Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (40 page)

She had made him dream.

Baird didn’t know how she had done it, but
the fact remained that Aurelia had done it. And all the dreams that
unlocked the secret doors inside of him had just been the keys in
Aurelia’s deception. Somehow she had gotten into his mind and
played him like a cheap guitar. Baird didn’t know how she had
figured out what made him tick, but she had manipulated him
brilliantly.

He hadn’t lived before.

He hadn’t had a father who loved him.

He had never been to Dunhelm or
Inverness.

And he certainly wasn’t destined to be with
Aurelia.

One more time, a woman had played Baird
Beauforte for a fool. And one more time, he had seen the truth in
the nick of time.

“
No, we can’t talk about it
in the morning,” he said tightly and scooped up his
clothes.

Baird knew what he had to do, even though
the prospect made him feel physically ill. It was horrifying that
even knowing what Aurelia had done didn’t loosen her spell over
him.

“
What do you mean?” Aurelia
asked with surprise. She sat up and her glorious hair tumbled over
her shoulders, her blue eyes filled with concern.

It was all a brilliant act, Baird reminded
himself as his heart clenched. “We won’t talk about it, because I
won’t be here.”

Aurelia sat bolt upright. “But, where are
you going?”

“
Doesn’t matter,” Baird set
flatly. “I’ve had one Jessica in my life and sure as hell don’t
need another.”

With that, he walked out of Aurelia’s
room.

He should have known better, he told himself
grimly as he fought his way into his clothes. No one had ever
wanted him just for himself.

And nothing had changed.

*

By the time Aurelia realized that Baird made
no jest, she could hear Tex complaining at being roused from bed.
She threw on her clothes and ran down the stairs, but her pursuit
came too late.

The dawn was just tinting the horizon when
Aurelia burst onto Dunhelm’s lawn. She ran for the chopper, but its
rotors sped more and more quickly.

It lifted off the ground before she was
halfway to the paved pad. Aurelia cried out Baird’s name, but he
did not look her way. She watched him point to the south, the
chopper turned and lifted higher, and in the blink of an eye, he
was gone.

Aurelia fought against her tears as she
watched the silver dragonfly fade into the pale blue of the morning
sky. She could not chase him, she could not force him to listen,
she could not take away her hasty words and explain the Dreaming to
him in another way.

It was too late. The damage was done.

And Aurelia did not know how she would ever
make it right.

She could not go back to the bed they had
shared. Perhaps later, she would cherish Baird’s scent on the
linens, but the blow to her heart was too fresh.

Aurelia lifted her chin and began to
walk.

*

It was late afternoon by the time she came
back to the hotel. Aurelia had no sooner stepped into the foyer,
than Elizabeth came running to her. The older woman’s usually
cheerful features were drawn in concern and she twisted her hands
together.

“
Oh, Aurelia, I do not know
what to do!”

And then Elizabeth burst into tears.

Aurelia slid her arm around the older
woman’s shaking shoulders. “Elizabeth, what is wrong? What has
happened?”

“
Talorc’s mother, Ursilla,
she…she…”

Elizabeth took a gulping breath and
Aurelia’s heart clenched. “What has happened?”

Elizabeth rubbed ineffectively at her tears.
“She passed away in her sleep. The funeral is on the morrow.”

Aurelia felt a pang of loss, even though she
had not know Ursilla well. There was something about her that drew
Aurelia her way. Oddly enough, she had considered seeking out the
older woman on this very day.

But she was dead.

“
Oh, no, Aurelia, you must
not be dismayed. Ursilla was elderly and truly it was the kindest
way for her sweet soul to pass from this world. It’s Talorc I’m
worried about!” She sniffled into her hankerchief and seemed to be
fighting to compose herself. “He’s not talking to anyone, and worse
-” Elizabeth lifted a pale face to Aurelia. “He will not eat a
speck of anything.”

