Through The Leaded Glass (7 page)

“
Are you going to tell me they
aren’t dead? That they’ll reappear at a later time to reclaim the
throne?”

Kate shook her head. “I wish I could. But when
they do show up they aren’t in any shape to claim anything. You
see, Richard had them killed and buried beneath the steps of the
Chapel of the White Tower.”

“
How do you know this?” He gripped
her arm. “Were you privy to the plot?”

Kate tugged her arm away. His touch did way
too many good things to her nerve endings and she couldn’t allow
herself to be distracted. “Do you think I’d be telling you this if
I were? I wasn’t even there. I know about it because the bodies of
two young boys will be found sometime in the late sixteen hundreds
where I said. Now, no one could ever prove it’s them, but there’s
no record of any other children dying at that age, at that time, in
that tower. Coincidence? Yes, but plausible. Most historians, I
think, agree they were King Edward’s heirs. And many believe that
Richard ordered their deaths.”

“
If what you’re saying is true, we
need to find them.”

“
And how are you going to explain
your search? The evidence suggested that they were moved to that
final spot years later and no one knows where they are right now,
or if they’re even alive.”

Alex grimaced. “Are you a witch?”

“
Was the gypsy?”

He studied her, silent. He looked at the ring.
Traced a finger over it. Touched her running shoe.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, he
exhaled. “As I said, Lady Aubridge is sure to have told the tale. I
won’t deny it, Kate.”

“
You can’t be serious. I don’t
belong here. I know nothing of your lifestyle, I have no background
for your friends to discover, and I have a baby waiting for me at
home. I
need
to go back.”

“
How? You’ve been saying that for a
while now, yet you’re still here.” He stood up and held out his
hand. “Come, Kate. While I believe your story, many will not. And
since you have my ring and Lady Aubridge has seen you, we have the
perfect solution to our situations. I was, after all, planning to
marry. “

The one point he’d made that she could agree
with was that no one else would believe her, and until she got out
of here, it wasn’t exactly a bad idea to have a protector on her
side. She was all for being her own woman, but that didn’t amount
to much in this century. “But don’t you have to get royal
dispensation or something? I can’t see King Henry approving of
me.”

“
Henry has permitted me my choice,
as long as it is within the month. I was planning to ask a woman
after the tournament today until the ring went missing. Since you
have it, you aren’t barren, and Lady Aubridge has done her part, I
see no reason—”

“
Hold on.” Kate ignored the hand he
held out to her and stood up under her own power. “Let me get this
straight. You couldn’t find the ring so you weren’t going to
propose to your lady love? And then, and this is the kicker, you
propose to me because
I
found it? What about the woman you
were planning to ask? You’ll just throw her aside over a ring?
Aren’t we just the teensiest bit fickle?” She held her thumb and
forefinger together. This entire escapade was ringing a little too
close to home with her cheating ex-husband.

Alex sighed. “It’s not as if there’d be any
love lost between Isobel and me. Our marriage is an expedient match
for both of us, as is the way of noble marriages.”

“
So what does the ring have to do
with it? I’m sure you have others you could give her.”

“
True, but this is the Shelton
ring.” Alex locked his hands behind his back and, if she weren’t
mistaken, his chest puffed a little. “It has been in my family for
many years and is presented to the earl’s bride upon their
betrothal. There is the legend that the ring is thought
to—”

“
Bring the family luck.” Cold stole
through Kate’s veins.

“
Ah, you
have
heard of
it.”

“
No.” Now she
did
take his
hand.
And
his other one. “You don’t understand. I think I
know why I’m here.”

“
To marry me.”

She rolled her eyes. “How arrogant can you
get? Don’t you know chattel went out in the eighteenth—never mind.
Look—you’re going to fight a joust today, or whatever it’s called,
aren’t you?”

He nodded.

“
Against your biggest enemy,
right?”

Again, he nodded.

“
Even though the ring was missing,
right? Even when you knew your family’s good luck charm was nowhere
to be found?”

“
I said it was the legend of the
ring. I didn’t say I believed it.”

Alex exhaled and pulled his hands from her,
crossing his arms over that massive chest. The one covered in
armor.
Battle gear
.

She had the means to save him if the
merchant’s story could be believed. And given what she was now
facing, she believed.

“
That’s just it. You would’ve lost
the fight.” She tried to remember Master Griff’s rendition of the
ring’s history—this man’s history. “You would have lost the joust,
been injured, and lost all of your fortune. Your girlfriend would
refuse to marry you and you’d die a broken man.” She touched his
arm. “That must be what I’m here to prevent.”

“
So now
you
are a
soothsayer?”

“
No. I’m just someone who got
caught in an unbelievable twist of fate. The guy who sold me the
shield told me what happened to you.”

Alex turned the tables on her, gripping her
arms instead, and hauling her up against him. “And who is this
man?” His jaw clenched. “I would
not
lose the joust. Isobel
would
accept my proposal with or without the ring, as it
would be advantageous for her to do so. And I most definitely would
not
lose my fortune!” He tugged her closer until she was on
her tiptoes. “This man, this
thief
, spreads lies. Who is
he?”

“
He’s someone from five hundred
years in the future, so save your breath. The point is, this is
what would have happened. Now that I’m here with the ring, you can
go jousting. You won’t get hurt and you can marry Isobel and grow
old and have ba—”

Oh God. “Do you have children?”

His cocked his head. “A son. Why?”

She covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh…
no.”

“
What?”

“
The man also told me that your son
will—” She shook her head. How did you tell someone
this?

“
He will what?”

Her whisper stretched between them. “He’ll be
murdered.”

