“Oh,” she said dreamily. “You look good.”

  He exhaled as if he’d been holding his breath for a long time, then smiled slightly. “So do you. We should take pictures later.”

  “Yes,” she laughed softly. “So what does Elizabeth—oh, she’s Elizabeth of York! Right.”

  He quirked his brow at her and nodded. “Aye. What is said of her in the future?”

  Kes remembered that Elizabeth was Edward’s daughter, sister to the two princes. Nicholas loved Edward and his children, including Elizabeth. “Historians believe she was very well loved by everyone who knew her.”

  He smiled more fully, looking genuinely pleased by her news.

  “And it is said that she and Richard were lovers.”

  His smile faded. “Aye. It seems to be true.”

  “She will do well.”

  “Married to whom?”

  “The victor of your war.”

  His smile deepened on her. “I do not want to know about anything but you,” he told her on a raspy voice and came a little bit closer.

  She held her breath. She missed him. She missed how he smelled and how he looked and how he moved. She wanted to tell him.

  “Come back to the castle,” he beckoned. “Richard will not find any interest in you now. He will be leaving with me to return to Nottingham. You may stay until you return to your time.”

  “But what about—”

  “Forget everything else and just come back with me.”

  She remained quiet but she couldn’t forget everything else. He’d been right to stay away. But he hadn’t done it just because of Richard. He’d left her at Walter’s and stayed away because he wanted to forget her.

  “Does this mean you’re no longer worried about getting to know me more or—?” She remembered where he’d gone with this originally. So did he apparently because he stared at her with a subtle smile that made her knees weak.

  “Nothing has changed.” His voice was low, like a rumble as he leaned in closer. “I still want to hold you and kiss you. Mayhap more now than before.”

  Her heart beat so frantically she was almost sure she would pass out if he kissed her.

  He came close, but Mr. Simeon appeared. In fact, he appeared right beside her.

  He didn’t stay long. Kes estimated it took less than one second for the sharp blade of Nicholas’ dagger to slice a thin line down the traveler’s cheekbone, and then Simeon was gone.

  “Nicholas, no!” Kes shouted and held out her arms to stop him. She looked around—and then she looked at the man she’d realized she was falling in love with a minute ago. He appeared horrified, wide-eyed. His hands were shaking.

  “What kind of magic is at work here?” He looked around also, but his eyes were searching for witnesses, not his victim.

  “He’s—”

  Mr. Simeon appeared again, holding a white cloth to his cheek. “You cut me,” he said, sounding more mystified than angry.

  “He didn’t mean—”

  “I meant it,” Nicholas corrected her. “He is fortunate I did not kill him.”

  “Um, Nicholas,” she turned her face away from Simeon and said on a whisper that grew louder as she spoke, “I would use caution. He can disappear and reappear behind you an instant later with an axe and bash your brains in.”

  “’Tis all right,” Simeon told them, hearing her. “I wouldn’t kill a man with such skill, especially one who is so generous with my payment.”

  “Ah,” Nicholas frowned. “Walter hired you to help take her home.”

  The traveler nodded and wiped the blood from his wound. “I am Roldan Simeon, a colleague of Walter’s. No one has cut me before.”

  “Sir Nicholas de Marre, Earl of Scarborough, Commander of the king’s army.”

  “You are very quick, Commander.”

  “As are you,” Nicholas allowed. “Now tell me what you are. A witch?”

  He said the last word as if it were poison on his tongue.

  “I’m not a witch, but I was cursed by one to travel through time for the remainder of my existence. To never settle down or enjoy relationships.”

  Nicholas shifted his gaze to her while Simeon spoke. She wanted to look away from the fear she saw in his eyes. Fear for her. And from the sadness that he was going to lose her to the future.

  “You can move through time,” Nicholas asked him.

  “Yes. As I said, ’tis a curse. Thank you for your sympathy.”

  Nicholas ignored his jab. “Are you going to take her back?”

  “You mean forward, don’t you?” Simeon flashed him a toothy grin.

  Still paying no attention to him, Nicholas gazed at her. “Am I too late? Is he taking you home, Kes?”

  “He’s trying,” she told him and turned to Simeon. “Is there any news?”

  “Yes,” said the traveler, making her heart accelerate again. “As I suspected, the brooch is impossible to get. It has been returned to the Lady of the Lake. And as skilled and adept at thieving as I am, I’m afraid no one has ever gotten into Avalon who was not invited.”

  So, that was it then? She was never going home?

  “As discussed,” he continued, “I cannot take you. You need a conduit, an instrument like the brooch. Rest assured, I am searching for one.”

  “You have our thanks,” Nicholas told him. “If you must speak to us again, we will be at Scarborough Castle. You will use every caution not to let anyone see you appear or disappear and think you a witch. If you are careless, I will not be. I will kill you before you can escape. Understand?”

  “Maybe I should just stay here,” Kes interceded on Simeon’s behalf.

  “No.” Nicholas softened his tone when he took her hand. “Come back with me. A little bit of time spent with you is better than none.”

  She agreed. Was it a mistake?

