Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (122 page)

Monty scowled. “Women need men for more than
opening jars!”

“
Yeah, well, several things
in my lingerie drawer say I’ve got that covered, too.”

And she went back to her books.

Monty watched for a few moments, guessing
that he was not in any way in line to get what he wanted. He
decided on a bald appeal to her feminine pride.

“
Hey, come on, Barb, it
wasn’t such a long shot for me to think of you and me together.
We’re two of a kind after all - book lovers! - and our species is
getting seriously rare. Like dinosaurs, you know, we gotta breed
before we’re extinct…”

“
Dinosaurs
! Thank
you for that, Monty Sullivan.”

“
Okay, okay, bad analogy.
Really bad. Give me a second. Crusaders!” Monty snapped his
fingers. “
Crusaders
on a quest to save the written word,
yeah, I like that. We’re fighting undaunted against the adversity
of publisher conglomerations and the onslaught of the visual
age…”

“
Cut to the chase.” Barb
shut him down with a look just when he was warming to his theme.
“What do you want this time, Monty?”

Monty tried to turn up the charm. “Hey,
Barb, like, take it easy.” He smiled.

Barb didn’t.

“
Hey, you know, about that
bill, well, we all know that winter sucks for revenue, but spring
will come, it always does. And then royalties roll in, regular as
rain…”

“
I thought royalties came
in the fall, too.”

Monty squirmed. “Well, yeah, they do.”

Barb tapped the list of his acquisitions for
the year. “Yet, oddly enough, none of those little pennies from
heaven showed up here, posting against your account.”

“
Hey, Barb, it was less
than I thought! And my agent is like a
thief
, man, he hit me
for all sorts of fees that I wasn’t expecting and then, well, I
owed Derek a lump of cash and the feds were after me for my
quarterly deposit…

“
And I came last. Again.
Same story as last spring.” She closed the book grimly and held his
gaze. “Don’t tell me you’re back for more.”

“
Well, just a couple of
books.” Barb rolled her eyes but Monty leaned closer, intent on
making his case while he could. “You see, it’s about Viviane and
this guy. It’s just too weird the way he goes on about coming from
Cantlecroft, like he really did or something. About her being a
condemned witch. It’s creepy, don’t you think, like he’s got it in
for her.”

Barb snorted and shook her head. “Viviane
doesn’t seem to share your reservations. I just sent them out for
rubbers.”

“
Go on!
Already
?”
Monty scowled. “And, like, how could you know?”

Barb almost smiled. “Monty, there are sounds
even a dinosaur doesn’t forget.”

Monty exhaled mightily. “Okay, so like it’s
really critical now. I have a bad feeling about this guy, like a
really
bad feeling, and you know, I just want to make sure
Viviane is okay. You do, too, don’t you?”

Barb’s lips tightened, but she nodded.

Reluctantly.

Monty didn’t care that she wasn’t thrilled
to be doing so, he just wanted his books.

“
You see, here’s the thing.
I called the re-enactment people and they didn’t know anything at
all about Viviane - nothing! - let alone Niall, and he’s not the
kind of guy you miss seeing, if you know what I mean. They never
heard of Cantlecroft either. And that’s kind of weird, which makes
me wonder whether he’s really who he says he is…”

Barb frowned. “But Viviane said she knows
him.”

“
So, maybe she’s not who
she
says she is!” Monty flung out his hands. “Maybe they’re
part of a plot, maybe they’re like
spies
, maybe she’s
defected and he’s been sent to eliminate her before she talks too
much…”

Barb almost laughed. “You’ve been reading
too many conspiracy theories. Or too much of your own fiction. You
do know that the Cold War is over, Monty?”

“
Barb, this is
serious!”

“
Because you’re crazy in
love with Viviane?” She looked skeptical about that, but Monty
couldn’t exactly avoid the question.

And he couldn’t lie when she looked him dead
in the eye.

“
Well, no, not exactly.” He
fidgeted. “I mean, I
like
her and she’s cute and everything,
but it’s more than that.”

