Caleb inwardly cursed but still didn’t speak. As long as Ascott was enthralled with the sound of his own voice, he’d have a better chance of escaping.
“Yes, people here are stupid, and Becci is the perfect example. She believes I’m a financial consultant.” He laughed again. “Truth is, I’m a dealer at a gambling hall down in Tunica, Mississippi. Nice little place, Tunica. You ought to visit it sometime. There is more money in that place than ever existed back in the Raleigh we knew.”
As he spoke, he grasped Elizabeth’s pouch at the top and loosened the leather strap. “But you’re not interested in the gold are you? Not even this piece.”
Michael drew a medallion from the bag, carefully avoiding the swinging coin. The circular piece whirled between them. “What do you think about this little jewel?”
Caleb tried to keep the shock out of his expression. Ascott hadn’t lied. He held an exact duplicate of the medallion Caleb had stashed in Becci’s trinket box.
“I see I’m wrong. You are interested in it. This one belonged to Obadiah Berclair.”
“Obadiah? Then how come you have it?”
“He gave it to Elizabeth for services rendered. She was only supposed to hold it until he could pay up. But she took a liking to it and decided to keep it, even though she couldn’t wear it. Some miner would have stolen it right off her. She said she’d never had anything so pretty. Obadiah was furious.”
Ascott leaned against the door frame and swung the medallion in a circle around his fist. Brilliant flashes shot from the coin, rivaling the lightning outside.
“Obadiah paid me to get this one from Elizabeth. He told me how powerful having both medallions would make him. Of course I didn’t believe him. He was drunk at the time. You know the rest of the story. I was completing my deal with Elizabeth when you walked in on us. Really bad timing on your part, Harrison.
Caleb glanced from Ascott to the medallion as it slowed. That’s when Caleb noticed the scratch that identified the medallion as his mother’s.
“Once I recovered from your stray bullet,” Ascott said, drawing Caleb’s attention back to him. “I came to Raleigh to steal the other medallion. I tricked Eli. Told him I’d brought the coin Obadiah lost, but I wanted to be sure it was really the duplicate. I refused to give it to him until I saw the one it matched. We were on our way to Eli’s bedroom when I vanished and ended up here. I figured it was only a matter of time before someone else showed up with the second medallion, and I was right.”
Caleb glanced at the hallway. Apprehension swept through him. If Becci brought the coin down . . . He couldn’t finish the thought. The image of Becci vanishing as she walked through the door flashed into his mind. What if Michael was wrong? What if the door between his time and this was still open? What would happen to her when she crossed the threshold?
He closed his eyes and forced back his fears. Panic wouldn’t help Becci.
“Why do you want the coins, Ascott?”
“Power. That’s what it’s all about.” Michael answered. “I would have had it four years ago, but you had to come along and destroy everything. You cost me a lot, saddling up with my Elizabeth like you did. She said she wanted to break our agreement and keep the money for a proper wedding. She said she couldn’t get ahead if I kept taking a cut. I offered her the whole week’s take for the medallion and her body.” Michael leered at him. “As you know, she accepted.”
Caleb drew in a shaky breath. “They said I killed you.”
Michael shrugged. “A mere flesh wound to the shoulder. But I couldn’t have you hanging around asking questions, so I called in my markers from the people in town and had them railroad you out. Now, you show up again. I won’t let you ruin everything this time.”
“You have one medallion, let the other go,” Caleb said. “I’m not a fighting man, but I won’t let you hurt Becci. The passageway is open. I know it is. I’ve got to stop her from bringing it through that door.” With renewed determination Caleb started past Michael.
“You’re not going anywhere until Jacobs tells me he has the medallion.”
“Jacobs? No!” Caleb roared, shoving Ascott aside and running toward the staircase. Before he could make it to the steps Ascott grabbed him by the arm and threw a punch. Caleb deflected the blow with his forearm and countered with a sharp, upward swing that sent Ascott to the floor. The man attempted to get up, then slumped to the floor. Caleb paused ready to put Ascott down for good, then realizing he already had, he raced toward the stairs.
