"So what do we do?" she asked, feeling quite content to be in his arms.
"I would court you again, Elise. Start anew."
She smiled, the last knot of apprehension easing from her. "Yes, I would like that, Darien."
It was a start.
#
"Come 'Lise, change your slippers. I shall take you to see a spectacular sight." Darien's voice was warm in her ear as he held her by the waist and spun her around. She gripped his forearms, catching her breath as he finally let her feet touch the ground.
"Darien! What are you talking about?"
He gripped her hand, pulling her to the window. "Look outside. It's a beautiful warm day. Perfect for a ride and a walk."
"It sounds like fun."
"We will take the carriage and ride to see the falls."
"I would love that." She loved to do anything with him.
Darien took the feather duster in her hand and flung it across the room. She heard it hit the wall and fall to the floor.
"Then let us be on our way."
Darien pulled her from the room and Elise was helpless against his joy and the laughter in his eyes. For her, it felt as if time had turned back to when they were teenagers.
#
Darien drove the carriage and Elise savored every moment in his company. She felt hopeful that everything was falling into place for them.
Elise squinted against the sun, thinking how strange it was to go to the falls now with Darien. She and Isabeau had visited the site not long ago.
"Have you ever been to the falls?" he asked now.
"Not as a young girl, but I was there last summer in -- in the future time."
"Is it the same?" Darien asked curiously, helping her alight from the carriage.
"Well, the falls are the same. The State of New York bought the property back in the 1960s or 1970s, so it's more or less forever wild now." They approached the falls, following a footpath. "There's a lot of washing away of the area at the top of the falls because of the weather and the number of people who come here to see it."
"It feels strange to be speaking of another time and yet the same area. It must be doubly strange for you, Elise."
"You have no idea how strange. When I awoke in that other time it was a shock. I felt terribly depressed, but then --" she hesitated.
"Please tell me, Elise."
She touched his arm. "We need to talk more of my life in that time, and you need to tell me of your life since I've been gone, Darien."
"I agree." He shook his head, then took her hand as they stood at the top of the falls. "There has been much living in all these years, Elise. Truth to tell, I gave up a long time ago that I would ever know love again. A love such as we shared."
"I know, Darien." Her throat ached with emotion. With determination, Elise smiled at him and pointed back the way they had come. "In a few years, there will be a grand hotel over there. It will go through several renovations and enlargements, but people will love to come here to this wonderful wilderness and get away from the city summers. They called it the Laurel House."
"The Laurel House. Because of the Mountain Laurel that abounds on this mountain. Does the hotel still stand in your other time?"
"No. Sadly it fell into disrepair, and when the State bought it they burned it down. It's local history," she said. The falls rushed over the rock ledge, the white rush of water hitting the rock pool below, before it flowed over the second falls. "I tried to find news of you, hoping I could learn something of your whereabouts, what happened to you, but I could find nothing."
"Well, I'll admit that's a bit unsettling. In your time I do not exist?"
"I don't know. Perhaps you moved away from the area."
"What of my home?"
"It is no longer there in my time."
"Well," he mused, "at least the falls have made it through unscathed."
"Do the local people come here at all?"
"I generally do not encounter anyone on my treks here. Roof and I trap when we're not at sea. There's a bounty of game in these hills."
"And you'd never consider leaving?"
Darien swept the grandeur around them with an outflung hand, his face intent. "Why would I wish to live anywhere else? I came here as a child with my father. When he left many years later, I stayed. I have always come back, despite --" he paused, then continued, "despite everything. Something draws me like a fever in the blood. I do not pretend to understand it."
His eyes were brilliantly green as the sun lit his face.
"The Indians claim spirits haunt these mountains," he murmured, "and they stay away. It is a difficult life at times, but others come more and more, moving further into the mountains. I dread to think what will happen to the forest as more tanneries are built."
With Darien's help, Elise scrambled up a large rock and sat on top, crossing her arms over her legs as she stared down at the stream far below wending its way down the side of the mountain before it seemed to disappear. Darien followed, standing with booted feet wide on the rock. There was something so elemental and untamed about him. Behind him the trees offered a perfect backdrop, and just being here with him melted away much of the sadness of the years in between. Elise thought of her daughter and how she would have taken a dozen pictures of her father by now.
A slight breeze brushed across them, bringing with it a misting of the falls, dappling them with cool, pristine water drops. She watched as the droplets clung a moment to Darien, then soaked into his hair and clothing. He caught her watching him and stepped closer, holding out his hand to her. Without hesitation, Elise took his hand, felt the rough callused palm as he pulled her to her feet. Her ridiculous slippers afforded her feet little protection on the rock's rough surface.
"I should have insisted you wear boots," Darien said, bringing her close to his side. They had argued briefly about her footwear before leaving earlier. "When will you do as I bid you?" he asked, half-laughingly.
Her fingers touched the softness of his blond hair. "Dammit, I'm not a kid."
"Elise, when did you start cursing?" he asked, looking as if he wanted to shake her.
"I told you, I've changed. I'm not the soft, gentle little girl you remember."
"That is true," he agreed, frowning at her. "You are a strong-minded woman."
