Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (45 page)

For all time.

“
What do you say to a
wedding, princess?” he growled against her throat and Aurelia
pulled back.

A twinkle lurked in the depths of her eyes.
“Are you certain you would wed a woman whose womb is already
full?”

Baird blinked. “You’re pregnant?”

Aurelia tapped him in the middle of his
chest, a coy smile curving her lips. “With your seed, sir. I shall
expect you to make an honest woman of me.”

He was going to be a father! The prospect
was both exciting and terrifying. But thanks to the dreams he and
Aurelia had shared, Baird had a better model for parenthood than he
had had before.

Baird pulled Aurelia close, barely able to
believe that his life could be so filled with promise for the
future. “How soon can you be ready for that wedding, princess?”

Aurelia answered him with an enthusiastic
kiss.

When he finally lifted his lips from hers,
Baird ran his fingers through the short remainder of Aurelia’s
hair. “Why did you cut it?” he asked, unable to keep the
disappointment from his voice.

Aurelia grimaced. “It is a long tale that I
will tell you sometime.” She smiled up at him. “Suffice to say that
it was a price well worth paying.”

“
Really?” Baird knew his
skepticism showed.

She tilted her head pertly. “Do you not like
it short?”

Baird rubbed a thumb across Aurelia’s lips
and fought not to grin. “You know, I wouldn’t have said anything,
princess, but you did ask. It, um, it makes you look awfully
cute…”

Aurelia straightened proudly. “I am not
cute! I am a warrior princess!”

Baird bent and plucked one of the arrows
from the grass, waving it playfully beneath her nose. “Cupid’s own
weapon of choice,” he told her with a smile. “But he never had such
good aim.”

“
I do not
understand.”

“
It’s an old story of a god
who makes people fall in love.” Baird twirled the arrow. “By
piercing their hearts with a magic arrow.” He sobered as he held
her gaze. “Just as you pierced mine.”

Aurelia snuggled against him, her eyes
shining. “I had no such magic, but I like the tale well enough.”
She fingered her hair. “And fear not, my hair will not only grow
again but be all the thicker for the change.”

“
Good.” Baird bent and
kissed her soundly, loving how her curves fit perfectly against
him.

As though they were made for each other.

*

“
Our recommendation is far
from established, despite your apparent certainty,” Colin informed
the confident young man before him.

“
My intention is clear,”
Darian retorted.

“
But you are not the
deciding force within the society,” Colin said tightly. He scanned
the display mockingly, not liking at all that the site had not been
cordoned off properly. “Your work here is amateurish and threatens
serious scholarship on what might be a critical site for our
understanding of the Picts.”

“
Careful, Mr. Russell,”
Darian said softly.

“
I will not be careful! You
have lied to me and manipulated me long enough!” Colin puffed out
his chest. “And I do not appreciate that you have misrepresented
Mr. Beauforte’s interests in all of this. In our brief discussion,
he has shown a marked willingness to work with us in exploring this
site.”

Darian grimaced. “He just wants to protect
his investment.”

“
And I see no reason why he
should not.”

The two men stared at each other, then
Darian smiled slowly. “But it doesn’t really matter what you think,
does it, Mr. Russell?”

“
Of course, it matters!”
Colin blustered. “Whether you like it or not, young man, I am the
founder and president of the National Heritage Preservation Society
and my will matters considerably more than yours!” He jabbed a
finger through the air. “You are removed from our staff, Mr.
Mulvaney!”

“
No, Mr. Russell, that’s
not how it’s going to be.” Darian unfolded himself and crossed the
room. He paused directly before Colin, menace in every line of his
body. “Not agreeing with me is a mistake you’ll regret. You’re
going to make me the president and deciding voice of the society
and you’re going to do it today.”

“
I will do no such thing!
The society is mine!”

“
Not without Mrs. Russell’s
support,” Darian threatened.

“
Why, you cocky young pup!”
Before he considered what he was doing, Colin shoved the man so
intent on destroying everything of merit in his life.

