Ancient Ties (2 page)

“What in the world…” Janney Forrester shifted her eyes suspiciously from side to side. “It was in ruins a minute ago,” she muttered. “How can this be?” Janney held her breath, blinking, wondering if she was losing her mind. How was it possible that now there was a fountain bubbling musically, the mosaic floor was intact and ablaze with vivid colors? The walls, too, were rich with cleverly painted scenes of men and women, or gods and goddesses, she didn’t know which. It was amazingly beautiful.

Strange. Captivating. But she was really starting to freak out.

“This is crazy.” With a strangled gasp, she twisted around.

“What the hell is going on?”
A wooden door?
“I didn’t come through a door.”

Unbelieving, pressing shaking fingers to the center of her forehead, she turned back to the room. Every hair on her body stood on end.

Disoriented, Janney struggled to make sense of things, and fought to fill her lungs with air. Tried to calm her racing heart.

She heard voices over the burbling fountain, but couldn’t catch the words. Her gaze flew to the other end of the room, and she froze stock-still as a man appeared in a doorway. Tall, he had to duck slightly under the top of the doorframe. Broad shoulders filled the frame. He wore what looked like a Roman tunic. She’d seen enough gladiator movies to recognize it. Strapped, laced-around-the-ankle sandals wrapped his large feet.

Janney gaped, pressing her lips together.

Are they making a movie?

She hadn’t seen any trucks or other people outside, but how else to explain this man?

My God, he’s as stunning as a movie star
.

From head to toe, he was all man. Short dark hair, salted with strands of silver, broad cheekbones and a masculine, square chin with a delicious cleft. Then there were the lips. Janney’s mouth opened.

How would they feel?
They’re firm. And full.
She angled her head. Hot, she felt hot. And sweaty.

What am I thinking? Thank goodness, he hasn’t seen me yet. It
would be too embarrassing to be caught drooling.

His wrist was draped casually over the hilt of a sword.
He’s
armed!
Two crisscrossed, copper and silver belts hung around his hips, the sword on the left side and a dagger in an enameled sheath on the other. Before Janney could even think what to do or say, his gaze met hers.
Damn!
He had caught her ogling him.

She tried to turn away but his dark, chocolate eyes held her enthralled. She should be afraid. A stranger with a sword stared back at her. She opened her mouth intending to say ‘hello’ but his eyes narrowed in breath-stealing suspicion.

“Zeus!” Then he mumbled something.

“Who are you?”

“Marek, who is it?”

She had no idea what he said, but she’d understood the woman behind him.
Marek? His name is Marek. Hmm.
She’d never thought of it as a Roman name.

Janney’s mind whirled with questions. The woman, now visible behind him, was also dressed as an ancient Roman, a floor length tunic, a belt of cloth below her breasts, covered her from her shoulders to her toes. Brown hair, threaded with gray, she stared at Janney her warm, green eyes sparkled with curious interest. “I don’t understand this. From outside, this place looks deserted,” Janney mumbled. He’d held her gaze at first, but now he slowly, and oh so thoroughly, inspected her from head to toe

and back up again. The resulting heat scorched her from the inside out.

God, is he doing it on purpose?

Her heart thudded in her chest.
This is no time to be turned on
.

She broke their eye contact. Locking her shaky knees, Janney glanced over to the fountain, and then took in the rest of the room. From outside, it had looked dull and dusty. Now it wasn’t. The walls and mosaic floor wore bright, rich colors.

They were real.

He was real. Very real.

The man—Marek—spoke again, “What are you doing here?”

The sexy, low thrum of his voice startled her.
Why do I
understand him now?
This is too weird
. It was like a play and she didn’t know her lines. Fantasy and reality fought in her head, and as reality won, Janney regained her senses.

Oh, for crying out loud, it’s a re-creation, a museum. These people
are museum guides, something like that.
Forgetting for the moment that from outside, the place appeared to be in ruins, Janney grasped onto what seemed to be the most logical explanation.

“And why do you have that?” He pointed to the object she held in her hand.

