“Yes.”
Reaching for a chair just to her right, Olivia pulled it toward her and sat across from me as she gathered my hands up in hers. “I thought ye said he was from yer time? That he was just a friend of Laurel’s that she brought back for the wedding?”
“He is from my time. Couldn’t you tell?”
Olivia pulled away and leaned back in the chair to cross her arms. “He talks as ye do, but how can he be from yer time? He’s one of The Eight, aye? A druid?”
I shrugged. “He must be—although, I didn’t have the slightest idea at the wedding. We told each other virtually nothing about ourselves. I only assumed that he was brought back for the wedding because he was so obviously from my time. It never occurred to me that he lived here, let alone that he was one of The Eight.”
Olivia smiled cautiously. “’Tis a bonny surprise, aye? Ye enjoyed yer time with him.”
I’d enjoyed my time with him immensely, but I knew how much healing I still needed to do—healing that would be much more difficult with such an enticing distraction hanging around the castle.
“I did, but my life is beyond complicated right now.”
Exhaustion beyond anything I’d ever experienced before washed over me in a wave that made it impossible for me to stay upright. Allowing myself to relax, I crawled onto the bed and into the fetal position.
“If you want to go to dinner, you’re welcome to, but I’m not leaving this bed until morning. I just need some time to decompress.”
I allowed my eyes to close, but something inside me suspected my rest would be short-lived.
Chapter 10
Everyone sat gathered around the castle’s main dining table hours before supper, each of them awaiting Raudrich’s arrival so that he would tell them whatever he needed to about their new guests.
“Do you know what this is about? You said you saw them when they arrived,” Laurel whispered in his ear, and Marcus couldn’t help but laugh that Raudrich’s wife thought he might know more about this than her.
“No, I have no idea. I only interacted with them for a few minutes.”
“I’ve only been around Silva a few times. Once when she came here with Sydney to ask Raudrich to find someone else to run Allen Territory, and I believe I spoke to her for a moment at the wedding. I always thought she seemed rather nice. I wonder what’s going on.”
Nodding toward the doorway as Raudrich entered, both he and Laurel settled back in their seats with the rest of them to await Raudrich’s explanation.
Nicol stood from his place of honor at the end of the table and gently demanded an explanation. “Raudrich, lad, what is this about? Ye’ve got us all worried ye are having us harbor a murderer.”
“Ye can sit down, Nicol. ’Tis nothing as terrible as that. I only thought it best that everyone here understand the situation before we welcome Silva and Olivia into our lives. I doona believe she is in a place where she will feel like telling ye all the same tale over and over.”
“Verra well.” Nicol resumed his seat. “Whatever ’tis, tell us.”
“I know that none of ye knew him, but I grew up with Silva’s late husband. Until the time he found work in another territory and I came here, he was my best mate and closest confidant. While there were a great many years that we dinna see each other, I still always believed that I knew him. I dinna know him at all.” Sighing, Raudrich continued.
“Silva isna precisely who she has always presented herself to be, though that is no fault of her own. Ye see, Ross had magic, and, like our friend Morna, could travel through time. It seems he found Silva in the same time as several who sit at this table. They fell in love, he married her, and he brought her back here, all while convincing her of the importance of keeping the truth about herself a secret.”
Silva was modern? Marcus’ mind spun as he tried to search for any clue to such truth from their night together. He could find none.
Brachan, the newest member of The Eight, spoke from the other side of the table. “And ye dinna know this? Ye couldna sense the magic within him?”
Raudrich’s eyes closed as he shook his head. “No, which means Ross’ abilities with magic far outweigh any of our own. He was able to conceal it not only from me, but from everyone who knew him.”
Ludo leaned forward, his eyes grim. “Raudrich, how did Ross die?”
Marcus could all but hear Raudrich’s teeth grind together, and as he observed the stress on his friend’s face, realization sunk in.
