Knight Moves: Merriweather Sisters Time Travel (Merriweather Sisters Time Travel Romance Book 2)

by Cynthia Luhrs

  “He’s still handsome.”

  “The scars don’t bother me at all. Half the time I don’t even notice them.” She looked up to see Lucy looking at her, a skeptical look on her face.

  “Really. I see him for who he is on the inside. A good man with a strong personal code. Someone who cares about me as a person, not an object or possession. And someone who would risk everything to save me. I love him with all my heart.”

  She told Lucy about James saving her from bandits and saving her from almost drowning. And then she told Lucy how she’d saved him.

  “You should’ve seen his face when I made him do a piggyback. He said he was humiliated.”

  “That huge man on your back? How did you even take a step? He must outweigh you by a hundred pounds.”

  She and Lucy burst into giggles.

  “I felt like I had an elephant on my back. That man is solid muscle. But I knew I had to get him out of there. So I put one foot in front of the other and tried to focus on not falling over. Maybe the core exercises Charlotte made me learn helped.”

  Lucy touched her stomach. “I do planks every morning, but never when the servants are around. William would have stomped and bellowed around for a week if he’d been saved by a woman.”

  “James was so angry at first. I think his pride was damaged more than anything else. He’d never been rescued by a woman before.” She snorted. “I don’t think he’d ever been rescued, period.”

  “They definitely believe the whole ‘me man, you woman’ thing.”

  She and Lucy talked through the afternoon, so happy to be together again. One of the servants knocked on the door.

  “Lady Blackford? Lord Blackford is in the hall with Lord Falconburg and the men.”

  “We will join them presently.”

  Lucy put the crochet away in a basket by her feet. “We better go down before they start gnawing on the tables.”

  Melinda took Lucy’s arm in hers. “I’m starved. What’s for dinner?”

  “I’m not sure. We’ve been so busy catching up, I told cook to come up with whatever. After dinner, we need to put our heads together and write down what we know about traveling through time. Charlotte needs to know. Anything that can help her get back to us.”

  “But we have to be really careful. We don’t want the wrong people finding a letter. Think of all the havoc someone could cause by coming back and assassinating a king.”

  “Let’s just hope Charlotte doesn’t come back more than twenty years from now. I’ll be a granny or dead by then.”

  “No you won’t. Lucy Merriweather, you are to stay around for a very long time. I didn’t travel over seven hundred years so you could join Aunt Pittypat in the great beyond. I forbid it.”

  Melinda clapped a hand over her mouth. “What if Charlotte comes back and it’s before we’re here?”

  “Mellie, don’t even think it.”

  Chapter Forty

  After dinner, the men remained in the hall drinking and talking. Melinda followed Lucy into the solar.

  “Dinner was delicious.”

  “Thank goodness merchants come through frequently with spices. They’re ghastly expensive, but William has loads of money and doesn’t care how much I spend. He’s grown quite accustomed to some of the dishes I’ve made.”

  “Your fried chicken rocks. Don’t you worry about changing history?”

  “For a long time I did. Then I decided the things I do are so small it doesn’t matter. At least, that’s what I hope.”

  Lucy chuckled.

  “William said James is even richer than we are.”

  “I don’t care. Although I’m glad I didn’t come back and end up with a peasant. They have a hard life.”

  “Money always makes things easier, no matter what time you live in. I didn’t care much about money in our time. But here, it can make your life comfortable, and I’ve grown used to it.”

  “What do you remember about traveling through time?”

  Lucy’s face turned pale.

  “There was a storm. I remember the lightning. Of course, you have to remember I was drugged, so everything seemed like I was in a movie.”

  Lucy’s hand trembled as she took a drink.

  “There was also a raven. I swear I saw the same raven a hundred times before and after I traveled through time.”

  “I’ve seen a raven too. Lots of times. I believe he helped me find your letter.”

  “What’s the deal with the bird?”

  “I have no idea,” Melinda said. “But he’s connected to all of this.”

  “I also remember blood. There was a strange stain on the battlements of the castle. At first I thought it was some kind of hole in the wall. I grabbed it to try to keep Simon from throwing me over the wall.”

  Melinda put a hand on her sister’s knee. “I’m glad he’s dead. He was a horrible person.”

  “Part of the Merriweather curse. Bad judgment in men, and a terrible sense of direction.”

  “You’re not kidding. When I left Falconburg, I would’ve ended up in Scotland if James hadn’t found me.”

  “You know, I think the blood is the final piece of the puzzle. The stain on the wall. It was my blood. I thought it was William’s all along, but it wasn’t. It was mine. When his frenemy Clement stabbed me, I saw my blood on the wall, and that’s when the lightning and everything came together at once. I knew I had the choice whether to stay or go. I made my choice, and at the same time William pulled me back.”

