Authors: Beth Trissel
“Yes, I’ve heard,” Miss Bauer rushed on cheerily, her contact lens-enhanced blu
e eyes searching the assembly.
Her trained gaze honed in on Will as if he were the
very man she’
d
sought
all her life.
“You must be William
Wentworth
! You’re a local celebrity.
Women have been calling the station insisting we do a story on Cole
Wentworth
’s tragic end and your
remarkable resemblance to him.
And now, with this skeleton find, why, it’s a win
win
.”
For who
, Will wondered.
Not necessarily him and Julia, pressing warily against him.
The newswoman inspected her
greedily.
“Aren’t you a charming couple? And both dressed lik
e you stepped out of the past.
Love that loose white shirt,
Mr.
Wentworth
. So cavalier.
And this lovely
young lady in that flowing
gown.
Perfect. Bob
!
G
et the camera over here!
Tell me about her,” Miss Bauer gushed.
“Julia Morrow is from Great Britain,” Will said, keeping a protective arm around her.
Betty Bauer lit up like a guest on Oprah Winfrey’s annual give away show. “Isn’t Julia the name of the English woman Cole and that Scottish fellow, Cameron, quarreled over?”
“Yeah,” Lyle muttered.
“The bloo
dy same, and you’ll be overjoyed
to know it’s him we’ve dug up in the garden.”
The anchorwoman pounced on Lyle and thrust a microphone in his face. “Who are you, sir?”
“Lyle Cameron McChesney, the bloke’s descendent.” He glowered at Will. “Some
Wentworth
, or his mate, did him in.”
Will frowned
at the Aussie.
“
If they did, it was o
nly after Cameron stabbed Cole in cold blood.”
“Unless it was someone else,” Julia said shakily.
Betty Bauer practically fell over the cord in
her scramble to get to Julia.
“Do you have any ideas along that line, Miss Morrow?”
“Only speculation.
Likely it was Cameron, though he may have had help.”
Will noticed Julia poin
tedly kept her eyes from Paul.
Just as well, he didn’t need that addled youth broadcast on the news.
“This is wonde
rful!”
Betty beamed
as if they’
d
shar
ed the gold of the ancient Incas
with her
.
“Now, if you’l
l show us the famous portrait.
Mr.
Wentworth
, we need you posed beside it.
And you as well,
Mr.
McChesney, back in the very room where your ancestor felled the illustrious Cole
Wentworth
.”
“We don’t know for sure he did
,
” Lyle argued.
“Stuff,” Nora
said shortly.
“Everyone knows he di
d.
After me, please Miss Bauer.
”
C
learly
, she was
warming to the publicity.
“You’ll be interested to know we’re performing scenes from
Hamlet
at Midsummer’s Eve.
William plays Prince Hamlet, of course, and
Mr.
McChesney
does credible work as Laertes.
They had quite a duel going this evening.”
“Really?”
A
speculative gleam
lit Betty’s too blue eyes, as though not certain they should be entrusted with swords
.
She and the cameraman nudged Lyle grudgingly after Nora. Will fell into his usual role as keeper of the sacred Cole shrine, and followed behind.
“We’ll want you as well
, Miss Morrow!” the anchorwoman summoned
.
There was no escape for Julia either.
“And of course, we’ll need the skeleton and the weapons he was found with.”
“Just one,” Will said.
“A rusted sword.”
“I understood he had
a pistol on him too?” Betty tossed back
.
“And a knife in his boot.”
“His boots were
deteriorated,” Will amended. “No knife there.”
They’d have Cameron in a suit of armor, next.
Julia spoke
i
n a tone only Will could hear.
“He should have had a silver-mounted dagger with
an emerald in the hilt on him.
I saw it when Cameron slashed Cole’s arm.”
Here they went again with her memories.
But strangely, the jeweled blade glinted faintly in Will’s mind; it d
id seem
as though
Cameron should have
had
it.
****
The news cr
ew and everyone else had
gone
, at least as far as Julia knew. Finally, she and
Will
were alone
.
She
sat beside him
on the stone bench
beneath the fragrant magnolia shari
ng a late supper.
