West (History Interrupted Book 1) (24 page)

I just needed … this. Someone to ground me from my spinning emotions and confusion.

“John was a good man,” he whispered.

“Yeah, he really was.” I rested my cheek on his chest and gazed into the fire.

I wish I’d known my father.
I had pictures of him at home, but it dawned on me that I couldn’t visualize his face at the moment. I saw John’s. Why had I never paid more attention to what my parents looked like?
Because looking at the pictures felt like watching John die.
It simply hurt too  much.

My breath caught in my throat.

“Do you need me to do anything?” Taylor asked, his grip tightening around me.

“Stay here. Don’t let me go until I’m asleep.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He hugged me to him.

Good man.
There was no way a man willing to hold me all night was the bad guy Carter made him out to be. There had to be another explanation.

C
HAPTER
F
OURTEEN

The phone buzzing in my pocket pulled me out of a dreamless slumber the next morning.

I awoke with an even worse headache, one brought on as much from my cold as the nightmares. I barely recalled what happened after I dozed off in Taylor’s arms, but at some point, the nightmares crept into my slumber. I fell asleep cradled against him and awoke in my bed.

Irritated, I rolled enough to pry the phone free and checked the messages from Carter.

I’m thinking about how to explain space-time theory.
Read the first of three messages.

“Ugh, Carter.” Not in the mood for science, I pushed myself up and looked around. Tea was waiting for me on the table beside the fire. I crawled out of bed and sat down to drink a cup.

The night weighed heavily in my thoughts, the demise of a good man like John and my shotgun wedding to Taylor. He’d been a gentleman last night and cuddled with me. Some of my suspicions about him melted as I realized how many times he’d had the chance to harm me and had done the opposite.

When my head had righted itself enough for me to return to Carter’s texts, I placed my phone on the table.

Short version: Someone is scrubbing his presence in the past from the history books. I do the same for you, which means he’s like you. Sent back but not by me. That means the person who sent him is the man trying to undo what I’m doing. Or I’m trying to undo what he is. Whatever. Either way, this Taylor guy is working against you.

I leaned forward and reread the note before going to the third.

So … I’d say to stay as far from him as possible now that we know the empathic memories can’t read him either. He’s likely there to stop you on the twentieth fourth.

“That might be an issue.” This time, my heart skipped a beat for a reason other than my admiration of Taylor’s fantastic abs. I dwelt on Carter’s notes, my instincts wriggling.

Taylor was hiding a lot more than how he knew to find me the night I landed. 

“The mystery deepens,” I murmured and responded with a more pressing question. “
How do you know John, Carter?
” I sent the question.

“You say something?” Taylor called from the bathroom.

“No!” I shoved the phone under my napkin just as he emerged, dressed, freshly shaven and with a wet head. His green eyes were piercing. They traveled from the napkin I clenched to my face.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Better, thanks.” Not one to blush in front of men, I recalled his kindness last night with mixed feelings. Enemy or … what the hell was the alternative, if he was a time traveler lying to me about who he was?

The quiet between us was awkward. He cleared his throat finally.

“I’m, uh, headed into town.”

“I’ll be here,” I murmured.

Without another word, he turned and left. I watched him. He had a perfect body down to the tight, round globes of his ass.
At least I married a hottie.
I almost laughed, baffled by the turn of events.

The phone vibrated beneath my hand, and I uncovered it.

“
Long story. Will tell you about it sometime
,” I read the note from Carter aloud. “You have too many secrets, Carter.” I hesitated then responded.
Slight problem about Taylor. Think of us as being the only people left on a deserted island. We can’t really escape each other. How dangerous is he?

My insides quaked at the thought of what Carter would say. His assessment of my situation made me wish I had never asked. His response was quick.

Very. As in, if Taylor didn’t get rid of your predecessors, his people did. Watch yourself.

