by Tamara Gill
Maddie absently watched the gulls swoop down toward the ocean in search of food. Dusk settled over the land and the first stars twinkled on the horizon. Then again, time travel may not work in any way she thought. Time in the future may have stood still or worse zoomed ahead. If she ever returned home, perhaps her home wasn’t even there.
She sighed and turned her mind to less worrisome thoughts, like her bath being filled. She wiped at her eyes, laid her towel upon a stool, and then poured her favourite lavender scent in the water and set to soak her weary body for a time.
Silent tears fell into the water as her thoughts turned over in her mind. She missed her old life. Who would not? A single twenty-first century girl, self-employed and free to do as she pleased, the world was her oyster, hers to discover at will. Men she may have sworn off thanks to her ex’s misdemeanours, but otherwise she had been happy. However, it all seemed to fade in glamor as her life here with William came into focus. She loved him, loved everything about the temperamental, affectionate Baron of Kingston.
And if she were honest with herself, she didn’t want to go home. No matter how much guilt consumed her over leaving everything and everyone she loved, the thought of leaving William was worse. She couldn’t do it. Wouldn’t do it. Even if she were to find that blasted ring sometime into the future, she would ensure herself that it made it into the sea away from her. She would not allow it to send her home. She could not live without him. It was as simple as that.
“Madeline?”
Startled, Maddie sat up in the water.
“William, what is it?” she said. His gaze was troubled, a muscle flexing in his jaw.
“Are you pleased, Madeline?” he asked.
Maddie sat back and frowned in puzzlement. “What do you mean? You know I’m happy.” To a point, she supposed. William shook his head not believing her words and she fought the urge to squirm. She swallowed.
“’Tis my belief you are not, ma chère.” William sat on the bed and placed his arms across his knees. “You are distant. Often lost in thought. ’Twould seem most days I can find you gazing out the windows and oblivious to the castle life that goes on about you.” William sighed. “You are troubled and I wish to know why. Right now.”
Maddie ran her fingers through the water and wondered if William was open of mind enough to hear her tale. Would he believe her or send her to a convent for women who were unwanted or unhinged? Fear assailed her before she calmed. William would not send her away. It was not in his character to do so.
“Do you doubt me still over Lady Veronica?” he asked, frowning.
Maddie sat up and hugged her knees. “No.” She turned and looked at him. “I trust you, William.”
“Then what is it?” He stood and paced to the window. “Are you unhappy in the marriage?” Maddie shook her head. “Then what, woman?” William bellowed.
“I want to tell you something. But it is a confusing tale and one I think you may not believe. You may even think me addled in the mind,” she said, with a passing smile.
“You have naught to worry about, Madeline. If you are in need of telling me of your worries, I promise to listen to your tale.” William walked over to the stool beside her bath and sat. His arm reached into the water and picked up the bar of soap she had dropped.
“Really, you would listen if I told you a story that is so beyond rational thought to be unbelievable?” Maddie asked. William picked up her foot, his rough hands tickling.
“If you wish it, yes,” he said.
“Okay, I’ll tell you. But please don’t say anything until I finish. Promise?”
William nodded. “I promise.”
Maddie began her story. She ignored his frowns and starts at her wording and life before this time. She explained everything: finding herself in a carriage on her way to the church, her first meeting with him. How she had thought it odd, a man she had made up in her dream did not like her. She told him of the ring she had found. How she thought it was her way home, told him of the inscription with their names on it. She told him everything right up to this moment in time as she sat within a lukewarm bath telling him of her tale.
Silence ensued at the end of her bizarre story. Her skin pricked in goose bumps, and not because the water had turned tepid. His quietness unnerved her; she could not read his blank features. Would he send her away? Would he burn her at the stake for witchcraft? Maddie worked her bottom lip with her teeth. Perhaps she ought to calm down and wait to hear what he thought before jumping to conclusions.
“Well,” she asked at length, “what do you think?”
