Aurelia lifted her chin and began to walk.
*
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was late afternoon by the time she came back to the hotel. Aurelia had no sooner stepped into the foyer, than Elizabeth came running to her. The older woman’s usually cheerful features were drawn in concern and she twisted her hands together.
“Oh, Aurelia, I do not know what to do!”
And then Elizabeth burst into tears.
Aurelia slid her arm around the older woman’s shaking shoulders. “Elizabeth, what is wrong? What has happened?”
“Talorc’s mother, Ursilla, she…she…”
Elizabeth took a gulping breath and Aurelia’s heart clenched. “What has happened?”
Elizabeth rubbed ineffectively at her tears. “She passed away in her sleep. The funeral is on the morrow.”
Aurelia felt a pang of loss, even though she had not know Ursilla well. There was something about her that drew Aurelia her way. Oddly enough, she had considered seeking out the older woman on this very day.
But she was dead.
“Oh, no, Aurelia, you must not be dismayed. Ursilla was elderly and truly it was the kindest way for her sweet soul to pass from this world. It’s Talorc I’m worried about!” She sniffled into her hankerchief and seemed to be fighting to compose herself. “He’s not talking to anyone, and worse -” Elizabeth lifted a pale face to Aurelia. “He will not eat a speck of anything.”
She swallowed as Aurelia absorbed this news and within a heartbeat, Elizabeth’s words fell in their characteristic torrent again. “It’s not good for him, miss, it’s not right for a man to lose his appetite. I don’t need to tell you that I’m terribly worried about him. He just won’t eat a bite!”
She caught her breath. “He looked so drawn and serious when he brought the news, it’s not healthy, Aurelia, that it’s not. I know they were powerfully close those two, but still, Ursilla led a good long life.”
“Surely it is only natural for him to mourn,” Aurelia suggested, but Elizabeth shook her head firmly.
“I know mourning, Aurelia, but this is more than that. He’s left us, slipped away into some corner of his mind where none can reach him. It’s not natural and it cannot be good. Even now, he’s a shadow of himself, a man I barely recognize, and that will only get worse if he doesn’t eat.”
Elizabeth inhaled shakily and her tears gathered as she stared at Aurelia. “I don’t know what I would do with myself if something happened to Talorc,” she confessed in an uneven whisper.
Aurelia gave the older woman’s shoulder an encouraging squeeze. She had noticed the way Talorc’s glance followed Elizabeth and despite her own woes, Aurelia could not turn away from the opportunity to lend her help. “Do not worry, Elizabeth. I will talk to him.”
“Please, miss. He seems to like you.”
*
Talorc was standing on the cliffs, staring out at sea, his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his baggy trousers. There was something about the way the wind ruffled his hair, perhaps about the way the late sun picked out the silver in the gray that made Aurelia’s heart ache with familiarity.
She made her way towards him, not having the faintest idea what she would say to him or what she could discover to ease Elizabeth’s mind.
In the end, she did not have to find the words.
Talorc did.
Aurelia came to a halt slightly behind the older man and he tossed a wry smile over his shoulder. “Don’t be telling me you’re sorry, Miss Aurelia, my mother had a long and happy life. Indeed, she was blessed with uncommonly good health right to the end.” He sighed. “It was easy for her.”
“But not for you, I would imagine,” Aurelia commented softly as she stepped up beside him. The sea was a silver mirror stretching to the horizon, the lowering sun painting a swash of orange across its gleaming surface.
Talorc shrugged but did not look to her. “Harder than I expected it to be, that much is for certain.” He cleared his throat. “Have you ever had the feeling that you have been through something before? That you have lost someone before and that the ache in your heart is all too familiar?”
He held up his gnarled hand before Aurelia could answer and she saw a sad smile curve his lips. “No, don’t be answering that. It’s what she said at the end, preying on my mind and making me fey.” Talorc sighed. “I suppose it was a disappointment to see a woman who always clung to her wits losing her grip, even so slightly, at the very end. Sad it was, there’s no mistake.”
