Once Upon a Remembrance

  "You could have given me a hint or something."

  Malry grinned. "And would you have been believing me when you didn't believe Isabeau?"

  Pierce grunted. "Point taken. Well I am hoping we can get to the bottom of this entire mystery so Hawk can get on with his life." He looked suddenly a Malry. "When did you know about Isabeau?"

  "On that first carriage ride to Hawk's Den." He gave a bark of a laugh. "Not that I let on. She mentioned it, watching me to see my reaction no doubt. I think she was figuring it out herself." He narrowed his eyes. "And then if you think back, how else would she have been aboard the ship?"

  Pierce snorted. "Yes, but I don't subscribe to crystal balls either. Is it possible for Belva to get us back to where we belong?"

  Malry offered no answer.

  "Isabeau knows you are not Hawk?"

  "I told her, although she was beginning to figure out something was up. The more I was with her, the more I kept getting glimpses of memory."

  Malry clapped his shoulder and extended his hand. "About this whole charade -- I'm sorry for the toll it's taken on you, lad." A look of discomfort crossed his features. "In the very beginning, I honestly thought you were Hawk, you two being the spitting image of each other. After I started to figure out you might not be him, I found him. He'd been taken in down on the wharf, but he'd been beaten pretty badly and hadn't gained consciousness. It's when I started nosing around that he turned up. I moved him to a safe location, but I do admit to taking advantage of the circumstances. Even though you had amnesia, you were healthy. I'm sorry I had to do that to you."

  Pierce smiled. "I wouldn't have missed it. I just wish I could have met him."

  Malry shook his head. "Not an idea that sits well with me. It's too strange, this moving through time anyway, and to have you meet him in the same time, no, doesn't sit well with me at all."

  "I guess you're right," Pierce conceded.

  "Look at it this way: you're his descendant and he now owes you his life."

  "Maybe," Pierce conceded, "but at this point, he's been given no choice."

  #

  Isabeau knocked at Pierce's suite early the next morning. As he opened the door, she thought he looked a little rough around the edges. Malry, she noticed, was also there, going through paperwork piled on the desk. 

  Pierce opened the door wide. "Come in. We're just going over plans for the return journey to Hawk's Den." He did a double take at the velvet cape covering her head to toe. "I hope you're not planning on going out alone."

  She smiled. "No."

  Malry nodded, gathering the papers together as he threw her a wide grin. "Cap'n is anxious to get back home."

  "I'm sure whoever is watching is expecting me to return by train, so I'm going to the train station, but in actuality I'm going to give them the slip and travel part of the way by horse. The remainder will be by train. Isabeau, you and Malry will be taking the train."

  "What?" Brows knit, she turned from watching Malry adjust his tie in the mirror to confront Pierce. "Why can't we all go together?"

  "It's safer if we split up. Whoever's dogging my steps might be here waiting. It'll be safer for you to go with Malry, then in --"

  "Forget it." She shook her head, her jaw set. "I'm not going. If you think you're foisting me off on Malry, I'll take care of myself and see to my own transportation."

  "I'm highly offended," Malry said mockingly.

  Isabeau turned to stare at him.

  "I won't have you traveling by yourself," Pierce said. "This is the safest way."

  "I disagree." She folded her arms. "It seems to me the safest bet would be three pair of eyes watching out, not just one. I think we should all go together." She narrowed a glance at him. "Unless of course you have another reason for getting us out of town earlier?"

  Malry stifled a laugh.

  "By the way, you look very nice," she told him. "Why are you in a suit?

  Malry rubbed his neatly trimmed side whiskers. "I'm not out to sea now. A man can wear a respectable suit here and there without arousing suspicion."

  Pierce made an impatient sound. "Look, I've already decided the best way to do this. You and Malry will be leaving tomorrow on the coach. It will take you as far as Washington, where I'll try to meet up with you. From there, we'll take the train home."

  Isabeau put her hand on the doorknob. "No, thanks." She pulled the door open. She didn't understand why, but something inside told her it was vitally important she remain obstinate on this point.

