She looked at her sisters to find them looking between Montgomery and Stephen with expressions of astonishment. Peaches managed to tear her gaze away from the men long enough to gape at Pippa.
“Wow,” she mouthed.
Pippa only smiled. Again.
“Perhaps, my lord,” Stephen said, inclining his head, “you would care for something to eat?”
“Later, if you don’t mind,” Montgomery said with equal politeness. “I’ve actually come to dance with this lovely woman here. Persephone, will you favor me?”
Pippa realized Montgomery was talking to her, though it took a moment or two before what he’d asked registered. She smiled, feeling altogether breathless.
“You’re sure you don’t want something to eat first?” she managed.
“Later, after I’ve looked my fill.”
She took a deep breath and tried to put the brakes on her rampaging imagination. It was possible he was talking about the great hall. It was, after all, quite a bit more spectacular than it had been in his day. He could have been interested in Stephen, or Tess’s guests, her sisters. He could have simply wanted to hand her her shoes, scope out the twenty-first century, then hightail it back home before he turned into a pumpkin.
Then again, it was her hand he was holding as he led her across the hall and it was her hand he kept hold of as they waited for the music to change. She was tempted to grill him one more time about his fiancée, but even she could see that might ruin the moment. The man had traveled over eight centuries to bring her a pair of shoes, and now he wanted to dance with her. The least she could do was humor him.
She smiled when she heard the musicians play something that sounded a bit like what she’d heard at Wyckham. “I think I know this one.”
“I daresay you do, my lady.”
She found that while she might have known the dance, she wasn’t able to concentrate on it. That might have had something to do with the fact that she was unable to take her eyes off Montgomery. She had no idea why he’d really come. Coming all that way simply to put shoes on her feet was easily one of the lamest excuses she’d ever—
She stumbled to a halt.
That
was
a little on the Cinderella-ish side, wasn’t it?
“Persephone?”
She smiled up at him and did her best to concentrate on what she was doing. That was made ever more difficult each time she touched his hand in passing or looked up at his face to find him staring at her with a level of intensity that passed even her father’s ferocious attention to the Plexiglas seams of the cases that held his signed
Abbey Road
album. No, this was intensity in an entirely different league.
Fortunately for her, the music ended before she embarrassed herself too badly. She stood in front of Montgomery, forced herself to keep her arms down by her sides instead of throwing them around him again as she so desperately wanted to do, and looked for something innocuous to say.
“Let me feed you,” she offered. “Though I should warn you that there might be a few new additions to your kitchen.”
“I know,” he said with a shiver. “I’ve seen them.”
“Frightening?”
He chewed on his words for a moment or two. “I’m not sure I want to admit to that.”
“I’ll keep you safe,” she promised.
He smiled ruefully, and she fell in love with him all over again.
She was in
deep
trouble.
“I’ll allow it tonight,” he said. “Tomorrow, however, I will be back in charge, as usual. This is an aberration.”
“Whatever you say, cupcake.”
He tucked her hand under his arm. “Lead on, lady, if you will. And pray find me something I might recognize.”
Given the excellence of Tess’s chef, she didn’t doubt there would be something on the fire that would be at least edible. Perhaps Montgomery was fortunate he’d arrived on an evening where his particular time was being celebrated. She heard him catch his breath softly as they entered the kitchens, but he didn’t give any other sign of being freaked out. She had a quiet word with Tess’s cook, then found a stool for Montgomery and a place at a worktable. He pulled the stool out for her instead, then went to fetch another for himself. He sat, then looked at her gravely.
“I left your shoes outside in the current year’s courtyard.”
She had to take a bracing breath. “I can’t believe you braved the gate to bring me shoes.”
“The truth is—” He looked up suddenly, then rose.
Pippa thought she might like to kill whoever had interrupted what she was sure would have been a stunning confession of his true motives. She looked up to find that her future victims were her sisters trailed by a still stunned-looking Stephen de Piaget. Tess put Stephen on a stool, then smiled at Montgomery.