Caleb fought away a sense of foreboding as he reached the upper landing. Jacobs was in the room with Becci, and he knew the drunk wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, just as he’d killed Rebecca. The long hallway stretched the full length of the house. Tension gnawed at Caleb as he resisted the urge to run toward Becci’s room. If Jacobs heard him coming, he might hurt Becci. He had to have the element of surprise on his side.
As he neared the end of the hallway, he noticed that the door to Becci’s room stood open. He stared at it, his heart pounding in his ears. But that didn’t block the sound of wood scraping against wood. A fresh surge of fear skittered over him, and his mouth went dry. He couldn’t ever remember being this afraid for someone else. A chilling desperation spread through him as he sensed the need to hurry. If he didn’t, Becci would be lost to him forever.
He crossed to the open door. Becci faced the dresser holding the trinket box. His missing journal lay on the bedside table, a small piece of paper protruding from the side as if to mark someone’s place.
Movement in the black void behind Becci caught his attention. Caleb saw the flicker of something shiny. It went higher and higher and inched toward Becci. Wind roared, and a flash of lightning illuminated the room enough to see Jacobs holding a knife.
No! Not my Becci, too.
Panic surged through him as he realized he hadn’t been wrong. The drunk had killed Rebecca. But he wouldn’t fail Becci the way he’d failed Rebecca. He couldn’t. He loved Becci with his heart and his soul.
He leaped toward Jacobs as the knife started its downward thrust.
Becci screamed and threw up her arms to deflect the blow. She felt the sting of the blade cut the heel of her palm before it hit the medallion, sending out a shower of sparks.
Hypnotized by the dark red stream flowing in a thin crooked line down her arm, it took her a second to react to the pain. She brought her injured hand to her chest while dodging her attacker’s second slashing blow. Relief swamped her as Caleb sprang from the doorway to tackle her assailant.
Metal clanked against metal. The two men rolled across the room, brutal punches finding their targets. They crashed into the dresser, sending the two gold nuggets flying.
Caleb pressed his forearm into Jacobs’s throat, pinning him to the floor. Becci could see the fury in Caleb’s eyes as he lifted Jacobs up by the collar and landed a well-placed fist to his chin. Jacobs slumped to the floor unconscious.
Shoving her attacker aside, Caleb hurried to her and scooped her into his arms. Without saying a word he sat on the edge of the bed and flicked on the table lamp. While holding her close to his chest, he jerked open the drawers of the bedside table until he found a box of tissues.
He took her hand in his and slowly unrolled her fingers with a tenderness she wouldn’t have believed possible. Then he folded the tissue, and pressed it to the cut. He caught her other hand and placed it over the wound. Then, Using one of her socks, he tied his makeshift bandage securely in place.
“I need to get you to a doctor. Where is he? How do I get there so I can bring him back here to take care of you?” Panic edged his voice as he raked his hand through his hair.
“I’m all right,” she assured him. It didn’t hit an artery. I think it will need stitches, though, but we’ll have to go to the emergency room for them. Doctors don’t make house calls anymore.�
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She could see the concern in his eyes, and it warmed her. His eyes and his actions told her how much he loved her. How could she have ever doubted him?
“How do we get to this emergency room? I don’t know how to drive.”
The helplessness in his voice tore at her heart. “We’ll get Aunt Lilly to drive us.”
Jacobs moaned and began to shift. Caleb glanced at the man. He couldn’t let Jacobs and Ascott get away with the medallions.
“The medallion. Where is it?”
“He has it,” Becci said, nodding toward Jacobs.
Caleb eased her off his lap and hurried to where Jacobs lay. Leaning down, he untangled the chain from the knife. He held it up and looked at it intently, and then he clutched it to his chest and closed his eyes as if in thankful prayer.