“Shit.” I lowered the phone to my lap and sat thinking for a minute. Before John’s death, I had been on my way to the savages who were going to start a war. But if Taylor was here to prevent me from stopping the war … “I’m so confused.”

Taylor hadn’t been the one to take out the girls, though. That much I knew. Intense and able to smell my lies a mile away, he nonetheless was earnest in believing he was supposed to help my predecessors and me, not hurt them. He had also called Carter a madman for implanting chips in my brain.

It made me think whatever was between him and Carter, it was personal.

My thoughts drifted to the well behind the barn.

He hadn’t done it. The whispers last time had almost told me who did.

“Nell!” I called.

The servant was never far away. “Yes, Miss Josie?” Nell appeared wearing all black. My spirits dampened.

“I need some air.”

“Of course. Your dress is ready. We will lay your father to rest this evening.”

I sighed, depressed by the thought.

“Where would you like to go?” Nell asked as I brought in the black dress and corset.

“I feel like I need to be alone. I’m going to the barn.”

Nell raised an eyebrow.

“The animals make me smile,” I explained.

“Very well, Miss Josie.” Nell’s normal spark was gone.

I watched my nanny move efficiently as always, in constant motion while her eyes remained so sad. I had the urge to comfort the woman who had been in love with the man who just died but didn’t know what to say. Struggling with my own unexpected grief, I ended up not speaking at all as I dressed in black out of respect for my faux-father’s death.

Nell didn’t dog me out the door like I expected, another sign of her profound grief.

I went to the barn and stepped inside, breathing in the scent of horses, leather and hay. The smells were comforting, and I paused to rub the foreheads of a few horses before leaving the barn and circling it.

I went to the well. Its whispers were faint enough I barely registered them until I was in physical contact with the stone wall. I sank to my knees beside it and closed my eyes, focusing on the images.

Fractured visions floated through my mind, and I grappled with the message the stones were trying to give me. A woman with blond hair falling. The form of a man peering into the well more than once. It was dark when he came both times, his form and features hidden by the night. 

One of the women had survived the fall and died slowly, I realized as I watched. There was a stream of memories illustrating the passing of day and night, of shadows that crept down one side of the well as the sun rose and up the other side as it set.

Three nights,
I counted. The woman had lasted three nights and days before the memories stopped.

Stricken by what I saw, I took a break to ground myself before I closed my eyes and sought the memories for a second round. My hands trembled, and it took all my willpower not to let my thoughts dwell on what it would be like to lie, broken, at the bottom of a well for three days.

The form of a man was present only one of the streams while the other two girls were pushed from behind and never saw their attacker.

I focused hard on capturing what I could from the image of the man.

It wasn’t Taylor. At least, there was no sense of familiarity from the girl peering up at him, and all three had met him. I didn’t know why I was so relieved. How he was involved, I didn’t yet understand.

Carter’s text jolted my out of the recollections of others. I relaxed and wiped my face, exhausted and distraught. I checked my phone.

Then I suggest you run to the other side of the island. Fast. Stay away from him, Josie. He’s dangerous.

It wasn’t the response I wanted. Carter thought me in trouble of some kind, but I disagreed. If Taylor meant to do me harm, he’d had plenty of opportunities alone with me. There was something about him that made me uneasy, but it wasn’t
this -
mortal danger like that which threatened the others.

I hesitated before replying.
What happened to the fifth girl? There are three in the well, me and … ?

What if she died in the house, in the room at the end of the hallway?

“They are your friends?” Fighting Badger’s voice startled me, and I jumped.

Twisting to see him, I couldn’t help the flare of fear that warmed my breast and made my heart race. He squatted a short distance away, dressed in breeches and vest, his long black hair down.

“No,” I answered. Sudden interest replaced the unsettled feeling I always got when he was around. “Can you hear them?”

He cocked his head to the side, listening. “Some. They are very faint. Very unhappy.”