“I should be out there playing host,” she said in her excellent French, “but I wanted to make sure you were comfortable, um, Lord—”
“ ’Tis just Montgomery,” Montgomery supplied. “I am pleased to see the castle looking so well.”
“I can’t take credit for that,” Tess said, blushing. “It was restored in 1850—” She had to take a deep breath. “I suppose you don’t want all the details now. I can give them to you later, if you like.” She paused. “If you’re staying—”
“I would like to, if you have room for me,” Montgomery said with a grave look. “I will, of course, pay—”
“Of course you won’t,” Peaches interrupted with a snort. She laughed a little. “I just meant that, well, you’re almost, um—”
She trailed off uncomfortably, then fell completely silent as Montgomery favored her with the same sort of charming smile she’d seen his brother Nicholas wear as well. Genetics at work again, apparently. Pippa looked between her sisters to find them both blushing furiously. She rolled her eyes. Her sisters looked as if they’d never been in the same room with a man before. Admittedly, Montgomery was luscious, but blush-worthy?
He took her hand, then favored her with a very small, private smile before he continued on a conversation with her sisters in French that seemed to bridge almost eight centuries quite easily.
She blushed as well.
At least Stephen was refraining from that kind of reaction. He simply sat on another stool and gaped.
“Stephen,” she whispered, then she pantomimed closing her mouth with a finger under her chin.
He shut his mouth with a snap, but looked no less overcome.
Pippa understood completely.
“How is your sister Cinderella?” Montgomery asked politely. “Is she happily recovered from her camping experience?”
If her sisters hadn’t been felled before, they were then. Pippa watched as they shared a brief look of approval, then found themselves seats where they could more easily fall all over Montgomery. She might have given them a territorial sort of shove and a warning look, but she honestly couldn’t blame them because she was doing the same thing.
And, after all, hers was the hand he was holding.
He let go of her long enough to examine a very lovely meal of beef and vegetables with whole-grain rolls. He tasted everything hesitantly at first, then apparently found it all familiar enough to down with obvious pleasure. He didn’t care for the glass of wine Peaches handed him, but he was quite happy to have water. Pippa hadn’t eaten dinner, but she didn’t manage it then either because all she could do was watch him.
The truth was, she hadn’t expected to see him again. She’d spent an inordinate amount of time telling herself that she didn’t
want
to see him again, that her life was back to normal and she was happy, happy,
happy
about it.
She was a dreadful liar.
And that made her very nervous. She needed the future with its marvels. She didn’t want the past with its cold and crumbling walls and people who would just as soon have killed her as to look at her. She wanted murder and mayhem to be limited to the big screen—
Murder and mayhem.
All of a sudden she didn’t feel very good. Everything she’d read earlier that day came back to her in a terrible rush. If the historians were to be believed, the man next to her would in the very near future either die or be wounded seriously enough that he would live out his life a shell of his former self.
“Pippa?”
She felt his arm go around her. She turned toward him and pressed her face against the rough weave of his tunic because it was easier to hide her expression that way.
“It’s nothing,” she managed.
“You’ve had a long day,” he murmured. “Perhaps I should see you to your chamber.”
She had to blink a time or two. She’d had her miserable future planned out, she’d already begun to grieve over what lay in store for him in
his
future, she’d been prepared to soldier on and make do—
And then she’d seen him across the great hall and everything had changed again.
She pulled back and looked into his very lovely gray eyes. “I’m fine.”
“I will be here tomorrow, Persephone.” He brought her hand to his lips. “If you wouldn’t mind if I stay.”
She couldn’t answer without falling apart, so she simply squeezed his hand, hard, and hoped he would take that as answer enough.
Stephen rose and made Montgomery a low bow.
“You will take my chamber, my lord,” he said in a fairly decent imitation of Montgomery’s accent. “I will find other quarters. I will also find clothing for you on the morrow, if you like.”
Montgomery sized him up. “Can you wield a sword, Stephen?”