As Becci watched him, she felt her heart sinking. She’d thought he’d come up here to save her. Had she been wrong? Was the medallion all he wanted? A moment ago he’d been talking about getting her to a doctor, and now it was as if she no longer existed.
Tears fell onto her crude bandage. This time the pain had nothing to do with the cut. It came from deep in her heart. She’d thought he loved her, but he’d only come up here for the medallion. He hadn’t come up here to save her.
“Mary Rebecca,” Caleb said.
“I’m not Mary Rebecca,” she yelled. “I’m Becci.”
Silence lingered between them, hollow and empty. Caleb wanted to tell her he loved her, but the words wouldn’t come. Rebecca had said he would find happiness, and he supposed he had. For one day he’d experienced a love deeper than anything he’d ever dreamed existed. He believed Becci loved him, too, but he had to go back to his time and try to save Rebecca. He had to make sure she and Luke were safe from Obadiah.
“I know you’re not Rebecca,” Caleb whispered as he brushed his knuckles down her cheek. “You’re a good woman. You’ll make some man a fine wife.” He held up the medallion and caught her hand. “I believe my purpose for being here is to warn you against selling the house and to deliver this to you. There’s a voice inside telling me that I’m not the keeper of this coin, you are.”
Before she could respond, he said, “Ascott has another coin downstairs. It belonged to my mother, and I’m its keeper. I’m going downstairs to get it, but until you see the colors disappear from around the door, don’t take this coin out of this room.”
“But . . . ”
“Guard the medallion with your life, Becci,” he interrupted. “It has the power to give you what you desire most.”
He lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers. When he pulled away from her, he said, “This is truly good-bye, my love.”
Her heart pounded against her ribs as she gazed up at him. She loved him, and he loved her. So why was he leaving her? And why was he giving her the medallion? And what was a keeper? More importantly, if the coin had the power to truly give her what she wanted, why was he leaving? He was what she wanted most, and he always would be.
As he turned and walked toward the door, she stared at the gold piece he’d placed on her palm, willing it to keep him here with her.
A sudden movement caught her attention, and she screamed when Jacobs leaped to his feet and snatched the medallion from her hand. Caleb spun around at her scream, and Jacobs charged him, burying the knife blade into Caleb’s shoulder. Jacobs jerked it out and stabbed at Caleb again, but Caleb caught the man’s wrist with both hands before the knife reached him.
Caleb cursed as he struggled with Jacobs. The necklace swayed between them, as if taunting Caleb for trying to leave it behind. Had he been wrong? Was the medallion supposed to stay with him?
He didn’t have time to search for the answers. Even if it cost him his life, he couldn’t let Jacobs harm Becci. And he knew that Jacobs would turn on her if he won this battle.
Jacobs lowered his shoulder and plowed into Caleb. They rolled across the room, and Jacobs pinned him to the floor. Then he raised the knife and brought it down again. Caleb dodged the sharp blade, and it hit the medallion, which had fallen to the floor. Jacobs grabbed the medallion’s chain, scrambled to his feet, and started for the door. Caleb lunged after him and together they plummeted through the door into the hall.
Lightning seared the air and flamed through Caleb. A white light blinded him to everything but its existence. Thunder shook the house, and the wind howled with a freight train’s roar. Through the doorway, he saw the curtain rod on Becci’s bedroom window snap free of its mount and topple to the floor.
Caleb cried out. Pain ripped at him as he crashed into the railing that lined the upper hall, giving a view of the entry hall below. And just as quickly as the commotion began, it ended.
DISBELIEF SWAMPED Becci. She glanced down at the curtain rod and then at the door. An eerie, ghostlike silence hovered about the room as the dim outline of two men struggling in the hall misted over and vanished.
Becci tried to draw in a breath. Every nerve in her body shuddered. Her hand tingled. She lowered her gaze to the blood-drenched sock-bandage only to find it was snow-white. The hairs on her nape stood on end.
Signs of the struggle remained in the room, but Caleb and Jacobs had disappeared as if they’d never been.