“
More, but not crazy in
love.”

“
So, I kind of have an
investment here and it bugs me that this guy just swept it and
scooped her up. There! I said it. Don’t shoot!”

“
So, you want to prove him
to be the spawn of Satan and pick up where you left
off.”

Monty fidgeted. “Well, yeah. It’s not like a
crime.”

“
You guys are all the
same.” Barb sighed before Monty could defend his gender. “How do I
fit in to this great scheme?”

“
Books.” Monty cast a
longing glance in the direction of the history section. “I want to
look up Cantlecroft, figure out what that reference is all about,
read all about it. It might give me a clue.”

Barb pushed to her feet with resignation.
“So, go ahead and look. Park yourself in the corner but don’t bend
any of the pages or leave any nasty fingerprints in the stock.”

“
Actually -” Monty looked
nervously toward the door “- I’d like to take them with
me.”

Barb slammed the ledger on the counter and
spun to face him. “Monty! You’ve confused this with the library
again!”

“
No, I’ve like
been
there and they have nothing. You know how pathetic the medieval
history section is. And I need to know, I need to help Viviane, I
need to make sure that this guy doesn’t mean her any
harm…”

“
To protect your
investment.”

“
Come on, Barb, give me
some credit!”

She squarely met his gaze. “Your credit
stinks. You pay this balance first, then we’ll talk.”

And that, Monty knew was that. He begged and
cajoled, he tried to sweet-talk his way to a better deal, but no
luck. Barb was adamant.

So, Barb got a rubber check and Monty got
his books. He scampered down the street, trying hard to not feel
guilty about tricking his old friend.

It was all for the greater good, after
all.

Next royalty check, he’d pay Barb first.

With interest.

*

Viviane and Niall went to Mouats, because
everyone knew that Mouats had everything.

Of course, Mouats had everything for
outdoors
and a good lot of stuff for indoors, but wasn’t a
pharmacy by any stretch of the imagination. Viviane, unaware of
exactly what she was shopping for, missed that critical
distinction.

Niall trailed behind Viviane as she wound
her way through the amazing displays of new goods, his interest
snared by all the intriguing garments and tools, much as Viviane’s
had been the first few times she came in here. She lost him a
couple of times and had to go back to snag him by the arm, forcing
him to follow her further into the store.

Because there was hope for him, even if he
did insist on practicalities. She’d get the L-word out of him,
Viviane knew it. She was born under a blue moon after all and
destined to be lucky all of her days.

But she knew herself well enough to guess
that there might be a few persuasive interludes before things were
resolved.

When Niall did that thing with his thumb and
smiled that smile that turned her knees to butter - like he was
doing as they walked through the store - Viviane got dizzy just
thinking about him losing track of practicalities again.

She had to get those rubbers.

Right now.

If she got pregnant, she knew Niall would
carry her kicking and screaming to a priest, regardless of her
thoughts on the matter. Viviane had to admit that it was kind of
nice that he worried so much about doing the right thing.
Obviously, the need of a child to have two parents was a big issue
for Niall, and Viviane wondered why he worried about it so
much.

Mouats was crowded as usual, though there
were fewer and fewer tourists all the time. Viviane had learned to
recognize several of the people who worked here and when one
greeted her with typical charm, she caught at the girl’s arm.

“
I need rubbers,” she
hissed, not wanting everyone to know what she wanted, for they
surely would guess why. “Where do I find them?”

“
Oh, down in footwear.” The
girl smiled encouragingly, though Viviane was scandalized by how
loudly she talked. “Let me show you. We’re kind of running out,
what with all this rain lately.”

Viviane could not imagine what rain had to
do with conceiving children, though Mrs. Haggerty seemed to think
it had a certain sensuous appeal. Puzzling over this, Viviane
followed the clerk, and was even more puzzled when the girl
presented a pair of dark green boots.

“
What’s your
size?”

Viviane wasn’t certain what she had
expected, but she hadn’t expected boots. Niall snorted behind her
and she felt her color rise.