She swallowed as Aurelia absorbed this news
and within a heartbeat, Elizabeth’s words fell in their
characteristic torrent again. “It’s not good for him, miss, it’s
not right for a man to lose his appetite. I don’t need to tell you
that I’m terribly worried about him. He just won’t eat a bite!”

She caught her breath. “He looked so drawn
and serious when he brought the news, it’s not healthy, Aurelia,
that it’s not. I know they were powerfully close those two, but
still, Ursilla led a good long life.”

“
Surely it is only natural
for him to mourn,” Aurelia suggested, but Elizabeth shook her head
firmly.

“
I know mourning, Aurelia,
but this is more than that. He’s left us, slipped away into some
corner of his mind where none can reach him. It’s not natural and
it cannot be good. Even now, he’s a shadow of himself, a man I
barely recognize, and that will only get worse if he doesn’t
eat.”

Elizabeth inhaled shakily and her tears
gathered as she stared at Aurelia. “I don’t know what I would do
with myself if something happened to Talorc,” she confessed in an
uneven whisper.

Aurelia gave the older woman’s shoulder an
encouraging squeeze. She had noticed the way Talorc’s glance
followed Elizabeth and despite her own woes, Aurelia could not turn
away from the opportunity to lend her help. “Do not worry,
Elizabeth. I will talk to him.”

“
Please, miss. He seems to
like you.”

*

Talorc was standing on the cliffs, staring
out at sea, his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his baggy
trousers. There was something about the way the wind ruffled his
hair, perhaps about the way the late sun picked out the silver in
the gray that made Aurelia’s heart ache with familiarity.

She made her way towards him, not having the
faintest idea what she would say to him or what she could discover
to ease Elizabeth’s mind.

In the end, she did not have to find the
words.

Talorc did.

Aurelia came to a halt slightly behind the
older man and he tossed a wry smile over his shoulder. “Don’t be
telling me you’re sorry, Miss Aurelia, my mother had a long and
happy life. Indeed, she was blessed with uncommonly good health
right to the end.” He sighed. “It was easy for her.”

“
But not for you, I would
imagine,” Aurelia commented softly as she stepped up beside him.
The sea was a silver mirror stretching to the horizon, the lowering
sun painting a swash of orange across its gleaming
surface.

Talorc shrugged but did not look to her.
“Harder than I expected it to be, that much is for certain.” He
cleared his throat. “Have you ever had the feeling that you have
been through something before? That you have lost someone before
and that the ache in your heart is all too familiar?”

He held up his gnarled hand before Aurelia
could answer and she saw a sad smile curve his lips. “No, don’t be
answering that. It’s what she said at the end, preying on my mind
and making me fey.” Talorc sighed. “I suppose it was a
disappointment to see a woman who always clung to her wits losing
her grip, even so slightly, at the very end. Sad it was, there’s no
mistake.”

“
I thought she passed away
in her sleep.”

“
Aye, that she did, but
when my mother went off to her bed last evening, she said the
strangest thing. I thought nothing of it at the time but it has
troubled me ever since, perhaps only because it makes no sense at
all.”

“
What did she
say?”

Talorc exhaled heavily and frowned. “She
touched my arm and when I looked to her, she told me not to be
afraid, that all that was begun had been set to rights.” His frown
deepened. “She said that all tasks left unfinished had been done,
all debts settled and balances paid.”

Aurelia could see nothing confusing about
any of this, for she had oft seen that people sensed when they had
lived their due. And Ursilla had had time to settle all her affairs
to her satisfaction.

But Talorc’s silence hinted that this was
not all of the tale.

“
Did she say anything
else?”

“
She called me Hekod,”
Talorc admitted and fired a fierce blue glance at
Aurelia.

She caught her breath at the familiarity of
that stubborn sapphire stare, but Talorc did not notice her
response. He glared out to the sea once more and she could see that
his hands had balled into fists in his pockets.

“
You must understand that
there was a day when my mother often called me Hekod, though it was
but a joke between us,” he continued tightly. “She meant no ill
will by it, to be sure. She often jested that she would have given
me the name in truth had it not been such a portent of bad luck.
But I, I was blessed with uncommon good luck, despite her nickname
for me.”