William stood and strode out the room.
Maddie’s heart stopped in her chest. “Where are you going? William?” she called, receiving no answer. Terrible thoughts of him fetching his knights to carry her away froze her blood before his returning footsteps sounded loud on the floor. Maddie clasped the tub, her knuckles white on the rim when he walked into her chamber. “William, what are you doing?”
“Open it,” he said, and handed her a pewter box. An awfully familiar pewter box.
“It can’t be.” Maddie shook her head. Her attention fixed on the dragon etched onto the lid.
“Open it, Madeline. Then tell me what you think of my belated wedding gift.”
Maddie opened the box, using a nail to flick the latch. It sprung open. A small ring encircled with diamonds glittered up at her. She picked it up with shaking fingers. Her eyes welled with tears as she read the inscription upon the pewter. Willelm ○ Madaline, just as she knew it would be. “I don’t know what to say,” she said, at length.
“’Twould seem I do, ma chère. When I first met you, I cursed God for placing such a beautiful enemy before me. ’Tis no secret my desire for you made me cruel and unkind when we first married. I beg your forgiveness for this.”
“But I could not fathom how the Baron of Aimecourt could sire a woman of such inner strength and goodwill. And now I know he did not. For you are not she. A gift from a time far beyond my reach.” William walked to the window, his gaze lost on the ocean. “When we struck our own bargain regarding our marriage, I had my steward find out everything about the Lady Madeline. From all reports, she was a tyrant, a spoiled, hard woman who never gave a quarter. You, Madeline, are nothing of the kind. You are sweet. You treat your serfs as equals. And you are far too lenient during your hall moots.”
Maddie laughed and sat back in her bath.
“My mother was a healer,” William stated from the window. “She often spoke of things that could not be explained. I used to wonder as a boy if what she said may be possible, but as I grew, so too, did my disbelief of such magic.” He laughed, the sound mocking. “Perhaps I should not have.”
“You believe me? You won’t send me away?”
William walked back over to the bath and frowned. “Why would I wish to send you away? You are not mad.” William sat. “No one knew of this ring but me, Madeline. No one. I believe what you say.”
Relief poured through Maddie like a balm. Months of worry lifted from her shoulders at his words. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear that,” she said.
“I could no sooner live without air than live without you.” William paused. “I love you.”
Maddie bolted upright and water splashed over the sides of the tub. “You love me?”
“’Twould seem that I do, ma chère,” he said, as his finger ran across her cheek. His lips skimmed across her collarbone and shivers of expectation ran through her.
“You know I cannot wear the ring, William, don’t you,” Maddie said and pulled away to look at him.
“Why do you think that?” he asked.
“Because, the last time I placed it on my finger I landed in 1102. What if I put it on and it sends me back to my time, to 2011?”
“You’re from the year 2011?” Williams shock was clear on his face. “‘Tis impossible,” he muttered. He met her eyes and started to laugh.
“Yes, I am. It would seem, Lord William,
I have a tendency to like extremely old men.”
“You mean because I am over nine-hundred years older than you?” he asked, amusement in his tone.
“Yes,” Maddie said.
“Well, I am glad for it. And if you think the ring may take you back, you know I would prefer you not to wear it. I desire above all else for you to stay with me, Madeline. I want to have a life with you. I find myself looking and craving you every minute of every day. And if that ring has the power to take you from me, I will destroy it myself.”
She clasped his jaw, tears of joy running down her cheeks. Maddie kissed him. Allowed herself to revel in his love.
“I will wear the ring on a ribbon around my neck. Keep it close to my heart, where you are, my lord.”
William pulled her from the water, her wet body drenching his clothes. “Does that mean I occupy some of that organ of yours, my love?”
“You occupy all of it. I love you, William. You know I love you, I will always do so,” Maddie said.
William kissed her, his tongue swept into her mouth and claimed her. His hands ran over her body, leaving fire in their wake. The kiss intoxicated Maddie’s senses and aroused her instantly.
