by L. A. Fiore
"What is this?"
"I found it. I had buried some of Archer's valuables but someone replaced them with rocks, which I obviously didn't learn about until I came back to the present." He looked at Quinn but it wasn't anger in his expression, only a reluctant humor. "Anyway, I went back to the spot where I had buried the stuff in the past hoping I had missed one and found this. Despite the hand that drew the map, there are notations along the sides written in a primitive sort of shorthand that alludes to the whereabouts of the Scarcliff treasure. I started digging immediately but since I wasn't entirely sure in what direction, I dug in the correct distance in every direction."
Quinn walked over to study the map and laughed out loud as soon as she saw that it had been Nickie and Archer. To think of them, so proper, playing a joke on someone from the future! It was subtle but silly and so very much like them.
"Clever boy, Nickie." She looked up into Nick's face. "You are very much like him."
He reached for her hand and squeezed before he whispered, "Thank you."
"Why did you come see me at the Foundation?" Gabriel demanded of Derek.
Derek's face turned serious. "The accident, the one that put Quinn in the hospital, it wasn't an accident." He turned his attention to Quinn.
"How did you go back in time?"
"I don't know. I was sent."
He pulled a hand through his hair as he started to pace. "Unreal is what it is."
"What do you mean it wasn't an accident?" Gabriel bellowed.
"I came back to see Quinn at Whispering Winds a few days after I left her and when I found her stuff but not her, I knew she had somehow gone back in time. I followed her but I didn't do it to be chivalrous -- I wanted the treasure. When everything started going south, I went into hiding until I could jump back. The next thing I know Quinn and I are in London getting ready to head for Whispering Winds as if the previous months never happened. I don't know how the hell that happened but it freaked me out. Anyway, I was a bit out of it so it wasn't until later that I realized the car that hit us, I swear it was aiming right at us. Since the accident, I've had the sense that I'm being followed which is why I rarely leave my apartment. And when I do, I make a spectacle of myself so everyone is witness to my comings and goings."
Derek looked back at Quinn. "If they're following me, they are no doubt following you, too."
"But who is it? Who tried to kill us?" There was a note of desperation in Quinn's voice.
"I don't know," Derek answered honestly.
Quinn looked over at Gabriel who remained silent but she knew that he was thinking a great deal.
"I guess we're done here. Thanks for explaining, Derek," Nick said as he started for the door.
"I want to help so anything I can do, please let me know."
Gabriel helped Quinn to her feet and they headed for the door behind Nick but Derek's voice stopped them.
"I'm really sorry it's gotten so out of control," he confessed, "But it's nice to see that all the plotting hasn't kept you two apart."
They both turned to look at Derek and he added, "It's not often one gets a chance to witness true love but when you have you never forget it. I've seen it before and I'm looking at it again. And that is no coincidence."
That night after returning to Whispering Winds, Quinn retired to the rose room, but sleep wouldn't come since her mind wouldn't stop.
Gabriel had taken Derek aside before they left his loft, and though she didn't know exactly what they discussed, she suspected it had something to do with what was going to happen in the future. Had Derek seen the person who had killed her? Had he followed that person? Was that why Gabriel saw him fleeing the scene?
Time travel was enough to make a person crazy and to think the powers that be in the future were thinking about making it a mainstream activity was just insane. How would they prevent the past from being messed up irrevocably with all those people moving through time?
Suddenly Quinn sat up in her bed. If Tessa's work fueled what came later, she was going to have to bury her work -- leave it in the temples with the Mayans where it belonged.
She climbed from bed and grabbed her robe before padding downstairs to the great hall where the men were playing a game of billiards. Gabriel was leaning against the wall, his cue stick in front of him, but his eyes were on the staircase when she descended as if he knew she was coming. His looked her from head to toe and back again before a slow, smile curved his lips.
"Quinn, couldn't you sleep?" Cole asked.
"I think we need to pay a visit to the Yucatan," she said.
