Stars Across Time (19 page)

They rose over the crest of a hill, and the thick cement walls of the fort came into view. Andie caught herself bouncing her foot and forced herself to stop. After what she had endured over the last week, seeing Theron again shouldn’t make her nervous.

“So long as he’s not pissed about the fact that he now has a woman,” she muttered.

“Ma’am?” the sergeant asked.

“Nothing.”

As a gate guard came out to check the driver’s identification, Andie confessed that some of her nerves were less about her deception and more about seeing Theron again, period. Now that he was back home, would he be thinking romantic thoughts about her at all? From what she had gathered over the last few days, he could have his pick of women, fertile and otherwise, so why would he be interested in some strange girl from another century? Not that it should matter. Her own interest in him was... a little silly. Even if she had felt a connection with him out there, it wasn’t as if anything could come of a romantic interlude. She had to return to a time period with a decent coffee shop, and he lived here, where he had the respect of his people and a career he had already proven he was willing to risk everything for.

When she saw him again, she would ask about finding Min-ji and about returning home. Nothing more. To expect—or offer—anything else would only make it harder when it was time to go. He would know that too.

“This is the colonel’s lady friend?” the gate guard asked, popping his head through the window.

Andie smiled bleakly and nodded. She was a lady—technically—and she didn’t think Theron would object to her being classified as a friend, so this pretense didn’t seem so deceitful. They could be friends across time, couldn’t they?

“You’re a soldier?” the guard asked curiously, eyeing her clothes, a uniform that had been borrowed from the female corporal on the ship and which—finally—covered her legs.

“Sort of.” Andie tried for a cryptic smile and hoped she would not be asked to explain further. By now, she had told enough versions of her story that she was struggling to keep them straight.

A distant buzz reached her ears, making her twist on the seat and peer out the window. A car? No, it was coming from the air. She hadn’t seen any evidence of airplanes since she arrived, and Theron had implied that someone with piloting skills was a rare find.

“That might be the colonel now,” the guard said, nodding toward the sky. “He went off on some important mission this morning, across the sea.”

Though she had not been invited to do so, Andie let herself out of the carriage. She could not see the sky from within it. The guard stepped aside, holding the door for her.

She spotted a plane crossing the sea at an altitude much lower than she was used to craft flying, outside of takeoffs and landings, though she supposed he might be on his way to some airstrip nearby. Or perhaps a grassy field, she amended, as the plane came closer, giving her a better look.

“Is that a prop plane?” she mumbled.

The cockpit was open to the elements, and there were only two riders, a pilot and a passenger behind him. The tiny craft looked like something out of WWI.

“A propeller plane?” the guard asked. “Yes, ma’am.” He gave her a puzzled what-else-would-it-be look. “There’s an airstrip within the walls, at the back.” He waved toward the mountains rising up behind the fortification.

As the craft flew closer, heading straight toward the fort, Andie found herself faintly horrified by the idea of flying around in something like that, but curious at the same time. She’d known officers who had flown crop-dusters before joining the Air Force, but she had learned on a flight simulator and had never piloted anything without a computer. Doing everything manually would be an interesting experience. She imagined jamming a knee against the flight stick and pulling out a pencil and notebook to do her calculations by hand.

She almost lifted a hand to wave as the plane drew closer, but it was right over their heads, and the passengers would have had to lean out over the side to see down to them. She wasn’t even sure if Theron was up there.

“You can come in, ma’am,” the guard said after the plane disappeared over the walls. “General Morimoto said to bring you to him if you got here before the colonel returned.”

General Morimoto? That wasn’t the man who had stalked into the cave to meet with the kidnappers, was it? No, that had been someone else. Duckworth. Andie would have to ask if Theron knew yet if Duckworth had identified him—and vice versa. It shouldn’t be her problem, but she didn’t want his life being made more difficult.

