by Louise Clark
When the kiss ended she said, “Cody, you’re not…I don’t know…frightened by my ability?”
Drawing his thumb along her lips, he laughed. “Frightened? Faith, I’m intrigued! You have people from the past coming into your life all the time. What a privilege.”
She pushed on his shoulders, arching her body back so that she could see his face. “Does that mean you want to continue being with me?”
He looked surprised. “Yes, of course! What did you think, that I’d dump you because—”
Faith felt her skin heat as she nodded.
“Why?” Cody said, frowning. Then understanding dawned. “Oh. Your father.”
“My mother told me that she’d hidden her ability for years because she knew my dad wouldn’t understand. Eventually he learned of it though. At first he though she was crazy, then he thought it was just plain weird. He wanted her to stop doing it and when she couldn’t, he thought it was because she wouldn’t.” Her voice lowered almost to a whisper. “He said she’d made her choice and it wasn’t him.”
Cody smiled and kissed her lightly on the chin. “Faith, whatever makes you the person you are is okay with me. As long as Andrew doesn’t show up when we’re making love, he can visit as often as he wants.”
Faith laughed, a little shakily. “Cody, are you sure?”
“You bet.” He stroked the length of her long, bare leg, exposed by the short skirt of the shimmery red dress, and grinned like a buccaneer at her quick intake of breath. “If I can handle your father, dealing with Andrew will be a snap.”
She put her head on his shoulder and snuggled close. She was shaking, from a release of tension she had been holding on to for so long. Cody’s arms closed around her, keeping her safe. No matter what was to come she truly believed that he was willing to accept her for what she was. It was a wonderful feeling.
“Hey,” he said, after a minute. “I’ve got plans for tonight. Have some of that lobster, enjoy a glass of wine and fill me in on what’s up with Andrew so we can figure out how to get rid of him and the rest of your family.”
Faith laughed and left his lap for her chair, reluctantly. While they nibbled on the lobster and drank the wine, she told him about Andrew, Mary Elizabeth and her father, George Strand, and the role Andrew would play in George Strand’s fate. Cody listened patiently, sitting relaxed in his chair, one ankle propped over the other knee.
“Now Andrew is frustrated. Every time he tries to make points with Mary Elizabeth her father turns on him. He wants to know if his trouble is worth it. He wants to know if he marries Mary Elizabeth, what part her father will play in their lives, and he wants to use the Internet to find out.”
“This is an amazing story,” Cody said. He looked over Faith’s shoulder, lost within his mind as he thought over all she’d said. She observed him quietly, enjoying the concentration on his face and the way he absentmindedly twirled the wineglass as he thought. Something akin to contentment washed over her. Being with Cody was really all she wanted. Yes, she liked her job and yes as a Beacon she was an important component in a whole time travel system, but if she thought she would lose Cody because of either part of her life, she would find some way to let them go.
Quite simply, Cody Simpson had become the most important element in her life. She wanted him, she needed him, and she loved him so very much. She would be his friend, his partner, his lover. There would be times when she would protect him or help him, others when she would give him his space. Now that she’d confessed her greatest secret, she would also have to tell him that she’d probably lost her job and wouldn’t be back at NIT after Monday, and she’d have to explain it in such a way that he didn’t feel responsible or upset. She’d work on that. It would probably be okay. After all, he’d taken the news that she was a Beacon extremely well, considering how bizarre the whole thing sounded.
She came back to herself with a start to find that he was watching her, his expression tender. “You were far away. Where were you?”
“Thinking about you.” His smile deepened. Faith thought of their lovemaking the night before and she realized that she really, really wanted more of it. As soon as possible. “So. Got any ideas on how to handle Uncle Andrew?”
“When we came out here your mother was telling Andrew that he was going to marry Mary Elizabeth, have a bunch of kids and adopt some others. Maybe she’s already given him what he wants to know.” He shook his head. “We may have a problem if she did, though. We’re dealing with the paradox of time travel here. Is the past the way it is because the individual traveled to the future, found out what happened, and therefore acted in a certain way because he knew he was supposed to? Or will the past be changed and rewritten because the person came to the future. Which one is right?”
