Rendezvous With Yesterday

by Dianne Duvall

  “Aye.”

  Robert tightened his hold on Beth, felt her squeeze closer, as though she wanted to burrow beneath his skin, and understood now. While Seth would not harm them physically, he would tear them asunder emotionally when he returned Beth to her life in the future.

  The panic Robert had read in her face now crystallized in his blood.

  The moment he had dreaded had come. With this man’s help, Beth would walk out of his life forever. And with her, she would take his heart and all of his hopes for the future.

  “I can’t do it,” she blurted, and his heart stopped. Beth turned her head to look at Seth. “I can’t do it. I thought I could, but I can’t. I know that makes me a terrible person, a terrible sister, but I can’t. I can’t leave Robert. I love him too much.”

  Robert swallowed hard. “Beth,” he whispered.

  “I know it’s selfish to choose my happiness over Josh’s, but—”

  “Beth,” he repeated, stronger. Loosening his hold, he clasped her face in both hands and forced her to look up at him. “You do not have to choose.”

  Her eyes glistened. “Yes, I do.”

  “Nay, love, you do not.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I will go with you.”

  Dillon made a sound of protest.

  Beth’s face went blank with shock. “Robert, you can’t. Everything you’ve worked so hard for—everything you’ve ever wanted—is here. Your life is here.”

  “My life is with you.” If he had to give up Fosterly, everyone and everything else he knew and loved, he would do so willingly if ’twould ensure he could spend the rest of his days with Beth and prevent her from suffering over her brother’s fate.

  A long silence ensued.

  Alyssa appeared in the doorway. “Dillon,” she said, her face and voice full of concern, “what is amiss? I sensed”—her gaze fell on Seth—“you.”

  A smile full of affection lit Seth’s features as he bowed to Alyssa. “’Tis a pleasure to see you again, my lady.”

  With a quick glance at Dillon, she hesitantly offered Seth her hand.

  His hand was so large it made hers seem like that of a small child as he brought it to his lips.

  Alyssa gave him a faint smile. “You are even better at guarding your thoughts than Dillon and Robert have become.”

  He grinned. “I trust you see naught?”

  “I see naught,” she confirmed.

  He released her hand. “I am delighted to find both you and your daughter well. Her gifts will be nigh as great as your own.”

  Robert slanted Dillon a glance to catch his reaction, but could not tell if his brother was alarmed at the thought or just surprised.

  “If you will forgive me for saying so,” Alyssa parried, “you seem greatly concerned with our happiness and well-being. What are we to you?”

  “You are a gifted one,” he replied, as if ’twas all the answer she needed.

  “Dillon and Robert are not.”

  “Ah, but Lord Dillon is essential to your happiness.”

  “And Robert?”

  “Has been kind to you.”

  “What of Beth?” Robert posed.

  Seth cocked his head to one side in a way that made Robert wonder if he were trying to decide whether or not he should respond. “She is the key to your own happiness, which I desire as a reward for your kindness to Lady Alyssa.”

  Alyssa shook her head. “There is more.”

  Seth’s brow furrowed as he turned to her. “Your powers have grown. Did you see that or merely sense it?”

  “Sense it.”

  He nodded slowly. “I shall have to be more careful. You are correct. There is more. Bethany is a gifted one.”

  “What?” Beth blurted. “I can’t be. I don’t have any gifts or superpowers or whatever.”

  Robert frowned. “She has demonstrated none of the abilities we have come to understand gifted ones may possess.”

  Seth’s shoulders moved in a slight shrug. “The part of her bloodline that comes from gifted ones has weakened over time.”

  “What do you mean?” Beth asked.

  “Whenever a gifted one weds an ordinary man or woman,” Seth explained, “the children born of their union possess gifts that are a little weaker. If those children also wed ordinary spouses, they bear children whose gifts are weaker still. It may not be noticeable during a single life span. But hundreds of years of such can produce great change. Had Beth been born in this time, she would no doubt be able to scry the future and read truth and falsehood with a touch. Instead, those abilities have been dampened enough to seem more to her like…” He seemed to search for the correct word.

  “Good instincts,” Beth murmured.

  Seth nodded. “You knew before you were mortally wounded in that clearing that the men you hunted posed a greater danger than your brother believed. You knew almost as soon as you met him that Robert could be trusted, though your mind tried to instill doubts. And you knew before Robert left for Terrington that he would ride into danger.”

  “How do you know all of this?” she asked him. “How do you know about me and about my brother? How do you know my family’s history? How did you even know Robert and I would fall in love? Are you from the future, too?”

  His lips curved up in a small smile. “Such questions are best left unanswered.”

  “Best for whom?” Beth retorted, voicing the same frustration Robert felt.

  Seth remained silent.

  When Beth scowled and opened her mouth, Robert spoke first to hold off whatever she intended to snap. “Thank you for saving her life and bringing her back to me.”

  Seth inclined his head. “I regret that I must inform you that what you desire is not possible.”

  Robert’s stomach sank. “I cannot accompany Beth to her time?”

