Always and Forever

by L. A. Fiore

  Nick started for the door. "I'll go. I'll meet you in the pub."

  Later, Quinn sat in the booth watching Gabriel and Cole play darts and the easiness of their relationship was testimony enough to the strength of their friendship. Charles sat across from her and was as quiet as she, so much so that when he spoke it took Quinn by surprise.

  "Gabriel is from the future, isn't he?"

  It took Quinn a minute to comprehend his question and then she felt terrible because she had completely blown over that part of the story when she filled him in earlier. "I'm sorry, Charles. I didn't tell you that part. Yes, he's from the future." She paused before she added, "And you are not running away screaming."

  A half-grin pulled at the one side of his mouth before he said, "After learning about your adventure, seeing what I've seen since I took this case, it's not all that surprising. Unbelievable, but not surprising." He was a silent for a moment before he asked, "Any ideas on what it all means?"

  Quinn pulled her attention from Gabriel and Cole and met Charles' inquisitive gaze.

  "I'm not sure. Maybe it's all completely unrelated. Maybe Morgan's death was a crime of passion by her father-in-law and the cover-up was for his protection. Derek stumbling onto the Scarcliff treasure could just be a coincidence and me, maybe I really did just have remarkably bad timing in the future and was killed by chance."

  Charles remained silent which piqued Quinn's interest. "What are you thinking?"

  "I don't think it's random and I don't think you do either. I think the link is Gabriel and Archer."

  Quinn held Charles' intense stare for a minute before she said on a sigh, "So do I."

  Charles leaned over the table. "I think Archer and Gabriel are the targets and Morgan and you were just the means to get to him."

  "For what purpose?"

  "That I have no idea."

  At that moment, Nick entered the pub and Cole and Gabriel rejoined the others at the table.

  "First, let me just say, wow, if that woman is only in her 30s remind me never to time travel. She didn't know what happened to Bryon. She was living at Whispering Winds at the time of his death so heard when Archer did that his father was dead. I asked why she didn't just leave after Bryon's death but she said she thought Archer and Nickie were in danger. She did say the doctor, a Dr. Elliot Jenkins, was a real sleazy guy and anything he was accused of wouldn't surprise her."

  "So if the doctor is willing to falsify records perhaps he got some monetary compensation. Earl or not, we're still talking about murder," Quinn deduced which had Cole immediately following that thought with one of his own.

  "Money exchanged hands, makes sense, so how eager was our doctor for extra cash? Did he only write up the false report or was he involved in the murder somehow?"

  "Well, Byron may have wanted, and even planned, to kill Morgan but I don't think he would have killed her himself. He was the Earl, willing to kill Morgan because she was a commoner and beneath his family, so he's unlikely to dirty his own hands with her murder for the same reason," Nick said.

  "Yeah, and who better to get close to the distraught woman then the man tending her husband?" Gabriel added.

  "Son of a bitch," Nick cursed.

  "Makes sense though," Charles finished.

  "Yeah, but it doesn't answer why Quinn in the future? The doctor has no more motive to come for Quinn than Bryon," Gabriel interjected.

  "What is Derek's involvement then? Is he really just looking for the treasure?" Charles asked as he lifted his pint.

  "Well, for someone who's stayed off the radar for as long as he has, he certainly isn't being very stealthy now in his movements," Cole offered which had a few heads turning to him before Quinn added, "That's actually a really good point. Regardless of how he's obtained the information to dig where he is, he's being unusually public with his movements which is so not like him."

  Gabriel and Cole regarded each other from across the table before Gabriel said, "Unless he wants to get our attention."

  Quinn turned to Gabriel, "Meaning?"

  "He's been to the Foundation a few times, each time he's requested a meeting with me, but I've blown him off. At first, I wasn't entirely sure I could be alone with him and not kill him but clearly he has something on his mind."

  Nick lifted his scotch to his lips before he grinned, "Only one way to find out what that something is."

  Later in the day, they all retired to Whispering Winds but made plans in the morning to head to London. Gabriel was with Nick, Cole and Charles in Nick's solar making arrangements but Quinn wanted a break from it all so decided to walk around the castle. Nick had shown her many of the treasures that Archer, Nickie and Thaddeus had left for her, wooden figures, notes, hand-drawn pictures. He gave them to her, had them stored in an acid-free box. She intended to display them in her home so she could look upon them whenever she wanted to feel closer to Archer and the others. She would always have that link to the past, to them, and that made her very happy.

  Charles' comment was still floating in the back of Quinn's mind because she too believed that Archer and Gabriel were the link: the reason for both Morgan and her own death but why? That kind of personal attack suggested one of passion so, if Archer and Gabriel really were the targets, it further supported the assumption that Bryon and the doctor were not the common link. Jenkins, why did that name sound familiar to her? She knew she had heard it before but she was drawing a blank as to where.

  She moved through the castle and made her way up to the circular stone room, the room she had yet to enter since she returned to her time. As soon as she stepped over the threshold, she felt Archer everywhere. Tears sprang to her eyes as she thought of the life he was forced to live, the one without her, the one with no hopes of ever finding her again. How he managed to survive it, she didn't know, didn't think she could have in his place. Of course, he did have Nickie and loving and caring for him would have helped to ease his broken heart. Unlike Gabriel who was forced to watch not only her death but that of their unborn child.