Had all of this been a dream?
She turned and looked around her room, and her gaze came to rest on the beautiful hand-carved box on the dresser. Then her gaze moved to the leather-bound journal resting on the nightstand, and she frowned. The book had not been there the night before.
Becci picked up the journal and it fell open to the last page. Caleb’s neat bold script leaped out at her in fresh, black ink.
My Dearest Becci,
By the time you read this I will be back where I belong. You have taught me to love and to trust, and I will always love you no matter what happens after tonight. Remember that whether I live one hundred and sixty-five years before your time or am here to spend my life with you, you possess my heart. Touch the wind and feel me. Smell the fragrant dampness of a spring storm and remember me. Hear the thunder and know that it is my heart beating for you. The gold you need to save your home and go to school and start your nursery is there if you know where to look. With the instructions in my journal you should have no problem finding it. If I can, I will put the medallion somewhere in the house so you will find it, too. Once I return to my own time I will need nothing but my memories of you. The medallion is not gold. It is orichalc—a metal that is as pure as newly fallen snow and as bright as the sun after the rain—and if you find it, know I give it to you along with my heart. I am forever yours,
Caleb Harrison.
Closing the journal, Becci wiped at the tears running down her cheeks. She looked at the empty hall. Caleb did love her, but he’d vanished into the past. She stood at the threshold of time without hope of ever seeing him again or sharing with him the love they felt for each other
Becci laid the journal on the dresser and crossed the room to the window. She picked up the curtain rod and tried to force it back onto its brackets, only to toss it down in frustration. Then she dropped to her knees and let the agony in her heart take over.
“Why?” she yelled at no one in particular as tears drenched her face. “Why did you give him to me only to take him away? I don’t want to lose him. I love him.”
As she continued to cry, a million questions whirled through her mind. Would Caleb remember her when he arrived back in his own time? Would he know how much she loved him? Had he met his death on his journey back?
The answers would be in the journals, but she didn’t want to learn them. She wanted him to pop up in front of her, pick her up and hold her to his chest. She wanted to melt into his arms and beg him to make love to her. Never had she felt such despair, and she didn’t think she’d ever get over it.
Finally her tears
eased, and her sobs slowed to hiccups. Slowly, she pulled herself to her feet. In a few hours a new day would begin, offering a new beginning. She picked up the curtain rod, and this time it easily slipped back over its hooks. Staring down at the backyard, she watched the shadows dance around the old oak.
Suddenly, hope bloomed in her chest. She could see Caleb standing under the tree letting the water slosh over his body. She had to go to him! She had to tell him that she loved him! But before she could turn away, the image misted and vanished.
“This is truly good-bye,” she whispered, new tears falling as she repeated the words he’d said to her. “I love you, Caleb. I love you more than anything, and I would have gone back with you if you’d asked. Why didn’t you ask?”
But she knew the answer even as she asked the question. He’d left her behind so he could be with her namesake. No, she corrected, he’d gone to be with his godson, and Rebecca was just part of the package.
“Mary Rebecca Berclair,” Becci said, talking to herself. “This is no way to behave. Caleb gave you what he could—the means to keep Berclair Manor.”
She picked up one of the gold nuggets and put it back in the trinket box. She bent to pick up another and froze. The sound of foot steps downstairs reminded her that she still had Michael to contend with, and he was more dangerous than Caleb ever had been.
Twenty-two
CALEB LAY ON HIS back and tried to readjust to his trip through time. He had just started to regain his equilibrium when Jacobs raised up and brought the knife down towards him.
With a curse, he knocked Jacobs backward. The knife and medallion crashed to the floor and lay between them. For a moment both of them stared at the two glistening pieces of metal, one just as dangerous as the other. Fresh blood pooled around the blade and stained the wood flooring.
Caleb knew it was his blood. The thick crimson soaked his shirtsleeve and dripped from his fingertips. His arm hung limply at his side.
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