The sergeant who had ridden up with her guided her inside to a big cobblestone square with paths leading away to groupings of rectangular buildings in rows. In some ways, the fort had a familiar military-base feel to it, almost like home, but the cobblestones, the nearby stables, and the flagpole flying a flag with a mountain range on a green background were definitely
not
familiar.

At first, the sergeant looked like he would lead her to the building beyond the flagpole, but he paused, looking down a road toward an empty field at the back of the base. The airstrip, Andie realized, a flutter of anticipation teasing her stomach. Apparently, her body hadn’t gotten the message that this would be nothing more than a professional meeting between former comrades and that there was no reason to feel excited or nervous.

Two men soon came up the road, one walking and taking his time, and the other jogging, a broad smile on his face. His clean-shaven and very handsome face. Andie stopped and stared, taken aback by Theron’s transformation from grimy, shirtless, mountain man to this well-groomed officer whose green button-down uniform fit his powerful frame precisely and elegantly. He waved as their eyes met, his blue-gray ones gleaming with warmth. It was a far cry from the grim, hard expression he had worn for so much of their time with the kidnappers, and she found herself gazing back at him, not wanting to look away.

“Andie,” he blurted, not slowing down until he reached her. “You made it.”

The genuine relief in his voice filled her with pleasure, and she smiled back, feeling shy when she said, “Yeah. Hi.” Shy and silly. She should have said he looked fabulous. No, there were people around, and she had vowed to keep things professional, right?

Still smiling, he stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug. Her arms went around him in return, seemingly of their own volition. The hug made her shoulder hurt, but she wouldn’t have stepped away for anything. His cheek pressed against hers, and he rested his hand gently on the back of her head. It felt wonderful. It might be foolish that she cared about this man, but she did.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I let that idiot fool me, and then I tried to track you, but I failed.”

He sounded so anguished that emotion welled in her throat, and she couldn’t manage to speak, to tell him it was all right, that he had done everything he could. She only hugged him back, her grip tightening as she pressed her face against his shoulder. She hadn’t realized how badly she had needed a hug or how good it would feel to be able to lean on someone. On
him
. She was glad the material of his uniform swallowed the dampness that leaked from her eyes. Crying wasn’t her thing, and she certainly wasn’t going to do it in the middle of the square.

“I’m glad you made it here,” Theron murmured, stroking her hair.

Somehow, she had forgotten how strongly her body had reacted to his touch in that cabin, but it all came back to her now, shivers of heat running through her at his simple ministrations, at the feel of his hard chest through his clothes, of the smell of his warm masculinity filling her nostrils.

He kept his arms around her but pulled back slightly to look at her face. “Are you all right? I heard that you were the only one they found. Did your friend and the others...?” The grim worry had returned to his eyes, and she wished she could erase it, bring back the playfulness. That seemed more fitting for him. With the beard gone, he had a boyish charm that came through when he smiled.

Andie shook her head. “I irritated Bedene enough that he finally shot me and threw me out of his boat—I was trying to get the attention of a military ship—and they got away. I don’t know where they went or how to find them. I...” She shook her head and tried to swallow. Her throat had tightened with emotion again. For some reason, her feelings were much closer to the surface now, maybe because he knew her story and she didn’t have to make up anything. But this wasn’t the place for getting weepy.

She peered around. When they had started their hug, there hadn’t been that many other people in the square, and those who had been there, aside from her guide, had been striding along on some errand or another. But twelve or fifteen people had gathered now, with more wandering over, wearing curious expressions.

Theron snorted softly, apparently noticing the same thing. He stepped back, squeezing her arms before letting them drop. “We’re going to find them. I’ve already told you the reasons why, but I would owe it to you, even if my commanders objected.”

He would owe it to her? He didn’t owe her anything. It wasn’t as if he was the one traipsing through time, stealing people. Well, not of his own accord, anyway.

“Will you come with me?” Theron extended a hand toward one of the walkways. “I need to report in, and I know Morimoto wanted to talk to you, also, to see if together, we might have more clues on the location of the market.”

