by Mari Carr
“Fine with me,” Erin said. “But be careful. I have a few household chores to deal with today with Mrs. Scott and I’m sure you would just be bored around here. Why don’t I catch up with you at supper?”
“Sounds perfect.” Hayley had several things she hoped to do today and all of them would be more easily accomplished without Erin or Jack hovering nearby.
She’d come up with a cover story she wanted to try out on some of the locals in an attempt to discover more about the tree. Determination—and perhaps a bit of desperation—was driving her now. She wouldn’t stop until she figured out a way back home.
Hayley walked through the woods along the now familiar path to the cabin. It was late for a visit to Julia, but Hayley needed the fresh air. She’d excused herself from the library early tonight, her heart heavy with disappointment. Jack had sent word he would be arriving home late, so dinner had been a quiet affair. Her attempts to speak with the people in the village had failed miserably. No one seemed to know of any local legend involving a magic tree or time travel, although several people had mentioned a crazy woman they called Lady Loony whom they believed to be a fairy.
After three weeks of increasingly difficult deception, Hayley had hit her limit with Julia’s wishy-washy answers. She’d spent weeks lying to everyone she cared about, constantly looking over her shoulder for an evil earl and swallowing copious amounts of guilt, all to protect a young woman who was strangely content to spend the rest of her days in a rundown cabin in the middle of nowhere. Tonight, Hayley was determined the dishonesty would stop. At least one thing she attempted today would be accomplished.
The young woman needed to make some definite plans about her future. Hiding out in the cabin was a temporary solution at best and one that had run its course. Julia needed to seriously consider going away somewhere—preferably somewhere far away where Wilshire couldn’t find her—and she needed Jack’s help to do that. Staying so close to the earl only increased her odds of being discovered.
“Hello, Hayley,” Julia’s voice was friendly as Hayley let herself into the cabin.
“Hey Jules,” she said quietly.
“Are you well?” Julia asked. “You look a bit pale.”
“Actually, no. I’m not feeling that great.”
“Is there something I can do?” Julia offered Hayley one of the two roughly hewn chairs at the table.
“How long are we going to do this?” Hayley hadn’t intended to broach the subject so tactlessly, but her energy was zapped, her confidence drained.
As Hayley expected, Julia insisted things were fine the way they were. “Please Hayley. Let’s just give it a few more days.”
Hayley wished—as she had on numerous occasions—Simon had not gone to London. He was more familiar with the area and he could have found somewhere safer for Julia to stay. Knowing it was only a matter of time before Julia’s secret hideout was discovered, Hayley refused to buckle to Julia’s demands yet again.
“No! Enough is enough. You’re in danger here and I won’t be a party to this any longer. I was a fool to let you convince me to hide you this long.”
Julia began to interrupt, but Hayley forged on, irate and frustrated. “You need to know what Wilshire is planning. I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t want to upset you. Perhaps if you know, you’ll see that the danger is very real. He’s planning to marry you. He showed Alex a special license he’d received from the bishop granting him permission to wed you as soon as you’re found. Julia, you have to run. Fast and far away. Don’t you understand?”
Julia burst into tears. “Oh God, Hayley. Of course, I know he means to wed me. Why do you think I ran away? I saw what he did to my sister. All those years. All those beatings when each month confirmed she wasn’t pregnant. That’s all she was to him, a means to an end. Her sole purpose in life was to give him an heir.” Julia’s words were muffled as her crying turned to sobbing, but she forged on, painting a picture more horrible than Hayley could have imagined.
“For five years, I tended her wounds and held her as she cried. I listened to her screams when he went to her bed each week to give her his seed. He didn’t make love to her—he ravished her, hurt her. Repeatedly. It was the only way he could be with her. He didn’t desire her unless she screamed, unless she was in pain. Do you think I’d let him do that to me?” Tears streamed down Julia’s face as she spoke.
The horror of her words cut Hayley to the core. “Then why stay here? Why risk being found?”
“All I care about is here,” Julia whispered. “I’m tired. Can we finish this discussion tomorrow?”
“Julia,” Hayley began, but Julia interrupted her.
“Please, not tonight. I’ll think about what you said. I promise.” Julia walked to the bed.
Dismissed and distressed, Hayley left the cabin.
All I care about is here.
What could that mean? Her sister was gone. She had no other family in the area, unless she counted Jack. But if she was staying for Jack, why wouldn’t she see him and tell him she was safe? Julia’s comment sparked even more questions in Hayley’s mind.
She tried not to think of the horrible picture Julia had drawn of Helena’s miserable existence with Wilshire. She thought back to that first day with Jack by the sea. He’d alluded to the fact Helena was better off dead than alive and with Wilshire. Could it be possible Jack knew about Wilshire’s abuse and let it continue? She refused to believe he could be so callous, so uncaring that he would let a young woman suffer such unspeakable cruelty. No, Jack couldn’t have known how bad it truly was. Of all the questions raised in her mind, that was the only answer she was sure of. Jack was good and kind and he would never have let Helena remain in such a terrible place if he had known what was happening.