Talorc sighed with the memory. “In my youth,
I could not shake the dust of this island from my shoes quickly
enough. I joined the merchant marine as soon as they would take me,
lied about my age as was easily done then. My mother never
protested, though I came home seldom enough in those days.” A smile
of affectionate recollection curved his lips. “I sent her postcards
and she always had them tacked to the walls. Souvenirs from Hekod
gone a-viking, she used to say.”

Aurelia’s throat tightened painfully.

“
The war came and, of
course, I signed up immediately, anxious in my ignorance to do the
right thing.” Talorc shuddered. “It was horrible, more horrible
than anything I could have imagined, and it all was over, it still
cast a long shadow in my mind. Perhaps it was the senseless
killing, but that taste for travel was my war casualty. The only
one and a comparatively low price to pay against that of the many
who did not come home again.” He took a breath. “I came home, here,
to Dunhelm, as there seemed no more right place to be.”

“
And here you
stayed.”

“
Yes,” Talorc admitted
thoughtfully. “And have wanted nothing else, all these years.” His
voice was tight when he finally continued. “But even knowing that,
you must understand that her last words gave me a chill. I have to
believe that is only because they made no sense at all.”

“
What did she
say?”

Talorc exhaled shakily. “‘Hekod Viking and
lover true, my time is over and yours yet new. Our paths now part,
though memory will be true. Go! Follow your heart now, for its aim
is true.’“

Aurelia stared at the older man, unable to
summon a word to her lips. Her pulse thundered in her ears.

It was all true. The people she had known
and loved all those centuries before had come back to Dunhelm,
drawn here time and again, to finish the deeds they had left
undone.

Drawn here to help her and Baird.

Ursilla had been her mother Gemma so long
ago. A part of her had been compelled to wait at Dunhelm, to try to
fix what she saw as her own failure to protect her daughter.

And she had died only when she believed the
matter resolved.

Her words implied that Ursilla would not be
back again.

Aurelia wondered how many times Gemma had
come, how many times she had tried to set matters aright. She
thought of Baird’s repeated memories of returning here and was
humbled that those she loved cared so much for her welfare.

To her mind, Aurelia had done nothing to
deserve such esteem.

And Ursilla had been right when she declared
Aurelia’s father to be closer than she believed. Aurelia looked to
the groundskeeper with new eyes, seeing an echo of her sire in his
gruff demeanor and flashing blue eyes.

Talorc carried the soul of Hekod. His
travelling, his distaste of war, the intense blue of his eyes all
told Aurelia as much as Ursilla’s teasing nickname.

But Talorc had only the faintest
recollection of any of this, a single ache in the loss of his
mother that heated the old wound of losing Gemma. No more than
that.

Perhaps it was a blessing to remember so
little.

“
And what does your heart
bid you do?” Aurelia asked softly.

Talorc shed a single tear. “It aches so that
I cannot hear anything else it might say.” He caught his breath and
shook his head, his manner turning gruff. “Ah, you must be thinking
me an old fool, Miss Aurelia. A grown man weeping for his mother as
though there was something unnatural between them.”

His glance quelled any protest Aurelia might
have made. “She was a fine woman, a woman of rare intellect and
insight. I respected her as never I have respected another and
there was nothing more than that between us. In truth, it seemed
that no other woman could measure up to her standard. We had an
uncommonly close bond, more like powerful friends than mother and
son. We were good company each for the other and I shall miss her
sorely.”

“
Miss Aurelia?” Elizabeth’s
call carried from the terrace and both she and Talorc turned to
look. The woman’s wave was more tentative than usual and Aurelia
thought there was an uncertainty in her voice. “Would you have some
dinner?”

“
That woman is always
cooking,” Talorc muttered and shook his head. “Every time I turn
around, she is trying to stuff some food or another upon me. By the
heavens above, she will make me fat yet!”