“So I understand,” Stephen said faintly.
“What’s wrong, Stephen?” she asked lightly. “Too much swordplay this morning?”
“Though I have been shown the depths of my deficiencies,” he said, taking a deep breath, “what worries me more is the deficiencies that will be left in the fenders of my car if I let my uncle anywhere near it.”
“Pippa hasn’t wrecked anything lately but her scooter,” Peaches offered, “but the totaling of that wasn’t her fault.”
Stephen looked pained. “Couldn’t you two take the train—no, don’t answer that. I think you might be safer in the car.” He looked at Pippa. “I phoned my father this morning and told him to expect you. He was happy to host you and who I told him was a long-lost cousin. I’m sure our good Montgomery will soften the blow when he arrives.”
“You like him,” Pippa said with a smile.
“Who wouldn’t?” Stephen asked. “Of course, that assumes that he doesn’t distract you so thoroughly that you plow my car into a tree.”
“Stephen, I can’t drive your car.”
“You’re more qualified than he is,” Stephen said with a snort, “and given that I’m quite sure my uncle will not want me along as any sort of chauffeur, despite my edifying conversation and the potential for hacking at me with his sword, I think I’ll make sure—” He looked over her head, then scowled. “There he is with my keys, damn him to hell.”
Pippa laughed as she turned around, then she stopped laughing abruptly when she got an eyeful of Montgomery in his preferred future uniform. The truth was, the man had been made to wear jeans. She wasn’t sure where Stephen had gotten those lovingly broken-in button-fly Levi’s, but it had been a great acquisition. Montgomery was wearing the hell out of them, along with a T-shirt with
medieval geopolitical warfare expert
written on it—obviously something else of Stephen’s—and a jacket and backpack slung over his shoulder. If she hadn’t known better, she would have sworn he had been born in her time. What she did know was that she would have turned backflips to have had him look at her twice.
As he was doing presently.
“That doesn’t look like a man in love with someone else,” Tess murmured.
“He just told me he was never engaged,” Pippa murmured back. “It was self-defense to get out of marrying Cindi.”
“I could have told you that much,” Peaches said with a snort. “And don’t look now, but I think he has plans for you, sis.”
Pippa agreed. She blushed furiously as Montgomery walked over to her, took her hand, then bent over it and kissed it. Her sisters were making strangled noises of appreciation, which Pippa understood completely.
She was in big trouble. She was beginning to seriously consider the thought of medieval fashion world domination and, frankly, that was really rather frightening. What would she do without Peaches and Tess and big brown trucks delivering vintage goods right to her doorstep? For all she knew,
she
would be the vintage goods.
Montgomery leaned close and whispered in her ear. “One day at a time, Persephone.” He pulled back far enough to look at her seriously. “Nothing is fixed.”
“Are you telling me you’re fickle?” she asked breathlessly.
“I wasn’t talking about my affections. I was speaking of the location of their consummation.”
Stephen cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt, but, Montgomery, old man, you’re going to leave her unable to drive if you don’t cease with that.”
Montgomery straightened and patted his pocket. “My ultimate plan.”
“You are
not
driving my Mercedes,” Stephen said firmly.
“You have no license, and no, you may not claim mine, no matter how much we resemble each other.”
Pippa watched Montgomery consider, then sigh heavily.
“Very well,” he conceded reluctantly. “The reins are hers.”
Pippa looked at a suddenly much-less-stressed Stephen. “Any advice from you?”
“Be ginger on the clutch, don’t speed, and call me if you need more funds. I left you a few quid under the seat.”
“I have gold,” Montgomery said stiffly.
Stephen shot him a look. “When I come to visit your hall, my lord, you can fête me all you like. When you’re in my world, I will see to your expenses.”
Montgomery looked at Pippa. “I will leave him gold.”
“I imagined you would.”