  "Told you she wouldn't go for it," Malry murmured in an aside.

  Isabeau was sure he had meant for her to hear that.

  Pierce threw him a killing glance. It earned him a grin. Malry was on her side in this.

  Pierce grabbed her elbow through the cape, pulling her back into the room and kicking the door shut with his foot. "What are you going to do?"

  "If you won't take me, I'll find my own way -- wherever I decide to go."

  She didn't look at him as she shrugged, hoping he wouldn't call her bluff.

  "I want you to come with me," he gritted out, releasing her arm.

  She smiled up at him. "I'd be glad to. When would you like me ready to leave?"

  Malry started laughing.

  Pierce looked angry, then rasped, "No, I meant --"

  "You've lost, lad, know when to admit it," Malry chortled, greatly amused watching the two of them.

  Pierce ignored him. Dammit, he was a lawyer! How could this woman twist his words around? "If you go off on your own, what are you going to do about money for fares, food --"

  Isabeau turned innocent eyes on him. "I will figure it out as I go along. I have been on my own before. It's not all that terrible." She crossed her fingers behind her back. "I can take care of myself."

  The poor man looked as if he was about to explode. Isabeau was ready to take pity on him, when he said abruptly, "It'll be a hard ride -- all on horseback."

  "I won't complain."

  "I'll only stop to rest the horses."

  "I can handle it."

  "Have you ever --"

  "I can do it," she reassured him calmly.

  Malry smirked.

  "Don't you have something else to do?" Pierce snapped.

  "Certainly. I'll take care of it right now." Malry strolled over to the doorway, sending Isabeau a wink. "Nice bluff," he commented, closing the door.

  Red-faced, Isabeau looked up at Pierce.

  "Don't think you've got me twisted around your finger. I've still got some surprises in store for you." He towered over her.

  Isabeau smiled, tension releasing inside her chest. She simply walked forward and melted into his arms. His arms closed tightly around her. She stood on tiptoe and kissed his firm mouth. Immediately Pierce began to kiss her back. "I have a surprise for you, too," she said throatily, lacing her fingers across the back of his neck, closing her eyes as she caressed the silky hair there. "I'm not a manipulative person, Pierce, I'm just doing what I think is right."

  "Would you have left?" he asked, lips teasing the taut cord along her neck.

  "What?" she asked breathlessly, having totally lost the thread of their conversation.

  "Left for parts unknown?"

  Isabeau pulled his mouth to hers, fingers twining greedily in his silky dark hair.

  "What do you think?" she murmured.

  Isabeau rocked her slimness against him, letting him take her weight. Pierce backed her up against the closed door, capturing her two wrists in one hand.

  "Isn't it hot in here?" she murmured, pulling at the fastened neckline of the deep blue velvet cape she wore.

  Pierce nodded but didn't stop his mouth from trailing across her throat and down.

  "I need to take off this cape," she said.

  Pierce stepped back, helping her unfasten the cape and pull it off her shoulders. He stepped back, astonished. Damned if his hands didn't shake. "Jesus, Isabeau, you walked out in the hallway like that?"

 
She stood naked before him. "Yes, and do you know what? I love the feel of velvet against my skin."

  With a groan, Pierce placed his hands on her hips, up her ribcage and cupped her breasts. Roughly he pulled her slender but sturdy body into his arms, then he gentled. She wasn't very big. She gripped him tightly around the waist and he stopped worrying about hurting her. She was strong in her own way.

  He loved the feel of her warm skin. He felt on fire as their mouths devoured each other.

  Isabeau pushed her hips up against him, wanting him closer, tighter. She could feel the hardness of him pressed tightly against her lower body. It felt deliciously wicked with her naked and he still fully clothed.

  Pierce's tongue thrust between her lips, in and out, hot and wild. She clung to him, her hands gripping his shoulders. Pierce swung her up in his arms and carried her across the room.