“I thought she passed away in her sleep.”
“Aye, that she did, but when my mother went off to her bed last evening, she said the strangest thing. I thought nothing of it at the time but it has troubled me ever since, perhaps only because it makes no sense at all.”
“What did she say?”
Talorc exhaled heavily and frowned. “She touched my arm and when I looked to her, she told me not to be afraid, that all that was begun had been set to rights.” His frown deepened. “She said that all tasks left unfinished had been done, all debts settled and balances paid.”
Aurelia could see nothing confusing about any of this, for she had oft seen that people sensed when they had lived their due. And Ursilla had had time to settle all her affairs to her satisfaction.
But Talorc’s silence hinted that this was not all of the tale.
“Did she say anything else?”
“She called me Hekod,” Talorc admitted and fired a fierce blue glance at Aurelia.
She caught her breath at the familiarity of that stubborn sapphire stare, but Talorc did not notice her response. He glared out to the sea once more and she could see that his hands had balled into fists in his pockets.
“You must understand that there was a day when my mother often called me Hekod, though it was but a joke between us,” he continued tightly. “She meant no ill will by it, to be sure. She often jested that she would have given me the name in truth had it not been such a portent of bad luck. But I, I was blessed with uncommon good luck, despite her nickname for me.”
Talorc sighed with the memory. “In my youth, I could not shake the dust of this island from my shoes quickly enough. I joined the merchant marine as soon as they would take me, lied about my age as was easily done then. My mother never protested, though I came home seldom enough in those days.” A smile of affectionate recollection curved his lips. “I sent her postcards and she always had them tacked to the walls. Souvenirs from Hekod gone a-viking, she used to say.”
Aurelia’s throat tightened painfully.
“The war came and, of course, I signed up immediately, anxious in my ignorance to do the right thing.” Talorc shuddered. “It was horrible, more horrible than anything I could have imagined, and it all was over, it still cast a long shadow in my mind. Perhaps it was the senseless killing, but that taste for travel was my war casualty. The only one and a comparatively low price to pay against that of the many who did not come home again.” He took a breath. “I came home, here, to Dunhelm, as there seemed no more right place to be.”
“And here you stayed.”
“Yes,” Talorc admitted thoughtfully. “And have wanted nothing else, all these years.” His voice was tight when he finally continued. “But even knowing that, you must understand that her last words gave me a chill. I have to believe that is only because they made no sense at all.”
“What did she say?”
Talorc exhaled shakily. “‘Hekod Viking and lover true, my time is over and yours yet new. Our paths now part, though memory will be true. Go! Follow your heart now, for its aim is true.’“
Aurelia stared at the older man, unable to summon a word to her lips. Her pulse thundered in her ears.
It was all true. The people she had known and loved all those centuries before had come back to Dunhelm, drawn here time and again, to finish the deeds they had left undone.
Drawn here to help her and Baird.
Ursilla had been her mother Gemma so long ago.
A part of her had been compelled to wait at Dunhelm, to try to fix what she saw as her own failure to protect her daughter.
And she had died only when she believed the matter resolved.
Her words implied that Ursilla would not be back again.
Aurelia wondered how many times Gemma had come, how many times she had tried to set matters aright. She thought of Baird’s repeated memories of returning here and was humbled that those she loved cared so much for her welfare.
To her mind, Aurelia had done nothing to deserve such esteem.
And Ursilla had been right when she declared Aurelia’s father to be closer than she believed. Aurelia looked to the groundskeeper with new eyes, seeing an echo of her sire in his gruff demeanor and flashing blue eyes.
Talorc carried the soul of Hekod. His travelling, his distaste of war, the intense blue of his eyes all told Aurelia as much as Ursilla’s teasing nickname.
But Talorc had only the faintest recollection of any of this, a single ache in the loss of his mother that heated the old wound of losing Gemma. No more than that.
Perhaps it was a blessing to remember so little.
