Believe (20 page)

Viviane’s voice hardened. “Can you tell him the kingdom falls to ruin? Arthur and his knights are reduced to tales told to children? Can you tell him only in fiction does he succeed in what he wants most in life? Can you tell him the world knows
him not as a great knight, not as a flesh-and-blood man but as a character in a bedtime fable? A minor character?”

“I don’t know,” Tessa whispered.

“And even if by some quirk of cosmic forces you and he do indeed find the Grail, what then? The Grail falls under the protection of he who finds it. If Galahad is successful, he will be its guardian.”

“Arthur mentioned that possibility, but so what? It sounds like an honor.”

“You have no idea what you’re dealing with, do you?” Disbelief colored Viviane’s face. “The Grail, if it exists at all, is not some sort of treasure to be brought out at parties or become part of a collection or placed in a glass case at a museum. It stays where it is hidden. Be that a cathedral or a cave. A castle or a cottage. And Galahad stays with it. Bound to the Grail,” her eyes smoldered, “forever.”

“Forever?” Tessa hadn’t once thought about what would happen after they found the Grail. She expected to go home but she hadn’t faced the idea of actually leaving him. She’d never considered what his fate would be. Her heart thudded at the thought.

And what if they never found the Grail? Would the quest go on for years until they were both too old to climb up on the back of a horse? Or distinguish a fake dragon from a real one? Or make love on the hard ground? Would she spend her life in an endless search for something they—he—could never have? Would she watch him grow bitter and resentful? Would she grow to hate him as well? Would he hate her? Blame her for his failure?

“It’s your choice, Tessa.”

Which was worse? Hell with him in a world she could do nothing to improve or change? Or hell without him in her own empty life at home?

Viviane was wrong. She had no choice.

“Thanks for the offer but I’ll pass.” She got to her feet. “I don’t think Merlin would bring me here if there was no chance of finding the Grail. Galahad is one of the good guys and he deserves this shot at his dream. If his success means ultimately I lose him…” She shook her head. “I guess I really do love him because I’m willing to risk it.

“As for Galahad never loving me…” She shrugged. “I honestly don’t know if I can live with that. We’ll see. I’m not self-sacrificing enough to say it doesn’t matter, because it does. But right now, he likes me and I think he actually respects me. That’ll do for the time being.”

Viviane’s jaw tightened. Tessa knew she’d just made a powerful enemy. “Very well. But do take care the next time you meet a dragon. It may well be real.”

Tessa gasped. “You?”

“I had hoped merely to frighten you into agreeing to my proposal. Unfortunately, I failed.” She raised her glass. “Pity.”

Before Tessa could so much as blink she was lying in the cave, curled up beside Galahad.

Hoping her encounter with Viviane was a dream.

Knowing full well it wasn’t.

“Bloody stubborn American!” Viviane glared at the crystal in her hand then turned and hurled it at a rock wall. It shattered in a nicely satisfactory manner. Another appeared and followed the first.
Three smashed goblets later and Viviane was once again calm and composed.

And frustrated.

Tessa St. James was not nearly as smart as Merlin believed. What kind of idiot would pass up the chance to get the one thing she really wanted? And for what? To help Galahad on a futile quest? A fool’s errand?

She sipped the wine in the new, intact glass in her hand and pushed away the touch of guilt that nagged at the back of her mind.

Certainly she hadn’t needed to be quite so blunt about Galahad’s emotions although everyone knew Galahad had loved his wife with a passion beyond measure. Whether that passion existed as anything more than a memory was an inference that could easily be drawn. Why, implying that Galahad could never feel for Tessa what he had felt for Dindrane was really only meant to save Tessa from inevitable heartbreak. Add to that the inescapable fact that Tessa did not belong here anymore than Viviane did, and you could say Viviane was simply trying to help the woman.

Although Merlin would never see it that way.

“Bloody hell.” Viviane heaved an irritated sigh and threw her glass against the wall. Immediately, another took its place. She sipped thoughtfully.

