It was an hour later when the call came in. Mildred had hung up the phone when Karen appeared in the doorway to her bedroom, rubbing her eyes. “Any word?”
“He’s been in an accident. I’m such an old fool.”
“Oh no. Is he okay?”
Mildred couldn’t speak, but she nodded. After swallowing a few times, she found her voice. “A man was texting and driving. He didn’t have his headlights on, and hit Drake.” Her voice broke. “The doctor says he was very lucky. The man wasn’t driving fast. I’m going over.”
“I’ll come with you.”
Throwing on clothes, Mildred looked at Karen and made up her mind. “Stay here. I’d hate for you to catch something. I promise I’ll call as soon as I see him.”
“Okay.” Karen yawned then smiled. “I’ll save the ‘I told you so’ until later.”
The sadness blew away. “You do that.” Mildred pulled her into a hug. “Thank you. I’m very happy I found you outside the Dollar Store.”
The Holden Beach police were definitely getting a large Christmas donation, Mildred thought as she sped across town to the hospital.
When she arrived, Drake was asleep. He looked terrible with his black eyes, cuts, and bruises. She moved closer to take his hand when she noticed the envelope. The manila envelope on the table by the bed.
There was a sticky note on the outside. Let’s get this done. It’s almost Thanksgiving and I want to be Mrs. Gregory. Love, C.
Careful not to wake him, she took the envelope, slid the papers out, and began reading. A single tear hit the text as she signed next to the little red arrows.
“I can’t do this again,” she whispered, laying the papers on the table. His hand twitched, his eyes fluttering, and, like a coward, she fled.
“Mildred,” he croaked out.
Apparently not fast enough. She turned, met his eyes once, then looked out the window as she spoke, every word a knife to her heart.
“I trusted you, gave you everything I had, and you shattered my heart into a million pieces. Why didn’t you tell me Caroline was here? I saw you. You were kissing her. When were you going to tell me you were leaving? Or was it going to be like last time and you simply vanished into thin air?”
“You think I left you? On purpose?” he said, coughing.
Grudgingly, she poured a glass of water and handed it to him, careful not to touch his hand.
He took a few sips and rested his head back, his face pale.
“Caroline and I were never meant to be. We were business partners and she wanted more. Just so you know, she kissed me.” He sighed. “You are part of me. I would never willingly let you go. I’d put my body in front of any threat to you. You are mine.”
“No.” Mildred was numb. “It’s too late for us. Second chances are never a good idea,” she said, and walked out on the only man she’d ever loved. Tears blurring her vision, she bumped into someone, mumbled an apology, and fled the building and his sad blue eyes.
TWENTY-TWO
Every part of his body hurt when Drake woke to find himself yet again in the hospital. He’d dreamed Mildred had come, but she’d been sad. He caught sight of the divorce papers, currently in the hand of Caroline.
“Hello, Drake.” She flipped the pages over. “Your wife signed the papers.”
He couldn’t believe she was leaving him after they’d finally found each other.
Caroline laid the papers back on the table and met his gaze. “I saw her. The way she looked at you.”
As he watched her, Drake thought he caught a hint of sadness behind her eyes, but it was gone so fast that he might have been mistaken.
“I heard what you said to her. You love her very much, don’t you?”
“Aye. More than life itself.” She winced, and he took her hand. “I am sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”
The kiss was light, chaste. “I know you didn’t.” Then she straightened, and he saw the tough businesswoman face she wore most of the time. “It’s funny. I’m not upset. Really just embarrassed to go back and cancel the wedding, send back all the gifts.”
Drake took a sip of water. “Caroline, tell everyone you broke off our betrothal. I’ll go along with whatever you say.”
She nodded. “Thank you.” As she turned to go, she said, “I think it’s best you don’t come back to Vegas. I’ll have Ambrose send your things.”
“As you wish.” He coughed a few times, took another drink of water, and said, “I know you’ll find the right partner.”
With a small smile, she left, closing the door behind her.
It was two days before Thanksgiving. Mildred was so distracted that she’d forgotten to get the mail yesterday. When she stepped outside, she tripped over something, stubbing her toe in the navy-blue slippers.
There, propped against the rail, was a sledgehammer with a blue ribbon the color of Drake’s eyes tied around it, with a white card attached and flapping back and forth in the breeze.
For breaking through the stone wall around your heart.
Nope, she wouldn’t smile. Mildred didn’t want anyone driving by to gossip about why she had a sledgehammer with a big ribbon on her porch, so she brought it inside, and if she put the card on the counter, it was only so she’d remember to throw it away later.
The day before Thanksgiving, the doorbell sounded and Karen called out, “I’m down here. I’ll get it.”
Mildred brushed her hair. She looked at her reflection and winced. Pale with dark circles. She looked awful.
“Come downstairs and see what came,” Karen called.
When her foot hit the bottom step, Mildred gasped.
“I know, right? It’s like we’re in the middle of the florist.”
Wasn’t that an understatement. As Mildred’s eyes wandered over all the bouquets of flowers, there was a knock at the door.