  Melinda vibrated with excitement.

  “Something similar happened to me. I found a ring. It had a nick in the band. When I put it on, I cut my thumb and bled. There was a terrible storm. Lightning struck so close to me I thought I was going to fry. When I woke up, I was in the past. And then a few days ago, when James and William had their little tiff, I saw the same ring on James’ hand. When that man tried to kill James and cut his hand, that’s when I knew…”

  Lucy finished the thought: “So we have to have all three. The raven, the storm, blood, and the object seems to be optional.”

  “We have to figure out how to leave a message for Charlotte without telling the whole world.”

  Chapter Forty-One

  Present Day—Deep in the Carpathian Mountains

  Charlotte woke coughing. Smoke filled the room and she could see flames. The tiny wooden building was on fire. She couldn’t believe it. The man who’d tried to kill Melinda, put her in a coma, was dead. This was a simple accident, nothing more.

  She was deep in the Carpathian Mountains, where she’d run to get away from all the craziness. On her hands and knees, Charlotte crawled for the door. It wouldn’t open. Something was blocking it from the other side. She grabbed one of the scarves Lucy had made her and held it to her mouth to keep the smoke from filling her lungs. As she crawled in the opposite direction, she searched for the window. It was her only way out.

  The sound of a raven calling came from her left. The bird seemed to be leading her to safety. Charlotte pushed up the window and rolled over the edge, landing in the snow. She breathed in, coughing, her battered lungs burning.

  Charlotte sat in the internet cafe and checked her email. Her friend Jake was housesitting and said the police were trying to get in touch with her. When she called, the nice officer informed her Melinda had taken her own life.

  Even though she knew there was no way both of her sisters had tried to kill themselves, Charlotte let the tears fall. She knew in her heart there was no way both of them had fallen to their deaths. But she didn’t say any of this to the officer. She thanked him for telling her and ended the call, sniffling and blowing her nose.

  There were enough bizarre happenings in this small town to make Charlotte certain there was more to this world than we could see and feel.

  She would visit the one person she thought could give her some insight. The oldest woman in the village. Marielle was rumored to have the sight. Maybe she could tell Charlotte what had happened to Lucy a
nd Melinda. She snorted. It wasn’t like the cops had a clue.

  Charlotte knocked on the bright blue door. Marielle opened the door, beckoning her in.

  “I’ve been expecting you.”

  “Melinda is dead. At least, that’s what the police officer told me. He said she was visiting some castle ruin and jumped to her death out of grief. I know my sister. She would not kill herself.”

  Charlotte wiped the tears from her eyes and blew her nose. She met the gypsy woman’s wise eyes.

  “Can you please tell me what happened to my sisters?”

  The woman shuffled a worn deck of tarot cards. She laid them out in three rows of seven, from left to right.

  “The top row is your past. The center row the present. And the bottom row is your future.”

  Marielle looked at the cards for a long time.

  “You will find your sisters in England. But not this England.”

  “Melinda saw a painting in London. She swore it was of our sister Lucy. It was painted during the fourteenth century. Do you mean I can actually go back in time?”

  “What is time? Time does not flow in a line. It is a circle. There are many possibilities if only you listen.”

  The woman gathered up the cards and put them away. She took Charlotte’s hands in hers, looking at her palms.

  “Be wary, child. Great danger awaits you. Look for the raven. He will guide your path. And the unicorn will bring great change to your life. Be ready.”

  Unicorns? Charlotte believed in a lot of things, things others called New Age or ridiculous. But even she didn’t believe in unicorns.

  “Thank you, Marielle. It’s time for me to leave. To go home and prepare.”

  The little old gypsy lady kissed her on each cheek.

  “Be strong, Charlotte. Your destiny awaits, if you have the courage to take it.”

  If Lucy had gone back in time, did the gypsy mean Melinda had found a way to go back too? Charlotte needed to research and prepare. She didn’t know how she could go back, only that she must.

  She grabbed her meager belongings and stuffed them into the back of the waiting taxi. While it made more sense to fly to England from Romania, she needed to go back to Holden Beach first. Tie up loose ends. Say goodbye to her childhood home and figure out a plan. Her sisters might call her flighty and free-spirited, but she had a knack for figuring things out.

  She didn’t have a will, and there was the house and cars to deal with. Charlotte pulled out a small notebook from her bag and started a list. The fact that Lucy never returned and now Melinda was missing told Charlotte once you ended up in the past, you were stuck. So she would take care of what she needed to and then catch a flight to England. And somehow she would find a way to travel through time and find her sisters. Though what if they ended up in different times?