Janney balanced the wide gold bracelet in her upturned palm, squinting at it as if she’d never seen it before. The glitter of the jewelry wedged between the stones in the outer wall of the villa had caught her eye. She figured it had to be a costume piece because it was unlikely that a real gold bracelet would be lying around in the dirt. “This? I found it outside.”

“That’s yours, Marek,” the woman spoke. “You thought you’d lost it.”

“Well, here.” Janney held out her hand. He strode to within arm’s length and snatched it from her.

In those brief seconds that their fingers touched, she felt it—searing, sizzling heat spiked across her skin, through her veins, the hair on her arms standing on end.

Janney knew he felt it too, as his stunned gaze locked on hers again. She had to tip her head back to keep eye contact.

How did he get so close? Their toes almost touched, hands still inches apart. She was aware of his chest expanding. His parted lips mirrored hers. God, she couldn’t breathe. His eyes burned with a smoldering intensity she’d never imagined directed toward her. The heat from his body almost swamped her.

Abruptly, as if he awoke from a dream, Marek angrily snapped the gold cuff bracelet on his wrist. The click of it broke the spell, his dark eyes shuttered, and he turned away from Janney.

“Marek.” Chiding him, the woman deftly moved him aside.

“I am Augusta Luken Paullinus. This is my home. Welcome.”

The woman’s smile seemed genuine. Janney focused on her face and tried to make sense of what was happening. “Um, okay,” she said carefully. “My name is Janney Forrester. You have a lovely home.” She’d play along. Her gaze on the woman was soon drawn magnetically back to the man, gauging his reaction. It wasn’t good.

“May I present Marek Benin Verus, Primus Pilus of the Sixth Legion of Rome.”

Marek Ben…Ohmigod! That was the name on the tombstone in the
museum. Now, this is too weird.

“Where do you come from?” he demanded, glowering at her.

She definitely understood that. This was the oddest house tour she’d ever been on. This guy looked older, maybe close to forty, because his face was ruddy like he’d spent a lot of his time outdoors.

Maybe he’s an out-of-work actor, and this is all he could get right
now, and that’s why he’s so surly. Oh, cripes, don’t feel sorry for him. If
he is an actor, though, he’s perfect to play the part of a Roman soldier.

Massive shoulders, sculpted muscles in his upper arms, strong sinewy legs. Even through the cloth of his tunic, she could see that his chest was broad, his stomach trim and flat.

Even though the woman appeared friendlier, Janney’s gaze kept going back to the man. His face looked lived in, little fans of lines beside his dark chocolate eyes, shallow grooves on the sides of those hard lips. Her breath caught sharply.

I should leave now
.
I shouldn’t be looking at his lips
.
This
situation is extremely weird and I should get out of here.

“I have to go. Thank you.” Always polite, but Janney spoke abruptly as she whirled around and headed back to the front door, the wooden door that hadn’t been there when she came in. Jerking it open and crossing the threshold, she was startled to see people in a large, walled courtyard. People. Animals that looked like donkeys. Horse-drawn carts filled with food and pottery. She heard people talking and laughing and shouting orders. People in ancient Roman clothing.

“Um, wrong door,” she muttered as she ducked back in.

The man had moved to stand by the fountain, his arms folded across his chest.

“This must not have been the door I came in.” Janney briefly made eye contact with him, trying not to broadcast her growing fear.

Just calm down and find the outside door.

Darting a glance around the reception room, she saw only two doorways, the one she was in and the one Augusta and Marek had come through.

“Listen, how do I get out? I need to get back to town.

People are expecting me.” She spoke slowly, with a false composure, and hoped the little lie would give her some protection. In truth, no one in Bath knew where she was.

“There. That is the outside door.” He nodded toward the door behind her.

“But, when I came in, nothing was out there. It was a field overgrown with weeds and bushes.” Janney’s voice rose to a panic pitch. “Now there are people and animals.” Scowling, pressing her lips tightly together, watching the man out of the corner of her eye, she paced along the wall to her left, away from him.

There must be a hidden door. Calm down.
She heard her mother’s voice warning her against the dangers of traveling alone in a foreign country.
Damn!

Taking a deep breath, hoping for calm, she said, “Look, I’m meeting some people. If you’ll just show me the way out, I’ll be on my way.”