The
almost full
moon poured
a milky
stream
over the garden
and
the
ground lights lent added
illumination to their
picnic.
Julia chewed pensively
on
her bacon, lettuce, and tomato
sandwich
.
A
shadow had be
en growing in her mind all day
, and
was
getting darker.
She swallo
wed, gazing up at Will
.
His partially
lit face tilted toward her,
and she thought as she had a thousand tim
es before how handsome he was.
Somehow, she had to convince him of the impending disaster
she sensed in her very bones
.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” he asked in that
wonderfully familiar voice, carrying
her back two centuries.
She sipped her
l
emonade as if to gain courage.
T
he exchange between them las
t evening hadn’t gone at all well, but this was a matter of lif
e and death.
She mustered the nerve to speak her heart.
“
I know you’ve pushed the past
back
deep inside you
.”
The corners of his eyes and mouth creased in a grimace.
She forged ahead. “And I know why.
But
if ever there were a time to remember
, it’s now
.
We are
both
in
grave
danger. Don’t you see?
Don
’t you feel it like an ill
wind?”
H
eart fluttering
, she waited
for his reply.
Night breezes ruff
led his hair as he considered.
An owl hooted from high in the oak trees, but he
didn’t stiffen
in
evident
o
ffense or turn away.
Rather, he trailed his finger slowly a
cross her cheek and
traced it over her mouth
.
“Ye
s,
sweetheart.
I feel it too
.”
Breath
rush
ed from her in a flood
of relief. The battle was half won.
She clutched his hand, pressing it to he
r lips.
“The
time is near.
Midsummer’s Eve
.”
He sighed heavily
,
and
then drew her into his arms.
His
strength enveloped her.
“A
h, Jules
.”
A thrill ran through her at the beloved name he hadn’t even been conscious of u
sing.
Slowly, slowly, Cole was
return
ing
to her.
Even in the midst of such dire circumstances,
be
ing
with him like this was heavenly.
She cir
cled her arms around his neck.
“Think back, darling.
Try
.”
Wi
ll buried his face in her hair.
“
Some th
ings are too painful to dredge up,
” he whi
spered.
“Like losing you.”
“You haven’t.
I’m here.”
“You weren’t when I lay dying.
L
eav
ing you ate at me more than that
stabbing
wound
.”
A near electric charge
ripped
through
Julia
, flashing
dow
n her spine to
her toes
.
“
You do remember.
”
“More all the ti
me,
” he conceded,
“
especially aft
er finding Cameron’s skeleton.
T
hough
still
not like you
do
.”
She could scarcely
utter a sound
.
He spoke
softly.
“Images scatter in my
mind
like startled birds
.
Makes it hard to trap them
, particularly when I don’t want to.”
“But you could if you tried very hard?”
“
I recall
being in my chamber
that fatal night
.”
“Oh
,
” was all she
manage
d
.
H
e continued in hushed accents.
“I remember
the ache in my arm,
and something more
,
a s
trange lethargy coming over me
and trembling.
”
Julia drew ba
ck and locked her eyes on his.
“Poison
?”
“Maybe.
But how?”
“How, indeed?
The only thing you had was the wine your mother administered
by her own hand
.
She later said.
”
The effort showed in Will’s
eyes as he struggle
d to recollect the unthinkable.
“There
came a
knock at my
door and a summons.
‘
Cameron’s returned
,
’
” someone said.
“
A m
an or woman?”
Twilight shadowed Will’s
intent
gaze,
and the darkness of the past.
“
A m
an
.
I don’t know who.”
“So you pulled on your coat,
thinkin
g to go and fight,” she prompted
.
“
Crossing the room took all my strength
.
”
She keenly
felt
,
as well as saw
,
his struggles
in her mind
.
“You weren’t in any shape to fight.”
“
No.
The wound to my arm must’
ve taken far more from me than I realized.”
She sensed it went well beyond
that, but wasn’t certain.
Nothing in all of these fragme
nts from the past was certain.
“Then what?” she pressed, afraid to ask,
but
driven to know
as much as she could
.