We. A little shiver passed through Faith. Shock. Delight. It didn’t matter. She loved the way he was joining his life to hers and her heart was singing because of it. “Is there no algorithm to explain it?”
Cody shot her a wry look, unaware of the little moment of blissful pleasure he’d given her. “Science doesn’t believe time travel is possible. No, there’s no algorithm that I know of.”
“Then you’ll just have to write one, won’t you?”
He laughed. Glancing down at his glass, he swirled the wine, then he looked up. “Would it bother you if I did?”
“Only if you published it in a scientific paper the academic world rejected out of hand and you made yourself a laughingstock.” She stared at him intently, hoping to make him understand. “Because you would, you know. No one believes in the Beacon except those who are part of it. That’s why we don’t tell just anyone about it.”
He caught her hand and lifted it to his lips. “Your secret is safe with me.”
“I know,” she whispered. Then she cleared her throat. “Cody. Let’s go sort this thing out and get rid of everybody.”
“Yeah,” he said, smiling at her over their joined hands. “I’m with you.”
The kitchen had turned into an armed camp when they went back in. A truce had been reached, or perhaps something closer to a stalemate. The bickering had stopped, but Chloe and Daniel were eyeing each other with wary hostility, while Liz looked lost. The food on the serving plate was gone and Andrew was standing at the counter opening a bottle of wine with practiced confidence. He poured a glass then raised it to the light to examine the clarity of the ruby red liquid. Apparently satisfied, he brought the glass to nose level, swirled the wine, sniffed, then sipped. He raised the glass in a toast. “An excellent claret, my dear Faith. I congratulate you.”
Chloe smiled and winked. Faith began to feel hopeful that they might be able to sort out this current family crisis fairly quickly. “Mom, how much did you tell Andrew?”
“Only what it was necessary for him to know,” she said calmly. Daniel snorted with ill-disguised contempt. She ignored him. “That he will marry Mary Elizabeth because George Strand will not be able to keep them apart. He poked and prodded me, wanting more, but I won’t give it to him.”
Andrew put the glass on the counter and headed for the refrigerator.
Cody squeezed Faith’s hand, then he wandered over to the counter and leaned against it sipping his own wine while he watched Andrew slap a packet of well-marbled rib steaks onto the counter. He raised his brows. “There’s only enough for two.”
Andrew grinned. “I’m hungry. I broke my fast before I called upon my future father-by-marriage, but I was unable to eat again after that thieving representative of an unjust king set his henchmen upon me.”
“A patriot, are you?”
Andrew cocked his head. His eyes gleamed. “Aye, I am. But here now, you know that word and what it means. Is it famous—or infamous?”
Cody laughed. “The paradox of time travel. Were events caused by the knowledge that they happened? Or did they happen and all of history may be changed if they do not occur as they were supposed to.”
“Aye, I see you’ve got the way of it.”
Daniel said indignantly, “You told him about yourself.”
“Yeah, Dad, I did. Do you think things between us would have worked out better if I’d pretended to be something I’m not?”
Andrew jerked his head in Daniel’s direction and said confidentially to Cody, “Don’t mind the old man. He’s always disliked me. The first time I came to visit…” He shook his head, remembering. “What a scene. I turned up in the middle of a dust-up between them—”
“Who?”
“Why, Faith and her father, of course. Over an exam she’d taken.” He propped his hip against the counter, absently echoing Cody’s stance. “Silly thing to bicker about, but there you are. They were hard at it when I arrived, Daniel mad as flame because the girl hadn’t made the top mark in her class. Not living up to her potential, he called it.” He smiled and swirled the wine in his glass as he looked over at the people sitting at the table. It was clear they could hear what he was saying, and he knew it.