Montgomery walked around the table to shake hands with his nephew, then took Pippa’s gear from her. She looked over her shoulder to see Stephen, Tess, and Peaches watching her with smiles. She waved, then followed Montgomery out of the castle to where Stephen’s car was parked. Montgomery opened the trunk as if he’d been doing it his entire life, then shut it and lovingly stroked the silver-gray metal.
“Ah, what a beauty,” he said with a manly sigh.
“Gimme the keys,” she said, holding out her hand.
He took that hand, then pulled her into his arms. “If I kissed you long enough, do you suppose you might forget my nephew’s instructions?”
“I wouldn’t. He’ll kill us both if we wreck his car. I think he’s very fond of it.”
He sighed lightly, then bent his head and kissed her very chastely on the cheek. “I’ll wear you down.”
“Oh, please don’t try,” she said with an uneasy laugh. “I’m not sure I can get us out of the car park as it is now.”
“You will surrender to me eventually, Persephone. Eventually.”
She had to clutch his arms to stay on her feet. “Are we still talking about the car?”
He kissed the end of her nose, then put the keys into her hand. “You’ll see.”
Pippa managed to get herself into the car without incident, though she was the first to admit she wasn’t all that steady and took a deep breath before she attempted anything more serious. She reached for the gearshift to put the car in neutral only to find the gearshift was on the wrong side of her. The pedals were in the right place, but the rearview mirror was angled the wrong way, the wipers and blinkers were opposite, and she dropped the keys three times before she managed to get them in the ignition. Then Montgomery slid into his seat, shut the door, and began to purr.
“The car?” she asked.
“Nay, you.” He paused. “Mostly.”
She laughed in spite of herself. He was honest, at least. And he wanted to take her to a place his father had built from scratch so she could see what his own keep could look like in time.
“We’ll take our time, Persephone.”
She assumed he was talking about more than getting to Artane, took a deep breath, then concentrated on getting out of the car park without clipping Stephen’s side-view mirror on Tess’s car. She did take one last look at Montgomery before she really got going. She could hardly believe he was sitting there, but there he sat, watching her with a small smile.
“Leave it, love,” he said, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear. “Whatever it is, leave it for now. We’ll go home, walk along the strand, then work out our future. Together.”
Pippa nodded, because she could do nothing else. The truth was, she couldn’t do anything at the moment besides get them north in one piece. The future would just have to take care of itself for a while.
Though she couldn’t help but wonder how extensive the gift shop was at Artane and if they might have a big book on the history of all those born in the keep for her to peruse for pertinent facts about the man sitting next to her, a man apparently torn between touching her and fussing with the radio.
It might mean the difference between life and death.
For them both.
Chapter 25
M
ontgomery
generally had no trouble concentrating on the thing before him to the exclusion of all else. He could ignore with ease conversations, bloodshed, and the babbling of his brothers if swordplay or life demanded his full attention. Unfortunately, that skill seemed to have deserted him over the past three days. He’d been torn between poring over the map Pippa had bought that first afternoon, watching the scenery fly by, and staring without pause at a woman he could hardly watch without feeling his heart break a little more with each moment that passed.
He closed his eyes, but that left the motion of the car making him slightly ill, so he turned his attentions to the map he held. They had taken a fairly circuitous route north, mostly because he’d been curious as to the condition in the future of places he’d known in the past. Those stops had been substantially more unsettling than he had expected, so they had quickly turned their attentions to the great houses and estates that had been built long after his time, which had suited him better. He had submitted to a brief shopping trip to purchase extra clothes, though it had galled him to use funds that were not his own.
Pubs had been pleasant diversions, though he had eschewed the ale in favor of drinks that didn’t immediately make him want to retch. Their accommodations had been nothing short of kingly and he wondered how it was that his modern-day kins-men took for granted the luxuries they enjoyed. He supposed the noises of modern life made up for that, though he would admit that the previous night had been better, with quieter chambers and a quite lovely morning repast prepared by a woman who obviously knew her way about a kitchen.