“Janney Forrester, where are you trying to go?”

He sounded confused, too. Maybe this wasn’t some kind of trick after all. Or maybe he was a better actor than she gave him credit for. “I want to leave. Please just show me how to get out.”

If she heard that velvet-over-gravel voice one more time, she’d melt into a puddle at his feet. Even though he sounded confused, and she was bewildered, her heart skittered at his primal sensuality.

As if talking to a child, he said gently, “That is the only way out.” Moving across the room, he escorted her back to the door, his hand brushing the small of her back, sending shivers all over her body. Janney stepped out again. She saw the courtyard, the people, and the animals, all of it.

“God!” Her breath hitching, she grabbed him, unconsciously digging her fingernails into his hard forearm. “Where is the door I came in?”

Staring at her as if she were mad, he gripped her shoulders, his thumbs bracketing her neck. He forced her to look into his deep brown—she thought again of hot fudge—eyes. “Janney Forrester, there is only one door and that’s it. Tell me where you are going and I’ll take you there.”

Janney felt her face flushing hot. “I need to get out of here,”

she cried as she pushed at his solid chest, tried to twist herself out of his arms. “Don’t touch me!”

“Marek!” The warning tone was low, but sharp.

They both turned to look at Augusta. Janney had forgotten she was there. Breaking from his grasp, Janney ran to Augusta and begged, “Please, help me. I can’t get out. The door’s not the same one I came in.” Her words tumbled out all in a rush. “He won’t let me out!”

“Janney, my dear,” Augusta calmly began, “Marek will not hurt you. No one will hurt you.” She talked softly and assuredly to Janney. “There is only one door. Let’s go look out together.”

Janney and Augusta walked to the door, opened it, and looked out into the courtyard again. Frantic, Janney pushed herself away. Her back to the atrium wall, she slid along until she met the corner. Thoughts wouldn’t light in her brain and the ones that finally did, she couldn’t believe. What seemed to be true couldn’t possibly be. She just needed to think logically.

These people were actors. They had to be. She took a deep breath trying to calm her wildly beating heart and spoke, her voice barely above a whisper, “Where am I?”

“You’re at Aquae Sulis, dear.”

“You mean Bath.” It was a statement. A demand. Not a question.

“The baths are here, but this place is called Aquae Sulis.”

Augusta spoke calmly.

Janney’s frantic gaze flickered to the man. Aquae Sulis. She knew that was the ancient name for the town of Bath.

His brows had drawn together over his nose.

“What year is this?” She wheezed, afraid her breath wouldn’t last.

“It is the year .”

“No, I mean really, in real life, not this fake restored Roman thing.”

Augusta approached Janney slowly holding out her hands palm up, non-threateningly, “Janney dear, you are in Britannia, in the Roman Empire. This is Aquae Sulis. My name is Augusta and this is my friend, Marek.”

Shivering, pressing herself further into the corner, Janney crossed both palms over her mouth. Eyes wide, she stared at the couple for what seemed an interminable time as her brain tried to slog through what was happening.
It isn’t possible. It can’t be.

Things like this don’t happen in real life. Not in my life, anyway.

It’s impossible. Unthinkable.
She could hardly utter the words even in her mind, let alone out loud. They’d tie her up in a

rubber room or whatever they did back in Roman times with insane people.

Beginning to believe it all may be true, she babbled, “I am Janney Forrester from Mission River, Iowa in America. I teach third grade and I’m on summer vacation in England. I live in the year . I don’t understand what happened. It can’t possibly be true but…but…I’ve…” Her panicked eyes darted around the room. “I think…I’ve gone back in time...” Her voice dribbled off. “I’m lost.”

She sank to the floor and buried her face in her arms, hugging her knees to her chest, holding herself as tightly as she could.

“Marek, she’s not mad.” Augusta uttered the feared word—

mad. “I don’t fully understand it, but I think her story is somehow true.”

“M-Mom,” Janney cried, tears trickling down her cheeks.

“Oh my God. My mother will die of worry if I don’t get back.

My kids. Oh, God, I’ve just disappeared. No one will know what happened to me.”