Those with magic didn’t die easily. In truth, he knew of only three ways. Another with magic could kill them, they could choose through violent means to kill themselves, or, when old age was upon them and their soul was ready to leave, they could gently and easily choose to pass.
“A rapid illness of the chest, or so Silva believes.”
“Were ye not there at the time of Ross’ supposed death?” Ludo’s suspicions had quickly taken him to what they were all beginning to wonder.
“No. I was away the day he died. I know what ye mean to suggest, Ludo, and I’m afraid I I believe as ye do. Ross was too young, and he wanted too much, to let himself pass at such an age. I believe he lives.”
The very thought that anyone would put their spouse through such unnecessary grief by faking their own death enraged Marcus. If he ever crossed paths with the loathsome creature, he’d break his neck. He spoke for the first time since Raudrich began. “Does Silva suspect this, as well?”
“No, and I doona wish for any of ye to say a word to her of this.”
“Raudrich, she deserves to know.”
“Aye, she does, but I should be the one to tell her. I dinna know how to when she first told me the truth. I still doona truly know how. I will tell her the truth, but there is no rush in it. If he wished to leave in such a way, I doona think he shall be coming back for her.”
“What a moronic fool.”
Every head at the table turned to stare at him.
Marcus shrugged. “What? Only a total prick would treat anyone that way.”
Raudrich nodded in agreement. “Aye, I’m so angry with him that if indeed he does live, I shall kill him all over again, but Silva must be our main concern. She wishes for nothing more than to start anew here. We must allow her the time and space to do just that.”
Laurel scooted up closer to the table beside him. “Why wouldn’t she return to the future? I mean, we’ve...” She paused and motioned to Marcus, Kate, her mother, and Marcus’ dad, David before continuing. “We’ve all grown accustomed to living in this time, but I think I can easily speak for all of us when I say that if the people we loved weren’t here, we’d go back to regular toilet paper and central heating and air in a heartbeat.”
Marcus, along with the rest of the castle’s twenty-first century residents, nodded in agreement.
Raudrich’s lips hardly moved as he answered and his anger was evident in his tone. “He made her promise to never go back.”
“What sort of a bullshit promise is that?” Marcus glanced over to see Kate looking riled up three seats down from him. “I mean seriously, you don’t get to force anyone into making any sort of deathbed promise when you’re faking your own death.”
“She doesna know he faked anything, lass, and for now, she canna know.”
“But why would he make her promise that?”
Marcus couldn’t see the sense in it. If Ross didn’t want to be with her, why did he care where or when she chose to live?
“Canna ye see? He left her here and fled back to the twenty-first century so he couldna ever be found.”
His nerves leading up to dinner were for naught—neither Silva nor Olivia joined them. It didn’t surprise him. The journey from just about anywhere to The Isle was an exhausting one, and shock always had a way of making people tired.
Exhausted or not, Marcus suspected that both of the women would be hungry.
“Raudrich,” Marcus called out to him as everyone began to scatter for the evening.
&
nbsp; “Aye?”
“Which cabins did you place Silva and Olivia in? I thought I might bring them each some food since they didn’t come down to eat.”
“We’ve had the same idea. I just asked Brachan to see that each lass received a decent meal. I believe he’s down in the kitchen gathering it all up.”
Eager to catch Brachan before he left, he nodded and turned to jog toward the kitchen. “Okay, I’ll find him.”
Marcus was pleased with his luck. Brachan would be much easier to deal with than any of the other members of The Eight. He and the once half-fae son of Nicol and Machara were the newest members of The Eight by far and as such held the shared experience of learning how things worked around the castle at the same time.
Brachan was also far less likely to pry every last detail out of him. The man was a deep thinker who only spoke when he truly had something to say.
“Do you mind if I steal that job from you?”
Brachan didn’t lift his head at the sound of Marcus’ voice right away, and Marcus watched on patiently as his ever-particular friend finished wrapping up a loaf of bread in a linen cloth. When he finished, Brachan looked up to answer him.
