by Annie Seaton
The faint mooing of the cows in the field at the back of the cottages drifted across on the breeze and she put her hand up to her eyes and peered back across towards the village. Glastonbury Tor stood tall in the morning sun, and the last drifts of mist around the three marker stones were gradually disappearing in the light breeze. The brightly coloured tents of the festival had long gone and an idyllic English countryside spread out before her. With a happy sigh, she turned to the door, but paused as a flash of movement near the monument caught her attention.
Her breath caught as a familiar figure in a black T-shirt and black jeans stepped from behind the middle stone. Even from this distance, the sunlight highlighted the blue-black lights of his long curls. She waited with her heart thudding in her chest as he crossed the field to the gate at the back of Rose Cottage. She pressed her lips together and rubbed her arms as a lightness filled her entire body.
Finally, Megan stepped from the porch onto the soft grass and waited for David to see her. He stopped and stood stock-still. He turned his head slowly towards her and the expression on his face was all she’d dreamed of. His dark eyes lit up and those sexy full lips tilted in a huge grin. A surge of warmth began in the pit of her stomach and rose to her chest.
She smiled at him and held out her hand. He dropped his guitar to the ground and strode across his back garden, jumping the fence between the two cottages in one fluid movement.
David reached her and took her hand in his. Not one word was spoken.
The connection between them was sealed as a jolt of heat ran up Megan’s arm. He looked down at her, and his dark gaze held hers for a long moment before he took her in his arms and held her tightly against him.
Relief coursed through her body as he embraced her as though he’d never let her go. Warmth radiated through her and her heart drummed in her chest. She quivered with the effort of suppressing the emotion clogging her throat and wrapped her arms around his back.
“I heard my song.” She kept her voice soft and parted her lips as he lifted his head.
“I wrote it because I didn’t know where to look for you.” Holding her eyes with his dark gaze, his deep voice sent a shiver coursing through her.
“I know. That’s why I came back.”
Slowly his lips lowered to hers as though they had all the time in the world.
“I meant every word, you know.” He murmured against her lips and the vibration of his words sent the warmth rushing lower. “I love you, Megan. I want you in my life, wherever we are.”
His words filled her with joy and his touch drifted over her lightly; the sensation of intimacy held a promise of their future.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Two languorous days passed exploring each other and finding out about the other. Most of the time was spent in bed in David’s cottage. Megan hadn’t even entered the McLaren cottage.
She shivered as a finger ran lazily down her back. Propped on her stomach with her hands beneath her chin, she drank in the sight of David lying beside her on the bed. The look he returned went straight to her heart, cementing the feelings and words they had shared over the past two days.
Megan reached across and tangled her fingers in David’s hair, wrapping a curl around her finger. Rolling over onto her back, she pulled his head across to hers and slid her lips slowly over his.
“I still can’t believe I found you so easily.” She smiled as he deepened the kiss and she let his hair go as he lay beside her. His skin was warm against hers and his fingers trailed down her side. “It was meant to be.”
“Hey, I was trying hard over here too,” he said. “I wasn’t going to give up. Alice told me I would find you.” He raised himself up on one elbow. “You know I don’t understand all this time slip stuff, but she said she was a part of us finding each other.”
“Do you know where she ended up?” Megan wondered if David knew. He’d told her about Alice’s trip to hospital and her insistence in staying back in 1971.
“No, I often wondered. She’s never come back through the slip in the summers I have visited here. I’ve not seen anyone in her cottage until a particularly beautiful lady arrived a few weeks ago.”
Megan smiled sadly and touched his hand. “Beth told me. Alice passed away three years ago and she’s buried in the small cemetery in the village.”
David looked away and stared towards the window for a while. “She must have been close to eighty?”
“Yes, she lived to a fine age. I’m sure Beth and her family have no idea about the stones and her travels. She kept herself very private and lost contact with them as she got older. The cottage is the only remaining link to her.” Megan turned her head towards him and held his gaze. “A bit like a reclusive rock star I was in love with when I was a teenager. Very private.”
“No more travelling through stones?”
He nodded. “I have to go back to do some promotion for this album, and a couple of tours. Then for a few more albums and in about ten years for a reunion. Bear died in the eighties.” He leaned over and kissed her briefly. “Come on, lazybones. We’ve got a visit to make. Time to get up.”
Megan squealed as he slapped her bare bottom. Long legs and a sexy naked butt disappeared into the small bathroom and the shower began to run. He was right; they had a visit to make, but she’d join him in the shower first. She slid out of bed and followed him into the bathroom.