“The girls in the well are … were … like me. From the future. Someone killed them,” I explained. “They’ve been trying to tell me who hurt them, and I just can’t see it.” I hesitated then motioned him forward. “Sometimes if you touch something, the memories are stronger.” I flattened my palms on the stones.

Fighting Badger took the invitation and sat down beside me, mirroring my movements. We were quiet for a moment. I watched the shadowy images of his twisted mind morph into the memories of the girls at the bottom of the well.

“I see me,” he voiced after a moment. “I heard two spirits one night. I did not know the third was alive.”

“She suffered a lot,” I whispered, stricken by the idea of such a slow death. “Can you see the man who did this?”

Fighting Badger was quiet for a moment. He stood, the bone necklace he wore clinking with his movements. He leaned over the well, straightened then did it again. “A child,” he said finally.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Look.” He took my arm and pulled me to my feet. “Lean over.” Uncertain what he was doing, I mirrored his movement. He bent with me over the edge. “A man has a longer shadow.” He pointed to me. “A child or woman much smaller. She saw two shadows: mine and one your size.”

“A woman,” I whispered. My eyes went to the boards beneath my torso. I straightened, pensive. The fifth girl sent back by Carter, someone who might be able to identify other time travelers on the spot.

“Yes.”

There were half a dozen female servants in the house and Nell. I didn’t see my governess doing this; she had been as ecstatic to see me as John. It made sense the first woman sent back to this era was close, that she might be hiding nearby or within the ranks of servants.

“He knew nothing about you except that you had to be stopped.”

I looked up at Fighting Badger’s words. “Who?”

“The man who tried to hurt my brother and you. He set fire to the cabin as a warning to my brother.”

“So he knew your brother?”

“He said he did.”

“What happened …” I stopped. His memories formed once more, and this time, they were absolutely horrifying. “Stop, stop, stop!”

They dissipated into shadows. Fighting Badger smiled.

I released a breath. “Okay. You found the one with blue eyes. What about the other?”

“Other?”

“There were two men in your head that night,” I said. “This one and one who was … think about that night again.” The memories were faint and very hard to distinguish, given how dark and stormy it had been. “You saw him. I couldn’t find him in your head if you hadn’t. He was camouflaged, a large shadow, one who had been following you. At one point you thought you heard him?”

“I did,” Fighting Badger was hushed. “I saw nothing.”

“I saw him, and I think you did, too. I don’t think you knew it at the time though.”

He snatched my arms suddenly enough that I gasped. “What else? Tell me who he is.” His dark eyes burned into me.

“That’s all I can see. That’s all there is.”

Fighting Badger glared at me.

“I wouldn’t lie to you,” I whispered. “Especially after you helped me.”

The fire faded from his dark depths, and he released me.

“Miss Josie!”

“I have to go,” I said and stepped back. “You shouldn’t be seen here.”

Fighting Badger didn’t budge. He was still enough to be a statue, his eyes the only part of him that moved. He was watching me.

“Thank you for helping me,” I added.

He shifted finally and turned away.

Of all the people here, I understood him the best and least. Our shared skill did nothing to shed light on the source of his depravity.

Hungry and unnerved, I left the well. It was near noon, and I had learned all I thought I would from the dead women in the well. Uncertain what to do with the knowledge of the location of their bodies, I dwelt on their memories while arguing silently with how to help women who were already dead.

At the very least, they deserved real burials instead of being discarded like trash. But revealing that I knew they were there would place me in danger without knowing the threat.

My lunch was waiting for me in my room. I sat down to eat without tasting much. I had the urge to talk to John, even knowing he wasn’t there. The house was too quiet with everyone in mourning.

Uncertain what to think about Taylor, I was relieved he’d gone to work rather than stay with me. His home had burnt down, or I’d search it.

Convenient timing.
I lowered the glass of water from my lips and gazed at the hearth. My previous suspicions resurfaced: Taylor’s connection to the man who burnt down his cabin, his secret about the night he found me, how he knew what he shouldn’t about me. He was always around when I needed him most.