Darian cried out, obviously not expecting
the older man’s rage. Colin meant only to push him hard, but Darian
slipped on the damp floor.

And fell, his head cracking against the lip
of the ritual well.

Colin gasped as the younger man’s limp body
slid into the murky water. He couldn’t bring himself to go any
closer. His first response was a rush of pure freedom, his second
outright terror.

What had he done?

And what would this cost his beloved
society?

*

A bellow from the well was the only thing
that could have made Baird stop kissing Aurelia. They stepped
apart, exchanged a glance of confusion, then Baird snatched up her
hand and they ran across the lawn together.

They darted down the stairs and paused at
the bottom. It was only now that Baird noticed the open square on
the opposite side of the chamber from the slab that had served as
Aurelia’s bed. A stone rim about two feet in height surrounded it
and Darian was sprawled across that rim. His feet dangled above the
floor, his head and shoulders weren’t visible. Mr. Russell was
backed against the far wall, his expression horrified.

Baird crossed the floor with three long
strides and reached into the well to lift Darian’s head from the
dark water. There was an ugly gash on his temple where he had
evidently hit the stone and the water below was tinted red.

There was no pulse at Darian’ throat.

“
He’s dead,” Baird said
numbly.

Bard, son of Erc, was dead. Baird felt
suddenly that an ominous shadow that he had barely acknowledged no
longer dogged his footsteps.

“
He slipped and fell,” Mr.
Russell declared quickly. “It was an accident.” His expression
showed that he did not regret the fact, although his explanation
didn’t exactly ring true.

Aurelia lingered on the stairs, her own lips
tightening at the news. “Like father, like son,” she whispered and
crossed her arms over her chest.

Baird glanced up, knowing she wouldn’t
regret this death any more than he did.

But her words made him remember that Erc had
died in Hekod’s victory over Dunhelm. Baird scanned the chamber,
then looked to Mr. Russell. “What exactly is this place?”

Mr. Russell brightened at the chance to
explain. “It’s a ritual well, markedly like the one at Burghead,
but in fine condition. The details here, the door and so forth, are
astonishing in their complexity and frankly, I can’t wait for the
opportunity to explore them at leisure.”

“
But what’s it
for?”

“
The Picts used ritual
wells for the drowning of undesirables in their society. A sort of
capital punishment, if you will.” Mr. Russell peered over the stone
lip of the well. “The water is likely only four or five feet deep -
usually rainwater accumulated by some clever means - but the
typical victim had no chance to escape. The beauty of it is that
their death would not taint the water supply of the
settlement.”

Baird’s scalp prickled. “What kind of
undesirables?”

“
Traitors,” Aurelia said
flatly. “And much-loathed kings.”

Baird met her gaze and understood.

This was where Erc had drowned.

And not of his own choice.

Mr. Russell smiled, quite unruffled by the
loss of one of his employees. “Quite. I’m certain we’ll find some
very interesting relics once we pump out the water here. Could we
sign that agreement shortly, Mr. Beauforte? I’d like to get a team
working here.”

“
First, “ Baird said
grimly, “we’d better call the police. “

*

In one of the smaller conference rooms on
the sixty-fifth floor of Beauforte Resorts’ Manhattan Retreat,
Julian dropped the firm’s best and final offer onto the cherry
table with a disdainful flick of his wrist.

“
That’s as good as it
gets,” he informed Marissa. “You won’t get another
dime.”

He braced himself for her response, a part
of him admiring the way Marissa fought for what she thought she
deserved. He was kind of looking forward to going another
round.

Little did Julian know that the document hit
the table at the exact same moment that Darian’s skull cracked on
the stone lip of the ritual well.

To Julian’s complete amazement, Marissa took
one look at the contract and burst into tears.

“
Aw, now, come on, that’s
not fair!” He shifted his weight awkwardly from foot to foot, but
Marissa just wailed. Julian wagged his finger at her with bravado.
“If you think you’re going to make a better deal by using those
feminine tricks on me, you’ve got another think coming!”