Which left him nothing, he supposed, but to give in and do what he truly wanted to do, which was stare at the part of the future that intrigued him the most.
Pippa’s brow had unfurrowed in direct proportion to how far away from the south and its environs they had traveled. There were fewer cars, true, but he supposed the reason she was happier was that she’d become accustomed to Stephen’s car—and she hadn’t plowed it into a tree, which had also been one of her worries. His only worry was that he would soon beg her to pull over and then ravish her before he could get them both in front of a priest.
Assuming she would want to stand in front of a priest with him.
He hadn’t dared ask her that specifically, lest he be forced to face things he wasn’t ready to, such as what century they would live in and who would pay the price for that choice. He wished it could have been neither of them, but he knew that wasn’t possible.
He turned his mind to other, more pleasant ruminations, such as contemplating the fact that while he’d known before that his heart was given, the last three days had only convinced him of it beyond all doubt. Persephone Josephine Alexander was a sparkling, intoxicating, delightful creature worthy of Faery’s glittering halls, and he could hardly believe she might possibly be his.
“What are you looking at?” she asked, glancing at him with a smile.
“Your jeans.”
She raised her eyebrow. “What do you think of them now?”
“They are scandalous,” he said lazily, sliding his hand under her hair to trace equally lazy circles on her neck.
“Stop that.”
“Nay.”
She laughed and pushed his hand away. “Stop it, Montgomery. I’m trying to concentrate.”
“We’re in the moors. Not a tree in sight.”
“Then we’ll wind up sinking like the crown jewels, so
stop
it.”
He considered. “What am I allowed to touch?”
“The map,” she said in exasperation. “Where are we?”
He set the map in the backseat. “I don’t need a map to tell me that. We’re twenty leagues from home, give or take a bit. We should be able to see the castle soon in the distance. I don’t suppose we can just cut across those fields, though, can we?”
“Not in this car.” She drove on for a bit, then pointed ahead. “Look up there. I think it’s the sign for Artane.”
Montgomery shook his head. If his father had any inkling his castle would find itself written there plainly on a road sign almost eight hundred years from the time he’d built it, well, he would have shaken his head as well.
And he might have caught his breath, just as Montgomery felt himself do once they turned off the main road and started toward the coast. Artane rose up in the distance, still enormous, still guarding the lands about it for leagues.
Pippa looked at him. “That’s it?”
He could only nod.
“It’s spectacular.”
“Aye,” he managed.
She was silent for a moment or two, then reached over and put her hand on his. “I understand there’s a purveyor of particularly tasty fish and chips in the village, if you’re interested in a brief distraction.”
“I’m going to fat.”
She laughed. “I’ll chase you up and down the beach if you’re that worried. And we don’t have to go eat. Stephen just texted me earlier with the address. I think he wants to make sure you don’t starve.”
“He just intends to eat through my larder should he find himself at Sedgwick during a century not his own,” Montgomery said with a snort.
We’ll need to be prepared
was what he intended to say next, but he forbore. He hadn’t spoken to her about their immediate future past a traveler’s curiosity about what he wanted to see and where she wanted to stay, though he supposed they would need to broach more serious subjects soon.
“Do you want to stop for a minute and catch your breath?” Pippa looked at him with worry plain on her face. “I would understand.”
He looked at her in surprise, then shook his head. “ ’Tisn’t Artane,” he said, then realized he should assuredly shut his mouth or he would say more than he wanted to. “I think too much.”
“I understand,” she said with a faint smile. “I do, too.”
He covered her hand with his own until she needed it back, then he ventured the appalling familiarity of putting his hand on her knee. She didn’t seem to mind it, so he took the opportunity to familiarize himself with a bit more of her leg.
“Lecher.”
He laughed out loud and his gloomy thoughts were banished. “I will have you know that I am the most proper of knights, never taking liberties where they are not offered freely.”
“And just how many liberties have you taken, Montgomery?” she asked tartly.