Twice Upon a Time

by Olivia Cunning

  “You most certainly will not,” Reece said. “I want answers, not your death.”

  “Is there a problem here?” a feminine voice said from behind Reece.

  He glanced at the woman behind him. She was very beautiful, wearing next to nothing, and commanded an unmistakable authority.

  “I believe this man was trying to poison Princess Farima.”

  “The best way to test your theory is to have him taste the food he has purportedly poisoned,” she said.

  “I offered to do so,” the man said.

  “Well, there you are,” she said, “Problem solved.”

  “No,” Reece said. “The problem is not solved. If he tastes the food and dies, we won't know who sent him to kil her and if he doesn't die, then I'm hard pressed to explain why he ran away like that and attacked me with a knife.” The woman's cold eyes roved over Reece's chest. “You should have that wound looked at.”

  “The princess's safety is more important than my own.”

  “Depends on who you ask,” she said and turned to leave, walking in graceful steps, hips swaying with practiced seduction.

  Reece watched her suspiciously until she vanished around the corner.

  “Who is that woman?” Reece asked.

  He should have been paying attention to his captive. An elbow connected with his temple and he lost consciousness.

  Chapter Seven

  “Nasir,” a gentle voice drifted down from above him. Reece pried his eyes open, but a brilliant flash of light made him groan and close them again. A relieved sigh graced his ears. “Open your eyes, Nasir. Please. Say something.”

  “Farima?”

  “I'm here,” she said, and gentle fingertips stroked his hair. “I want you to open your eyes and look at me.”

  “Don't eat the food,” he murmured. “It's….poi…poisoned.”

  “I didn't eat it,” she assured him. “Can you open your eyes for me?” He forced his eyes open and the beautiful face of Princess Farima swam in his vision before his gorgeous Lara appeared before him.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “I think I saw the woman who is trying to have you killed.”

  “Who?”

  “I don't know. One of the harem women.” He sat up, groaning in protest. They were in the corridor where he'd been knocked unconscious. “What are you doing out of your room?”

  “I came to look for you. When you didn't return, I got worried.”

  “Someone could have hurt you.” His head was throbbing unpleasantly. He touched his left temple and flinched.

  “I'm fine. You're the one who's been hurt. You're bleeding and you have a huge bruise on the side of your face.”

  “I'll be okay.”

  “Let's go back to the room and get you cleaned up, then we can talk to the governor's mother and see if she can do anything about this.”

  “I wish your husband would return,” he said. He leaned heavily on her as she helped him to his feet. “I know that is strange, but I don’t think they’d be as likely to hurt you with him here.”

  He was still a little wobbly. Lara wrapped his arm around her shoulders and supported some of his weight as they made their way back to the room.

  “Somebody real y hates me,” Lara said, frowning.

  “It isn't you, sweetheart. No one sees you when they look at you, except me.”

  “Reece, will we ever get our lives back? Be ourselves? I don't real y care when I live, and seeing different times and places is exciting, but I would like to be me, not someone else.”

  Reece sighed. “I don't know. I really wish we had the other half of the amulet.

  Maybe we could get it to work the way we want it to, instead of being at the mercy of these random leaps.”

  “So why don't we set up a trap for Carl? We could get the other half of the amulet from him and see if we can return to our time.”

  “Too risky,” Reece said, heart thrumming. He didn't even want Carl to breathe near Lara. If he told her what he knew about Reece's past or that he had been responsible for her death, she'd never forgive him. He couldn't stand to lose her. Not when they were growing so close.

  “We can't leap through time forever,” Lara said, “and how else are we going to get the other half of the amulet? I don't think Carl is going to hand it over just because we want him to.”

  “I’ll think about it. Carl's no push over.”

  “Well, neither are you,” she said, her fingers gently tracing the unbroken skin above the gash across his chest. She grinned up at him. “Don't you know better than to bring a fist to a knife fight?”