"Why?" Gabriel asked and was already replacing his cue stick and coming around the table toward her.
"Everything that has happened is because of time travel. Tessa has to bury her research for good. If we stop Tessa's work then the future will be different. If we take away the means of sending people back in time then everything else that happened, won't."
"Makes sense. Do you think your friend will be willing to do that?" Cole asked.
"I do, yes."
Gabriel wrapped his hand around hers and said, "I still want to know who is behind all of this."
"Agreed," Nick jumped in. "I'll make the arrangements. We can take my plane."
Gabriel started pulling Quinn towards the stairs. "See you in the morning. Say good night, Quinn."
But her mind was already filled with all the magical things this man was going to do to her body. Gabriel lifted her into his arms when they were out of sight and pressed his lips to her neck before he whispered, "I am so going to enjoy this."
Quinn's thoughts were on Tessa during the car ride to the temples in Mexico. It wasn't fair to ask Tessa to give up her research but it had to be done. Time travel was just too dangerous -- especially in the hands of people out to intentionally cause harm. The cab pulled up to the double-wide and when Quinn knocked, it only took a moment for Tessa to appear in the doorway.
"Quinn!" She jumped down and hugged Quinn hard.
"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Tessa's pale eyes looked from Gabriel, to Nick, before returning to Quinn. "This isn't a social visit, is it?"
"No. We need to talk."
"Okay, come in." Tessa headed into the trailer and once they were sitting in her office Quinn looked to Gabriel who explained what awaited both Quinn and he in the future. Tessa sat quietly and listened and when he was done she stood and walked to an adjoining room moments before the sound of her vomiting carried through the trailer. After a few minutes, she reappeared in the doorway.
"My God. I know what I'm studying is dangerous, the Mayans buried it so deeply because of that, but my studies are all theoretical. I would never actually attempt to create practical applications. I should have known that others wouldn't be so careful." She paused and pulled a hand through her hair before she added, "Yes, absolutely, I'll bury my work and not just bury it but destroy it so no others will find it and take up where I left off. We're going to need that necklace from Derek because that's a piece of it and we need the Codex because that's the map."
"Where is the Codex?" Nick asked from his spot against the wall.
Tessa met his gaze before she answered rather cryptically. "Well, that's where it gets a little complicated."
"Meaning?"
"It's in the State Library in Dresden, Germany."
Nick's disbelieving laughed filled the silence. "Perfect! Stealing from the Dresden State Library, yeah, that shouldn't be too hard at all."
"We don't need to break into the library; we'd probably start an international incident if we tried. There's a copy of the Codex in Guatemala City," Quinn informed them. "We need to find it, I mean we need to be the first ones to find it. We're going to need Derek and Constance." Quinn looked at Tessa. "We know where in the Yucatan the Codex was found, right?"
"Yes."
"We already know what dates are conducive for jumping so we wait for the next date, jump a few years before it's found, retrieve it, and bring it back to
the present and destroy it."
"You want to time travel to steal a book so we can prevent time travel?" Nick asked for clarification.
Quinn flashed him a smile before she said, "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up."
In the days that followed, Quinn contacted Derek who, along with Constance, joined them at Whispering Winds. Constance in particular was very excited about jumping through time again. In a few days, the sky would be in the correct pattern so until then they were doing the waiting game.
Quinn was sitting at the piano in the music room of Whispering Winds when she remembered she had Morgan's journal.
"I have Morgan O'Cuinn's journal," Quinn told the group. "Colleen gave it to me but I haven't read it yet. Let me get it and we can sit in your solar, Nick, and read it."
"I'll get the wine and glasses," Nick said as he started from the room.
Once everyone was comfortable, Quinn opened the journal and started to read.
