Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (9 page)

In the sea caves.

Aurelia clutched Julian’s magical talisman,
scanned the corridor once more, then abandoned her room. She darted
down the corridor in the opposite direction of the great reception
hall. When Aurelia opened the last door at the end of the corridor,
she found a flight of stairs markedly less ornate than those she
and the priest had climbed.

No one was behind her. Aurelia lunged down
the stairs. There was only one door at the bottom, red letters
above it declaring: FIRE EXIT.

On the door itself, a sign read: For
Emergency Exit Only. If Door Is Opened, Alarm Will Sound.

Aurelia hesitated, then frowned. Who would
sound this alarm, if no one saw her open the door? She looked over
her shoulder, but she was definitely alone.

Ha! More lies! Aurelia was developing a very
low opinion of Bard’s household security. She shoved open the door
and a shrill ringing suddenly filled her ears.

Oh no! Julian had laid a spell on the
door!

Aurelia muttered something unladylike under
her breath. Her heart thundering in her ears, she fled Bard’s hall
as fast as she could. Hopefully there was no witchery left to
discern her path.

*

Baird’s head snapped up from the travertine
marble samples when the fire alarm went off. “Is this another test?
I thought they were done yesterday.”

“
They were,” the job
foreman confirmed, then looked worried. “It might be a real fire,
sir.”

The intensity of Baird’s response surprised
him. He wouldn’t let Dunhelm burn under any terms. He scanned the
hall anxiously but, to his relief, saw no flames.

“
Well, better safe than
sorry.” Baird’s tone was calmly authoritative despite his fears.
People immediately turned to do his bidding. “Everybody outside -
get all your team out - we’ll meet on the lawn in front of the main
entrance and have a head count.”

“
Yes, sir.”

Marissa looped her hand through Baird’s arm
and her voice dropped to a throaty purr. “You’re so very decisive,
darling! I just love a man who takes charge of things…”

“
Marissa, there may really
be a fire,” Baird interrupted tersely. “Why don’t you go outside
with the others?”

“
But it’s raining!” Marissa
raised a meticulously manicured hand to her cheek. “My hair will be
ruined!” She chuckled huskily and wrinkled her nose as she leaned
closer. “Why don’t we just stay inside together, darling, and look
for that pesky fire ourselves?” She walked her fingers up his arm.
“We might start in my room.”

Fortunately, Julian darted down the stairs
and across the room, his arrival saving Baird from making a reply.
“Is there really a fire?” Julian eyed the departing workmen with
concern.

“
There might be. Where’s
the princess?”

Julian shrugged. “In her room, I guess.” He
glanced over his shoulder and coughed. “You know, fires can move
through a building this size with remarkable speed, making our
liability quite considerable. The greater weight of our insurance
coverage, as you know, does not begin in earnest until the grand
opening of the resort. We should think about getting everyone out
as quickly as possible and minimizing our risk in this.”

“
Oooh, Julian, darling, you
don’t say?” Marissa batted her lashes at Baird. “We could be in
dire peril at this very moment!”

Baird shook himself free, his mind on other
concerns. The hall was emptying quickly, but Aurelia had made no
appearance at the top of the stairs, despite the insistence of the
alarm. What if she had fallen asleep? Or hadn’t heard the
alarm?

Or didn’t know what it meant?

“
I have to go check on
Aurelia.”

“
Fourth room on the left,”
Julian supplied.

“
But Baird, darling!”
Marissa wailed. “You can’t abandon me here in the midst of this
chaos!”

Baird looked pointedly around the nearly
deserted foyer. It was far from a disorganized scene. He looked at
Julian and that man winced, as though he guessed what Baird would
say.

“
Julian, could you make
sure Marissa gets outside with the others? I’ll be right there. I
just want to check that our princess isn’t left in her
room.”

Marissa inhaled dangerously, but Baird was
already striding away. He scrutinized the hall as he went, fearful
that his renovation would be lost to flames even before it was
done.

But he couldn’t catch even a hint of smoke
in the air. There was no evidence of fire at all in the hall
upstairs.

Baird knocked on the fourth door, but no one
answered.