She could simply kill them and be done with it. Another dragon, perhaps, real this time, of course. Or something more in line with Tessa’s academic expertise. Something Greek, maybe. A hydra or Medusa or some other suitably nasty creature. That would be nicely ironic.

Merlin would never approve.

Merlin will never find out
.

Merlin always finds out. She started to throw the glass in her hand, stopped and drained the last drops of wine then helped the goblet meet the fate of its brothers.

She was just damned lucky Merlin didn’t know about the dragon. Although she really couldn’t be certain of that. Maybe he’d simply let her get away with a threat that was no real danger.

The peril is naught save illusion
.

“Bloody hell.” Realization flashed in her mind and she flung the glass in her hand with a vengeance. Two more followed in quick succession. She was set up. Of course. There was no question about it. One did not live with a man for more than a thousand years without knowing how his fiendish little mind worked. Worse yet, he knew her equally as well. All he had to do was plant one tiny seed and sit back and watch it grow to fruition. Certainly, she could have caught on and ignored his ire at computer animation, but if he was as much a gambler as she, he would have laid a substantial wager on her picking up the bait. And won.

To add to the insult, she’d actually helped Tessa and Galahad meet the first challenge in the riddle. Helped them on their way to the Grail. And Viviane’s way to a permanent stay in the Middle Ages.

She raised back her hand to let fly yet another glass and paused. Somehow, after the third glass, or was it the sixth, or perhaps the twenty-eighth, even the shatter of fine crystal didn’t provide a respectable level of satisfaction. The glass vanished.

No, she needed a plan. And possibly a partner. Tessa was the obvious choice but even if Viviane had succeeded in making Tessa realize the futility of a
relationship with Galahad, the woman was still far too attached to that “word of honor” nonsense. By the stars, she was as much a sanctimonious knight as Galahad himself.

Allies were few and far between in this day and age. Viviane had never been particularly social in this era. Merlin had been her world. It wasn’t until the Renaissance that she’d come into her own, positively blooming in Georgian times. But nothing was as good as the twenty-first century. Determination clenched Viviane’s fists. One way or another she was getting back there. For good.

Surely there was someone she could call on for assistance? Or rather, someone she could assist. Subtly, without attracting Merlin’s attention. But Tessa had no enemies here. As for Galahad, he was respected and beloved and damn near perfect. It made one want to retch. Not that she didn’t like the dear boy herself. She did, in spite of his, well, goodness. Galahad didn’t have an enemy in the world. Everyone liked him.

Not everyone.

Viviane pushed the thought away almost as soon as it popped into her head. She’d sooner make a bargain with the devil himself than deal with that nasty, despicable creature. He had a vicious cruel streak, no sense of loyalty whatsoever and probably cheated at every wager he’d ever made. No, he could not be trusted.

Still…perhaps just this once such an alliance was permissible. He harbored a great deal of resentment toward Galahad. It would hardly take any effort at all to fan the flames of bitterness to full-fledged hatred. And if things got out of control, and Galahad or Tessa did not survive, it certainly wouldn’t be her fault. Not
really. Merlin would be annoyed, perhaps even angry, but ultimately any fatalities could not be laid to rest at her feet.

This was a far better idea than that ridiculous faux dragon. This time the game would be played for far greater stakes.

This time, the danger would be real.

“Y
ou are remarkably quiet, Tessa St. James.” Galahad’s comment was offhand, but worry shone in his eye. “Are you certain you are quite ready—”

“I’m fine, really.” They rode side by side at a relaxed easy pace. “I just wish you’d stop looking at me as if I was a fragile piece of glass. I went a little off the deep end but I’m all right now.” She smiled wryly. “It’s probably going to take me some time to get adjusted to the kind of adventures I’m learning are standard issue on a quest.”

His eyes twinkled with suppressed amusement. “’Twas not your, um, fit that concerned me.”

