“It’s all done?” came Kate’s next, more hesitant question.
“Just finished reworking my calculations,” he assured her. “Ran simulation after simulation to make sure we return to the exact right time.”
“Oh.” The word emerged faintly and Kate wondered for a moment if she were about to pass out from the surprise or if her head were still buzzing from the ale she’d drunk.
“Oh?” David laughed. “Is that all you have to say? Come now! Go and pack your bags and let’s be off, shall we? The twenty-first century awaits us.”
Still Kate just sat there staring at the wall in a daze. Not only had he fabricated the cables but he had also constructed the plates to connect the siphon to? She couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea. Barring a few brief flashes of optimism, she had never truly believed he could do it. She had come to accept that her life was here, that her life was with…
No, her heart leaped in denial pushing away the doubt. She could go home now, Kate thought with a jolt of pleasure. She could see her parents, sister and own nephew soon. She could go back to work doing something she loved.
“Come, Kate, I thought you would be thrilled.”
“I – I am,” she answered hesitantly. “I’m just so surprised.”
“Yes, I know you really had very little faith… Kate Kallastad, have you been drinking?” he asked wrinkling his nose as he leaned in.
“Maybe just a little bit,” she replied then wrinkled her own nose. “Oh, don’t you start, too. Really, you’d think a girl’s never had a drink before.”
“Quite right, I suppose it never occurred to me that you might find some enjoyment here when you did not find any with me.” It was another slight jab meant to rouse her guilt, but Kate could barely focus on David and his little intrigues.
He had actually solved the power problem, she thought trying once more to absorb the truth. She could go home. Kate focused on the thought once more. She could go home.
The problem was, suddenly she wasn’t sure if she wanted to.
Kate thought of Brand. A man unlike any she’d ever known or imagined. A man of power, humor and caring. A man who set her thoughts tumbling with one word and her body trembling with a single touch. Kate thought of their extended foreplay of the night before, the way his big body surrounded hers, weighed upon hers. She hadn’t even the chance to make love with him yet.
But that wasn’t even the worst of it. She hadn’t the chance to be loved by him, by a heart that was brimming with untapped affection and adoration. Kate had fallen in love with Brand so quickly, maybe too quickly, but it was real. More concrete than any emotion she’d ever known. Having Brand love her back would be the most incredible experience of a lifetime, able to complete her more than any job ever could.
The feelings he roused in her were unimaginable, irreplaceable… perhaps even fulfilling enough to replace the love of her family.
Kate drew in a shaky breath. Was she truly thinking this? Was she truly considering staying in the nineteenth century just so that she might have a chance at holding Brand’s heart if only for a moment?
It was pure insanity, she berated herself. Stand up right now and tell David you’ll go with him, some part of her demanded, but her heart retained control.
Would it be worth it?
No, of course not, that small corner of her mind argued. Are you nuts? Are you going to let a man define your life? Of course not. You’re going!
“I’m staying,” Kate said aloud.
“What?” Her mind echoed David’s more vocal disbelief. “Surely you jest, Kate. Or perhaps it is the alcohol speaking. You don’t know what you’re saying. Come now, let’s go.”
“I’m sorry, David,” she said, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “I cannot go with you. I’ve met someone here.”
An uncomfortable silence roared in Kate’s ears. What more could she say to him now? She hadn’t wanted to hurt his feelings. Surely, he had known somewhere deep down inside that she had never seen him the way he wished she might. Perhaps she should have given him the ‘just friends’ speech when she’d left?
“You only been gone a few weeks, Kate.” He laughed uncertainly, a mask for some hurt he felt at her words. “Surely, it’s nothing more than a crush.”
“It would be so much easier if it were.” Kate’s head was spinning as she wondered at her sudden resolve. “But it isn’t. I can’t leave him. I won’t leave him. I’m sorry, David. I know you hoped for something more between us, but it was never meant to be.”
“And this is?” he replied with a slight sneer.
“Please don’t,” Kate begged, taking his hand. “I don’t want ugly feelings left between us. Please, I need you to understand that this isn’t something I would have ever anticipated. Sometimes we just can’t help where our hearts lie.”
David looked down at their clasped hands and into Kate’s pleading green eyes. He relented with a sigh of resignation. “I must say, I’m surprised I’m not more broken-hearted over this, Kate. I had thought… well, I suppose there’s nothing more to say on the subject other than to ask again, are you sure this is what you want?”
“It is.” Kate drew in a deep breath. “Will you tell my parents not to worry? That I’ve met a nice man from – oh, I don’t know – Saudi Arabia or something that has some religious need to sequester their brides or something? I don’t want them worrying or thinking I’m dead. I’d rather have them think that I’m happy. Or maybe I can write a letter for you to send to them, that way they wouldn’t come to you for answers that you can’t give them.”
“Perhaps that might be best,” David nodded. “Do you think you’ll change your mind then?”
Kate met his eyes and said softly, “No, David. I don’t think so. I’m sorry.”
They sat there a while longer while David studied her as if trying to see the truth of it in her soul. “I will remain in London for a while just in case you change your mind. No rush really.”