Daniel’s eyes were narrowed. He’d erupt soon, but he was waiting to see just how far Andrew would take it. Faith was standing near the table, but separate, not part of either group. She was white and her body was tense. Cody reached over and grabbed her hand. He drew her to him, then he wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her close so that she was nestled against his chest and between his legs. She leaned her head back against his shoulder in a silent surrender, and for comfort.
“I’d been out in the woods that day,” Andrew continued. He smiled, his expression almost meditative. “Avoiding my chores, even though I knew I’d get a hiding when my old man caught me. The light, when it came, was blinding. I had to go to it. I had no choice. It was filled with desperation and hopelessness and a despair so strong it cried out with need. It begged for my assistance. I could not help but give it.”
“Are you telling me that I caused my daughter to become a Beacon?” Daniel said dangerously.
Andrew smiled at him, drank more wine, made him wait. Though Daniel’s eyes were glittering with a fury that was all the more potent for being tamped down, Andrew didn’t rush. “Do you remember my arrival, Daniel?”
“I do. You were dressed in a dirty shirt and breeches and you smelled of sweat and horse manure. Your hair was long and loose and you were carrying a tree branch. Even though I could see you were young, you were stocky and well-built. You held that tree branch the way a man who plans to beat another does.”
“I remember too,” Faith said. “I was crying. I’d failed you yet again, Daddy. When Andrew arrived I—” Cody kissed her neck, diverting her momentarily. Daniel’s eyes widened in shock, then narrowed. The red in his cheeks deepened. The dark, remembered emotions that had been threatening to overwhelm Faith fled. There was a laugh in her voice when she said, “I thought he was my avenging angel.”
Cody put his glass on the counter so he could wrap his other arm around Faith and pull her more securely against him. “Well, Daniel, it looks like you are the reason that Faith is a Beacon. How do you feel about that?”
“It’s nonsense!”
“I think the lad may be on to something.” Andrew held up his glass and squinted at the light as it splintered through the wine in shafts of fire. He spoke in a casual way, as if what he was saying really didn’t matter, though they all knew it did. “In the family we’ve never questioned why it begins, it just is. But if you think about it, there’s always some strong emotion involved the first time a person travels or leads someone to them.”
“Then I might be a Beacon too.” Liz said wonderingly. “I haven’t been one up until now because I haven’t had the emotional need to become one?”
Andrew replied to her, but he smiled his wolfish smile at Daniel. “Aye, could be. Mostly the Beacon is born when a person is just reaching the adult years, but it has been known to happen when a person is older.”
Daniel whitened as Liz brightened with excitement. After all these years Andrew had found a way to use the club he’d never had a chance to wield when he first met his distant descendants.
Cody ignored this exchange. He’d been thinking about the possibilities and the whys and hows of the beacon ability. “Then it might be something hormonal? A body chemical that triggers some kind of inherited receptor in a recessive gene?”
Andrew stared at Cody as if he’d spoken in a different language. Which, perhaps, he had. Shaking his head, Andrew said, “I leave the aye or nay of that up to you, Master Scientist. I’ve done my part. Now then, Faith, would you grill me one of these fine cuts of beef? I believe Mistress Chloe has provided me with as much information as she will allow. I want to go back to claim my Mary Elizabeth. And I want to do it on a full stomach.”
“You would want to become a Beacon?” Daniel said, turning to Elizabeth. “You want to become a freak like Faith is?”
“Here now,” Andrew said warningly, his features hardening.
“Daniel Hamilton, shame on you!” Chloe cried.
Trembling, Faith tried to slip out of Cody’s embrace. He kissed her hair, tightened his hold. “Seems to me,” he said, outrage and contempt clear in his tone, “that the freak in this family is you, Daniel. Not your daughters. Not your wife. You.”
Faith stilled. Liz gasped. Andrew laughed.
Daniel surged to his feet. “This is ridiculous!”