“O’course not, though surely ye have enough work to tend to without relieving me of mine. Are ye certain?”
Marcus gave Brachan a quick nod as he reached for the impeccably prepared baskets. “Yes, I am, although I’ll be sure to give you credit for the work. I visited with Silva at the wedding for a while. I thought it might be nice for her to see a familiar face.”
With the respect Marcus had known Brachan would give him, he simply smiled and stepped away from the table. “Verra well. I shall leave ye to it, then.”
Silva would appreciate the gesture, but Marcus knew his reasons for bringing food weren’t entirely selfless. Speaking of their night together was inevitable now that Silva planned to live at the castle. Better to do it now before the others overwhelmed her with questions and efforts to make her feel at home.
Once she was introduced to all the others, he’d never be able to find a moment alone with her.
Chapter 11
I’m not sure why I ever believed that my emotional exhaustion would actually make me sleep. Nothing in my history indicated that might happen. Even during the worst periods of grief following Ross’ death—when everyone said that grief was exhausting and I should sleep as much as I could—sleep never found me. Insomnia always seemed to be the way my body responded to just about any sort of stress.
When there was a knock on the door to my cabin several hours after Olivia left, I was more than ready for her company once again.
“Come in, Liv. I’m sorry I dismissed you so rudely before. I just…” I paused as the door opened and the tall, broad frame of the man I’d fantasized about so many times since Raudrich and Laurel’s wedding appeared in the partially open doorway.
He held a basket out toward me as he spoke. “Sorry to disappoint you. I’m not Liv. I just thought that you might be hungry after traveling all day. I don’t even have to come inside if you don’t want me to. I can just set this down right here.” He leaned forward to set the basket on the floor and I hurriedly jumped up from the bed to stop him.
Despite the shock of finding him at the castle, the truth was, I was happy to see him. Marcus—even though I’d only learned his name a few hours ago—was the one person, outside of Olivia or my dad, since Ross’ death that I’d been able to truly relax around.
“No, that’s all right. Please, come in. I’m sorry I was so strange earlier. It was…”
He smiled as he interrupted me, and the image of him in candlelight as he stepped fully inside the room flooded my mind with memories of our night spent together.
“A shock. Yes, I know. For me too. Do you mind if I stay for a bit? If it makes you uncomfortable to eat alone, I’ll eat for a second time. I’m afraid I have a bottomless stomach.”
He looked like all he ever ate was protein and vegetables, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he’d always been so spectacularly shaped or if life in the seventeenth century with its limited junk food and hard ways had molded him into what he was today.
I snorted and quickly ran my hands over the top of my hair to smooth it as he turned his back to set the basket on the circular table near the doorway.
“It doesn’t look like anything you eat is sticking with you.”
He laughed as his dark eyes glanced at me over his shoulder and he nodded his head toward the table so I would join him. “I have my father to thank for that. The man is sixty-two years old and he has the body of someone two decades younger.”
“It’s the same way with my dad. Everyone has a difficult time believing he’s old enough to be my father when I introduce him. Granted, he was very young when I was born, but he still has aged remarkably well.”
Marcus nodded and pulled out one of the chairs around the table to take a seat.
I joined him and didn’t hesitate to begin to rifle through the variety of goodies he’d brought me.
“You really didn’t have to go to all of this trouble. We could’ve waited until morning. Do you mind if I pop over and give some of this to Olivia before we settle in for the inevitable chat I know that we both know we need to have?”
He reached for some bread and swallowed a small bite before he spoke. “Already done. I stopped at her cottage on my way here.”
Of course he had. Even though I knew his motive for bringing the food was to discuss things now so we could avoid the awkwardness of hashing things out later, only someone truly thoughtless would have brought only one traveler food while neglecting the other, and I knew Marcus wasn’t that.
“Oh. Good.” Embarrassed that I’d assumed he hadn’t thought of Olivia, I began to look through the basket once more, pretending I hadn’t already seen every single thing that was inside.