“I want you. I want to feel your heat around me. Love me, Madeline.”
Maddie stepped out of the bath and pushed William toward the bed. With a mischievous smirk, she took her time with the laces of his tunic. Kissed his skin as the material slowly parted. His chest, hard and muscular, rose and fell swiftly under his laboured breath.
She loved his body, took delight in touching the strong, corded muscles. She ran her hand down his stomach and smiled when William growled at her direction. His small-pebbled nipple called for her to lick it. She did, just as her hand came to sit on the front of his hose. Maddie curved her fingers around him and stroked.
“Do you like that, my lord?”
William opened his eyes and swallowed before he spoke.
“Your touch is pleasing,” he said.
Maddie pulled the laces free and met William’s intense gaze. Their barely leached need thrummed through every bead of sweat, every twitch of muscle. With one finger, she ran over the swollen head of his member and then slid it down the engorged vein to its base. Her lips, eager for his taste, feathered kisses down his chest, her other hand holding him down.
“Let me pleasure you.”
William made a pained noise. “You are—” his voice trailed off when her lips moved toward his navel. Maddie smiled and kissed the bands of muscle that encircled his abdomen. His heart beat fast, a symphony of beats that matched hers.
She bent her knees and looked up one last time at William. The pained expectation written on his face was an image she would never forget. She turned back to his well-endowed appendage and took in his size. He was quite large. She wet her lips then bent forward, licked the head of his penis and tasted the salty residue that sat there. William’s hips undulated a fraction and Maddie used the movement to her advantage and took him fully into her mouth.
William’s hands clasped her hair. “Madeline,” he groaned. “Oh, ’tis heaven on earth.”
Maddie put all her love and desire into pleasing him as best she could. His hips rocked and set in a rhythm with her mouth. She took him deep and used her teeth to rasp against his velvety skin.
Determined to give him as much pleasure as he always bestowed on her, Maddie gently massaged his balls. They sat high and hard against his phallus.
His hold on her hair increased. “Oh, Madeline...don’t—”
The sweetest nectar on earth shot into her mouth with an explosive cry from William. Maddie didn’t stop until William was spent between her lips. She kissed her way back up his chest, her own shiver of anticipation running through her at William’s wild eyes.
She smiled and kissed him...hard.
He picked her up and threw her onto the bed, the soft woollens and furs cushioning her fall.
Maddie lay back and laughed when William divested himself of his hose, still sitting about his ankles. She bit her bottom lip as he crawled onto the bed and over her.
“Think yourself a clever minx, my love,” he said, grinning. He bent over her breast, his stubble opposite to the smooth slide of his lips on her skin. He took a nipple into his mouth and flicked his tongue before sitting back and staring down at her.
Maddie lifted her knees and placed her wet, needy sex against William’s already hard penis. She undulated against him and sighed, pleasure hot in her veins, when the head of his cock entered her.
“I’m very clever, my lord. Do you not think so?” she asked, trying to take him in further.
William’s eyes closed before his intense gaze snapped back to her. “I do. Now ’tis my turn to show you how talented your husband is,” he said, placing a kiss on her lips.
“Mmmm,” Maddie murmured. “Prove it,” she said.
William did. Many times over.
***
Eons later, William lay beside his wife, his heart a beating drum in his chest, his breathing laboured. Never had he had a woman of noble birth bestow such a loving gift on him, as Madeline had. The memory of her hot mouth determined in its course made his cock twitch.
He looked down at her, nestled in his arm, her cheeks rosy and her eyes smoky with satisfaction. William kissed her hair and breathed in the fragrant scent of berries.
“Do all women of your time, ma chère, engage in such active bed sport?” he asked.
Madeline looked up at him, her arm coming about his waist. “They do, husband. Well, most do,” she said.
William chuckled. “’Tis my thinking I’d like this future you speak of, my lady.”