  She walked over to the shutters and pushed them open to see the bustling town in the distance, the view was so different from the one she remembered, but it was a testament to the man and his family that the area was now thriving and not the nearly forgotten place it had been. It was while looking out at the landscape that she noticed the culvert that was directing the river away from the now expanded town. How long ago had that been built? With the way the river was being forced to flow it was heading in the direction of where the graveyard had once been. Curious about that, she made her way to Nick's solar and knocked before entering. The men were all sitting near the fire but turned to her and stood when she entered.

  "Sorry to interrupt."

  "You're not at all. What do you need?" Nick asked helpfully.

  "The culvert, how long has that been there?"

  "Early 1900s, why?"

  "The river now flows toward where I believe Morgan's grave had been but when I was there I didn't see the river."

  Nick was silent a minute before he walked over to his desk and pulled open a drawer.

  "No, when the culvert was built it created a sort of subterranean river and that whole section of land can't be built on since the river now flows under it which is why the sheep graze there. If there were graves there, they would have had to move them to the graveyard on the other side of town but I've been to that graveyard and Morgan's grave is not there."

  He sat at his desk as he scanned through a large black journal until he found what he was looking for. He looked up at Quinn.

  "I think I found her."

  The graveyard consisted of three graves and was tucked in the woods in the place where Quinn and Archer had kissed for the very first time. The iron fence that surrounded the headstones was ornate and very old. Morgan's grave was there but it was the other two graves that had Quinn falling to her knees. Archer's stone was worn from the ages but she could still read it, saw his date of death and felt the sob
that clogged her throat. Her fingers reached out and traced his name as tears rolled down her cheeks. He died almost fifty years after she had left: had spent half a century living without her. She lowered her head as her tears fell harder.

  "I love you," she whispered for only Archer to hear before she looked to the other stone that rested next to his, Nickie. He, too, lived to be an old man. What had his life been like? She knew she was ready now, looking upon the markers of their deaths, to read about how they had lived.

  "Quinn?" Gabriel's soft voice pulled her from her sorrow. He was standing there, leaning against a shovel, watching her with overly bright eyes.

  "Would you like me?" he gestured to Morgan's grave.

  She stood and looked at the three graves, the family that had been torn apart, resting forever in peace side by side. "No. Let's leave it. A piece of me is with them, resting forever in this magical place. I don't need the proof that it was real. In my heart, I know that it was."

  Gabriel held out his hand to her and, with one last look at Archer's grave, she reached for it and walked silently away.

  Later, as they sat together for dinner, Nick watched Quinn from across the table. "After you left earlier, I read through some of their journals. There is a marker in the family crypt for Archer but he was very specific about where he wanted his body to be buried. Nickie, at the time of his death, requested to be buried with his father. His time as Earl saw a lot of prosperity so Nickie stipulated that should a time arise when the graveyard where Morgan was buried should ever need to be moved, that she should be buried with Archer and him."

  Quinn's voice was very soft when she replied, "Nickie, didn't know about the treasure, didn't know that I would have sought it out but seeing them together, in that place, it's right." She wiped the tears from her cheeks as she rose from the table. "Excuse me."

  She left the room and headed to the library where she located the book she had seen before, Scarcliff, the legacy, and took it to the circular room to read. Very little was written about his father Bryon, the bastard, but when she flipped the page there he was, Archer Scarcliff. She studied his face for almost an hour while losing herself in her memories and then she began to read. It detailed what she already knew of his life, his birth, his parents, his schooling, his marriage to Morgan O'Cuinn -- who later died in childbirth -- his son Nicholas Archer Scarcliff who was born in 1699. It mentioned Thaddeus Cornwell and how the two were renaissance men and invested their money when it was considered so very bourgeois to do so and how Archer's unorthodox, but financially sound, investments turned his already impressive total worth into that of one of the richest men in England. His sisters had each married in 1706, had both found love matches. Nickie attended University and later, during a London Season, met and married a Duke's daughter, Lady Sofia Bartholomew. They had three children, two boys and a girl, and lived happily into their seventies. Tears were falling down Quinn's face for though she was so happy that Nickie had a wonderful life, the idea that the little boy she had known was gone and had been for so very long, was very painful. It was one particular paragraph that Quinn found herself reading over and over again.

  Not much is known about Lord Archer Scarcliff's wife, Morgan O'Cuinn. After she died he never remarried and it's said he carried a miniature of her his whole life. When he died, at the age of 82, it is rumored that her name, Quinn, was the last word to pass his lips.

  Quinn closed the book and held it to her heart as she remembered and mourned.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The following morning the group piled into Nick's Mercedes SUV and made their way to London. Quinn was thankful that the others were with them since she wasn't in the mood to chat.

  Her heart was still very tender after yesterday, after coming to terms with the fact that the man she fell in love with not even a year ago was gone, had lived out the rest of his life alone and in death it was her name he spoke with his dying breath. God, she missed him and she knew he would always be with her now, but knowing that he had suffered so much and would again, that in the future he would lose her again, was enough to enrage her.