Even his fingernails had been trimmed, the dirt removed. Despite the calluses and scars, he had the long fingers of an artist. Or maybe she was romanticizing him. She snorted at herself and started walking at his side. She had rarely been the type to fall head-over-heels in love with a man at first glance. Level-headed, that was her. Even when she’d had long-term relationships in the past, they had usually been more about compatibility and friendship than unbridled passion. She’d always figured that just wasn’t in her makeup. And, as she watched him out of the corner of her eye, she decided she should go right on not falling passionately for people. He might have been another scruffy kidnapper when she had first met him, but all cleaned up and in his own world, he was definitely... out of her league.

“You might be curious to know...” He bit his lip, as if he was nervous about telling her something. Or even shy. Odd. “The other group of women, the ones with the other kidnappers. I chanced upon them, and I—we, er, they were recovered.”

Ah, he’d found them and didn’t want to take credit for it.

“I’m glad,” Andie said, and she was, though she couldn’t help but wish Min-ji had been in that group and that she had been rescued already. “They would have had an even harder time being sold off as sex slaves, or whatever happens in the market.”

Theron winced at her choice of words, but he did not correct her. They reached the front doors of a brick building, and he held one open for her. A few curious people had been tagging along at a distance, but they turned and went in a different direction when he arched an eyebrow at them.

“Andie?” he asked as they walked down a wide, wood-floored hallway with doors on either side. It was dim inside, with a few intermittent lamps, flames dancing at the ends of their wicks. What kind of oil were they burning if petroleum was so scarce here? Vegetable oil? Whale oil? She couldn’t guess. “This will all be very official, work-related as we try to pin down where your friends might be, and I know you’re worried about them, but I vowed to ask you... if you made it here.” He bit his lip again, his pace slowing.

Was he tongue-tied? Because of
her
? She couldn’t even imagine that.

“Would you like to go out for dinner tonight?” he asked. “I know this must all be terribly quaint compared to what you’re used to, but we’ve fought very hard to keep our part of the world civilized. And we do have a few nice restaurants in town.”

“I’d love to,” she said, touching the back of his hand.

He might be out of her league, but she couldn’t help but accept his invitation, to admit that she wanted to spend more time with him. Nor could she deny the silly hope that he wanted to spend more time with her, as well. Not because he owed anything to her, but just because.

“Good.” He knocked on a door with a plaque that read
General Morimoto
. “Theron, reporting,” he said, his voice shifting from shy to authoritative.

“You’re late,” came a deep snarl from inside. It might have belonged to a person or a linguistically gifted grizzly bear.

“Sounds like the general is in a good mood,” Theron said, opening the door before Andie could decide if he was being slightly sarcastic or incredibly sarcastic.

Aside from the polished wood floors, the massive bear rug, and the cast-iron stove in the corner, the office appeared similar to many she had been in. The swords and plaques on the wall wouldn’t have been out of place in her time, though she wagered the blades might be less decorative here. The bald man sitting behind the desk wasn’t quite as tall and barrel-chested as the deep growl had suggested, but he was big for an Asian man. A pair of thick, ugly, brown-framed glasses hung on a chain around his neck, and she bit back a comment that almost popped out of her mouth, that it was amusing to see that the military still foisted “birth-control glasses” off on its troops.

“I see,” the general said, giving Theron and Andie sour looks. “You had to stop to take your new woman for a tour around the base.”

Andie wanted to protest on Theron’s behalf, but she had endured the rants of too many senior officers and knew that the best thing was simply to stand there and take it. She hadn’t found many who found lippy subordinates appealing.

“Yes, sir,” Theron said. “She was particularly impressed with our butter-churning station, our horse-drawn carts, and the muzzle loaders in the armory. In her time, she’d have to go to a museum to see such relics.”

Andie eyed Theron warily. Apparently, he hadn’t learned the same lesson about lippy subordinates.

The general snorted, but didn’t give him a dressing down.

“We checked the cave,” Theron said more soberly. “The time machine was gone.”