Maddie laughed. “Oh, you would, would you?”
“’Twould seem so.” He paused. “Does this mean you would favour me with your delicious lips another time?” William ventured.
“Aye husband, I would,” Madeline answered. “Wherever and whenever you want. I am your wife; I aim to please my lord.”
William laughed and kissed her teasing lips. “Minx,” he said, and kissed her again, for good measure.
***
Maddie smiled and nodded as she was introduced to Tshilaba, her maid’s elderly mother. The cavalcade of Rhodes family carriages that arrived early yesterday morn brought merriment to the people of Aimecourt. Maddie had watched the caravans make camp beyond the castle walls. Their horses were left to roam, the children ran about in the meadows. The Welsh men made good use of their time, already repairing damaged vehicles and buying supplies from Aimecourt’s stores.
Nerves rolled about in Maddie’s stomach over meeting the wise woman. Tshilaba sat before her, the old woman’s eyes otherworldly and sharp. Maddie had the suspicion that the woman was already aware of her secret.
“Would you like any refreshment, Tshilaba?” Maddie asked, smiling.
The old woman’s eyes flicked to William, who sat beside Maddie, then settled once more on her. Fear crept across Maddie’s skin like a spider.
“No, my child. Not at this time,” she answered, her eyes sharp and calculating. “May have your palm, m’lady?” she said.
Maddie looked at William, his face a mask of calm and little suspicious. She steeled her resolve and placed her hand within the old woman’s clasp. The lady’s hands, cool to the touch, ran over her skin. Her fingers, with protruding knuckles, followed the lines of Maddie’s palm, the blue veins in her skin. Her hand tingled under the touch and then heated before it settled back to normal.
“You are a long way from home, my child,” Tshilaba stated, her eyes closing.
William leaned forward, a frown upon his brow. Maddie didn’t respond. Instead, she sat silently and waited for whatever else the wise woman would say.
The lady hummed, her lips puckered as if ready for a kiss. Maddie looked over at Mistress Rhode, and received a comforting smile. They waited in silence, the only sounds from the castle grounds beyond—a hammer here, a yell there—breaking the quiet in the room.
<
br /> “A ring. Show it to me.”
Maddie started before she pulled out her most treasured and feared gift. She pulled the necklace over her head and laid it in the woman’s outstretched hand. The wise woman humphed and then sat back in her chair and closed her eyes.
“Hmmm, this ring holds power. A great power, much stronger than my own. Do not wear it, my child, if that is your question this day. Do so and your soul will cease to exist here,” Tshilaba said, looking at the ring in detail.
William clasped Maddie’s hand. “What did you see?” he asked.
Tshilaba smiled knowingly. “Many things. A future. Lands and places nothing like we know. I understand your doubt over what you have been told, m’lord. Little as those doubts are. But ’twould be wise for you not to. Lady Madeline speaks the truth. The ring has the power to send her home.”
Madeline met the old woman’s eyes, her own full of the fears that such a thing could occur.
“It is up to you, my child, what you do with it,” Tshilaba said.
Maddie’s head spun with the declaration. She could go home and anytime she wished. She reached out and took the ring from Tshilaba. A shiver stole through her as the pewter band settled against her chest. Her hand tightened around William’s. She should get rid of it.
The wise woman, her eyes shut, her hands waving blindly before her made a sound of displeasure. “There are people,” she said, “who I feel harbour a great threat to you and yours, m’lord.”
“What threat?” William asked, the furrows on his brow deep.
Maddie looked at Mistress Rhode then back to Tshilaba. The wise woman’s sight was distant, her eyes under her lids darting about as if privy to visions unseen by those around her.
“They are faces, m’lord. Blurry in my mind’s sight. I do not know whom it is that harbours to destroy you. But I do know they will try,” Tshilaba declared.
Maddie’s blood froze in her veins. The wise woman stilled, her eyes snapping open. Ancient orbs stared at William.