“Oh.” She bit back a grin. “Then it must have been the sex.”

“Indeed.” He too stifled a smile.

“It was great.”

“That was not in question.” He flashed a quick grin, then his expression sobered. “I referred to whether or not you now had regrets as to—”

“No way.” She widened her eyes in amazement. “It was perfect.” She paused. “Do you? Have any regrets I mean.”

“Nay.” He shook his head. “But it has been a long time—”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t done this since your wife died?”
Maybe he was the virgin knight after all.

He laughed, a full deep sound. “Tessa, it has been more than a decade. I am a man in the prime of life. I am a knight.”

“Is that the answer for everything with you?”

“Aye.” He laughed again. She could listen to him laugh forever.

“That lecherous chuckle of yours says it all.” She eyed him suspiciously. “I thought only the pure of heart could seek the Grail.”

“My lady.” He swept his arm out with a flourish and bowed his head. “The purity of your heart has naught to do with the lust in your loins.”

A sharp laugh or snort exploded from her. “You are really something.”

“As are you.” A smile lingered on his lips and he directed his gaze toward the barely defined road before them. Long minutes went by. She was going to have to say something soon. With that nasty Viviane on the lose, Tessa didn’t have a choice. Who knew what the bitch would do next? Besides, now that Tessa realized love was involved, at least on her side, she wanted to be honest with him. He deserved that much. This little revelation would be much better coming from her than somebody else. Then why couldn’t she find the right words?

“What is it that troubles you, Tessa?”

What if he didn’t believe her? “Why do you think something is bothering me?”

“I have noted your silence.”

What if he thought she was crazy? “I thought you’d enjoy it.”

“I have found when you are ill at ease you chatter at a ceaseless pace.”

Or a liar. “Thanks.”

“But your speechlessness has an air of worry about it. ’Tis most disconcerting.”

“If you think this is disconcerting…” She sighed. “I don’t know where to begin.”

His voice was mild. “’Tis said among the tellers of tales at the king’s court that ’tis only one place to start a story.”

“Oh?”

“At the beginning.”

“The beginning?” Where exactly was the beginning? Merlin popping up in her class? Her mother’s package of books? The university library? “Remember when we first met? In the chapel?”

“Indeed. I thought you were an impertinent boy.”

“Right. Remember what I was wearing?”

He nodded. “Peculiar garments. I’d not seen their like before.”

“Exactly,” she said with a note of triumph.

“Nay.” He shook his head. “In truth, they were suited more for a man than a women. ’Tis why I was confused. The clothing concealed your true nature until you deigned to correct my incorrect impression with a display of,” the corners of his lips curled up in a wicked smile, “boobs.”

She groaned. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”

“Never, fair Tessa.”

“All that aside, didn’t you ever wonder where I came from?”

“Merlin said you were from a distant land.”

“But didn’t you want to know more?”

“I am not a curious man, Tessa, yet I will concede I had hoped to learn more about your home.” He chuckled. “Where the people have no sorcerers and believe we live on a ball spinning in the heavens. ’Tis a story to rival that of the greatest bard.”

“It’s true, Galahad.”

He snorted with disbelief. “No one in all of Britain believes such a thing.”

“Not today.” She braced herself for whatever reaction would come. “But someday they will.”

“You make no sense.” He slanted her a teasing smile. “’Tis no longer a surprise to me.”

“I’m serious, Big Guy. Someday, everyone in Britain, everyone in the entire world, will understand the earth is a planet spinning through space.”

“I do not—”

“Centuries from now, men will circumnavigate the globe and prove the earth is not flat. But that’s just the beginning.” She leaned toward him. “There are lands beyond England that man hasn’t even found yet. Whole continents to be discovered. And there will be inventions. Amazing things to do anything you can imagine. There’s the industrial revolution and then steam engines and trains and cars and all kinds of things. And man will fly someday, Galahad. Not just to the sky but to the moon.”