“Oh heavens. What now?” Mildred stomped to the door and flung it open. “You.” She scowled at him. “Might as well come in. You’re letting all the heat out. I’m not made of money.”
Karen hugged Drake. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Traitor,” Mildred called out as Karen went upstairs. She twisted her necklace through her fingers. “What if you leave me again?”
“Mildred. I won’t.” Drake took a step closer to her.
“What if it doesn’t work out?”
“It will.” He took another step closer.
She took a step back. “What if we really weren’t meant to be?”
“We are fated to be together, though the damned fates have a terrible sense of humor.” He took another step, looking impossibly handsome in his jeans and cream-colored sweater, even with his black eyes and the big scrape on his chin.
“What if you break my heart again? I won’t survive.” Her hand trembled.
“Mille. Enough.” He took three strides and pulled her down on the sofa next to him, stroking her cheek. “What if I’ve waited my entire life for you? What if I traveled through time to find you? What if I love you until we turn to dust?” He paused. “But you have to take my hand. Will you?” He went down on one knee in front of her. “I beseech you, my lady. Don’t give up on us.”
She took his hand, feeling the hastily erected wall within crumble to rubble. “You know, when you get emotional, your accent comes out.”
Too overcome with emotion, she knew he saw the words she couldn’t get out written in her eyes.
Late that night, Drake built a fire on the beach. He held out the divorce papers to her. “I can’t believe you signed these.”
Mildred squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry for doubting you.”
“I’ve already forgiven you.” He kissed her lightly on the mouth. “Well?”
With a deep breath, Mildred tossed the papers into the fire, watching as the edges curled up and they turned black, turning to dust.
They sat together watching the fire and the ocean deep into the night. Later, Drake put the fire out and helped Mildred to her feet.
“As do I.” She touched his face, careful to avoid the worst of his injuries. “I love you.”
“And I you, wife.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance. “We’d better go in so Karen isn’t worried.” Drake pointed to the house at the lights going on inside.
At the steps to the walkway, the moonlight hit the rail and Mildred grabbed Drake’s hand.
“Careful.” She pointed to the nail sticking up. “You almost cut your hand.”
“Another scratch won’t make a difference, but thank you for looking out for me, lady.”
“I swear I had that fixed,” Mildred muttered to herself as they went inside. Today they’d celebrate their first Thanksgiving together. As a family.
TWENTY-THREE
Epilogue—Two Years Later
“You’re going to laugh, Pittypat.” Mildred looked back to see Drake helping Karen strap Chloe in the stroller. She’d gone ahead to talk to her sister before they joined her. Mildred leaned down, one hand resting on the headstone. She wore a ring on each hand—her original yellow diamond and a new ring.
They’d renewed their vows over Valentine’s Day, and Drake had bought her a beautiful ruby ring with a gold band. Inside he’d had the initials of all of them inscribed on the inside. The letters were tiny, but the jeweler had managed to fit them all on the ring. The wide gold band was bright and shiny, like the future ahead.
“I have to confess. I got tipsy and went skinny-dipping in the ocean during the Fall Solstice in honor of you. Drake was out of town. He’s been flying businessmen from New York City to Holden from our little local airport. I even let him take me up in that teeny-tiny plane.”
She adjusted the huge bouquet of sunflowers they’d selected. Each bouquet had sunflowers and other fall pieces. There were leaves wearing their autumn colors in one, camellias in another, and so on. One for each sister and one for each niece.
“Alice. I know y’all are happy in the great beyond. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure things out, but I swear I’ll do everything in my power to give Karen the one thing she never had. A family.”
The wind ruffled her scarf, and Mildred looked over her shoulder to see her husband coming up the path.
“Girls. I know all of you are happy and together. Drake found an old document through some bigwig he knows in New York. It was a listing of the king’s Yule celebration at your home, Melinda, at Falconburg Castle. You were all there. There was a menu and guest list.” She wiped her eyes. “All of you together. Your mom and Pittypat would be so happy. Just as I am.”
Mildred kissed her finger and touched each headstone. Their bodies weren’t here, and while she knew they’d been gone hundreds of years, Mildred believed with all her heart that they’d found their happily-ever-afters.
“I found my own knight in tarnished armor,” she whispered.
“Tarnished armor?” Drake put a hand to his chest. “The captain of my guard would be most vexed I did not care for my mail and plate.” He pulled her close, the warmth of him soaking into her as he kissed her.
“Chloe Penelope Merriweather. Come here this instant!” The little angel was going to be two years old in a few months. She’d been an absolute terror since she’d started walking, taking great joy in running away from whoever was watching her.
The child shrieked and hid behind Drake’s legs. “Where could Princess Chloe be?” Drake craned his neck, looking around. “I guess she’s gone to live with the faeries. I’ll have to find another little girl to take for ice cream on the way home.”
“Ice cream. Ice cream.” She chortled. “Chloe here. Not gone.”
Karen shook a finger at her little girl. “You are not a princess today. I think you’ve turned into a naughty frog, hopping away from Mommy.”