  She felt the cool fabric of the settee on her back, and she arched upward, pulling the shirt from Pierce's shoulders, running her fingers through the dark arrowing of hair on his chest. Her fingers reached his waistband and she ran her palms up the sides of his ribs, feeling the ripple of hard muscle. Her legs entwined with his as the world fell apart.

  Electricity shuddered through Pierce, winding hot coils all around them, sparks hissing and flying in every direction.

  Isabeau came to him as if she were dying of thirst, her response to him echoing his own desperate need to have her. He took her, again and again, and she came to him for more, giving him everything, her soft cries affecting him more deeply than an impassioned plea.

  Pierce. Isabeau stretched deliciously. "I never knew making love could be like this," she said, looking into his deep blue eyes. Just making that eye connection made her shiver.

  Pierce touched his beautifully molded mouth to hers, and she felt him smile. "It will only get better, sweetheart."

  Content, she lay back in his arms. How could she survive leaving him if they became separated by time?

  Chapter Seventeen

  They left New York the way they found it, raining and damp.

  When she was a child she used to ride horseback all the time, all over the place -- her mother had been insistent she learn, but that had been some time ago. It would be an adventure, if nothing else, one that would endure in her memory for the rest of her life -- if she survived it. She needed to savor each moment she could with Pierce. It might be their last.

  Luckily, the sun came out sometime after noon, and Isabeau had a chance to steam dry before the chill air of night was on them. She had her camera in her saddle pack, and had managed to take some pictures of the city before they left it behind. As they rode through the steaming streets, men and women lined the narrow alleys, hawking their wares, selling stale and discolored bread. As they got nearer to the city's edge, she took pictures of children playing in the garbage heaps as men sifted carefully for metal and items to be salvaged in the heaping garbage.

  True to his word, Pierce made no unnecessary stops. The horses were watered and allowed to rest a certain amount of time and then they were once more underway.

  By the end of the first day, Isabeau was afraid to dismount. Already she could feel the protest in her limbs, her unused muscles crying in agony, blisters forming where she hadn't known she had skin.

  Resolutely, she ignored it all as she slid to the ground, holding onto the saddle horn a moment longer, then stepping back jerkily from the horse.

  Turning, she met Malry's speculative glance. Throwing him a careless smile, she forced aching arms up and began to uncinch the horse.

  "Leave it." Pierce was behind her, his hand at her waist. "I'll take care of him. There's a creek on the other side of that bank if you want to wash off some of the dust."

  She nodded, not trusting herself to say anything.

  As casually as she could manage, she walked over to the top of the bank, then began the painful walk down the steep little hill, each step a new twinge of pain jabbing at her.

  She kept her eyes resolutely on the water at the bottom of the slope, then carefully sank down to the grassy edge of the creek.

  Sitting cross-legged, Isabeau wearily pulled one leg up to pull her boot off, then set to work on the second boot.

  She lay back on the slight incline, staring at the darkening sky, her mind going kind of hazy as she relaxed.

  If she lay perfectly still and took shallow breaths, it didn't hurt quite so badly.

  "'Isabeau."

  She jerked upright, a small cry leaving her lips.

  Pierce.

  "What? I was just watching the clouds a minute. You startled me."

  "Are you all right?" he called down to her.

  "Of course. Just tired."

  "That's all?"

  She nodded, massaging her calves, flexing her legs experimentally, rotating her ankles. "Just fine," she said airily.

  "You can tell me. I know I've been hard on you."

  Isabeau looked up at him, at his silhouette on the top of the bank. She raised her brows in surprise. "I'm fine. Why? Are you tired?"

  "After a day in the saddle, yes. I guess I'm ready for a good night's sleep."

  She wasn't sure she believed him; after all, he spent a lot of time in the saddle at Hawk's Den. He did look tired, though. Maybe he had slept about as well as she had the night before -- which was almost not at all. It made Isabeau feel a little better.

  She stifled a yawn. "Me, too," she admitted, not minding if she fell asleep right where she was. She strove to make her voice as neutral as possible. She would like nothing better than to curl up next to him.

  She shook herself, trying not to flinch. She felt ready to die.