February 13, 1698
It's beautiful, so very beautiful, the estate being built along the river's edge. When the wind blows through the valley, and through the dense foliage of the trees, it sounds like voices: barely audible whispers from the ghosts of the past. There's a spot right on the river's bank that shows the castle in all of its beauty and the gentle flow of the water sweeping over the river bank, is the most peaceful sound I've ever heard. The Viscount who is building this place is so very lucky to be blessed with this small piece of paradise that he can call his own.
March 4, 1698
I've lost my heart, one look and I knew he was the man I was meant to spend my life with. He's beautiful, physically yes but kind and good. When I saw him standing in my favorite spot, his back to me as he studied what was his, I waited for him to turn. I wanted him to see me and then as if I made it so, he turned and pierced me with the most incredible eyes, the color of a perfect emerald. When his mouth turned up into a smile, my heart was no longer my own.
April 18, 1698
We had a picnic in our spot. He brought a basket filled with the most delicious food. I felt guilty enjoying such a bounty when my family had so little. He knew what I was thinking and being the man that he is, had a second hamper for me to bring to my family. At one point, a breeze blew through the valley and I shared with him how I thought it sounded like a whisper. He turned those amazing eyes on me and declared that his estate would be called Whispering Winds, in honor of the winds and me. I was already halfway in love with him but in that moment I fell the rest of the way.
May 23, 1698
Archer came to my house, shared a meal with my family, and like me my family fell just as hard for him. He is soon to be an Earl but he isn't arrogant and autocratic like so many of the gentry. He's good to his tenants and his staff. He treats everyone, from the stable boys to his steward, with kindness and generosity. Why someone as fine a man as he, is interested in a poor young woman like me, I don't know. His father isn't pleased. He was very rude when I met him the other day. I realize I am not the kind of woman a soon-to-be Earl marries but late at night when it's only my dreams I wish for that, for him to love me too. I believe he and I are fated. I think that's why we've connected as hard and strong as we have in so short a time. Tis believed in my homeland that souls can call to each other, be fated for one another for all time. I believe Archer and I are two such souls so if in this lifetime we don't come together, in my heart I know we will in another.
July 14, 1698
I'm engaged to Archer Scarcliff! My feet haven't touched the ground since he proposed this morning right on the river's edge where we met. My ring, a simple band of pale gold that sparkles with clear, perfect diamonds, is the most beautiful ring and more so because it is his ring. I love him. I will love him always.
July 29, 1698
The Earl did not take the engagement well and in fact threatened to remove Archer from the family wealth. Archer told his father to go to hell. I feel very badly that my being with him is causing so much trouble and a part of me wishes I had the strength to leave him, to end the discord between him and his father. But I can't. To lose him would be like losing my soul. I only hope he will not one day regret the wedge I have driven between him and his father.
August 15, 1698
Archer told me some truly terrible stories about his father, stories that make a rage in me that I've never known. His father is a hateful man, hateful and cruel. I no longer feel badly for pulling them apart. Byron Scarcliff doesn't deserve Archer. I'll need to be careful though especially after the threat, one I didn't share with Archer for fear of what he would do. The Earl came to my home and thankfully my family was not home. He sat in my father's house and threatened me, told me if I didn't leave his son he would make certain that we never had a moment of happiness. If it wasn't a crime, I would have slapped him across the face. I would never have a moment's happiness without Archer so his father be damned.
September 1698
We are married! Archer and I ran off to Greta Green and married. I am now Morgan Scarcliff and am so happy. I will make him a good wife and I will give him children that we can love and cherish, give them the kind of childhood that Archer never had. My life is wonderful.
November, 1698
I am pregnant! I have known for a couple months but I wanted to make sure before I shared the news with Archer. I told him just this evening and his reaction I will remember all of my days. He was overcome with love and excitement -- he even cried. We loved and our love has created a child. I am a very blessed woman.
January 1699
A woman paid me a call today, an acquaintance of the Earl. She was beautiful but she was very cold and staring into her pale-blue eyes, I was left feeling like I was looking directing into evil. She terrified me and though she spoke very little I was left feeling that she wished me harm. Perhaps it's just my superstitious nature but when she left the whispers that normally surround me sounded more like the wails of a banshee.