He reined in his horse and stared. “Tessa, are you certain you are recovered?”

“I’m fine, really. You have to believe me.”

“Such things cannot happen. If you are not mad—”

“I swear I’m not crazy.”

“Nay. ’Twould be too easy an answer to believe you daft.” Suspicion narrowed his eyes. “Are you a prophetess then, Tessa. A seer?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m just an ordinary person.”
Just a plain old ordinary time traveler.

“Then how do you know these things?”

She swallowed hard and caught his gaze with hers, willing him to accept her words. “I’m from the future.”

“The future,” he said carefully, as if trying the concept out in his mind. “The future has yet to happen.”

“Actually, I think it has. Kind of. In a parallel sort of way.”

He stared and shook his head. “You tell a remarkable tale. But ’tis impossible to believe.”

“You believed me when I said the dragon wasn’t real.”

“’Twas proof.”

“Not much.”

“Enough.”

“Damn it, Galahad, I don’t have any proof.” She reached out and grabbed his arm. “Believe me. I’m from the future.”

“Nay, Tessa, that cannot be,” he said sharply and shook off her hand. “’Tis no future yet to be from. Indeed, there are the days that have passed. We remember them, sometimes clearly, sometimes not. They are gone. Still, there is no question of their existence. And there is today as we live it and breathe it. But the days beyond this have yet to happen. What you claim is impossible.”

“I don’t understand it myself. All I know is one minute I was minding my own business in good old
two thousand…” Maybe an exact date would be too much for him. “Never mind. Let’s just say centuries from now, and your buddy Merlin picks me up and drops me in the chapel.”

“Merlin had a hand in this?”

“Duh. This whole little adventure, and I use the term loosely, was his idea. Think about it. This scheme has Merlin written all over it.”

Galahad brows drew together thoughtfully.

“Whose idea was it for me to come along on this quest?” She pressed her point. “Your quest?”

“Aye,” he said softly.

“And with Merlin involved the sky’s the limit, right?”

“He is a wizard of extraordinary power.”

“I’ll give you that.” She nodded. “Now, listen carefully, this is the big one for the all-expense-paid dream vacation to the Virgin Islands—”

His eyes widened. “Now I know you jest. ’Tis no islands for virgins.”

She ignored him. “Aren’t I completely different from anybody else you’ve ever known?”

“You are a woman of unusual character,” he said slowly.

“And have you ever heard one single, solitary person talk the way I do? Or dress the way I did? Or do anything the way I do?”

“Nay.”

“So, in a strictly logical sense, doesn’t that leave traveling through time as the only thing left?”

“Perhaps…Nay!” Anger snapped his words. “I cannot accept this fable of yours.”

“But—”

“Quiet!” His tone softened. “Forgive me.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “What you’ve said is inconceivable to me. To the way I understand the nature of the world.” He shook his head. “I would have some time alone with my thoughts.” He nodded and spurred his horse to pass hers, then settled on the road in front of her. Her mount followed his in an easy walk.

“Take your time.” She forced a casual note to her voice but her heart sank. She’d had no idea how he’d take her story and no idea what to expect. This actually wasn’t as bad as she’d feared but it wasn’t very good either.

They rode on in silence. She stared at his broad back in front of her. What was he thinking? How was he dealing with this? Was he upset? Confused? She shook her head in disgust. No kidding. She’d just done her level best to shatter his beliefs about the very world he lived in. Confusion was probably his mildest reaction.

Without warning he wheeled his horse and rode back to her side.

“Why did you tell me this now?” His gaze simmered with a dark intensity.

She stared at him for a minute. What could she say?
Because I love you and I want you to know just how precious the time is that we have together.
No. She might be able to handle love being one-sided in this relationship but she’d rather he didn’t know of her feelings. If she couldn’t have his love, she definitely didn’t want his pity. “We’re in this together, remember. I didn’t want there to be any secrets between us.” She shrugged. “I thought you should know the truth, that’s all.”