By the time they walked through the village and passed the Abbey, the sun was low in the western sky. They’d stopped at the village store and chatted to Jules as they’d bought a bunch of flowers to take with them. Streaks of pink and gold surrounded the low hills around them as David pushed open the gate to the small cemetery behind the Abbey. The air was still and quiet and a mystical sense enveloped them as they walked between the headstones.
“I’m sure she knows we got together.” David crouched beside a simple black marble plaque and read the words. “Alice Elizabeth McLaren, d. 10 November 2008. No birth date?”
“Beth said that was in her will. She stipulated there was to be no age on her plaque and they couldn’t understand why but they respected her wishes.”
“She was a sweet lady.” David stood and wandered over to another grave and Megan followed him and placed the last of the flowers next to the simple wooden cross.
“Bear was a good man, too.”
As they turned to leave the grave, a flash of light lit the sky and highlighted the three stone markers ahead of them. David took Megan in his arms and kissed her.
“We’ll go home through the village, just in case.”
Megan smiled and closed her eyes as his warm lips stayed on hers. “As long as we’re together, Davy Morgan, it’s home.”
Epilogue
6 months later
David was sitting beside Megan on Tony and Kathy’s deck overlooking the sparkling waters of Sydney harbour. Megan had come back to Australia to pack up and head home with him.
Home—to his island in the Caymans, but he had promised regular trips down under to visit the new baby sleeping in the pram beside Kathy.
“So where’s the wedding going to be held?” Kathy asked as she leaned into the pram and picked up baby Jack.
Megan looked at her sister with a smile. “David has offered to fly you all to his island. We were thinking of a Christmas wedding in the Bahamas.”
Tony nodded. “As long as little Jack here is up to a long flight, that sounds fabulous.”
Megan jumped up as the doorbell rang. “Beth’s here!” David watched as she hurried inside to answer the door.
A young woman with long blonde hair had her arm through Megan’s when she reappeared. They were both smiling as Megan led her friend across to the table.
“Beth, this is David.”
David stood and held out his hand.”Hello, Beth. It’s good to finally meet you.”
“You too,” Beth replied. “I’ve heard so much about you from Megan. And Megan said that you met my Aunt Alice briefly befo
re she passed away.”
“I did. She was a sweet old lady.” David swallowed. It still made him nervous, wondering if his dual life would ever be discovered. The further he and Megan were from the stones in Glastonbury, the happier he was.
“I never met her, but my mother remembers her as a bit of an old hippie.”
David simply smiled.
Beth turned back to Megan, excitement in her voice. “And I have news.”
“I’m going to England and I’m going to live in Aunt Alice’s cottage for a few months.”
David and Megan looked at each other. “That’s…um, exciting,” Megan said. “But what on earth are you going to do in a cottage way out in the country for a few months?”
“I’m finally going to write that book I’ve been talking about for the last couple of years.” Beth’s eyes were bright. “And I’ve got the perfect plot. Mum found a trunk when she was over there, and it was full of Aunt Alice’s diaries.”
“Plot?” Megan’s voice was so soft, David barely heard her question. “What sort of plot?”
He stood still as he waited for Beth to answer.
“Paranormal,” she said with a smile. “If I told you what was in Aunt Alice’s diaries, you’d never believe it.”
THE END
Beth’s story, Follow Me, continues this time travel series set in Glastonbury.
Stay posted for its release in 2018.
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Other books by Annie Seaton
KAKADU SUNSET
DAINTREE
DIAMOND SKY
WHITSUNDAY DAWN
BEACH HOUSE
BEACH MUSIC
BEACH WALK
CHRISTMAS WITH THE BOSS
HER OUTBACK COWBOY
HER OUTBACK SURPRISE
HIS OUTBACK NANNY
HIS OUTBACK TEMPTATION
TEN DAYS IN TUSCANY
HOLIDAY AFFAIR
ITALIAN AFFAIR
OUTBACK AFFAIR
THE ROMANCE ABROAD BUNDLE
TANGLING WITH THE CEO
BRUSHING OFF THE BOSS
GUARDING HIS HEART
DANGEROUS DESIRE
SEDUCTIVE SECRETS
ADVENTURES IN TIME
SILVER VALLEY WITCH
CAPTURING THE PIRATE’S HEART
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Annie Seaton lives on the edge of the South Pacific Ocean on the east coast of Australia, and she is fulfilling her lifelong dream of writing, and has been delighted to discover that readers love reading her stories as much as she loves writing them.
Annie lives with her own hero of many years. Their two children are now grown up and married, and three beautiful grandchildren have arrived. Now they share their home with “Toby” the dog and Barney, a rag doll Kitty.
When she is not writing, she can be found in her garden or walking on the beach…or most likely on her deck overlooking the ocean, a chilled glass of wine in hand as the sun sets.
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