  As she thought of this, she remembered Maude from the woods. Who exactly was she and how the hell had she sent Quinn back to Archer and Gabriel back to her? They really needed to find her.

  "Nick?" she called from her spot in the back.

  "Yes."

  "Have you had any luck locating Maude?"

  "Not yet, no."

  Quinn turned her attention to Gabriel who was watching her from his seat next to Nick. She knew he had chosen shotgun to give her time to think and grieve. She held his gaze and mouthed, "I love you."

  His smile in response, the one that affected every one of his features, would stay with her always.

  Derek's flat was located in a very posh high rise, so posh that the doorman was going to bar their entrance until he saw Nick and Gabriel pulling up the rear and quickly escorted them to the front desk located in the lofty foyer of marble and crystal.

  "How may I help you?" A man dressed in a gray uniform asked from his spot behind the marble desk.

  "We're here to see Derek Blake," Nick said in a smooth voice.

  "Let me check to see if Mr. Blake is available."

  Nick leaned forward and all pretense of civility faded from his tone. "He's here. Tell him we aren't leaving until we speak to him."

  The man's hand shook as he lifted the phone and after a short, muffled conversation, he replaced the receiver and gestured to the elevators.

  "Sixth floor, room 605."

  Nick's smile was more a sneer, "Thank you."

  Derek pulled the door open and cleared his throat. "Please come inside."

  Derek looked to Quinn once they were settled in his spacious living room.

  "I'm sorry, Quinn, I really am. Who would have thought there was such a hornet's nest waiting?"

  Quinn held his gaze. "What do you mean?"

  "I just wanted the treasure, some invaluable Scarcliff treasure that was about to be unveiled. Yes, I know that's stealing and I'll admit to being a thief but I'm not a murderer." He turned from the group before he continued, "When I spoke to Constance after her return to the present, she told me she was afraid for herself and for Archer and Nickie. She mentioned that Bryon disliked Morgan, and blamed Archer for marrying her and bringing down the Scarcliff name, but he didn't act on his feelings until the woman arrived. She knew just what to say, knew how to incite his dislike to full out hatred. It was the woman's idea to have that doctor, Jenkins, murder Morgan."

  Then it came to Quinn where she had heard that name before. "Jenkins!" she cried out. "That was the name of Nickie's nurse."

  "Yeah, she was the daughter of the doctor and she was a mean-spirited person but she wasn't crazy. Not like the other."

  "What other?" Gabriel asked and though his voice sounded calm he was anything but.

  "Katherine."

  Quinn's jaw dropped at that. "What?"

  "Katherine. She approached the father, wormed her way into his life, and put the idea into his head to rid Archer of his wife. It didn't take long and when Morgan was dead, Katherine wanted Archer for herself and got Bryon to agree to push Archer in her direction. But after Morgan's death, the Earl had a change of heart and I guess decided he didn't want to link his family to Katherine since she was just as common as Morgan but was also clearly insane. No one knows for certain but I think it was Katherine who killed Bryon."

  "And then you linked up with her?" Quinn accused.

  "I didn't know any of this at the time, didn't know it was Katherine that Constance feared. I needed access to Whispering Winds and Katherine wanted Archer so we teamed up since we had a common goal. It wasn't until my last trip into the past that I started putting it together."

  "But then you left without warning anyone," Quinn hissed.

  Derek leaned up in his chair as his face flushed with his own temper. "Who do you think notified the Danvers of the squatters in their home?"
/>   Quinn fell silent at that.

  "Look, I wanted the treasure but I never wanted to get wrapped up in murder. Even had I not gone back, the events would have still played out. But something had to have triggered it because the future, before Constance and I traveled back, was very different. Morgan and Archer had lived their entire lives together, had several more children, so why the sudden plot to kill Morgan?"

  Quinn leaned back in her chair as Cole spoke what she was thinking, "We thought you triggered the events."

  "No. And neither did Constance."

  Nick stood and started to pace. "What the hell? Something had to have triggered it; someone wanted to change the past to alter the future. But who?"

  Gabriel spoke from his spot against the wall. "I think that's the important point." He looked to Quinn and she noticed that there was something different about him, something dangerous. She had the sense that what he said wasn't all that he was thinking. "Katherine instigated it so I think it's fairly safe to say that she may have spent time in the past. But I would bet my bank account that Katherine came from the future. Tessa's research goes public in the future and many, including the USA and Chinese governments, invest billions into research to be the first to make time travel mainstream."

  "So it's possible that Katherine learned the secret and sent herself into the past," Cole summarized.

  "Yes," Gabriel confirmed.

  "But for what purpose? What's her motive?" Charles asked.

  "Okay so, if she can travel through time then did she really hang for her crimes in Archer's day? And if not, where is she now?" Quinn asked but the question was answered with silence.

  "So what's up with you digging all around my property?" Nick asked Derek pointedly.

  Derek stood and reached for something on his book case then turned and handed it to Nick. When Nick opened the file, he saw the old parchment with what looked like a treasure map drawn in a child's hand.