One Enchanted Evening

  “Oh, Montgomery,” she said quietly.

  He shook his head. “Let us not speak of it yet. We’ll take the afternoon for our own, then we’ll speak of other things.”

  She looked away. “You know, I don’t have anything to use for a dowry—if that’s the sort of thing we’re talking about.”

  “You are enough, Pippa.”

  Tears sprang to her eyes. “I’m about to throw my arms around you and not let you go.”

  “Let me shower first,” he said, feeling as if he should have been appalled at how quickly he’d become accustomed to the simple pleasures of the Future. “Then I wish you would make good on that threat.”

  She nodded and walked with him inside the great hall. Genevieve and Megan were sitting in front of one of the hearths with their girls playing at their feet. Montgomery saw Pippa settled with them, hoped they would give their de Piaget husbands good marks, then ran for his borrowed bedchamber and washed up.

  It was only as he was running back down the stairs that he ran fully into reality. It was one thing to imagine what he was asking her to give up for him; it was another thing to ask her to do it. The Future was so marvelous, so full of ease and delights—

  He sighed. He wasn’t one to envy others overmuch, but he could honestly say at the moment that he envied Kendrick. His nephew had his lady, his children, and all man’s modern inventions in the same place. He didn’t have to worry about the weather, or the harvest, or what sort of sauces his cook was using to cover the taste of rotting meat. Kendrick had warned him the night before that things weren’t always as they seemed and that the Future held its own dangers. He’d promised Montgomery to send him home with a book or two that would make him appreciate the ease and simplicity of medieval life.

  Montgomery wasn’t sure that was possible.

  But as he walked across the floor and caught sight of Pippa sitting with his nephews’ wives, then found himself the recipient of a look that bespoke her pleasure at seeing him, well, the rest of it seemed less important than it had but a moment before.

  He thought about how quiet she’d been at the fashion show, about how wistful she’d been during her recounting of the tale of Cinderella, and how many things he would break his back to provide her did she but agree to consider his suit.

  Jennifer was happy. Could not Pippa be happy as well?

  He made the ladies a low bow, complimented them on the perfections of their daughters, then politely excused himself and Pippa on the pretext of needing to feed her. He walked with her across the great hall, then paused at the door.

  “I don’t like to boast,” he began slowly.

  She smiled. “What in the world are you talking about?”

  “I thought,” he began uncomfortably, “that it might serve me to give you a list of my redeeming qualities, which will be very short, and another list of my monetary assets, which will be much longer.”

  “Montgomery, you don’t have to sell yourself.”

  “I think you should know what you’re purchasing, if you’re interested in that sort of transaction.”

  “Shall I make a list, too, or are you already familiar with all my diva-like qualities?”

  He decided she likely wouldn’t object too strenuously if he put his arms around her, which he did without hesitation. “I am already familiar, Persephone, with your beautiful blue eyes, your sweet smile, and your ability to sit with me in a drafty tower chamber and make me feel as if I’d wandered into a marvelous fairy tale. If I knew nothing else about you, that would be enough.”

  She studied him for a moment or two in silence. “Montgomery de Piaget, did you come all this way to bring me my shoes?”

  “It’s what Cinderella’s prince would have done.”

  She managed a little huff of a laugh. “You’re a romantic.”

  “Only for you—”

  “Oh, by the saints,” a voice bellowed from the far end of the hall, “either kiss her or propose to her before we have to watch any more of these nauseating displays!”

  Montgomery glared at Kendrick and had a hearty laugh as his reward. He did, however, take the opportunity to kiss Pippa briefly before he pulled her out the door.

  “Food,” he said as they ran down the steps, “a long drive, then a longer walk along the beach. Without my family there to offer us any more advice.”

  “They love you.”

  “And you?”

  She shook her head. “Oh, no, I’m not going first with that one.”

  He stopped and looked at her. “Could you love me, Persephone?”

  She threw her arms around his neck and held on so tightly, he could scarce breathe. He supposed that was answer enough, however, so he didn’t press her. He simply held her in his father’s courtyard and vowed he would do whatever was necessary to make her happy.

  He could only hope that didn’t include going back to 1241 without her.

  He walked along the shore with her as the afternoon waned. He couldn’t remember a finer day, nor one filled with more simple pleasures.

  Well, that and he’d gotten to drive Stephen’s car to Edinburgh and back. It had been, as he’d heard Nicholas mutter on more than one occasion, mind-blowing. He didn’t imagine it was possible to drive the bloody thing through a time gate into the past, but he’d been tempted.

  “Montgomery, will Lord Edward let me into the shop, do you think?”

  He pulled himself away from thoughts of speed and looked at Pippa in surprise. “I imagine so, if you wanted him to. What do you need?”

  “I want to look through the books there,” she said. “Before we talk.”

  He stopped and turned to look at her. He’d seen a hint of worry in her eyes over the past pair of days, but the worry had finally blossomed fully into distress sometime during the past hour. “Pippa, love, what is it?”