“And what does your heart bid you do?” Aurelia asked softly.
Talorc shed a single tear. “It aches so that I cannot hear anything else it might say.” He caught his breath and shook his head, his manner turning gruff. “Ah, you must be thinking me an old fool, Miss Aurelia. A grown man weeping for his mother as though there was something unnatural between them.”
His glance quelled any protest Aurelia might have made. “She was a fine woman, a woman of rare intellect and insight. I respected her as never I have respected another and there was nothing more than that between us. In truth, it seemed that no other woman could measure up to her standard. We had an uncommonly close bond, more like powerful friends than mother and son. We were good company each for the other and I shall miss her sorely.”
“Miss Aurelia?” Elizabeth’s call carried from the terrace and both she and Talorc turned to look. The woman’s wave was more tentative than usual and Aurelia thought there was an uncertainty in her voice. “Would you have some dinner?”
“That woman is always cooking,” Talorc muttered and shook his head. “Every time I turn around, she is trying to stuff some food or another upon me. By the heavens above, she will make me fat yet!”
“She is worried about you.”
Talorc looked to Aurelia, his somber glance speaking volumes. His concession was gruff. “She is a good-hearted woman, Elizabeth is.”
“Is that what your heart says?”
Talorc snorted. “You have a measure of my mother’s insight, that much is for certain.” He squared his shoulders and looked towards an obviously anxious Elizabeth. “What do you think she has been cooking all this day?”
Aurelia smiled. “Whatever is your favorite dish.”
He stared at her for a long moment, then shrugged again. “You have caught me in a rare mood this day, that much is for certain. And there is no need to hurt a good woman’s feelings over foolishness.” He cleared his throat. “But, before we go and eat whatever it is Elizabeth has been busying herself with making, there’s one thing I would say to you, Miss Aurelia.”
Talorc fidgeted, awkward with such confessions, and Aurelia simply waited.
“I have never had a child, and at this point, I sorely doubt that I ever will. But there is a spark in you, Miss Aurelia, that warms an old man’s heart. If ever I were to have a daughter, I would be proud beyond all if she had the good fortune to be like you.”
They stared at each other for a long moment as the sea crashed far below their feet.
Aurelia finally managed to coax the words past the lump in her throat. “You remind me most vividly of my own sire,” she admitted softly.
“Is that the truth of it? Well, then I was not such a fool to say such a thing.” Talorc jammed his old felt hat on his head and waved to Elizabeth. “Are you coming along to eat?”
“No. Not just now.”
Aurelia watched as Talorc strode back towards the hall, a definite bounce in his step. “Elizabeth, you’ve not been cooking all the day long just for the two of us, have you? By the saints above, woman, how many people are you thinking you’ll be feeding in this place?”
Elizabeth laughed, then her scolding tones carried to Aurelia’s ears though her words were not clear. Aurelia knew that she did not imagine the other woman’s relief.
And what of her own? Aurelia turned to pace the length of the cliff face. Baird’s dreams had been right, though it was no consolation to think of that now. The tangle of their fates compelled them all to return to Dunhelm, to try and fix a muddle gone sorely amiss.
This time, things had changed. Aurelia had been awakened but Baird was gone, no longer her lover true. He was lost to her, as surely as he had been each time he died within the walls of the ritual well.
Men seldom wed their whores. Gemma’s voice rang in her ears and Aurelia hated that she had made such an old mistake.
Had she truly been no more than that to Baird?
*
Julian slipped into the tiny church wearing a suit with too much of a hint of burgundy to be truly called black. His white shirt was crisp and his golden tie remarkably sedate in what was obviously a concession to the occasion.
When the funeral service was over and Ursilla had been walked to the cemetery, Julian fell into step beside Aurelia. “Nothing more fun than a funeral,” he muttered.
Aurelia glanced pointedly to him but kept up her brisk pace. “I was surprised to see you here. Did you know Ursilla?”