Chapter Four

“
He threatens my
heir
?” A
rage unlike any she’d ever witnessed stormed through Alex, locking
his limbs, muscles clenching so hard he shook, his chest heaving as
if he’d just finished a marathon. “Where? Who is he? You
will
tell me.”

She wriggled her shoulders to loosen his grip.
“I told you. He’s still back, or forward... whatever... in the
twenty-first century. He can’t hurt your son, but he’s the one who
knew the ring’s history. Let me find my window and I’ll prove it to
you.”

“
How will this window prevent my
son’s death?”

“
Not the window. Just my being here
can. I’ve changed your future. You have your ring back so your luck
hasn’t gone down the tubes. And even if you don’t win the joust,
you can still marry Isobel.”

“
And William will be
unharmed?”

Kate nodded—and crossed her fingers behind her
back. “It stands to reason that if the other events don’t happen,
that shouldn’t either. The window is what brought me here, so I’ll
just find it and be off.”

“
I am afraid that’s not possible,
Kate.”

“
Did the gypsy tell you that?
Because if you know some other way to send me back, I’m all
ears.”

“
No, it’s just that Madame Alicia
said—”

“
Alicia?” Kate went still. “You’re
can’t be serious.”

“
I would not jest about my son’s
life. That’s why we must—”

“
What did this Madame Alicia look
like?”

Alex exhaled. “Of what importance is
that?”

“
Humor me, okay? How tall was she?
What color was her hair? What was she wearing? Did she speak like
me?”

He cocked his head and his eyes narrowed. “She
did.”

“
And her hair? Black like a
gypsy’s?”

Alex shook his head. “I hadn’t thought about
it, but, no. Her hair was light. The color of wheat, almost
white.”

“
And you didn’t find that
odd?”

“
I was more concerned with what she
was saying than her appearance. Now, as to—”

“
Answer one more thing for me,
Alex. Was she wearing a bright pink outfit with lots of jewelry and
a veil?”

“
You know her.”

Oh yeah she did. And it only added to today’s
unbelievable events. “I’m going to kill her when I find her.
After
she tells me how to get the hell out of
here.”

“
Murder is a sin, Kate,” said the
man who looked to be contemplating that very thing against the
merchant. “And you cannot leave. Madam Alicia said that our lives
would be intertwined until you have found what you are missing in
your life.”

That sounded like Alicia. And Kate didn’t have
time for intertwining—well, maybe a
certain
kind of
intertwining—No. Not that either. She needed to get out of here.
She’d worry about how she got here later.

Time travel
. How in the
world…

“
That’s exactly why I need to go
get the window so we can both get on with our lives.”
And Alicia
and I can have a good ol’ heart-to-heart about keeping my fate out
of her hands
.

Alex shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Kate.
Madame Alicia said you wouldn’t find your window, nor is it what’s
missing in your life. And then there’s Lady Aubridge. I’ll not be
made a fool of when my betrothed disappears. You were seen wearing
my ring, therefore we will be married.”

“
Look, Alex.” She smiled her most
conciliatory smile. He could take his Lord-of-the-Manor act and
browbeat some meek little medieval miss. “Don’t believe everything
some quack fortune-teller tells you at a faire. I remember where I
put the window, so I’ll just go get it.” She tapped her toe.
“Somehow Alicia figured out how to travel through time and arranged
for me to do it, too. And now she wants me to stay and enjoy the
atmosphere. She’s always loved this time period.” She snapped her
fingers. “I bet she was in cahoots with the guy who sent me to the
window. Glass blower’s shop—ha. More like some pre-arranged
Back
to The Future
episode. Or
Kate and Leopold
—she loves
that movie.”

“
You’re speaking in riddles again,
Kate.”

“
Sorry. It’s like this. I was
married to a guy who I thought was perfect for me. But then I found
out he expected his wife to be at home in some antiquated 1950’s
ideal. It made him feel as if he’d
arrived
.” God, how she’d
hated to watch him preen when he’d said that. Like a stupid
rooster. “But his scenario ended up being the worst kind of
indentured slavery. Turns out he was more into himself and his own
creature comforts than giving a damn about what I wanted out of
life.”

Alex went to say something, but Kate wouldn’t
stop. She didn’t need to hear Alex defend Jay. “Anyway, Alicia has
been on my case for me to find someone else. Not that I want
someone else. After Jay, I’d rather be in charge of my own life
without banking my happiness on someone else’s whims. But I guess
Alicia figured that since twenty-first century guys weren’t working
out, she’d try the fifteenth-century version and have a nice
vacation at the same time. Now she’s put my daughter in
jeopardy.”

“
Your husband doesn’t want the
child?”

“
Ex
husband. And no. He
didn’t want kids. This one is all mine.”

“
There is a way to have a child
without a man in your time?”

Wrong button to push. “Look, here, buster. I’m
perfectly capable of raising a child by myself. I’ve got a good
job, lots of support, and enough love that she’ll never know the
difference whether I have a husband or not. In my opinion, husbands
are highly overrated anyway.” She brushed off her hands. “So,
Alicia’s dire predictions notwithstanding, I’m off to find my
window. I hope your son grows up big and strong, and that Isobel
will bear you many more. Have a nice life.”

She hiked up her skirt and circled past him,
but Alex grabbed her arm. “I don’t give you leave to go,
Kate.”

“
I beg your pardon?”

“
There’s no need to beg. But I
can’t allow you to walk among the villagers unescorted.”

“
Oh, really?” She yanked her arm
free and crossed it with the other. “And why is that? Oh, and for
the record? I wasn’t begging. It’s an expression.”