Elise felt a momentary tremor, then straightened her shoulders with a smile and lift of one brow. "Is that what you want? Someone who will follow you around adoringly? Yes, Darien. No, Darien."
A hard arm snaked about her waist, pulling her hard to him. The contact drew all the breath from her.
"Dammit, but you are right. That is not what I want. I find your independence, your fiery nature more attractive than the adoring child I knew, as much as I loved you back then. We were both children, inexperienced with life and the world. Now, we are adults who have tasted both despair and the joy, at times too much of the despair. I admit I am not disappointed in you. No man in his right mind would be. You're even more beautiful than I recalled."
Elise stared into his eyes, unable to disguise the desire she felt for him as it twisted at her insides.
"Your shirt is all wet," she said. "You'll get chilled if the sun goes in."
"Then perhaps I should remove it," he said softly.
Elise nodded. There was only the sound of the water, the birds and the soft rustle of the breeze in the trees around them. Pulling off his leather vest, Darien unfastened the buttons at the neck closure. Elise watched his fingers deftly work the leather strips, her throat suddenly very dry. Elise sank down gracefully to the stone, her eyes never leaving Darien as he crossed his arms, grabbed the tail of his shirt and pulled it over his head in one fluid movement. He dropped it, pushing his hair back from his face with one hand.
Elise drew in a shaky breath, admiring his beauty, feeling as if her lungs were on fire. Sliding her gaze over the hard outline of muscle in his arms and chest, she knew he watched her, and finally she looked up at him fully.
All reservation dissolved, Elise moved up to him and slid her arms around his warm body. She moved to stand behind him, hands sliding caressingly over smooth muscle, the corded flatness of his stomach.
Darien turned and wrapped her tightly against him. Elise pressed her lips to the springing mat of dark blond hair on his chest. They met breast to breast, thigh to thigh. His strength easily lifted her off her feet and he put his face to her neck, breathing deeply of her scent.
She copied him, taking in the scent of man and outdoors, his flesh a tantalizing discovery zone she needed to relearn. In the glorious sunlight there was no holding back. If he wanted her beside the creek, under the tree, for all of nature to witness, she was more than willing to go with him. The stone was hot beneath them, and Darien placed his shirt between her skin and the rock.
A feverish quest rose, a yearning for that which she already knew, but needed to know again. She was a child exploring new sensations, her fingers moving across his neck, caressing his jaw, the scrape of whiskers on his chin and then against her soft cheek. Her eyes took in every pore and texture of his body, running her fingers over the skin, seeing the muscle bunch and move beneath.
Darien ducked his head, his fingers loosening the pins in her hair and letting the glorious red silk cascade about her shoulders and below.
He dropped to his knees, carefully bringing her with him, pulling her between his powerful thighs.
Darien pulled her beside him, and she welcomed the hardness of his body into the yielding softness of hers. The sun peeked through the tree tops, the warm air and cool mist covering them. Darien moving in and out of her body brought her to an incredible release of old emotions, fear and pain. As their bodies joined, Elise held him tightly, knowing there was no going back. The sun shone hotly, as if the mountains welcomed their joining, embracing them fully and rejoicing in their release.
Elise's fingers gently tangled in the coarse twine which hung from his neck. She went still, stared at the engraved band which hung suspended, the sun glinting off the gold.
Her ring on the end of the twine.
Chapter Twelve
She moved back from him, trying not to jump to conclusions. "You have my ring." She frowned. "I thought it was lost forever. I didn't see this before."
Darien sat back on his heels. He reached for his breeches, then his shirt. "If you must know, I took it from Rogier. This needs to be said between us, Elise. I kept the ring as a reminder of what I'd thought you'd done."
"And you started wearing it again? A reminder of my desertion?" Pain jabbed like a white hot needle.
"That is not how I see the ring now. It is to remind me of a time when I was younger and so ideally in love. I was angry, embittered when you disappeared from my life. At first, I imagined all types of terrible things had befallen you. I was out of my mind with worry. I could not imagine you leaving without a trace, then I thought you'd become frightened and ran away. I accused your father of sending you somewhere. Later, everything fell into place, or so I thought."
"What fell into place?"
"The night you disappeared your father's men jumped me. I was held prisoner. He is clever, I admit, and soon realized I had no more idea than he of your whereabouts. He concocted a story that you'd begged him to send you to relatives in England -- perhaps in the hope I would denounce you. With your father, one can never be sure."
"You believed him."
"Not at first." Darien gripped the ring upon the twine. "Not until he showed me this." He indicated the ring.
"My ring."
"The ring I gave you that night. You had only worn it a short time. He -- your father -- told me you had thrown it on the ground in a fit of rage, screaming that you hoped never to see me again." Darien smiled grimly. "At seventeen, I was no match for your father's deceptive wiles. It became his obsession to rid the mountains of my presence."
She frowned. "I had it when Mandine beckoned me outside that night. When I woke in the other time, it was gone."
"Your father found it. He gloated over the fact that you had thrown it away, as you wished to throw me away."
