her fingers. “I needed this time with you, Beth.”

  Her throat tightened as he stared at her with his heart in his eyes.

  “If Sir Geoffrey can walk through time and agrees to return you to the future, to take you out of my life…” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I needed this time with you. I needed the memories we have created to help sustain me after you leave, after you return to your home.”

  Home.

  A tear spilled over her lashes and traced a chilly path down one cheek. Her throat grew so thick Beth had to clear it before she could speak. “The thing is, I’m not sure I know where home is anymore, Robert.”

  She loved him. She would always love Robert.

  But she loved her brother, too, and had left him bleeding to death in that forest.

  Cupping the back of her head in one large palm, Robert pressed a tender kiss to her lips, then wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

  Beth fisted her hands in his tunic, pulling him even closer.

  They remained thus for a long time.

  And though both feared what the future would bring, Robert did not ask her to stay. Not because he didn’t love her, Beth knew. But because he would always place her happiness and her desires before his own.

  Burying her face in his warm neck, she wept.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Beth and Robert made their way down to the great hall, as somber as a funeral procession.

  Beth’s anxiety over meeting the wondrously perfect Alyssa had evaporated beneath the onslaught of apprehension spawned by the bombshell Robert had dropped in his solar.

  Robert stopped her halfway down the stairs. “Beth, I feel I should warn you…”

  She groaned. “Ro-bert.” She really couldn’t take any more bad news today.

  His lips twitched. “I only wished to impart that Alyssa’s gifts have grown considerably in recent years and—”

  “Grown how?”

  “She is far more powerful than she used to be. When she touches you now, she can not only heal you and read your emotions, she can also hear your thoughts as clearly as though you have spoken them aloud and glean images from your past.”

  Crap. That was kind of scary actually. Not in a She’s-a-witch!-Burn-her! kind of way. But in an All-your-deepest-darkest-secrets-will-be-revealed kind of way.

  “Dillon and I have each learned to erect a shield of sorts in our mind,” Robert said, “so she can only see what we wish her to see. Most of the time. But since you cannot, I did not think ’twould be fair for you to meet her without first knowing this.”

  “Oh.” What else could she say to that? “Thank you?”

  Nodding, he took her arm and guided her down the remaining steps.

  As they entered the great hall, Dillon exited the kitchen with a boy on his hip who looked to be about three or four years old.

  As soon as the little boy saw Robert, he squealed in delight, wriggled to get down, then raced toward them, crying out for his uncle Robert.

  Beth smiled as Robert picked him up, hugged him, and bussed him on the cheek. Except for the brown eyes, the resemblance was remarkable. Both had jet-black hair. Similar noses. Similar chins, though the boy’s was more rounded.

  Anyone who didn’t know better would probably assume this was Robert’s son.

  Sadness filtered through her as she thought of the child Robert had lost.

  Did he see Gabriel every time he looked at his nephew?

  “Beth,” Robert said with a grin, “this fierce little warrior is my nephew, Ian.” He set the boy down. “Ian, this is Lady Bethany.”

  Ian performed the cutest little bow.

  Utterly charmed, Beth curtsied in response. “Such a strong, handsome warrior. I suspect you shall slay many dragons when you are older.”

  His eyes lit up. “Dragons?”

  Joining them, Dillon smoothed a hand over the boy’s hair. “’Twill take a great deal of training ere you can accomplish such a feat. Why not hone your skills by sparring with Sir Stephen?”

  His face wreathed in a smile, Ian took off running to the other side of the hall, where Stephen waited with a couple of small wooden swords.

  Beth smiled as she watched the two begin a mock battle.

  Robert shook his head. “Whatever are you going to do with a daughter, Dillon?” He turned to Beth. “Alyssa is with child again. She carries my niece.”

  “Oh, my goodness! That’s wonderful! Congratulations!” She would’ve hugged Dillon, but wasn’t sure if that would be considered inappropriate and really wanted to make a better impression on him.

  Dillon nodded, looking both proud and pensive. “In truth, I know not what I shall do with a little girl.”

  Beth shrugged. “Put a sword in her hands and train her alongside Ian.”

  Robert grinned.

  Dillon eyed her speculatively.

  “Hey, every woman needs to know how to defend herself,” Beth pointed out. “If she doesn’t, what’s going to happen to her if she’s attacked one day when you’re not around?”

  Dillon looked ill at the prospect. Turning toward the hearth, he shouted. “Alyssa, I am putting a sword in our daughter’s hands as soon as she can hold one, and will hear no objections from you.”

  “As you will, my lord.” The words were spoken not submissively, but with amused indulgence.

  Beth followed the soft sounds to the exquisite figure seated before the hearth. “Ah, hell.”

  Robert’s head snapped around. “What?”

  “That’s Alyssa?”

  Beside her, Dillon stiffened. “You object?”

  “Nay,” she said quickly, realizing she had offended him. “It’s just…” She gazed upon Dillon’s wife, then motioned to her despondently. “Look at her. She’s perfect, like Robert said. Perfect hair. Perfect skin. A perfect, pretty face. Perfect posture. She’s probably even sewing a perfect seam. How the hell am I supposed to compete with that?”

  R
obert coughed to cover a laugh.

  Beth glared at him, seeing nothing funny about it.

  Touching her shoulder, he looked to his brother. “In my attempts to ensure Beth did not fear Alyssa, I might have been a bit too enthusiastic in my praise of her. I fear Beth mistook my affection for Alyssa as something more than brotherly and—despite my assurances—remains a bit jealous.”

  Dillon’s eyebrows flew up. “Of Alyssa?”

  “Aye.”

  The older brother’s lips twitched.

  “Oh, ha, ha, ha. Laugh it up,” Beth groused, and the two men shared a grin.

  Over by the hearth, Alyssa began putting her sewing away and prepared to rise. She really was perfect. A little smaller than Beth, she bore slender arms and graceful hands. Her long raven locks gleamed in the firelight, providing a lovely contrast to pale, radiant, freckle-free skin. When she rose, her gown revealed a tummy barely rounded, indicating she was still in the early months of pregnancy.

  About the only flaw Beth could find was that she looked a little weary.

  Robert took Beth’s arm and escorted her over to the hearth.

  Beth could feel Dillon studying her and fought the urge to squirm like an insect held under a microscope. Robert’s older brother possessed an air of intensity that she had to admit was a bit unsettling and doubtless contributed heavily to people’s fear of him.

  Alyssa smiled when they reached her.

  Dillon moved to stand at her side and placed a possessive hand at her back. His countenance softened slightly as he looked down at her and made the introductions.

  Beth automatically held out her hand. “Robert told me about the baby. Congratulations.”

  As Alyssa reached out to touch her, Beth belatedly remembered Robert’s warning and jerked her hand back at the last minute. If Alyssa touched her, she would be inundated with images from the future. That probably wouldn’t be a good idea until Beth and Robert explained everything.

  Hurt flickered in Alyssa’s dark brown eyes before a veil descended over her features.