  Alyssa took a step forward. “What?” She looked to Dillon, who held his hand out to her and drew her to his side.

  “When Beth returns to her time,” his brother murmured, “Robert wishes to go with her.”

  The distress in Alyssa’s brown eyes pierced Robert deeply when she turned her gaze on him. “You cannot mean it,” she whispered, leaning into Dillon for support. “You would leave us?”

  His throat thickened at the thought of never seeing his family again. “I want what you and Dillon have. And I have found it with Beth. If I must travel to her time and live the rest of my days there in order to hold on to it, I will do so.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Robert,” Beth insisted again. “I told you. I won’t go. I’ll stay here and—”

  “If I might continue?” Seth interrupted.

  All eyes focused on the powerful man.

  “As I stated earlier, Robert cannot live out his life in Bethany’s time.” When Robert opened his mouth to protest, Seth held up one large hand. “Bethany cannot do so either.”

  Beth’s eyes began to burn as she stared up at Seth. She couldn’t go back. She couldn’t go home. Or to what used to be home.

  This was home now. Robert was home.

  But she would never see Josh again. Would never again nearly suffocate when he engulfed her in a bear hug. Would never tell him good-bye or how much he meant to her.

  Grief assailed her. As did guilt, because a tiny part of her was relieved that this decision had been taken out of her hands.

  Seth’s handsome face rippled like the surface of a pond as tears filled her eyes.

  His voice gentled. “Your life in the twenty-first century was meant to end that day, Bethany, either in death or in your retreat to this time.”

  “If such is true,” Robert said, a definite bite to his voice, “why did you not bring her back ere she was injured? Why did you let her suffer?”

  Seth took no
offense, continuing on in the same soft, deep voice he had used since entering the room. “There were others present. Their fate, too, hung in the balance. Of necessity, I had to allow actions to progress to their natural conclusion.”

  Had that natural conclusion included Josh’s death?

  Beth was too afraid to ask.

  “What of her brother?” Robert asked for her. “Did Josh survive?”

  “He did.”

  Beth’s breath hitched. Tears spilled over her lashes as harsh sobs erupted from her chest.

  Josh hadn’t died. The brother she loved so much hadn’t died alone in that clearing with only the corpses of Kingsley and Vergoma for company. Josh was alive.

  Robert wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.

  “Did you heal him as you did Bethany?” Alyssa asked.

  “Partially,” Seth divulged. “I could not heal him entirely without raising too many questions, so I numbed his pain, slowed his blood loss, and healed only that which would have impaired him permanently.”

  He should have made a full recovery then. Had Beth been able to pry her arms from around Robert, she would have thrown them around Seth to thank him for saving her brother’s life.

  “Does he know Beth lives?” Robert asked.

  “Nay. He was unconscious when we left.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut.

  It was her second greatest fear. Josh didn’t know she was all right. He probably thought she was either buried in a shallow grave where he would never find her or the captive of some freak sexual predator who had been helping Kingsley and Vergoma.

  “Seth,” Alyssa inserted into the leaden silence, “there is much I do not understand in all of this, but mayhap one thing most of all. When you brought Bethany to our time, why did you leave her alone, confused and unprotected in the forest with no knowledge of how or why she had come to be there? ’Tis not our nature to be unkind.”

  “She was never vulnerable,” Seth responded. “I placed her directly in Robert’s path, knowing mere minutes would pass before he found her.”

  “But why did you tell none of us this?” Robert demanded.

  Beth shared his frustration. So much fear and confusion had gripped her until she had come to terms with the fact that she had traveled back in time.

  “I fear ignorance in this instance was necessary,” Seth told them. “I risked much to bring her to you. There are others who believe that such interference as this will spark dire repercussions and should be harshly punished.”

  Beth frowned. “Others like you, you mean?”

  “Forgive me, but I can say no more.”

  Which only made Beth want to know more, but she could tell pushing it would be futile.

  “Beth cannot go back?” Robert asked, resting his cheek on her hair.

  “Nay,” Seth said. “Altering her fate in her time would have too many repercussions.”

  Beth couldn’t quite make it all work in her head. “Living in my own time would have repercussions,” she said, still trying to silence her sobs, “but living in this one won’t?”

  He gave her an apologetic Hey-I-don’t-make-the-rules kind of look. “I am not the architect of your fate, Bethany. I am merely a participant.”

  Did that mean she had been destined to go back in time all along? she wondered.

  Then something in his words struck her. “Wait. You said I can’t go back and live in my time. Can I go back for a visit? Can I go back long enough to see Josh and let him know I’m okay and… tell him good-bye?”

  “’Twould be unwise.”

  “Why?” she demanded.

  “As I said, I risked much to bring you here. Those who fear the consequences of such actions—”

  “But I won’t be staying. I just want to see for myself that Josh is okay, to let him see that I’m okay, and to say good-bye. That’s it. I won’t tell everyone who will listen that I’ve traveled through time.” She paused and bit her lip. “I mean, I’ll probably tell Marc and Grant. They’re our best friends and like family and I don’t want them to go on believing I’m dead or being tortured or something. And I don’t want Josh to have to lie to them once he knows the truth. But if you know all of that other stuff about my life there, then you know they can be trusted, right?”