Faith took one of Cody’s hands, then the other and kissed each before she shifted them aside so she could leave the shelter of his arms. “You’re right, Dad, all of this is ridiculous. There are no freaks in this family, only people with passionate emotions that develop in different ways. Why it happens doesn’t matter. That it happens, does. I’ve spent most my life trying to be what I’m not. The perfect student. The best daughter. An ordinary office manager. I’m not any of those things, I never was. All I am is Faith Hamilton, a girl who did her best in school, who loved her daddy, but was never quite sure she had his love in return. An office manager who worked really hard for her company, but who wasn’t even considered for a senior position when it came up. A woman who was attracted to a man, but figured she wasn’t good enough for him because she was different.
“A woman…” She turned, caught Cody’s hand, and smiled at him. “…who took a risk and discovered that being different was okay.”
“More than okay,” he said, his voice husky.
Daniel’s color had returned to normal, but he still looked disgruntled. “That’s all very nice, but—”
“You know, Hamilton, I’m getting tired of you. Lay off Faith.”
Chloe pointed a finger at her ex. “Cody has a point—”
“I know you’re going to be my father-in-law and I’m trying to be polite, but you’re making it extremely difficult.”
“What!” squealed Liz, clapping her hand over her mouth to muffle the shriek and giggle that followed.
Faith echoed the word, but more faintly. “What? Cody? Are you proposing to me?”
He blinked, then smiled that rueful half-smile that made her hot right down to her toes. “Yeah, I guess I am.” He patted his jacket pockets, found what he was looking for, then pulled out a blue velvet box. “This isn’t quite how I envisioned this evening.” He gazed around the room at the faces of Faith’s family. Liz, bright with delight, Chloe bemused, Andrew grinning so widely that there was danger his bruised face might split. “But…” His gaze fell on Daniel’s shocked expression and hardened.
He flipped open the box and took out a ring. The massive diamond glittered under the hard kitchen light. Faith stared at it, mesmerized.
“Faith, I know I have lots of flaws. I tend to focus too intensely when I’m working and I’m not very neat. I like my freedom and I don’t do the corporate schmoozing thing very well. I know you’re dedicated to NIT, and that’s okay—”
“I’m not dedicated to NIT, Cody. I work there. Well, I used to work there until Ava fired me.”
“As long as you don’t make me do the social climbing—” He paused. “What did you say? Ava fire
d you?”
“She tried.” Faith laughed. “She has to check with Ralph first.”
Unexpectedly, Daniel spoke up. “Is the woman mad? Why fire one of her best employees? Was it office politics? Did she think you were after her job?”
“Daniel, be quiet!” Chloe said indignantly. “You are interrupting Cody.”
“He is, but it’s a good question. Was it office politics?”
“Sort of. She wanted to fire you, Cody, not me, and she was going to use Uncle Andrew’s visit as the excuse. I couldn’t let her do that.”
“You sacrificed your job for me? Faith!”
She put a finger on his lips to silence him. Shaking her head, she said, “My job at NIT doesn’t matter, Cody. You matter. I love you. I couldn’t let Ava the Oppressor take you down. You love the work you are doing at NIT. I want you to keep doing it as long as you choose to.”
“Wait. Back up a step. You love me?”
She nodded, smiling. “A minute ago, you listed your flaws. You didn’t list your greatest strengths—your open mind and your trust. When Andrew arrived you didn’t ask who he was or why he was dressed so strangely—”
“My clothes are perfectly respectable,” Andrew said.
Faith ignored him. “Or why he had to go everywhere I did, although I’m sure you wondered about all those things and more.”
“I did,” Cody said.
Faith nodded. “Yes. I needed help and you gave it to me, for no other reason than I needed it. You helped me see that two people who were very different could still work together as one. I think, if I hadn’t already been in love with you, that Uncle Andrew’s visit would have tipped me over the edge.”
“Glad I could be of service,” Andrew said, toasting them with his glass before he drank.
“Shut up, Andrew!” Liz said.
“Shhh,” said Chloe, to silence them both.
Cody cocked head and raised his brows. “Are they always like this?”