  He chuckled, sending a spear of pain through his skull. “I've been to a lot of dangerous places in my travels, but I don't think I've had this many malicious attacks on my life before. I never would have guessed there was so much danger in a harem.”

  “Well, at least your wounds don't seem to jump through time with you. That bruise you got jousting is gone.”

  “Yeah, but poor Reg still has to contend with it. On his wedding night.”

  “He'll probably be able to suffer through it.”

  Reece laughed and then grimaced in pain. “Sweetheart, would you mind not making me laugh? It hurts.”

  She examined the wound across his chest more closely. “This looks pretty deep.

  You might need stitches.”

  “I wonder if the eunuchs have a physician.”

  “I'll ask Farima's mother-in-law. She seems trustworthy to me.” When they arrived back at the room, the food that had been set out for the princess's breakfast was gone.

  “Covering their tracks, I guess,” Reece said.

  “Lie down.” She directed him over to the bed where he col apsed.

  “I'll go get my mother-in-law.”

  “No!” he protested. “You aren't going anywhere without me. Just let me catch my breath and I'll come with you.”

  “Don't be ridiculous. You're injured. I'll be fine.” He struggled out of the bed and back to his feet.

  She tried to reason with him. “What good will you be to me in this condition, Nasir?” She glanced around warily and leaned closer to Reece to whisper in his ear.

  “Someone's in here with us.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Try to cal me Lara,” she whispered.

  “You know I'll protect you, Farima, even if I have to die to do so,” he declared loudly.

  “You're right,” he whispered.

  He wobbled around to the back of the bed where there were draperies hanging from the wall. He pushed them aside cautiously. There was no one there. Lara's heart thudded in apprehension, eyes searching the room for potential danger. A movement in the drapes surrounding the doorway to the bathing pavilion caught her attention. Reece saw it, too. He raced across the room and grabbed the figure behind the curtain by the arm.

  There was a startled cry as a smal girl was pulled from her hiding place. Lara clutched her chest and let out a relieved breath. The girl's large brown eyes overflowed with tears and she let out an anguished wail. Reece released her as if she were hot to the touch.

  Lara approached her and squatted down to the child's level. She couldn't have been more than seven. “Are you hurt?” she asked the girl. When the girl cried louder, Lara turned her head and scowled at Reece. “You scared her.”

  “Why were you hiding in there?” Reece asked harshly.

  The girl rushed two steps forward and threw herself against Lara. Lara hugged her instinctively.

  “Do not cry,” Lara murmured to the girl. “What are you doing here?”

  “Someone said you were dead.”

  “Who said that?” Reece asked.

  The girl shook her head vigorously, her dark brown locks tumbling about her shoulders. “I don’t know.”

  “Was it a man or a woman?” Reece demanded.

  The girl flinched and her eyes welled up with tears.

  “Please answer, Nasir,” Lara said gently. “I enjoy living very
much.”

  “Both.” She glanced up at Reece, her gaze fixating on the wound across his chest.

  “Why are you bleeding?”

  “He was protecting me,” Lara told her. “Can you go get your grandmother and bring her here?”

  “And the healer, too?” she asked, seeming excited to be asked for help.

  “Yes, the healer, too,” Lara said, hugging the girl again. “Thank you for looking out for me.”

  “I want to help you. No one helped my mother when father was away.” Lara released the girl and she dashed from the room. Lara moved to help Reece back to the bed.

  “I wonder what happened to her mother,” he murmured.

  “Nothing, good. I’m sure of that. You don't look well,” Lara told him.

  “I don't feel well,” he admitted. “I don't think they will al ow me to continue to be your protector if I'm wounded.”

  Her heart thudded to a stop before racing in her chest. “We can't be separated. We must be together to leap. We have less than two days remaining.”

  “I'll try to think of something. I'll try playing down my injuries, so try not to act too concerned for me when the healer arrives.”

  “Who said I was concerned for you?”