“Listen.” He hesitated and I glanced up from the food. I was relieved that he was going to delve into it first. “Please don’t think that I plan on making this a big deal. I don’t. I know that you want to start over here, and I will do everything I can to help you do that. I just know that if we are going to be living in such close quarters, it might be best to address what happened between us now and get any of the awkwardness out of the way early on.”
“Agreed.”
He continued. “Silva—the name suits you, by the way. I feel as if I owe you an apology. Had I known…”
I cringed as I anticipated his next words and I reached out to place my hand on his arm to stop him. God, his skin was soft.
“Please don’t say you wouldn’t have done it. I didn’t tell you I was a widow because I wanted you to do it. I regret nothing about that night, and it would take some of the joy out of it if I thought you did.”
He looked relieved, and although I didn’t want to, I pulled my hand away from him. “I don’t regret it. Not at all. But...” He bit at his lower lip as if he wasn’t sure if he should finish his sentence, but before I could say anything to encourage him, he continued. “I’d be lying if I said I would’ve done it had I known. I probably wouldn’t have. It would’ve seemed like I was taking advantage of your grief somehow, and that’s the last thing I would ever want to do.”
He must’ve seen my face fall just a bit, for he quickly continued.
“But…that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have wanted to. I would have. And I respect your decision not to tell me. You owed me nothing that night. I was a stranger.”
I smiled and reached for a wedge of cheese inside the basket. “You still are.”
He leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms which caused his muscles to strain against his shirt. I was fairly positive he did it just so I would look at them. “True.”
He patiently watched me as I continued to eat and I admired that the silence didn’t seem to make him uncomfortable.
“Marcus?”
He smiled and lifted his brows. “That’s the first time you’ve said my name. You looked so shoc
ked when you all rode up, I’m surprised you remembered what it was.”
“Me too, actually. Marcus, I want to thank you.”
“Thank me? For what?”
“These past months have been the most difficult of my life. Up until the wedding, I believed that the parts of me that were the most me died with Ross. Being with you, being able to feel normal and whole for one night, resurrected something inside me. It gave me hope that one day all that’s broken inside will actually heal.”
I hesitated as I looked at the basket and then up at the glint in his eyes. He would take me again if I wished it. All the attraction we’d felt for one another that night was still present. It radiated off the walls of the small space we sat in with an intensity that had me ready to give into it, but I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t sure I ever would be.
“Silva.” He leaned forward in his seat and with only the slightest hesitation, reached for my hands. “I’m not here to seduce you. I didn’t come here in the hope that we would pick right back up where we left off. I came here to put whatever worry you had over my being here at ease. You are just as free to start over here as you were before you knew you would run into me. I know the kind of baggage that we leave behind when we move on to someplace new. The last thing I would want is for you to feel like you’ve baggage here, as well.”
I didn’t know what to say to him. Marcus—I still didn’t know his last name—was the sort of man I could fall for. The only sort of man I’d ever seen that could rival Ross. His words were kind and well meant, and while I knew that I wasn’t ready for anyone else to come into my life, they also felt like a rejection, and that same spot in my chest that always carried grief began to hurt just a little bit more.
“I see.”
He watched me carefully for a moment before withdrawing his hands and leaning back in his seat.
“Our night together was one of the best of my life. Don’t take what I said and try to make it mean anything else. I only meant this: You deserve the opportunity to create the life you want here. There was something between us that night, I won’t deny it, but I expect nothing from you. I want to be your friend. If in time, something else occurs, then great, but if not, I still want to be your friend, Silva. I want to be the person that you can lean on here, that helps you sort through the muck and the drama that is bound to happen on this isle. And you can’t do anything to cause me to retract my friendship. Do you understand? You’re free to do whatever you wish, I’m here for you—we are all here for you—no matter what.”
Love Beyond Destiny Page 6