  “Well, I will see you both again…eh…with discretion. Right now, I have a lock to pick and a diamond necklace to steal.” Simeon didn’t wait for their reply but disappeared before their eyes.

  “Nothing is safe with him,” Kes shook her head looking at the empty space.

  “There was no shimmer,” Nicholas noted.

  “No,” she agreed and started back for the house to retrieve what few possessions she had. Mostly, her two dresses. “Do you think it’s a good idea to go back to the castle?”

  “Aye. ’Tis a good idea,” he said as though he had no concerns whatsoever.

  “Goodness,” she smirked then laughed a little. “What exactly did Elia tell you?”

  “She mentioned that you missed me, and something about suffocating. I cannot remember.”

  She gave his arm a little slap. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her in close.

  “I feel the same way, Kestrel,” he said against her lips, “’Tis as if I’m dying of thirst and there is no water for my parched throat.”

  He ran his fingers over her temple, her cheek. He looked into her eyes as if something vital to him was there. He kissed her, softly at first, breathing her in. As his kiss grew deeper, his arms closed around her.

  Oh, if there was any magic at work here, it was his touch, his kiss, his embrace. She never wanted to leave him, and maybe she was never going to.

  The brooch was gone. She didn’t want to take a chance and use just any old vessel to get home. She might step into a nightmare. She was most likely going to live out the rest of her life here.

  She broke away from his kiss, his steel embrace with just a gentle shove.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “My father. My friends. The people I work with. I probably won’t ever see them again.”

  He said nothing but looked down.

  This wasn’t his fault. She smiled and took his arm as they stepped inside Walter’s house. “I’m glad you’re here with me, Nicholas. You’ve eased the shock and drew my attention to you. You’re the only thing that could keep me from going mad at all I’ve lost.”

  “After you mourn,” he said in a low voice when they saw Walter coming down the corridor to greet them, “maybe you will find room in your heart for a new family.”

  Did he mean him and the children he wanted to give her? Or him and the people in the castle? Maybe it didn’t matter.

  “My lord,” Old Walter greeted. “’Tis good to see you back so soon.”

  Soon? Kes thought. It had been days!

  “Thank you, Walter. I will be seeing to Miss Locksley now.”

  “Of course, my lord,” the old man said with a smile. “It was a pleasure having her stay here. She is welcome anytime. Anytime at all.”

  After she gathered her dresses, she set them all down again to hug Walter. “I’ll come back and visit.”

  “I would enjoy that!” he exclaimed when she withdrew. “I will have a feast made in your honor!”

  She laughed. “Who am I that I should be honored?”

  The old merchant smiled looking at her. “A very dear friend to us all.” He turned to Nicholas with a slight sigh. “She informed all the servants that they should have two or three breaks a day, where they could roam the grounds and do as they pleased—”

  “Without damage, of course,” she interrupted.

  “Because they live here.”

  “Yes.” She widened her smile on her new dear friend. “If they learn to rest and play here as well as work, they will love it here more.” She turned to Nicholas, who was watching and listening, and smiling with them. “And if they love it here, they will give it their best care.”

  “She is wise, my lord.” Old Walter put his arm around her shoulders and turned to Nicholas.

  “Aye, Walter. She is many things.”

  When they were outside and alone, she took his hand as they walked. He looked down at their entwined fingers after a moment. “Did you want me to follow you?” When she shook her head, he looked at their hands again.

  “I just want to hold your hand while we walk, Nicholas.”

  “I have seen some people do it,” he admitted.

  She laughed and swung their hands back and forth between them.

  He pulled her closer as they reached the horses and coiled his arm around her neck. “You are changing things,” he said.

  He was right. She hadn’t even thought of it that way. What was she doing? She wasn’t Norma Rae, starting unions for better rights for workers. This was the middle ages! Things were supposed to be this way!

  But…couldn’t she just help make things a little better for people if she could? “Yeah, I’ll let up on that a little.”

  “I will put you in charge of grievances.” He smiled and helped her up into her saddle. “Temporarily, I mean.”

  She lowered her gaze to his lightning streaked eyes, his quirked lips. She made him happy again. He didn’t have to say it. She could see the difference from when he first arrived all over his face. He tempted her to toss every hope of getting back to the future right out the window. “Nicholas,” she said softly, meaningfully. “If the brooch is gone, so is my past.” She swiped a tear away for her father. “I don’t trust anything else to get me back home—unless there are a pair of ruby slippers around that I can click three times and go home, I’m staying.”

  He looked a little confused, probably about the slippers but looked off into the distance and nodded. What else could he do? Jump up and down with happiness that she would never see the people she loved again?

  She watched him leap up into his saddle and turn to her. “What about these magical slippers? Where did you hear of them?”

  Her smile returned. “They aren’t real. They’re from a book I read when I was a child.”

  “Tell me of it. I like listening to you.”

  Kes thought that was the nicest thing anyone ever said to her. She happily obliged and began telling him the story, and then broke out into song.

  She was enjoying herself so much that she didn’t realize Nicholas had stopped his horse and was watching her, grinning from ear to ear at her singing or the song. She didn’t know which.

  She told him the rest of the story and how she was sure some of the characters scared the crap out of little kids.