“I won’t but thank you, David,” she said before adding one small fib. “I just want to say that I always knew you could do it, you know?”
“Thank you, Kate.” David rose from the settee and retrieved his hat, settling it back on his head. “I should be off then if I hope to catch the last train back into town. I’ll wait for your letter to your parents, all right?”
“Yes, thank you again. For everything.” Kate rose and gave David a gentle hug. “Goodbye.”
“Goodbye, Kate.”
Kate watched him go, astounded by what she had just done.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“He what?” Kate asked in astonishment at the gossip Janice passed along eagerly the moment she entered the nursery.
“He kicked her out of the house, he did,” the nanny repeated.
“Harrowby kicked his mother out of the house? Really?”
“Wasn’t much of a gentleman about it either, hear tell,” Janice went on, anxious to relay the gossip. “I had it from Jeremy who had it from Marianne that Geoffrey overheard the whole thing. His lordship called his mother a harridan who had overstepped her authority for the last time and that he wouldn’t stand for servants being physically assaulted in his home. Can you believe it?”
“I can,” Kate said, feeling pride for Brand welling inside of her.
“Geoffrey also said Mrs. Ryder raved about a harlot and a whore and said he thought his lordship was quite close to striking his own mother but then spit-spot told her to leave, straight away, too. Tonight. Wouldn’t even let her wait until morning,” Janice told her. “And that ain’t the best of it.”
“It isn’t?” Kate asked though she was filled with an overwhelming wave of gratitude. He’d done it for her, she realized. He’d banished his mother from his home to protect Kate from the woman’s wrath.
“No, he even told her she wasn’t allowed to return to London and that she’d just have to make do with living at Standon Hall if she expected any continued support from him!” Janice added t
his last with a wide grin, referring to the family’s oldest estate in Manchester far away from the kind of Society and influence Belinda Ryder craved. Mrs. Ryder had been at Ramble House for hardly a week, and yet there wasn’t a staff member who’d had a pleasant experience in her company. For Janice, as Nathan’s nanny, years of living in the same house had probably rubbed her to the breaking point.
An hour later, as the house began to settle into silence, relieved of guests and mothers, Harrowby slipped into Kate’s room finding her wide-awake and waiting for him, though in truth he had anticipated finding her fast asleep. She awaited him by the window and, without breaking his stride, he grabbed her about the waist and pinned her back against the wall, ducking his head to capture her lips in a devouring but brief kiss before he raised his head. The smile that lit his features took Kate’s breath away. It illuminated him, shedding tension and stress held for decades.
“You did it.”
“Yes, I did.” Brand kissed her deeply once more until she was clinging to his broad shoulders.
“Feels good, doesn’t it?” she asked breathlessly when they came up for air.
“Feels bloody good,” he admitted softly. “I am taking back my life, Kate. Or perhaps embracing it for the very first time and it is all because of you.”
“I’m proud of you.” Kate lifted her lips to his once more, parting her lips to invite the invasion of his tongue as she pressed her body hungrily against his.
“None of that now.” Harrowby eased away. “I want to know about your visitor.”
“Hey, you were the one who kissed me, you know,” she responded, hoping to avoid the conversation she knew she had to have with Brand.
“Enough. Tell me,” he commanded. He paced away to put some space between them. “Who was he? Your husband?”
“I told you I’m not married, Brand. It was Dr. Fergusson as I suspected. Dr. David Fergusson,” Kate told him. “We worked at the same research facility together before I came to be here.”
Harrowby searched Kate’s eyes and Kate put on her most innocent expression. “What did he want?”
How to answer that, Kate wondered. “Dav – Dr. Fergusson came to… well, I guess you could say that he came to take me back to my old job.” Feeling pleased with the answer, Kate met Brand’s gaze. “Of course, I told him that I’m happy with where I am and what I am doing here.”
“Are you?”
“I’m very happy where I am,” Kate answered truthfully, but Brand grunted.
“Kate Kallastad, you’re lying to me.”
“I am not!” Kate protested, wondering at the ease with which he’d seen though her half-truths. “I’m very happy here.”
“Not about that.” He waved off her protest. “About him. What did he want?”
“He wanted me to leave with him,” Kate insisted. “I told you that.”
“There is more to it than that.”
“No, there isn’t!”
“Yes, there is!” Harrowby shot back with such arrogance that Kate couldn’t even laugh at their childish arguing. No, his unflappable need to peck away at her did nothing more than stir her agitation. Ha! Two minutes of complete honesty from her might crumble his pristine, aristocratic world!
“You want the truth?” Kate quoted the iconic line from A Few Good Men. “You can’t handle the truth!” Feeling her temper rise, Kate was tempted to deliver the very real truth of the situation to Brand and let him see how much he liked it.
“Kate!” he barked.
“Fine. You want the truth? One hundred and thirty-six years from now, David Fergusson will invent a time machine that will send the both of us back in time, to this time, to your time and in the six weeks since we arrived, he has been trying to fix it so that we can go home.” She rushed on, “He came here tonight to tell me that he finally got it fixed. He came here to get me and to take me home.”
Silence fell for a long moment before Brand chuckled. “A time machine, eh?” he repeated with another laugh. “By God, Kate, what a brilliant idea that would be for a novel!”