"No!" she cried. "You know his story is a lie. How could he hope to get away with it? I could have showed up at any moment as far as he knew."
"He is a gambler who plays for high stakes. No doubt he had a plan if you returned. When you did not, his accusations that I was a thief went uncontested. I was the penniless son of a tavern owner." Darien shrugged, as if it were no longer of any consequence.
Elise pulled on her skirt. Darien helped her put on her blouse, his fingers lingering on the front buttons, his knuckles brushing her breasts.
"Even your father's wealth and his bribes could not bring you back. Over time, when you did not return, his hatred for me grew. It eats at him still."
"When did he come, that last night?"
"It was shortly before midnight. You were gone, and your father held a knife to my throat."
"It was only the space of minutes."
"He knew you had lain with me that night. It was there in his eyes, the black, killing rage. Hate and anger. I know now it was more than a father's anger. I sensed it, yet there was nothing I could do. I knew my fate was sealed at his hands."
Her father's betrayal felt crushing to Elise, even more so now coming from Darien's lips then when Mandine had told her of the night's events.
She drew a deep, gulping breath. "We have to forgive the past if there's any hope for love."
"This from my independent little Miss," he teased gently.
Elise smiled. "I've been on my own so long I've forgotten how to depend on others. I'm stubborn sometimes, and other times I act before I think, but I can't let you go. I choose to love you again, Darien. We have both kept secrets, but the time has come to get rid of them. I ask that you forgive my stubborn pride."
"Then you must forgive mine, also,"
Elise stood. "It's dangerous what you and Rufus are engaged in. Though I admit when I first learned the truth, I wasn't sure if it was you or Rufus I'd kissed."
"Damnation, Elise! You'd have let Rufus --" he snapped his mouth shut.
"Don't even go there, Darien Remington. You cannot be mad at me for still loving you and responding to you, even though I didn't know it was you in that masquerade."
They left the falls and walked through the cool shade of the woods.
"'I could not stay away." He pushed his hands through his hair, staring up at the sky. "Rufus warned me."
"He knew also?"
"He only knew that I had gone to see you as the Hellhound. Elise, since the moment of your return, when I saw you on the road, I have been sadly off balance. You acted as if you expected to return after the absence of many years into my arms, my life, as if a day had not passed."
"I know, it does sound strange, and yet my sole focus was to get back to you."
"I wanted only to reach out and grab you in the first moment of recognition, but then my next thought was I wanted to beat the tar out of you. When I had time to cool off, your faith shook me. Despite my anger, I knew I had to delve into the real reasons of your disappearance."
"And it wasn't motivated by revenge?"
"Revenge is a harsh word, but perhaps there was some revenge in there at first," he admitted honestly. "I felt betrayed, but it was also coupled with a sense of relief that you were back, then I became concerned for your safety." He shook his head. "My conscience bade me stay away but I could not. You changed," he said ruefully. "You were even more than I recalled. There was so much I wanted to know about you. You challenged me as no other woman I know."
"What of Adeline?" she asked.
"She is a good friend. Before you showed up we had made a pact to help each other. She grieved the loss of her husband, while I --" pain flitted across this face. "I had decided I did not care who I married. You had been gone seventeen years by then.
"Adeline and I, we decided, perhaps foolishly, that marriage would be mutually agreeable. Thus, we beca
me engaged. Neither one of us moved to advance it past that stage. I sensed Adeline's growing hesitation while I --" he put a hand to the back of his neck, meeting her eyes squarely, "I confess I grew increasingly disenchanted with the idea of marriage to my friend Adeline. Honor made me break off the engagement when I realized her true feelings. It was done before you moved into my household."
"She told me."
Darien shook his head. "I am put to shame -- the faith you held in me. My behavior is inexcusable, and all I did was treat you like a threat. All I can offer by way of explanation is that I was a fool entrenched in the bitterness of the past."
"Darien, what if Mandine was wrong in what she foresaw? She swore to me it was the only way the future could play out where we would all survive." Deliberately, she added, "You, myself and our daughter. Mandine knew I conceived that night, our first night together. I didn't know, but she knew."
Twigs cracked underfoot. Darien spun around.
"I'm awaiting your reaction to this piece of news, Remington," drawled Rogier in a coldly amused voice. "Please do not let my presence interrupt. I must admit this is getting extremely interesting. Even my own daughter, who told me she abhors lying, practices duplicity."
Her father stepped from cover of a large stand of pines, a hand resting on the hilt of a knife at his hip.
"This is none of your business," she said coldly. "Why are you here?"
"You might as well know 'Lise, he has been stalking me at every opportunity," Darien said mildly. "I've known of it for some time."
Rogier laughed with delight. "And yet you came here today, together."
"I had heard you were elsewhere today."
"Interesting that you keep my whereabouts in mind," Rogier drawled. "However, it is the Hellhound I have been stalking. Do you know where I can find the man?" he inquired silkily.
"You are incorrect," Darien said mildly. "It is not business trade you deal it, it is thievery."
Elise looked from one to the other. The animosity between the two men hung thickly in the air.
Darien stepped toward Rogier.
Time Travel Romance Collection Page 47