He knocked again, more insistently, but
there was still no response. Baird leaned closer and listened.

There wasn’t a sound from inside. Baird
knocked again, more forcefully this time.

Where was she?

When his fourth heavy knock brought no
answer, Baird hauled his passkey from his pocket and opened the
door.

Not only was there no sign of fire, there
was no sign of the Princess Aurelia.

In fact, it was as though she had never even
been in the room. A primal panic swept over Baird and a single
thought echoed in his mind with startling clarity.

He had lost her again.

An odd sense of loss swept over him, one
greater than anything Baird had ever felt before. He felt bereft,
as though a part of himself had been torn away.

And he knew without a doubt that he had felt
this way many times before.

Great. Baird shook his head savagely. Now
she was making him nuts.

But Baird couldn’t completely dismiss his
fear, even knowing it was irrational. What if something had
happened to Aurelia? What if she was lost in the hotel and this
wasn’t a false alarm?

Baird lunged for the stairs, fighting for
his usual calm as the alarm rang insistently. He met Julian halfway
down the stairs.

“
The fourth room?” Baird
demanded.

“
Yeah. But one of the guys
saw a woman leaving from the back fire exit.” Julian’s sober gaze
locked with Baird’s. “Blond hair, wearing only a sweater. Looks
like your princess set off the alarm when she ran away from
here.”

Baird exhaled in a relieved rush and shoved
one hand through his hair. “Where did she go?”

Julian shrugged. “He said she ran toward the
sea.”

Baird caught his breath. One false step
could send anyone plunging to their death. And it would be all too
easy to slip in this weather.

Aurelia wasn’t safe, after all.

“
I tell you, Baird, this
woman is a lot of trouble and I really think you should reconsider
the wisdom of your offer.” Julian coughed into his hand. “If
anything happens to her, we could be found liable since you invited
her to stay. Having her here as an unpaying guest clouds the
assignment of responsibility …”

Baird pushed past Julian and bolted down the
stairs.

*

Aurelia raced along the uneven rocks, the
path she had known now obscured. Her certainty that Bard had
deliberately hidden this way grew with every moment - it could not
have changed so drastically otherwise!

The wind whipped her hair around her face
and the cold rain splashed on her face. Bard’s sweater was little
protection against the bite of the cold, her feet were freezing,
but she thought only of her sire.

Her heart twisted as she imagined him
trapped in the wretched prison of a sea cell. Though Hekod was
strong, he was no longer a young man - he could already have caught
a deathly chill.

Aurelia paused on the lip of the cliff and
scanned the rocks below. This was the spot. Aurelia could fairly
taste the despair.

It was a desolate and lonely place, isolated
on the northernmost crag of Dunhelm. In broad sunlight, it gave a
person gooseflesh, no doubt because the torment of countless
prisoners had left its mark.

From the crest of the cliff, the slope of
rock looked as though it continued unbroken to the edge of the
cliff, where it dropped straight down to the sea far below.

But Aurelia knew better. Halfway down the
ragged descent to the cliff edge, there was a black and jagged
opening in the rock. That hole was the only entry to the dreaded
sea cells. Aurelia glanced back and thought she discerned figures
erupting from the castle.

She did not have much time. She scrambled
down the steep rock face, scratching her bare feet in the process
but continuing undaunted. She tasted the salt of the sea spray and
her mouth went dry at the proximity of the crashing waves.

The wet rocks gleamed like jet and were
slick with moss - one false step and she could slide to the edge of
the cliff, then straight down into the sea. There would be no easy
landing on the rough rocks below. Aurelia concentrated on finding a
secure footing on each rock, telling herself to ignore the hypnotic
pounding of the sea.

The opening to the sea cells was closer to
the cliff edge than she recalled. Aurelia gripped the rocks and
leaned over the hole, closing her eyes at the dizzy drop to the
cell’s wet floor.

There was no escape from these dismal cells.
It was here that the worst criminals had always been abandoned to
die. Aurelia was certain that the repetitive crash of the sea would
drive them to madness first. Or the crush of bones beneath one’s
feet, a tangible reminder of the fate of previous occupants, and a
fate ultimately to be their own.