  “No!”

  “Miss?”

  “Sorry. I was talking to myself.”

  The driver nodded and went back to humming to himself. Lucy and Melinda had to be together. Fate couldn’t be so cruel.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Holden Beach, North Carolina

  A month had passed since Charlotte returned home to Holden Beach. She was completely healed from the burns on her arms and legs from the fire. Thanks to an old recipe of Aunt Pittypat’s, she wouldn’t scar.

  Charlotte noticed her finger shaking as she switched off the iPad. Melinda Merriweather, American, apparent suicide due to grief over losing her sister, who died almost a year ago. Both sisters drowned and were presumed lost at sea.

  Two of her sisters go to England and are presumed dead or missing? Something smelled worse than a pot of collards left on the stove for two days and two nights.

  Why hadn’t she listened to Melinda? Gone with her? And what was with the Brits wanting to kill all three of them? She’d barely escaped the fire. Had come to believe someone was still after her. Why?

  There had to be a reason. Charlotte jumped on her bike and rode to the local bookstore. Inside she perused the stacks. She bought books on the history of England, particularly those with a focus on the fourteenth century. Books on field medicine, plants, and herbs. Oh, and let’s not forget books on witchcraft and New Age ideas. As she took the huge stack up to the checkout, the cute guy wearing glasses flirted with her.

  “Wow, that’s a lot of information. Are you studying for a class?”

  “You could say that. I’m going to England for vacation, so I thought it would be fun to visit a few castles.”

  He picked up the book on field medicine. “Well, unless you’re planning to start a war while you’re there, I don’t think you’ll need this one.”

  “It’s always good to broaden your horizons, don’t you think?”

  Charlotte collected her purchases, filling up the basket on the bike. One thing to check off her list. While she hated taking any more time before she went to England, she felt it was important to be prepared. Her flight left two weeks from today. That should give her enough time to read through the books and make notes. She was a firm believer in notes.

  As Charlotte sat outside on the deck overlooking the ocean, she opened the leather-bound journal she’d purchased in the store. It was expensive compared to the cheapie notebooks she usually bought. But it looked old, so it shouldn’t arouse suspicion if anyone saw it.

  She planned to fill it with anything she might need during her journey. Moments in history, various plants used for healing, and, of course, Aunt Pittypat’s famous recipes. All of them would go in the journal. Charlotte had a friend who might be able to get her antibiotics. That seemed like the one thing she wanted to take back with her.

  A solar charger and phone so she could play music would be nice, but she decided against it. She didn’t know why, but she was afraid to have too many modern things with her when she tried to go back in time.

  Thanks to the power of the internet, she’d done most of her research online. There were a group of history buffs in Northern England she planned meet up with. They’d been emailing back and forth. One of the guys said he’d teach her how to use a knife. He didn’t think she would have long enough for him to teach her to use a sword. That was fine. One weapon would do.

  No way could she take a knife on the plane. She’d buy an antique when she arrived. Flying into London would be perfect. Charlotte could scour some of the shops looking for the rest of what she needed. Things like a cloak and clothes to help her blend in. She could sew reasonably well, so she planned to add pockets to anything that didn’t come with.

  As she ate a slice of pizza, Charlotte opened the first book and began reading.

  Books by Cynthia Luhrs

  Listed in the correct reading order

  A JIG THE PIG ADVENTURE (Children’s Picture Books)

  Beware the Woods

  I am NOT a Chicken!

  MERRIWEATHER SISTERS TIME TRAVEL

  A Knight to Remember

  Knight Moves

  Lonely is the Knight

  THE SHADOW WALKER GHOST SERIES

  Lost in Shadow

  Desired by Shadow

  Iced in Shadow

  Reborn in Shadow

  Born in Shadow

  Embraced by Shadow

  The Shadow Walkers Boxed Set Books 1-3

  The Shadow Walkers Boxed Set Books 4-6

  Get the Entire Shadow Walker Series

  Want More?

  Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, please consider writing a few words in a review to help others discover the Merriweather books. Let me know your thoughts. I love to hear from my readers. To find out when there’s a new book release, please visit my website http://cluhrs.com/ and sign up for my newsletter. Want to drop me a line? Please LIKE my page on Facebook. Love connecting with all of my readers because without you, none of this would be possible. http://www.facebook.com/cynthialuhrsauthor

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  About the Author

  Cynthia Luhrs is the author of the ghostly Shadow Walker novels and the Merriweather Sisters Time Travel Romance novels set in medieval England. Her idea of a perfect day is no interruptions and the freedom to live in her head all day, writing to her heart's content, a glass of sweet tea next to her as she creates the next book. Of course her tiger cats frequently disrupt this oasis of serenity.