Her return trip to the Grange was slow. Instead of taking the path straight back to the house, she made a detour and walked to the oak tree. She had only come to the tree a few times since her arrival, which was probably unusual for someone so anxious to go back to the future.
She slowly circled the tree, running her hands against the rough bark. Why was she here?
In her own time, she prided herself on her honesty. Yet, in this time, she had lied every single day to the people she cared about in an attempt to protect an abused woman.
She’d spent her whole life shying away from arrogant, domineering men and yet, in this time, she found herself seriously attracted to one.
At home, she’d dedicated her life to protecting abused women and yet, in this time, she found a young woman who desperately needed her help and she didn’t know what guidance to give. The rules were different here and Hayley felt like a fish out of water.
“What am I supposed to do?” Pressing her forehead to the trunk of the tree, she waited for something, some words, some great epiphany that would help her figure out what to do next. After several minutes, she gave up. Taking a deep breath, she resumed her trek to the house. She would simply go with her gut, just as she always had, and pray that everything worked out in the long run.
As she approached the edge of the woods, Hayley felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She sensed someone was watching her. Perhaps Julia had come to her senses and decided to come back with her to the Grange after all.
“Julia? Did you change your mind?”
Silence followed. Shaking off her fear, Hayley decided it was stress and exhaustion making her a little loopy.
Continuing on her way to the Grange, however, she was unable to shake the sensation of being followed. She quickened her pace until she entered the small garden at the rear of the house. Breathing a sigh of relief, she had gone no more than a few steps down the winding path before a large hand clasped over her mouth from behind. She tensed up ready for a fight when a familiar voice hissed in her ear.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing out here?”
Removing the hand with ease, she turned to face an angry Jack. She hadn’t seen him this furious since her
first days here. “You nearly gave me a heart attack,” she replied unrepentantly, relieved it was only Jack who had been following her.
“That’s not an answer. Again, what are you doing out here?” He was not going to be easily appeased.
“Walking, obviously.” She hoped he would let the subject drop and then she panicked briefly, wondering if he’d heard her call Julia’s name. Attempting to distract him with a fight, she asked belligerently, “And what the hell are you doing out here?”
“I saw you slip into the woods from my window, but before I could get down here, you disappeared. That was over two hours ago. I’ve been sitting out here waiting for you to return, imagining all kinds of horrible scenarios of what could happen to you alone. Now, are you going to give me the real reason you’re here or am I going to have to force the truth from you?” Jack continued to stalk her until her back was pressed against a nearby tree.
“I told you. I was taking a walk, just like I was the first night you found me. I love walking in the woods at night. It’s one of my favorite places. The woods are peaceful and help me sort out my thoughts.” Hayley prayed her words sounded convincing and realized they should as she was speaking the truth. She did love to tromp through dark woods.
“How many times do I have to tell you things are different here? Women are not safe walking alone at night, anymore than they are in the daytime. How many times have you done this?”
Though he was exasperated, he was starting to calm down. “This is the first time. I felt restless tonight. Too much energy. I needed to spend it somehow.”
Jack accepted this reason. She had quite a lot in common with this rough pirate. She’d noticed Jack often went for long, hard rides on Lancelot when he had too much on his mind.
“I suppose this time must seem dull to you. After listening to you and Erin talk about the future, I cannot imagine what a woman like you would find here to keep occupied. I personally would love the opportunity go over the ocean on one of those flying machines—an airplane, what a great name—and travel from place to place quickly in a car.”
Hayley grinned at Jack’s enthusiastic outlook of the future and wondered if she had been too rash in her earlier pronouncement that it was good she had come through the tree and not Jack. Although his ideas regarding women were old-fashioned, she was beginning to find them endearing. No one had ever attempted to shelter or protect her before. She had always said she wanted it that way, but she couldn’t lie to herself and say she didn’t enjoy and even crave Jack’s overprotective concern.
“Who knows, maybe when the tree opens again, you can sneak back through with me. We could open up a foreign exchange program between the time periods.”
Jack shook his head. “No, I can’t go through. It doesn’t work that way.”
“What do you mean? You think it’s one way?” Hayley felt herself beginning to panic at the idea. She hadn’t allowed herself to consider that she may not be able to return at all.
Seeing her fear, Jack reached for her hands. “No,” he added quickly. “No, I don’t mean you can’t go back. I mean it only seems to work for you and Erin. You both spoke of being swept up into a tornado of noise and chaos when you approached the tree. I actually leaned through it to grab you, but I heard and felt nothing. Alex said the same was true for him—there was nothing, only Erin, in pain and struggling. If it were possible for us to go, we would have been swept away as well, but we weren’t.”
“I never thought about that, but I suppose you’re right.”
Hayley thought back again to the incredible pain she had felt as she was ripped back in time. She couldn’t clearly recall when Jack had grabbed her, but she did have a sense of being saved, just before the pain rendered her unconscious. Recalling the agony of the trip planted a different seed in her brain—fear. The fear of experiencing the intense throbbing again was actually more horrifying than not being able to return at all.