Chloe hopped and made ribbit noises while they all laughed watching her antics. Mildred and Drake had talked for months after Karen had made a comment about some nosy woman in the Harris Teeter asking her why her last name was different than her grandmother’s.
After getting over being furious that the woman hurt Karen’s feelings, Mildred found she liked being thought of as a grandmother. Karen had told her she thought of Mildred as the mom she’d never had and the age difference wasn’t so vast, she could be her mother.
So one night, she and Drake asked Karen if she’d like to take the Merriweather name. Mildred was quick to reassure her that she wasn’t trying to remove any family history, but Karen stopped her, tears running down her face.
“I’d like nothing more than for Chloe and I to be part of the Merriweather family.” She threw her arms around them, crying. “And a Gregory, too,” she said, smiling through the tears.
Drake had hugged her. “The Merriweather women always keep their names.” He turned to Mildred. “What was the rest of the Merriweather curse?”
“There’s a curse?” Karen’s eyes sparkled.
“Oh yes.” Mildred smiled. “It’s said the Merriweather women never change their last names, they go gray early, they are terrible with directions…”
“Thank goodness for GPS,” Drake added as Mildred rolled her eyes.
“And they have terrible taste in men.”
“Hey, what am I, horse dung?” Drake said indignantly.
“Of course not. I think the curse is finally broken. Alice was happy with her husband. Pittypat found Thomas. The girls found their happily-ever-afters, and so have I.”
“Well, I’m not gray yet, but I fit the rest,” Karen said. “I guess the curse won’t really be broken until Chloe and I find our knights in shining armor.”
“No sense borrowing trouble thinking about curses.”
Mildred was filled with joy. It was official: as of today, Karen was a Merriweather and so was Chloe. They’d come to the cemetery to tell the family. They were all holding hands when Chloe broke away, kneeling before Pittypat’s tombstone.
“Other Grammy,” she said patting the stone.
Happy tears ran down Mildred’s face. Somehow Pittypat was here with them today.
Then the little girl cocked her head and looked at Drake. “Soon I go home like them.” She touched each headstone. Lucy. Melinda. And Charlotte.
Karen gasped. “Chloe honey, you’re going to live a very long time, sweetie.” Her eyes were full of tears. Drake patted her shoulder and handed her a tissue. He always carried a few in his pocket, as one of them invariably needed one.
“I don’t think that’s what she means.” He knelt down. “Chloe, what about Grandmother Alice and Pittypat? Are you going home like them?”
Golden-brown, wise eyes blinked at him. “Silly granda. No, I go where they are.” She touched the headstones of Mildred’s nieces again.
Mildred didn’t know why she or Pittypat had never traveled through time. Then again, their knights came to them. Her nieces had the ability, but Karen had never shown any indication, and she wasn’t a Merriweather by blood, only in name. Did it matter? Then again, as far as she guessed, time travel wasn’t like a birthmark, so who knew what might happen? But adorable Chloe with the corkscrew curls was squatting next to Mildred’s niece’s headstones, whispering away, and a sense of foreboding swept through Mildred.
Karen let out a nervous giggle. “That was strange. She certainly has a vivid imagination.”
Drake and Mildred exchanged glances. Was it imagination? Or did the child have a trip to the past in her future?
Time would tell.
Books by Cynthia Luhrs
Listed in the correct reading order
THRILLERS
There Was A Little Girl
When She Was Bad
When She Was Good - Coming 2018
TIME TRAVEL SERIES
A Knight to Remember
Knight Moves
Lonely is the Knight
Merriweather Sisters Medieval Time Travel Romance Boxed Set Books 1-3
&
nbsp; Darkest Knight
Forever Knight
First Knight
Thornton Brothers Medieval Time Travel Romance Boxed Set Books 1-3
Last Knight
The Merriweather Sisters and Thornton Brothers Medieval Time Travel Romance Boxed Set Series Books 1-7
My One and Only Knight
Beyond Time
Time After Time
THE SHADOW WALKER GHOST SERIES
Lost in Shadow
Desired by Shadow
Iced in Shadow
Reborn in Shadow
Born in Shadow
Embraced by Shadow
The Shadow Walkers Books 1-3
The Shadow Walkers Books 4-6
Entire Shadow Walkers Boxed Set Books 1-6
A JIG THE PIG ADVENTURE
(Children’s Picture Books)
Beware the Woods
I am NOT a Chicken!
Want More?
Thank you for reading my book. Reviews help other readers find books. I welcome all reviews, whether positive or negative and love to hear from my readers. To find out when there’s a new book release, please visit my website http://cluhrs.com/ and sign up for my newsletter. Please like my page on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/cynthialuhrsauthor
Without you dear readers, none of this would be possible.
P.S. Prefer another form of social media? You’ll find links to all my social media sites on my website.
Thank you!
About the Author
Cynthia Luhrs writes time travel because she hasn’t found a way (yet) to transport herself to medieval England where she’s certain a knight in slightly tarnished armor is waiting for her arrival. She traveled a great deal and now resides in the colonies with three tiger cats who like to disrupt her writing by sitting on the keyboard. She is overly fond of shoes, sloths, and tea.
timeaftertime Page 10