Aurelia could see no movement in the
fathomless shadows below. She peered into the darkness and shivered
when she thought she saw the glimmer of a pale bone.

“
Father?” she called, but
there was no response.

Her voice echoed slightly in the cavern
below and made a lonely sound. She raised her voice and called
again.

The sea rushed and withdrew, the wind
whistled over the rocks. Gulls cried far overhead, but Aurelia
strained to see some sign of life below.

“
Father! Father, answer me!
Father, are you here?”

“
There is no one here,
Gemdelovely Gemdelee, no one but you and now there’s
me.”

Aurelia jumped at the gently spoken words.
She spun to find an ancient crone behind her.

The woman leaned heavily on a cane to survey
Aurelia with twinkling eyes. Her face was wreathed in wrinkles, her
hands gnarled, but she exuded a good-humored charm and a strength
unexpected.

Her bright pink dress flapped around her
knees and danced with large blossoms. Her silver gray hair was
pulled back and pinned, but seemed to have a wavy defiance. Quite a
lot of it blew freely around her face.

She must have been a beauty when she was
young.

There was something familiar about the
woman, but Aurelia knew they had never met before. She would have
remembered those eyes, she was certain of it. All the same, she
found herself returning the woman’s smile and felt oddly comforted
by her presence.

“
Who are you?” Aurelia
asked. “I did not hear you come near.”

The woman’s smile broadened. “Oh, I know
well enough who I am and who you might be, Gemdelovely Gemdelee.
The question is only - what do you seek, pretty you, pretty me?”
The woman’s voice was delightfully musical in cadence.

“
My father. King Hekod the
Fifth.”

“
Ah!” The woman’s eyes lit
up, as though she laughed at a secret joke, then she turned to walk
away. Her cane tapped on the wet rocks, but she climbed the slope
with the assurance of one who knew her way well.

Aurelia guessed from that expression that
the woman knew something she was not prepared to tell. She rose to
her feet and anxiously gave chase. “Do you know where he is? Have
you seen him?”

The woman slanted a glance Aurelia’s way. “I
have seen many come and many go, Gemdelovely Gemdelee. Some call
themselves kings, some merely believe themselves to be.”

Hope rose within Aurelia. Could this woman
have aided her sire? “But have you seen my father? Was he
imprisoned here? Did you help him escape?”

The woman climbed, apparently untroubled by
either Aurelia’s questions or her concern. “No one can escape their
fate, Gemdelovely Gemdelee. Any task left unfinished must be done,
any debt settled and balance paid.” She turned a fired a piercing
glance to Aurelia. “There was a time when you understood such
things.”

Aurelia had a sudden recollection of her
dame giving her just such a look when she had forgotten a vital
lesson. She gaped at the old woman, and realized belatedly that the
woman’s eyes were the same silver gray as her dame’s had been.

And they twinkled with the same vigor.

As Aurelia fought to make sense of this, the
woman smiled and turned back to her climbing. “You are not afraid
of me, Gemdelovely Gemdelee. Can you tell me why that might
be?”

Aurelia exhaled slowly. “You remind me of
someone.” A lump rose in Aurelia’s throat. “Someone I loved very
much.”

“
Do I that and can that be,
Gemdelovely Gemdelee?” The woman seemed to find this amusing,
though Aurelia could not guess why.

Aurelia climbed behind the woman, hoping
neither of them would stumble and fall. “I think you may have me
confused with another. My name is not Gemdelovely Gemdelee.”

The woman gained a rise near the summit and
turned, her brief flash of a smile almost mischievous. “And I think
I know what it is that I do see, Gemdelovely Gemdelee.” Her lips
twitched as though she would laugh out loud were she alone, and
Aurelia was again reminded of a trait of her mother’s.

Aurelia’s dame had often stifled her
laughter in Hekod’s presence precisely thus, especially when it was
something Hekod had done that she found amusing. The remembered
bellow of her sire when he thought himself mocked echoed through
Aurelia’s ears, followed by her mother’s lilting laughter.