  He collapsed on the bed and she grabbed a sheet to cover him. She spread it over him carefully, wincing when her eyes fel on the wound across his chest. The bleeding had almost stopped. She wondered how much blood he had lost. She touched her fingers to his forehead, finding his skin slightly warm to the touch.

  He chuckled. “You're obviously not concerned.”

  Her eyes met his. “You look pale,” she murmured.

  “I'll be okay,” he promised.

  She kissed his brow. “You'd better be. I need you.” He grinned. “It only took a knife wound to get you to admit that.” Voices were approaching. She straightened and moved away from the bed, hoping her worry wasn't as obvious to the others as it had been to Reece. She caught herself wringing her hands and dropped them to her sides just before her mother-in-law entered the room with the young girl and an older woman carrying a satchel. The healer went to Reece, while the governor’s mother went to Farima.

  “Are you injured, child?” she asked, taking her wrists and holding her arms wide to look her over.

  “No, Nasir protected me well.”

  “Safiye said he left you alone while he ran out of the room,” she said disapprovingly.

  “You were here when the poisoned food was brought in?” Lara asked.

  Safiye nodded.

  “So you know who it was?”

  The girl lowered her eyes. “Roxelana's servant.”

  Farima’s mother-in-law, Khadija, huffed an angry breath. “I should have known. She was married to the governor just before he glimpsed beautiful Farima and he promptly forgot Roxelana even existed.” She smiled at Farima. “He has always been an intelligent man. Knows what’s best for our territory.”

  “Roxelana must care for Ashar, if she is willing to kil me to have him,” Lara said.

  “No, like most of Ashar’s wives, she thinks she will gain power by heading the household. They cannot offer him what you offer him, Farima. He is wise to choose you.

  I will see that Roxelana is properly punished.”

  A grunt of pain drew Lara's attention to the bed. Wincing, she glanced away when she saw that the ancient healer was stitching Reece's wound, obviously without the benefit of an anesthetic.

  “Ow, lady, take it easy,” Reece complained.

  “What say you?” the doctor asked, looking puzzled.

  “Be gentle.”

  The doctor made a sound of annoyance. “Are you a man or a woman?”

  “Obviously neither,” he said. “I'm a eunuch.”

  Khadija laughed, and then turned her attention back to Farima. “He has been Ashar’s favorite companion since childhood for a reason.”

  “If he is to remain Farima’s personal guard, he will have to be clean shaven,” the healer said. She was about half way through stitching the wound on Reece's chest already, her nimble fingers neatly laying the stitches that drew his broken flesh together.

  Reece rubbed his smooth face. “I shaved this morning.” The doctor chuckled. “Nice try, Nasir. You know what I mean. We'll have to remove your penis.”

  “Whoa!” Reece jumped out of the bed, yanking the needle and thread out of her hand. It dangled from the wound, needle swaying in front of him. He covered his crotch with both hands. “I think you're asking a bit much of him. Of me!”

  “There must be some other way,” Lara said, biting her lip to keep from laughing.

  The horrified expression on Reece's face was priceless. Not that she blamed him. She could only imagine how traumatizing the idea would be to him or any man.

  Khadija spoke. “You know only clean shaven eunuchs are al owed to serve the harem women.”

  “But it will cause him pain,” Lara said.

  “Yes,” Reece agreed, his voice cracking with anxiety. “It will cause me pain.” The doctor pulled a sharp knife out of her bag. “Not the way I do it.” She approached Reece, brandishing her knife.

  For an injured man, Reece moved spryly. He retreated to the far side of the room, looking for an escape option. “I think we need some time to consider this.”

  “Talk some sense into him, Farima,” Khadija said. “I would feel better if he was there to protect you. My son trusts him, so I know you can trust him as well.”

  “Yes, Khadija,” Lara agreed. “I will try to make him see reason.” Though it was an entirely unreasonable request.

  Reece was shaking his head back and forth in denial, eyes fixated on the doctor's knife.