His gaze searched her face as if looking for the
answers to a thousand years of questions. He nodded abruptly, then spurred his horse and returned to ride ahead of her.

Now what? Galahad struck her as the strong, silent type. He obviously needed time to digest all this. But how much? An hour? A day? A hundred years?

She’d give him a while but eventually he’d have to talk to her again. Until then she could wait.

For an hour, a day, a hundred years. One way or another, she had all the time in the world.

God save them all. It was absurd. Ridiculous. Utter nonsense. It could not be true.

Could it?

Indeed, Tessa believed it. Was there not a ring of truth in her words? Merlin’s power was undisputed. If such a far-fetched prospect were possible, would it not take a wizard of remarkable strength? Galahad’s mind whirled with conflicting thoughts.

She was unlike anyone, male or female, he’d ever known. Her speech was similar to his own yet oddly flavored. Not like a language unknown to him but more an unfamiliar dialect of his own tongue. He’d already noted how she’d not discussed her home and had wondered at her silence. It was apparent from the look in her eye that she missed her land and her people. Now that he considered it, there was much about Tessa he did not know. Their talks had consisted mostly of her questions about him and his life, his family and friends.

Was he as arrogant as she’d claimed? Is that why he’d paid so little heed to her plight? Hot shame flushed up his face. All he’d concerned himself with
was her involvement with his quest. He’d watched her outbursts born of terror when he’d first shown her the castle and after their defeat of the dragon. Each time she’d railed against the reality of the world around her. Of Camelot. Of Arthur. Of him. How had he been so selfish to disregard her fears? And so foolish? To attribute her ravings to the instability of a feminine nature and fail to even wonder why ’twas the very nature of life around them that scared her most.

How had he dared question her courage?
The thought struck him like a splash of icy water. He pulled his horse to a stop. Aye, she had succumbed twice to hysteria; yet was that not minor given her predicament?

In her place, would he do better? Could he face a world unknown with the same determination and fortitude? A world in which he was completely alone save for the influence of a wizard and the company of one lone man?

“Are you okay?” Her horse pulled up beside him. Her troubled gaze met his. “Galahad?”

“Aye, Tessa, I am…okay.” He stared down at her and his heart twisted. She was so fragile and tiny, yet her spirit burned as brightly as any man—as any knight—he’d ever known. And he’d called her a mere woman. There was naught
mere
about the Lady Tessa. “And you?”

“Swell.”

He urged his horse on but made no effort to leave her side. “’Tis time to talk.”

She heaved a sigh of relief. “Great. So…do you believe me?”

It was his turn to sigh. “’Tis an odd idea, this travel
ing from a future that does not yet exist. ’Tis difficult to comprehend or accept.”

Her expression fell.

“Yet, I find the notion grows more and more likely with continued thought.”

“Really?”

“Indeed. It explains much. About Merlin’s insistence on your company here as well as your nature. I should have pressed you for answers about yourself long ago. Yet I was too concerned with my own plans to pay you any heed.” He cast her an apologetic smile. “My pardon, Tessa. ’Twas unforgivable.”

A soft smile played about her lips. “You had a lot on your mind and time travel probably isn’t something that comes up very often.”

“’Tis the first I have heard of such a thing and no doubt ’twill be the last.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet there’s not a steady flow of visitors to the Middle Ages. It’s not even one of those nice-place-to-visit kinds of things.”

He rolled his gaze toward the sky. Even now, suspecting the truth of her charges, his lack of understanding at all she said would surely drive him mad. But already he had learned to ignore most of her ramblings. “I cannot say I fully understand nor can I believe without question, yet I have come to know you in our days together. You have held my life in your hands as I have held yours. There is trust between us.”

“This is a lot to ask for in terms of trust.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps it is no more than the sure and certain knowledge than we can depend on one another in times of great trial.” He chuckled. “Of course, I would not depend on your prowess with a bow—”