Julian shook his head. “Corporate presence. Boss’s request.” He met Aurelia’s gaze with a glance so knowing that she had to look away. “Got to wonder why the man isn’t here to do such things himself.”
Aurelia stared at the ground.
Julian’s tone was idle. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about his sudden departure, would you?”
Aurelia’s cheeks flamed and Julian pounced.
“Aha! I should have known. You two had a tiff, and I was left holding the bag in this godforsaken place!” He positively bounced alongside Aurelia, showing an annoying contentment at solving the puzzle. “So, what you fight about? Anything meaty?”
Thord had done that all the time. As endearing as her brother had been, he showed an irritating tendency to ignore any hurt that was not his own. Of all the things she had tried to change…
Aurelia turned and stared at Julian in sudden understanding. Julian was Thord. She had been so busy dismissing her earlier conclusion that Baird had been trying to affect her dreaming that she had forgotten all about Baird’s dream comparing the two.
And now it seemed so painfully obvious. Julian was Thord, drawn to the site of his own murder to see this matter set to rest. Aurelia’s heart swelled in sudden understanding of why Julian found Scotland so offensive.
It had nothing to do with the weather or the food.
She could trust Julian with the very secrets of her heart. The fact that he had come back again was yet another testament of the old link between the two of them.
And he was friends with Baird, which meant he might be able to answer something that had been bothering Aurelia.
“What does it mean to be a Jessica?” she asked.
Julian winced. “He called you that?”
“Yes, but I do not understand.”
“Oh, but I do. That explains everything. No wonder he took off like a bat out of hell.” Julian clucked his teeth and walked ahead, pausing to glance back at Aurelia. “So, what? You want his money?”
Aurelia stiffened. “I care nothing for hard coin.”
“What is it, then? The fancy lifestyle? Lavish accomodations? You want him to introduce you to fatter fish?”
Aurelia treated Julian to her most scathing glance. “Baird and I ware destined to be together.”
“Uh-huh.” Julian’s skepticism was tangible.
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“Whatever.” Julian made a face. “So, what did you do to him? Why did he compare you to Jessica?”
Aurelia shrugged. “I do not know.”
Julian studied her for a long moment, then nodded to himself. “You know, maybe I should tell you about this Jessica bitch. She kind of spoiled Baird for anyone else, if you know what I mean.”
“No, I do not understand.”
“Well, Jessica was a piece of work, probably still is.” Julian shoved his hands into his pockets and started to walk, Aurelia fast on his heels. “Gorgeous woman, all curves and auburn hair and come-hither glances. She laid one of those on Baird once she decided he was a man with a future.” Julian shook his head. “You know, anyone else might have seen right through her, but Baird…well, Baird had been alone so long that he fell for her like a ton of bricks.”
Aurelia’s mouth went dry. “He loves this woman?”
“He thought he did.” Julian fired a bright glance Aurelia’s way. “It wasn’t as though he’d had a lot of experience in all that.”
She nodded, aching for the loneliness Baird had known. “He told me of his fostering.”
Julian ran a hand over his bald pate. “Well, yeah, he hasn’t had it easy, that’s for sure. And Jessica was good, you know. The Manipulation Queen. She knew when to push and when to leave it alone. It wasn’t long before Baird was completely in her pocket.” Julain stuck out his tongue. “It was really a drag, because everyone else could see that she was playing him for a fool, but our noble Baird wouldn’t listen to a word against his lady.”
Aurelia’s heart clenched. Did Baird still love this woman? Had Aurelia inadvertently reminded him of this lost love?
Julian scuffed his toe. “Problem was, Jessica was no lady.”
“What happened?”
To Aurelia’s surprise, Julian looked sheepish. “Well, he wouldn’t listen. I didn’t want him to get hurt - you know, that’s what friends are for.”
Had they been discussing anything else, the lawyer’s defensive manner would have made Aurelia smile. As a child, she had always admired the way Thord would squirm when caught in an awkward situation.
Time Travel Romances Boxed Set Page 30