Quinn looked up from reading and she met and held Derek's gaze from the other side of the room. "Sounds like Katherine."
"Please keep reading," Constance said from her spot near the fireplace.
Gabriel reached for Quinn's hand. "Would you like me to continue?"
Quinn handed him the book. "Please."
She settled closer to Gabriel's warmth as his deep voice continued the tale.
February 14, 1699
Doctor Elliot Jenkins came to see me today. He brought his daughter, Lilith Jenkins, a nurse who he recommended I should employ once my child is born. I didn't like Miss Jenkins and the thought of her around my child had my skin crawling. There was cruelty in her eyes and her manners were that of someone who believed she should be elevated to the gentry. That life was somehow cheating her. My child, I'm sure she thinks, would represent all those who have kept her in the position that she thinks is beneath her. Never. I will never allow that woman around my child.
March 2, 1699
I am rather round now. Archer laughs, loves that he can barely wrap his arms around me. He spends every night talking to our child, telling stories or singing. He is going to be a wonderful father. I hope that this is only the first in a long line of children.
That woman came again today. She was stunning in her silver gown against the pale blonde of her hair but her nearly colorless eyes were frightening, especially when she looked at my now rounded stomach. I saw hate there. She hates me and she hates my child. She asked me questions about Archer, about what we liked to do together, where our favorite places are. I feel as if she was interrogating me. I am going to have to tell Archer that I am no longer going to receive calls from her. The Earl isn't going to like that because he is the one sending her to me but I don't care. The welfare of my child is more important.
March 15, 1699
I had the most horrible experience earlier today. I was in the gardens tending the beds, when an Adder snake slithered from my gardening bag. It coiled in preparation to attack and as I sa
t there in terrified fear, I could only think of Archer, of him losing me and our child. It was divine intervention that the gardener happened upon me just then and moved with astounding speed to kill the snake before it uncoiled and sprang at me. How it got into my bag when my bag hangs from a shelf in the shed, I know not. When I told Archer, he held me for hours, his body shaking from his fear and fury. I believe he suspects his father but he won't say anything to me. He wants me protected from all of that.
April 4, 1699
I have felt the baby move before but now his kicks are getting so very strong. I know I am having a boy, I have seen it. Nickie. That is what I call him when I am alone. I love him so much already and I have yet to meet him. Will he look like his father? I do so hope that he does -- a miniature version of Archer -- with that black hair and those wondrous green eyes.
Archer is no longer receiving calls from his father. I haven't told him about the woman since she hasn't been to see me recently. I wonder if he truly believes his father is behind the snake incident. Does he really think the man would hurt me? I want to believe that isn't so but I have seen the hatred in his eyes and fear that he is capable of anything.
May 18, 1699
I fear that I am being followed. Even though I no longer leave the grounds I have the sense that someone is watching me. There isn't anyone at Whispering Winds that I don't know and trust but there is definitely something dark lurking here and it scares me especially since it is so close to Nickie's birth. Archer is away on business in London but he will be home tomorrow. When he is home, I feel safe.
June 6, 1699
Nicholas Archer Scarcliff is perfect. He looks so much like his father, even for an infant. Those green eyes are already so clear and bright. When Archer held his child for the first time, it brought tears to my eyes. I love them both so much and I fear for them because I have felt it, death is hanging over us. I hope it is just the aftermath of the delivery but in my heart I fear something truly bad is coming.
June 12, 1699
Archer is near death. I don't understand since he was fine, healthy and strong, just yesterday and today he can't even keep his head up. I sit with him day and night and watch as his life drains from his body. He burns with fever and his beautiful eyes are so dull, as if the light of his life is fading. I want to know what is wrong with him but Doctor Jenkins shares nothing with me. I really don't like that man and plan to send a note to London, to one of Archer's University friends, and ask him to come. I will not lose Archer.