  "So I'll clean up, then be back up there," she said, hoping he would take the hint and walk away. Even with her strained and aching muscles and as tired as he looked -- he still looked damned good -- she felt like jumping on him.

  "If you're sure." He hesitated, and for a moment Isabeau wondered if he had read in her face the lascivious thoughts crowding her head.

  "Yup." She made herself get to her feet and bend toward the water.

  He took the hint and disappeared from her view.

  As soon as she knew he was out of sight, Isabeau collapsed. 

  After a moment of sheer determination, she righted herself, mustering enough strength to splash her face and neck, actually feeling better equipped to face two eagle-eyed men after the bracing coldness of the water.

  Now, all she had to do was climb back up the hill.

  #

  "What do you think?" Malry rested his saddle and blanket on his hip, then let them drop to the ground. Turning back to his horse, he checked to make sure the tether was secure.

  Pierce sighed, poking at the fire he had started. "I'm giving her another ten minutes, then I'm going down there to carry her up here if I have to."

  "She let on anything?"

  "No. She acts as if everything's just fine."

  "Well, maybe it is. Maybe --"

  Pierce shook his head. "I could see the pain she was in, but she won't say anything. She's mulish enough to want to prove me wrong. She more or less gave her word she could do it, and she will."

  "Or die trying," Malry said with a low laugh. "Aye, Cap'n, you two make a good pair."

  #

  The second day started early, almost on the heels of the sun rising in the sky.

  Isabeau woke groaning, feeling sore, but once she got moving around her muscles loosened up.

  She was ravenous, her stomach growling with embarrassing frequency. She had not eaten last night, but more or less lost consciousness when she had found her blanket and curled into it.

  It had taken Isabeau quite awhile to climb up from the creek. To her relief, Pierce and Malry had apparently not noticed the length of time she had been gone, as no snide comments had been forthcoming from Malry.

  After eating, they were ready to leave in no time at all, but Isabeau didn't see Malry anywhere.

  "What about M
alry? Shouldn't we wait for him?"

  Pierce led the way back out to the dirt road.

  "He's ahead of us." 

  Isabeau frowned. "He left already? How will you know which way he's going? What if we miss him and he can't find us?"

  Pierce looked amused, his eyes crinkling up at the corners. How come she had never noticed before he had laughing eyes, so expressively warm...

   He hadn't shaved, and the dark growth of beard made him look even more dangerous and sexy as hell…too much so for her peace of mind. She looked down the road instead, shading her eyes.

  "We've talked extensively about the route we're taking. In fact, Malry's from this area."

  Isabeau turned back to him. "Malry's from New York?"

  Pierce nodded, nudging his horse forward.

  "How did he and Hawk meet?"

  "It's a long story."

  "Malry told me that once, too. I'm not going anywhere. Why don't you tell me?"

  "Too long a story for today," he said, pulling his hat down over his eyes.

  Shrugging, Isabeau turned her attention to the scenery. "I'll ask Malry."

  It was a new day, beautiful, fresh, the landscape around them glorious. If only circumstances were different. She'd love nothing more than the adventure of taking an overnight camping trip on horseback with Pierce, no timetables, no rushing to work. They could watch the sun go up and then set on the horizon.

  Isabeau knew it sounded too good to be true. At the back of her mind lurked the real problems and dilemmas; their situation was complicated, whatever the outcome might be.

  She tried to keep the facts straight in her mind, but sometimes it was unbelievably confusing to remember this wasn't where she belonged. When had that happened? This feeling of belonging had crept upon her slowly.

  What if this really was some kind of elaborate dream she was having? What if Pierce and everyone else turned out to be a figment of an overactive imagination?

  Isabeau watched Pierce's back, straight and strong in the saddle. He was riding ahead of her now, throwing a glance her way now and then. Isabeau wondered if he was afraid she'd get lost or something. Hardly. She was determined to cling to him like a burr.

  The leaves were beginning to bud on the trees, but in Virginia, they had been out in bright greenery for some time, the flowers blooming in the already warming days.