  She put her arms around his neck and held him tightly. He couldn’t say he’d been counting, not truly, but if asked, he would have said she’d done that at least a score of times over the course of the afternoon. There had been no rhyme or reason to it. She’d simply embraced him fiercely as the mood seemingly struck her—not that he’d been inclined to protest.

  He realized now, however, that it hadn’t been just affection motivating her. He put his arms around her and held her close.

  “Pippa, I’m not going anywhere.”

  She didn’t release him. “Have I told you today that I love you?”

  “Nay,” he said quietly, “and I’ve been trying to pry the words from you since before lunch.”

  Her laugh was unsteady. “You have not.”

  He smiled against her hair, then pulled back and kissed her soundly. “I have. And I love you. I would have said it before, but I didn’t want to terrify you.”

  “Why would it terrify me?” she asked.

  “Because it means that I must either stay in the Future with you and somehow find a way to buy you a Mercedes like Stephen’s, or it means you must come back to the past with me and have patience whilst I turn Sedgwick into a place of comfort and beauty for you.”

  She hesitated, then pulled away from him suddenly. “Books, first.”

  He wasn’t going to argue with her, though he did find her insistence to be a little strange. He walked with her over the dunes, a slightly more arduous trek than it had been in his time, then looked at her in surprise when she dropped his hand.

  “Let’s run,” she said.

  He shrugged. “As you will, love.”

  She was fast, he would give her credit for that, but since he was accustomed to running in boots, running in trainers made him feel like he was flying.

  Which, he realized suddenly, he was, down into some unearthly sort of whirlpool that opened up in front of him before he could stop himself from running right into it. He felt himself falling endlessly.

  And then he knew no more.

  Chapter 28

  Pippa tripped and went sprawling. She might have been profoundly embarrassed, but
Montgomery had done the same thing, so she didn’t feel all that bad about it. She crawled to her knees to tell him at least they were equally yoked when it came to baseline dorkiness—

  Only he wasn’t there.

  She gaped. He had vanished.

  She pushed herself to her feet and turned around in circles, looking for Montgomery, only to see nothing at all except that faint shimmer right there in the middle of the field. She started toward it only to have someone catch hold of her. She sighed in relief. Obviously she’d been so fixated on getting back to the keep that she’d simply misplaced him. She turned around, vastly relieved.

  “Oh, Mont—”

  It wasn’t Montgomery standing there.

  The man holding her by the arm was tall, dark-haired, and fantastically handsome. She tried to pull her arm away, but he wouldn’t let her go. She was tempted to try to elbow him in the nose, but he honestly didn’t look dangerous. He just looked very concerned.

  “Don’t,” he said quietly.

  “Don’t what?” she asked him in surprise.

  “Don’t step on that patch of grass behind you,” he said. “It isn’t safe.”

  Pippa jerked her arm away from him, but he shook his head sharply.

  “I’m not kidding.”

  The tone of his voice was enough to have her rethinking her plans. She stepped away from him far enough to look at what was behind her yet still keep him in her sights. She glanced at the spot where she’d last seen Montgomery, then realized exactly what she was looking at.

  A time gate.

  She started to shake. In fact, she began to shake so terribly that she almost frightened herself. A hand again took her by the arm.

  “Let’s go back up to the keep.”

  She turned to the man. “Who are you?”

  “Zachary Smith,” he said with a smile. “Who are you?”

  “Pippa Alexander.”

  Zachary Smith looked at her for a moment or two, then stared at the gate that was now nothing more than dead air. “Who were you running with?”

  She could hardly breathe. “You wouldn’t know him,” she managed.

  “Maybe not,” Zachary agreed, “but why don’t you try me?”

  “Montgomery de Piaget,” Pippa said, taking hold of a sudden feeling of defiance. “Now, are you going to tell me why I can’t back up five feet and try to go find him, or am I going to punch you really hard in the face and leave you on your knees wishing you’d let go sooner?”

  He smiled, but it wasn’t a condescending smile. It was a smile that somehow said that he might understand a bit what she was feeling.

  “I’m properly cowed,” Zachary said gravely, “but I hope you’re properly warned.” He paused. “I couldn’t decide if it was Montgomery or John. They’re twins, you know. And they look so much like their eldest brother that I think if we were to see them all at the same age, it would be difficult to tell them apart.”

  Pippa retrieved her jaw from where it had fallen to her chest. “What in the world are you talking about?”

  “Their older brother,” Zachary said patiently. “Robin de Piaget.”

  “And how the hell do you know him?” she demanded.

  “He’s my father-in-law.”

  Pippa found herself flat on her backside before Zachary even reached for her. He squatted down in front of her and put his hand under her chin, lifting her face up.

  “I think you’re going to faint,” he remarked.

  “I’m not.”

  “Hmmm,” was the last thing she heard.

  She woke in a bed. She wouldn’t have called it her bed because her bed was now ashes in a landfill, but it was definitely the bed she’d woken up in that morning. She opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling for a bit, then turned her head.

  Peaches and Tess were sitting there in two chairs by her bed, looking like identical statues carved from marble. They were very pale and very still.

  “When did you two get here?” she croaked.

  “About an hour ago,” Peaches said seriously.