What did boots have to do with
conception?

Or more specifically, with avoiding
conception?

She didn’t have to even look at Niall to
know he had that skeptical expression again, but she knew to trust
Barb. Barb understood things, Barb was wise, Barb was helpful.

Barb said she needed rubbers.

“
I don’t know my size,”
Viviane admitted. “I just tried these shoes until they fit.” The
girl rummaged cheerfully for a silver implement, gestured to a
chair, tugged off Viviane’s wet sneaker and quickly pronounced
Viviane a seven and a half.

Then she was gone, darting through clients
to the ‘back room’ from whence Viviane had seen many marvels
issue.

Niall picked up one boot and looked at it,
doubt in every line of his features. “This is a rubber?” He looked
pointedly at her, his question not needing to be uttered, and
Viviane shrugged.

“
Maybe it’s part of a
spell,” she said hastily. “Barb knows a lot and I’m sure that she
wouldn’t give me bad advice.”

Niall cleared his throat and rolled his
eyes. “A spell,” he said beneath his breath, as though it was the
most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.

It did sound a bit unlikely, even to
Viviane.

The clerk bounced back, dumped boots out of
a box and offered them to Viviane. In no time at all, they were
pronounced a fit and Viviane walked the length of the small area
and back as it seemed what she was expected to do. She chewed her
lip as she looked down at them, trying to figure out how they
worked.

Perhaps they were intended to make her look
unattractive.

She looked to Niall. “Do you find them -”
she cleared her throat “- ugly?”

He smiled slowly, obviously discerning the
direction of her thoughts. “Nay, my lady fair. They do naught but
enhance the beauty of your legs,” he murmured, that sensuous gleam
appearing in his eyes. “Indeed, I believe the color favors you most
admirably.”

Uh oh.

Viviane looked back to the boots and the
clerk grinned at her, obviously approving of Niall’s comment. “They
look great on you, they really do. He’s right!”

Viviane cleared her throat, hating to appear
foolish but needing to ask the question. “How exactly do they
work?”

The clerk frowned. “What do you mean?”

Viviane could feel a blush rising over her
cheeks, Niall’s wolfish grin doing nothing to ease her
embarrassment. “What do I have to do?”

“
Oh! Oh, these are really
good ones, you don’t have to anything to take care of then. We
don’t sell those cheapies. They’ll last the rest of your life,
probably. Just don’t leave them in the hot sun for days and days,
you know, but that’s hardly a problem here.”

The clerk smiled reassuringly.

Viviane thought about wearing clumpy green
boots that came up to her knees for the rest of her life and wasn’t
particularly reassured.

“
I’m sure you’ll just love
them,” the clerk enthused. “We’ve never had any complaints. They
work just great and you know -” she leaned closer “- there’s
nothing better in the garden.”

In the
garden
?

Niall cleared his throat deliberately and
Viviane felt her blush get hotter. “I’ll take them,” she managed to
say.

“
Great, should I wrap them
up?”

Viviane risked a glance to Niall, only to
find his bright gaze fixed upon her with an intensity that could
only mean one thing.

“
I’d better wear them,” she
whispered to the clerk, not in the least bit reassured when her
knight chuckled and looked very pleased with himself. It seemed an
eternity before they managed to pay and escape the store, and
Viviane was well aware of Niall’s smile the whole time.

“
I find myself feeling very
persuasive,” he murmured as they stepped into the street and
Viviane knew she blushed clear to her toes.

She gritted her teeth and seized his arm,
practically dragging him to their next stop. He chuckled and
slipped his arm around her waist in a companionable gesture that
she didn’t quite want to shrug off.

En route, Niall pulled her to a halt and
made a great show of peering into a neighboring garden, as though
curious as to what the people there were doing.

“
Indeed, I cannot help but
think somewhat more favorably of Barb’s small garden,” he mused.
Once again, he smiled with the innocence of a child, though a
wicked twinkle glinted in his eye.