Jack, feeling her hands begin to shake, put his arms around her and led her to a nearby bench.
“Hayley, what is it? Oh hell, sweetheart. I shouldn’t have mentioned that blasted tree. I’m sorry.” They sat down together.
“I was remembering how bad it felt. Nothing in my life has ever hurt so much. Jack, what if it opens again and I chicken out?” Hayley didn’t consider herself a coward, yet when faced with the idea of traveling through that tree again, her knees went weak and her hands shook. Besides, who would be on the other side to grab her and pull her through? Certainly not Jack. What if she was caught up in the tornado forever?
“Chicken out?”
She laughed suddenly as she considered how the strange term must sound to him, grateful for the distraction from her irrational fears. “It’s an expression. It means to be a coward.”
Jack laughed. “A coward? You? I don’t think you have anything to worry about, Miss Garland. You have more courage than twenty men put together. When the time comes, if you really want to go, you’ll go.”
She pondered his words if you really want to go, but didn’t question them aloud. She still had time to prepare for that battle and the fact he believed she could do it went a long way toward making her feel better. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and they sat in comfortable silence for a long time, lost in their own thoughts.
Hayley glanced around at their surroundings and then up. It was a beautiful night. The sky was clear and full of stars with a bright shining moon. She’d never seen so many stars in her whole life and realized at home, they were hidden behind the rooftops of the apartment buildings and the lights of the city. She never realized how many stars there really were. Sighing contentedly, she felt like she could spend the entire night on this bench counting stars.
Jack interrupted her reverie. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Uh-oh,” she said, with a look of mock horror.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You—thinking. It never bodes well for me.”
“You may have a point there,” he said lightly, “but I think you’ll like this thought. I promised you a tour of one of my ships.” She sat up attentively and Jack laughed. “You look like a small child on Christmas morning. One of the largest ships in my fleet is in harbor for the next few weeks, undergoing some minor repairs before embarking on a voyage to America. I thought you might like to take a small trip with me to see it.”
“Oh, yes, Jack,” she answered enthusiastically. “I would love to. When can we leave?”
“If you were willing to skip your morning exercise tomorrow, we could head out right after breakfast. It’s not a terribly long trip, but I want to get an early start so we can have most of the afternoon for the tour. There is a nice inn on the outskirts of town where we can have dinner and we’ll be back here before dark. Alex and Erin have offered to serve as our chaperones.”
Chapter 15
Jack had never met a woman so interested in the inner-workings of his business and the ships. He’d answered no less than a hundred questions for Hayley from everything about the cargo he carried to how the ship was able to maneuver to who served on board. She had a natural curiosity he found refreshing, and her questions were intelligent and probing.
Most women of his acquaintance thrived on conversation that involved no more than a discussion of the weather, the latest gossip and current fashion. The tediousness of society was one of the main reasons Jack stayed away from it, although it wasn’t always easy to remove himself from the haut ton completely. He was an enigma as far as the ton was concerned. As one of the most successful and wealthy businessmen in England, society couldn’t shun him, as they were apt to do to other men who earned their living by actually working. In addition, he was a war hero and the sole heir to the earldom of Wilshire.
Until his uncle managed to produce a legitimate son—which was looking more and more unlikely by the day—society not only endured his common ways, but they welcomed him into their ballrooms and tried to entice him to offer for their unwed daughte
rs. Jack avoided the social whirl assiduously figuring that if—and only if—he should someday find himself the earl would he consider marrying and producing an heir.
However, Hayley left him questioning that decision. She was the only woman he’d ever met he actually thought he could live happily ever after with. Too often though, she spoke of the time when she would return home. She had no intention of staying, if or when, the blasted tree deemed it was time for her to return to the future and away from him. The idea of her leaving was the impetus behind his reluctance to continue flirting and kissing her. To continue to tempt himself with her sweetness would only lead the two of them down the road to certain heartbreak.
“Penny for your thoughts.” Her soft voice drifted to him.
“They aren’t worth that much. Actually, in light of our busy day tomorrow, I think we should return to the house and retire for the evening.”
She sighed softly, but showed no signs of moving. “I suppose you’re right, but I’m not tired. It’s so beautiful and peaceful here.”
Looking at her, Jack agreed. “Beautiful.”
Hayley blushed shyly. “Jack, if I asked you something, would you answer me honestly?”
“If I can,” he answered. “What’s on your mind?”
“What happened when you lived with your uncle?”
Taken aback by her question, he sat silent for several moments. He’d never told anyone about those terrible years except Sebastian. He had resisted drudging up those horrible memories for years, but somehow, as he looked into Hayley’s bright eyes, he felt she might be the one person to truly understand what he’d gone through. He didn’t know much about her childhood, but he sensed that in many ways it had been as difficult as his own.
He cleared his throat. “I told you about my parent’s accident. How they died?”
Hayley nodded.