Now that the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, Kate suddenly found herself inundated by the need to make a believer out of Brand. “It’s true!”
“Of course it is!” He laughed once more and swept her into his arms. “I think perhaps you had more to drink than I had thought if such fantasy is filling your mind.”
“Brand!” Kate protested once more, thinking of all the ways she might convince him of the truth. There was her purse buried at the bottom of her satchel filled with all sorts of things that might convince him of the truth; her passport and visa, her cell phone, driver’s license, even a tube of lipstick that was technologically beyond what was available here. But when Brand’s lips began to burn their way up the side of her neck, Kate let the argument go with a sigh. She had all the time in the world to argue with Brand, but what she wanted most of all was to hold his body to hers and revel in her decision to remain with him.
“I chose to stay with you, you know,” she whispered into his hair as his lips played seductively at her ear. “I could’ve gone with him.” Wrapping her arms around him, she pressed herself against his hard body feeling its heat through his clothing, feeling the strength of his desire in the quiver of his muscular arms.
“Why?” he asked, grabbing her hair to pull her head back so that he might take greater advantage of the tender sensitivity of her neck.
Though part of her longed to reiterate her love for him, Kate knew that she didn’t want to repeat the words until she was sure Brand would be able to recognize her sincerity and not assume there were other influences on her words. “I haven’t yet had a chance to make love with you, Brand. I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere at all until I do.”
“That is the drink talking.” He raised his head until his eyes met hers. He must have been able to read the truth in her gaze, that she wasn’t drunk any longer, because he inhaled deeply. “Are you certain, Kate?”
“I’ve never been more certain in my life,” she said honestly. “We’ve already rounded third base, you know. What do you say we take this baby all the way home?”
Brand brushed his thumb along her jaw, his blue eyes darkening turbulently with passion. “Come to my room with me,” he urged. “I have protection there to use.”
Kate’s eyes widened in surprise. Was he saying what she thought he was? “Protection?”
“French letters,” he clarified. “It will prevent you from…”
“I know what they do.” Kate shook her head. Who knew they already had condoms here? Granted she was already on the pill and still had enough in her purse to see them through the month, but she was astonished to learn that there were other means available. Apparently, her Norwegian ancestors with their fourteen kids hadn’t gotten that memo.
Clearly mistaking the shaking of her head, Brand eased away. “I’m rushing you.”
“No, not at all. You just took me by surprise being so prepared and all,” Kate assured him, slipping her hand into his. “You know, I’ve only been in your room to make your bed. I rather like the idea of messing it up.”
***
The journey down two flights of stairs and into the east wing seemed to take forever as Brand pulled Kate into one alcove after another along the way to press her up against the wall. His huge body would pin her there while his hands and mouth roamed freely. His passionate impatience roused Kate to a fever pitch before they finally stumbled into the earl’s chamber. Brand’s shirt was already unbuttoned and his tie loosened before they arrived while Kate’s bodice was completely undone and she was missing one stocking.
Locked in a heated embrace, mouths meshing and parting over and over again, the lovers moved across the room until they reached the bed. Brand’s fingers moved quickly, untying the laces on Kate’s corset and chemise until he was able to push the whole of her garments off her shoulders, nudging them as they descended. His hot mouth followed the path, nipping and sucking on her flesh as he desc
ended. At her waist, his hands paused at the ties of her drawers and he looked up at her.
Kate looked down at Brand on his knees before her. That alluring flame had returned to his gaze, his hair riotous from having her fingers pushed through it. God, but he was so beautiful! His eyes filled with adoration as he watched her smile seductively back at him. Mesmerized, she watched him pull the string of her drawers and slide them down her hips, his gaze breaking from hers as he pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to her belly. His tongue dove into her navel wringing a moan from deep within Kate before his lips slid to the side trailing kisses over her hipbone, down to the juncture of her thighs and back to brush the curls between her legs.
The moment his breath brushed across her, Kate clenched in anticipation running her hands through his hair. A moment later, she wasn’t disappointed when his tongue parted her lips and skimmed lightly over her quivering flesh. A ragged exhale stuttered out of her as his tongue delved more deeply and stroked her once more. Kate’s thighs quivered in response and she felt her knees begin to buckle.
It would never cease to amaze her how quickly Brand could rouse her passions and set her on the brink of ecstasy. It would be almost humiliating if she didn’t know that he was right there with her on the precipice, that he was aroused as she. His tongue laved her once more before he captured her tender flesh between his lips and suckled lightly. With a cry, Kate’s knees did buckle then as Brand’s big hands caught her hips to steady her.
Urging him to stand, Kate threw her arms around Brand and met his lips in a fiery kiss. Pushing his shirt up, she broke their kiss so that he could pull it over his head before she turned her attention to the flesh that was at eye level. The thick muscles played under his skin, changing in the dim light. With hands and mouth, she explored the smooth skin and muscle of his chest, licking and nipping at his flat nipples wringing pleased murmurs and encouragement from his lips. While he stroked her hair, her back and her bottom, Kate’s hand ran over the ridges of his stomach before she worked the fastenings of his trousers and pushed them down.
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