Pippa had to smile. Stephen de Piaget was obviously not one to back down from a fight, but he swallowed very carefully at present.
“I might attempt it.”
“Then let me see my lady to her bedchamber and we will discuss your skills and see if they meet with my approval.” He blinked, then looked at Pippa. “I’m starting to sound like Robin.”
“Better go to bed until it passes, then,” she advised.
He smiled, a smile that showed off his dimple to its best advantage. “I daresay you’re right. Let’s be off. I’m sure there will be many marvels to examine on the morrow.”
She wasn’t sure he had any idea what he was in for, but she wasn’t going to argue. She also wasn’t going to complain about the fact that he didn’t seem inclined to let go of her hand. She exchanged a brief look with her sisters before she walked with Montgomery and Stephen out of the kitchen and back up to the great hall. The party was starting to break up, but she wasn’t particularly interested in waiting it out. She thought it might be all she could do to get upstairs and fall into bed without falling to pieces.
Montgomery paused on their way through the great hall, looked around him, then shook his head and sighed as he walked with her up the stairs and down the hallway. Pippa stopped him in front of her door, then looked up at him.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
He tilted his head and smiled. “For what?”
The list was too long and potentially too revealing. She settled for simple. “For the dance.”
“We’ll have others,” he said quietly, “if you’re willing.” He paused, then started to say something else, but stopped and glanced to his right.
Pippa looked as well to find Stephen there, looking helpful. She thought it would have been rude to punch him, so she bit her tongue and decided that maybe she would have to borrow a couple of horses from someone so she could take Montgomery out for a private ride and figure out why it was he’d come to see her.
“My lord?” Stephen said, with a small bow. “If you’re ready, I’ll show you to your room.”
Montgomery nodded, then took Pippa’s hand and bent over it. He didn’t kiss it, which she supposed shouldn’t have disappointed her. He was, after all, still engaged eight hundred years in the past.
“Tomorrow,” he promised.
She nodded, then slipped inside her room as he held the door open for her. He smiled, bid her another soft good night, then pulled the door shut.
Pippa turned and leaned back against it. She could hardly believe what she’d just seen in her sister’s great hall. It was all she could do not to wrench the door open, chase after Montgomery, then beg him to hold on to her and never let her go—his fiancée be damned.
She hadn’t had the chance to even take a decent breath before a sudden knock on her door made her jump. She put her hand over her heart, then opened her door to find Peaches standing there practically hopping from one foot to the other.
“Let me in,” Peaches said, pushing past her. “I want details.”
Pippa shut the door behind her sister. She imagined their duet would become a trio soon enough, but maybe she could sit down for a moment or two before Tess showed up. She walked across the room and collapsed in a chair next to the fire.
“Well?” Pippa asked.
“Well?” Peaches echoed in disbelief, coming to sit across from her. “Is that all you can say? If you ask me, there aren’t words to describe how perfectly hot he is. Where in the world did you find him?”
“I told you where I found him,” Pippa said with a scowl.
“You neglected to mention his absolute hotness.”
“I didn’t tell you everything about him because then I would have had to tell you also about his mousy, tractable, future wife!”
Peaches blinked. “He’s engaged? Then why is he here with you?”
“He took a wrong turn?”
“Oh, I don’t think so, and I think that’s Tess at your door. Better go open it.”
Pippa did, only to have her other sister push past her into her room. Tess made herself at home in Pippa’s chair and shook her head with a low whistle.
“Wow.”
Peaches laughed. “Is that the best
you
can do? He’s dreamy!”
“And engaged,” Pippa said pointedly, “remember?”
“Engaged?” Tess asked in astonishment. “Then why is he here with you?”
Pippa couldn’t bring herself to even look for an answer or point out to her sisters that they sounded like recordings of each other. She ignored the question and sat down heavily in the last chair there in front of the fire. “I tell you both, it’s Karma again, coming to repay me early for as-yet-unexperienced success.”