  “Stephen had the feeling we should come,” Tess added. “I had no idea my car would go that fast.”

  “We’re lucky he didn’t get a ticket,” Peaches said with a shiver.

  Tess shook her head. “He drives a lot between the university and a flat he keeps in York. I think he knows where all the speed cameras are.” She looked at Pippa. “We heard about Montgomery.”

  Pippa sat up, but her head began to spin so badly that she found herself lying back down again without really knowing how she’d gotten there. “I think he was going to ask me to marry him.”

  “I expect so,” Peaches agreed.

  Pippa allowed herself approximately thirty seconds of dizziness before she sat back up. She gritted her teeth and swung her legs to the floor. “I need to get to a library, or a bookstore, or something. Now.”

  Peaches exchanged a look with Tess, then reached behind her and pulled something out of her bag. “This what you’re looking for?”

  Pippa looked at the book that had started all her stress, then met her sister’s gaze. “I’ve already read that one. I want more information.”

  Peaches set the book on the floor, then stood. “All right. We’ll go with you. Where to?”

  “I want to look in the castle’s gift shop. If that doesn’t tell me what I want to know, I might have to break into the public library.” She looked at Tess. “Do they have libraries here?”

  “Probably not in the village, but up the coast surely,” Tess said, standing up. “Why don’t we try the shop first? If that doesn’t work, we’ll go up the coast tomorrow.”

  Pippa had no intention of waiting until tomorrow, but she supposed she didn’t need to say as much. If the gift shop didn’t cut it, she would beg Stephen to rifle through his father’s books. One way or another, she had to have details that night.

  She had to stand still for a moment or two until she felt more herself, then she walked over to the door and opened it.

  Stephen was standing against the wall under a fake torch, looking so much like Montgomery that she almost wept. Instead, she put her shoulders back and lifted her chin.

  “I need books.”

  He inclined his head. “Of course, my lady.”

  The thought of the very rich and powerful son of the Earl of Artane giving her such deference was ridiculous, but she wasn’t about to argue with him. She took the arm he offered and walked down the passageway, then down the stairs to the great hall. Stephen stopped so suddenly, he almost ripped her arm out of its socket. She looked up at him in surprise.

  “What is it?”

  He could only nod in the direction of the lord’s table. Pippa looked, but only saw Kendrick and Gideon laughing over something. Gideon looked over, then smiled.

  “Stephen, get over here, old man. I don’t think you’ve met the Earl of Seakirk.”

  Pippa understood suddenly why Stephen looked so shocked. “Haven’t you ever met him?” she asked.

  “Heard a bit about him,” Stephen said faintly, “but no, I’ve never met him. I’m not home all that much.”

  “He’s Montgomery’s nephew, you know,” she said. “I think that makes him your uncle.”

  Stephen took a deep breath. “He couldn’t look any more like Montgomery.”

  “Or like you, actually.” She smiled up at him. “You should get to know him. I can guarantee there will be swordplay involved.”

  “Heaven help me,” Stephen said with feeling.

  Pippa laughed a bit, feeling a very brief respite from the grief that felt like a fist clutching her heart. She walked Stephen over to the table, then stood back as Gideon, with irrepressible glee, introduced Kendrick and Stephen to each other. He seemed to find his older brother’s consternation to be endlessly amusing. Pippa supposed there was good reason for it, but she didn’t have the time to figure out what it was.

  She stood back and watched something of a little family reunion. Stephen pulled Tess
and Peaches into the fray, as it were, introducing them to his parents and his newfound relations. Pippa went to stand against one of the walls, because she had to have something to lean against. She wasn’t going to be rude, but she really needed a little foray into history before it completely got away from her. Either that, or she wanted a brief trip to the time gate.

  Unfortunately, Zachary Smith was watching her, so she supposed the latter wouldn’t be happening anytime soon.

  She jumped when she realized Kendrick was no longer over with his family but had come to stand next to her instead.

  “It was like this then,” he remarked.

  She looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

  “My father’s hall, during his time. Artane was always full of cousins and aunts and uncles.”

  She turned to face him. “Do you remember me?”

  He looked more serious than she had ever seen him. Admittedly, she hadn’t spent all that much time with him, but there was no trace of anything remotely resembling teasing in his face.

  “Please don’t ask me that,” he said very quietly.

  She caught her breath. “Why not?”

  “Because to change your future is to change your past, my past, and Montgomery’s past.” He took a careful breath. “Do what you have to, Persephone, and let Fate play her hand as she will.”

  “Do you believe in Fate?”

  “Absolutely.”

  She looked back over the hall. “If Genevieve were in the past, would you leave all this and go back to live with her there?”

  “Do you have to ask?”

  She supposed she didn’t. She looked up at him. “I love him.”

  “I know.”

  “Aren’t you going to tell me how he feels about me?” she demanded.

  He lifted one eyebrow. “Do I need to?”

  She looked at him narrowly. “I just want you to know that if I get back there and we both survive it, I will make your young life a living hell.”

  He scratched his head. “You know, I get that a lot. Can’t think of what I do to deserve it.”