  He tilted his head to one side, studying her carefully.

  “Right?” she repeated when the silence stretched.

  “A moment, if you will,” he murmured.

  Alyssa shifted, her gaze darting back and forth between her and Seth. “Are you reading Beth’s mind?”

  “Aye,” Seth answered.

  Beth cringed inwardly. That was creepy. How much could he see? Her thoughts? Her past? Everything?

  At last, he nodded. “As you wish.”

  Beth straightened. “What?”

  “I will return you to your time for a brief visit.”

  Elation flooded her.

  He held up a finger, staying her before she could speak. “But you must return all of your modern possessions to that time and leave them there.”

  Damn. That burst her bubble a little. “Even my guns?”

  “Even your guns.”

  Reluctantly, she nodded her agreement. “It’s worth it.” She would get to see Josh.

  So much relief and happiness flooded her that she was tempted to jump up and down like a child viewing presents on Christmas morning. “Can Robert come with me?”

  Seth smiled. “Aye, Robert may accompany you.”

  Woohoo! Now she did jump up and down, jostling Robert and making him laugh since she had not relinquished her hold on him. “I know it’s futile to ask , but I have to do it anyway. Can we bring Josh back to this time with us when we return?”

  “Nay,” Seth informed her gently. “I am sorry, but ’tis not his fate.”

  That dimmed her spirits. “I’m really beginning to dislike the word fate,” she grumbled.

  Seth chuckled. “You are not the first, nor will you be the last, to tell me so.”

  The next morning, Robert, Bethany, Seth, Dillon, Alyssa and Marcus all rode to a secluded glade in the forest outside of Fosterly’s walls. While Seth voiced no objection to Marcus joining them, he had refused to allow Michael, Stephen or Adam to do the same.

  As usual, he gave them no explanation.

  Maybe he just didn’t want anyone else to see how he was going to take them through time, Beth speculated as Robert helped her dismount.

  Marcus remained uncharacteristically somber.

  Alyssa clung to her husband’s arm, her pretty face distraught.

  Dillon’s countenance was more grim than Beth had ever seen it.

  They all seemed fearful that something might go wrong and land Beth and Robert in her time permanently. As if they were there to say Good-bye instead of See you when you get back.

  Since butterflies fluttered in her own belly, Beth couldn’t blame them. She didn’t know how exactly this whole time travel thing worked. And Seth remained infuriatingly closedmouthed about it.

  What if something did go wrong? All she had been able to drag out of Seth was that he would send them to her time, but could not accompany them himself.

  How could he return them to Robert’s time if he didn’t go with them?

  How could he even ensure they ended up in Beth’s time—and not the Dark Ages or the Wild West or the friggin’ twenty-third century—if he didn’t go with them?

  Could he even guarantee that they would be together wherever they ended up and not separated by several decades or centuries?

  The mere possibility terrified her.

  She glanced up at Robert.

  If her husband was nervous, he hid it well.

  Beth clung to his hand as if it we
re the only thing keeping her from falling off a cliff’s edge. Yet Robert just smiled and stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. Ruffling Marcus’s hair, he spoke casually of the weather, the progress he expected Marcus to make in his training while they were gone, and other mundane things as if it were just another day.

  Beth rose onto her toes and kissed Robert’s cheek, then slipped away from the group. Cloaked by the foliage, she removed her medieval garb and donned the jeans and tank top that weren’t bloodstained, topped them off with her bulletproof vest and Bail Enforcement jacket, then added all of her weapons.

  Somber faces greeted her return. Embraces ensued. Beth nearly burst into tears when Dillon—such a ferocious, austere man—clasped his brother to him for a long, tight hug, his eyes misty as he murmured something in Robert’s ear.

  Robert nodded and clapped him on the back.

  Once all had said their good-byes, Seth asked the others to leave.

  With great reluctance, the group turned away and headed back the way they had come.

  Beth looked up at Seth.

  “You may have one sennight there,” he said. “No more.”

  A week. Not much time. But she wouldn’t make a fuss, particularly since it had taken quite a bit of arguing on her part to get him to allow her more than a day or two.

  “Hold tightly to one another,” he instructed, “and do not lose your grip.”

  Beth decided holding Robert’s hand wasn’t going to be enough and wrapped her arms around him instead.

  Still as outwardly composed as before, Robert offered no complaint. His heart pounded rapidly beneath her cheek, however, when she rested her head upon his chest.

  “I love you,” she whispered, terrified something would go wrong.

  “I love you, Beth,” he murmured, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

  It happened so quickly she almost missed it. The scenery around them blurred and elongated as if they were in the Millennium Falcon and had just activated the hyperdrive. A strange feeling of weightlessness struck, like that she sometimes experienced in an elevator.