  “Come, Safiye, let's leave these two to talk and allow the healer to finish,” Khadija said. She held a hand out to Safiye, and the child rushed forward with a bright smile.

  She smiled up at the woman with unmistakable adulation. The matriarch was a bit abrasive, but her granddaughter obviously thought the world of her.

  “Put the knife down,” Reece said to the healer. “You're supposed to be fixing the holes already in me, not making new ones.”

  The woman put her knife back into her satchel. “Let me know if you change your mind,” she said to Nasir.

  “I know my fifth appendage does not have much of a purpose, but I am rather attached to it.”

  Khadija chuckled again and took Safiye's hand. “I'll send my personal servant with some breakfast for you, Farima. Make sure he tastes everything before you eat.”

  “Yes, I will.”

  Once Khadija had left with her young granddaughter, Lara busied herself with combing her hair, trying to ignore Reece's occasional grunt of pain as the doctor finished her work. Soon, a breakfast was set on the table in the room. Lara watched while the eunuch, who was one who’d led her through the palace the day before, tasted a sample of each dish before serving a plate to her. She sat down to eat, while Reece endured his treatment. Lara dined on flat bread and feta cheese. Olives and slices of cucumber. Some fish she didn’t recognize but enjoyed.

  “I suggest you have something to eat and drink plenty of fluids before you rest.

  Dimitri will watch over Farima while you nap. Do not shirk in your duties too much,” the healer said, “or you'll find yourself cleaning up after horses.”

  “Thank you, madam,” Reece said. He rose from the bed and collected a plate from the table before moving to a divan across the room to dine.

  Lara wished they were alone so they could eat together, but she understood why he was being precautious. Dimitri waited until they had finished eating before clearing the table.

  “I will be back shortly and Nasir can leave to take a break in his own quarters.”

  “I want him to stay here,” Lara said. “He's the only one I really trust.” Dimitri nodded and left the room.

  “You don't really think I should entertain having this guy giving up his wiener for this princess?” Reece said as soon as they were a
lone. “I mean helping control the pet population is completely understandable, but this is ridiculous. Don't you think he kind of needs it to go to the bathroom at the very least?”

  “It should be his decision, no ours. What do you think he wants to do?” She stood up from the table and went to sit next to him on the divan.

  “He'd do anything to stay with her,” Reece said. “Anything. Frankly, I think the guy is nuts.”

  Lara laughed. “Is it possible for a eunuch to be nuts?”

  “That's enough out of you, Miss Kensington. Give the guy a break.”

  “How about I give you a kiss, instead?”

  “If you insist.”

  She kissed the corner of his mouth. “How's your chest?”

  “And that's another thing,” he said. “The guy risks his life for their princess and they don't even numb the area before they start sewing him back up.”

  “Did it hurt?” she asked, tracing the large white bandage across his chest with one finger.

  “What do you think?”

  “Poor baby,” she murmured and kissed him again. “Even if they aren't grateful, I am.”

  “Sweetheart, don't get me excited. That eunuch guy is coming back and if he sees me in this condition, they'll cut it off just for the hell of it.” Lara glanced at the tent in his pants wondering how he could be so easily excited.

  “Maybe they’ll just tie a string around it until it falls off.” Reece covered his ears with both hands. “La la la la la. I can't hear you.”

  “I'm just teasing you,” she said. She placed a hand on his crotch and looked up into his eyes earnestly. “I've seen what you can do with this. I'd never want anything to happen it. Go take a nap so scary eunuch Dimitri can leave us alone and we can make out.”

  “I'm not sure if that's safe.”

  “What? Napping or making out?”

  “Being alone with you.”

  She chuckled. “I'll stop threatening Nasir's manhood if it makes you feel better.”

  “If he feels the need to have it removed, he can wait until I'm long gone. I'm all for new experiences but I have to draw the line somewhere.”

  “Where's your sense of adventure?”

  “I left it in my other pants.”