Marissa wept.

Julian fidgeted. He had only one weakness
that he acknowledged. He just couldn’t bear to see a woman cry.

“
You know, I don’t
appreciate this,” Julian said, trying to sound unaffected by her
tears. “I expect better of you, Marissa. I thought you’d fight the
good fight here.”

“
I can’t believe how badly
I messed up!” Marissa wailed, mascara streaming down her cheeks.
Julian squirmed before this unexpected display of
emotion.

Marissa wiped at her tears and smeared
makeup across her cheeks. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” she
confessed, then buried her face in her hands. “I never wanted to
marry Baird, really. I knew he wasn’t interested in me. I just had
this idea that I should get to marry him. It just got into my mind
and I couldn’t rid of it.”

She looked up at Julian through her tears.
“Have you ever really, really wanted something, more than anything
in the world, then been relieved when you couldn’t actually have
it?”

“
Well.” Julian frowned.
“There once was this Calvin Klein suit that I really coveted, but
then I saw it on some guy and it made him look so old.” Julian
shuddered in recollection and Marissa smiled.

“
Well, something like
that,” she acknowledged softly.

Julian looked up at the odd sound of her
voice and found himself snared by a very alluring dark gaze. Julian
realized in that moment that Marissa was actually quite an
attractive woman. When she smiled at him like this, well, it
tingled some part of him that hadn’t tingled in quite a while.

He pulled his new Gucci hankerchief from his
pocket and offered its perfect whiteness to her without a second
thought.

She blew her nose enthusiastically and wiped
away tears and makeup. “It’s all right, I don’t expect you to
understand,” she informed him. “It’s crazy and I halfway don’t
believe it myself.”

To Julian’s surprise, Marissa’s midwest
twang wasn’t as offensive as he recalled. And the usual hard edge
to her lips was gone, leaving her rather enticingly feminine.

He slid into the chair beside her. “There’s
a lot of craziness going around. Try me.”

Marissa wrung his handkerchief in her hands
and it didn’t even upset him. “You’ll think I’m nuts, but I always
had this horrible feeling bearing down on me, that everybody owed
me something, that I had to really fight to get what I deserved and
to keep people from snatching away what should be mine.” She
glanced to Julian and flushed in a most intriguing way. “Well, it’s
just gone.”

Julian again had the sense that the aliens
were substituting pod people for everyone around him.

But this was an alien that really intrigued
him. “What do you mean, gone?”

“
All that bitterness, it
just went away when you gave me that contract.” Marissa frowned. “I
feel empty, like someone waved a magic wand or something. I feel
free.”

She shrugged as though she was suddenly
self-conscious. “Like I said, it’s nuts. I guess that’s why I
cried, it’s so weird to be without all that anger driving me on.”
She smiled up at him. “Feels kind of good, actually.”

Julian pursed his lips as his heart lurched.
“Nothing crazy about feeling good.”

Marissa laughed in a self-deprecating way
that he wouldn’t have ever expected to hear. “Well, I shouldn’t
have said anything.” She fingered the contract, flipping through it
quickly but not reading the terms. “I guess I fought too hard for
Baird. It’s kind of embarrassing to think about how I threw myself
at him.”

“
You were persistent, I’ll
give you that.”

Marissa shrugged and wiped away the last
remnants of her tears. “I behaved really badly over this, but Baird
is a decent guy. The way I see it, any settlement is more than I
deserved.”

“
The cash is pretty good,”
Julian admitted, still trying to make sense of the woman before
him. He told her the page, Marissa turned and her eyes sparkled
with delight.

“
Oh, you know, I could set
up the most darling little shop with that!” She leaned across and
pressed his hand, and Julian, oddly enough, had no desire to pull
away. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but hotel rooms are so boring
to design. Baird did me a favor here - I’m ready for something with
a little more meat on the bone.”

And before Julian’s amazed eyes, Marissa
signed a settlement agreement that she hadn’t even read. He coughed
into his hand. “I really think you should read the terms…”