  They took their time riding back. He seemed very interested and taken with the story. That was probably why he noticed the change in her mood at one point.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Just another song,” she told him and looked forward at the road.

  He rode a little closer. “What is it about this song that makes you sad?”

  “Nothing, I—”

  “Sing it for me,” he requested.

  She cut her gaze to him and doubted she could refuse him anything. She began to sing it and when she was finished, tears were streaming down her face.

  He remained quiet while she wiped her eyes. She didn’t mean cry over it. It was just a song about a rainbow but the yearning in the melody revealed Dorothy’s desire to go home.

  Kes knew what he thought. “Nicholas, please understand—”

  “Kestrel,” he said in a low voice, staying close by her. “I understand. Do not fret over what I may or may not be thinking. If you do not find a way home, you will have lost much. I understand the pain of that. Though I was only seven summers when my family was murdered, I had lost everything, too. Even after Edward took me in and treated me like his own son, I mourned.”

  Her tears started up again and flowed more freely.

  After a moment of him shifting uneasily in his saddle, he pulled her into it with him. “I should have known you would do anything to get back into my lap. Look at you.” His deep, luxuriant voice enveloped her and she smiled in spite of what she felt. He pretended to hold a phone and snap a photo of her. She posed on instinct alone.

  “Should I have screamed for help to prove to you that I can resist your oafish charm?”

  He laughed, looking stunned at her insult, and then he grew more serious, more sensual. “You cannot resist it. Oafish or not.”

  She leaned into his chest and closed her eyes. “It’s you who can’t resist me,” she countered with playful sigh. “It was you who insisted I sing a song that was obviously making me sad. You knew it would make me cry and then you could have me where you wanted me.”

  “Woman, I can toss you back into your saddle as quickly as I dragged you out of it.”

  “No, you can’t,” she challenged. “I’m not moving.” She swung her leg over the saddle and sat sideways on him. She turned her body and wrapped her arms around his waist and chest. He was as hard as armor, but there was only flesh beneath his léine. She pressed her face close to his chest and held on.

  Instead of acting out his threat and pushing her away, he slowed down the horse and leaned in, closing his arms around her and resting his face in her hair.

  “Do not move from me, Kestrel,” he pleaded. “Stay just where you are. For you are mine. I will give you everything you have ever wanted if you will stay where you are.”

  “I’ll stay,” she breathed against him. Where else would she go? What other man in the fifteenth century might have done the unthinkable to her, knowing she had no family, no one else here? What other man in any century was like her knight?

  “I want to stay where you are, Nicholas.”

  He loosened his hold and smoothed back her hair. “The last few days without you have been agonizing. I cannot remember what I did with my days before you.” He slipped his fingers beneath her chin to tilt her face to his. “I don’t know how I would live without you if you left. But I would figure out a way to live.” He kissed her mouth softly. “I will do everything I can to help you find a way home, until or unless this becomes home for you.”

  She closed her eyes and parted her lips to receive him when his mouth covered hers. His tongue pushed through the barricade of her teeth and swept inside her, stroking and caressing, branding her like a hot iron.

  She was his. Yes. This was what she wanted. To be swept off her feet by a knight. She wanted him and nothing else.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Nicky!”

  Nicholas smiled and stopped on the wall, overlooking the village and the water beyond to wait for Elizabeth. He was glad she was here at Scarborough Castle. He missed her. He missed her father, her family…her brothers.

  “Nicky, are you off to think and brood, or would you mind some company while your lovely Miss Locksley helps Cook prepare berjes.”

  “Burgers,” he corrected gently and held out his arm to her. Although she’d grown to a woman of nineteen years, he would always see her as a pudgy-faced little girl with golden hair and inquisitive dark green eyes. She’d always been out of breath from running here or there and her cheeks were always red against her alabaster skin. In that, she had not changed.

  “Is something on your mind, Lizzie?” he asked her as she took his arm.

  “I received a letter from mother last night. I thought you should know. Henry Tudor has landed in Wales. He is amassing forces.”

  “How many men?” Nicholas asked. Heart pounding. Battle. It was what he lived to do and did well. His blood coursed quick through his veins.

  “Mother says five thousand men.”

  “With our reinforcements in Nottingham and Leicester we outnumber them.”

  She quirked her perfectly shaped brow at him. “You will remain loyal to Richard then?”

  “Of course.”

  “He has lost many supporters.”

  “I know,” Nicholas told her.

  “He is fortunate to have you, Nicky.”

  Nicholas didn’t want to tell her that Richard didn’t have him. Let her think someone remained steadfast to the man she loved.

  “Henry plans to hit hard and fast.”

  “You would use your mother’s information against her?”

  Her large olive eyes grew rounder and filled with tears. “I cannot help that I care for the king, Nicky.”

  “I do not condemn your heart, Lizzie. I just want you to be happy.”

  “But Henry is my betrothed. He pledged himself to me when my father died.” She swiped tears from her eyes. “I haven’t seen him in quite some time. Two years actually. He was kind to me, but shy. I cannot help feeling like prized cattle awaiting the winner.”

  “I know, Lizzie.”