Dances Naked (8 page)

“And there’s no hurry on the schooling. We’re going to be busy here building another house for Wallace and Evie and their children so I wouldn’t have too much time for you until this winter anyhow.”

“See, God’s got it all under control,” I bragged. “Hey, I’ll bet you’d like to see the babies. They’re right over there. I have to go see what Wallace and Jenny are up to. They’ve been quiet too long.”

Just then
,
a crash came from the barn. “I’m okay,” hollered Jody from inside of it.

“Well, I’ll go see what happened anyway,” Sarah said with exasperation. “That man has nine lives to be sure
,
but I don’t want him using up one of them with an infection. I’m going to go look for broken skin.”

Sarah and I left for the barn, chuckling like the
two
sisters we had become,
laughing at the skill and adroitness of Jody the swordsman who could still be clumsy just turning around in tight quarters, his broad shoulders knocking pictures off a wall or pitchers off a table.

Ж

Grant had been watching the get-t
ogether of the Pomeroy women and the young girl. The lass was alone now. Maybe she knew how to write. He walked over to her, wearing the smile that he saved for important occasions. “Good day, miss,” he said pleasantly. “Are you here for long?”

“No,” Hannah said cautiously. There was something amiss about a man who came up to a stranger, especially a young woman, and started talking to her without a proper introduction.

“Can you write?” he demanded.

“Yes, sir,” she said softly. She looked around but
didn’t
see anyone. This man scared her and being alone with him was even more frightening. Her whole body was frozen: she was too terrified to yell. What if he killed her before anyone could find her?

“Good! Then you’re comin’ with me,” he said
,
grabbing
her arm as she pulled away from him.
H
e had a tight grip
, though,
and dragged her by
her
elbow up the steps into the kitchen. “Sit there,” he growled hoarsely, trying not to be too loud. Rachel and the baby were still asleep and he didn’t want to wake them. Rachel would be no problem—he could handle her, but that nosy, curly haired healer and that other woman would come in to check on them if they knew that she or the baby were awake.

Earlier
,
he had noticed the fancy quill pen and paper in the cupboard. This family didn’t have much and he wasn’t going to steal these—he was just borrowing them. He opened the cabinet
,
took them out
, and
then thrust them at the girl. “You write what I tell you. And if you don’t,” he said menacingly, “I’ll get you.” He drew his finger across his throat like it was a knife. “And don’t tell anyone about this, you hear?”

“Yes, sir,” she squeaked softly. Her throat was so tight from fear that she probably wouldn’t have been able to yell even if she had seen someone nearby.

“Get Leah at the Moses Hospital in Greensboro, that’s North Carolina, on August 4
th
two thousand thirteen. Okay? Now read it back.”

Hannah took a minute to finish writing what he had said. “Get Leah at the Moses Hospital in Greensboro that’s North Carolina on August for two thousand thirteen,” Hannah said in a whisper
,
then cautiously looked up at him to see if she had the words right.

The mean-
looking man shifted his eyes back and forth
,
as
if
he was thinking about something
, and
then rubbed his chin. “Now write this down, too. ‘Go get Benji at Barden Hall, Scotland in 1990. He has the treasure.’ Now read it back!” he growled this time,
as if
he was mad.

Hannah finished the words then read them back to him. “Go get Benny at Barden Hall Scotland end nineteen ninety. He has the treasure.”

“That’s Benji, you idiot, not Benny!” he yelled.

Rachel started moving with the sudden loud noise and the baby began to cry. “Give me that,” he snorted as he grabbed the still wet paper. He stuffed the cork into the inkwell and grabbed the quill, stuffing both of them haphazardly
back
into the cabinet. “Now
,
get out of here and don’t you tell anyone that you did the writing for me, you hear?” He glared at her and moved his finger across his neck
with that ominous throat-
slashing g
esture, then rushed out the door,
around to the patch of scrub wood at the back of the house.

Grant kept the house in sight as he sat down to look at the parchment. This was going to be so sweet: revenge on the Pomeroys for killing his brother. They may not have been the ones who actually put the noose around Atholl’s neck
,
but he wouldn’t have been caught if it hadn’t been for them. And
,
there was still that major soldier man
who
believed everything that Jody and his son Wallace told him—he’d get him, too. Grant turned the paper over in his hands to make sure he didn’t smudge it any more than it already was. He’d have to figure a way to get this letter to his son, if he ever had one. He’d heard about fairies
,
how they could travel to the past and to the future. The Big Red One’s grandson must be a fairy if he was alive in 1990. And
,
the other woman, Evie, the young tall man’s wife: she had said that her daughter was her nurse in the hospital in 2013. How could a daughter nurse the mother? Grant shook his head. These fairies were queer ones. But
,
he didn’t care if he had to wait over 200 years for revenge. He was going to make sure that this Benji was killed for what his grandfather and uncle did to his brother.

And
,
now he knew what the grandson looked like, sort of. A tall, red-haired man in that small town of Barden Hall shouldn’t be too hard to find. But first
,
this Benj
i
would have to suffer like Atholl did. Surely
,
there was someone in the year 1990 who would like to carve little bits of body parts off the man. If he thought that he could get close enough to this Big Red One, he’d do it to him, too. He shook his head again. Nah, he’d let his son’s sons do it. He looked down at his crotch and frowned. Okay, he’d let his brother’s son’s sons do it. He’d take little Atholl, Jr. as his own
,
just to make sure that his revenge was satisfied. Yes, if he started early, he could make sure the boy got the message. He patted the folded paper. He would make sure that it was passed on to his children’s children’s children until Ben
ji was done in and the ‘treasure’ was found. Who knows? Maybe by that time Benj
i
and his family really would have all the gold and gems that he’d let his heirs believe they had.

Ж

Rachel woke up to a new person in the room. “Hi,” she said sweetly to the gi
rl who looked to be her own age.
  

“Hi,” Hannah squeaked then sniffed repeatedly, trying to keep the tears of fear from falling.

“Are you okay?” Rachel asked.

Hannah didn’t say anything
,
but stood there, mute
,
and terrified.
Rachel recognized the signs of intimidation. There was only one person on this property who would do that to a young woman. “Was there a man in here that scared you?” she asked although she already knew it had to be
what had happened
.

Hannah nodded her head and her tears stopped. It looked like she had a friend who understood what she couldn’t say.

“Did he hit you?” Rachel asked as she sat up.

Baby Atholl Junior was making little mewing noises as he awoke. Instinctively
,
Hannah went to him, picked him up
,
and rubbed his back. She looked at the girl in the bed and asked, “Is he yours?”

Rachel nodded and dropped her arm out of the sleeve of the hospital gown
and
reached for her son. She bared her breast
and
start
ed
suckling him. “He scared you though, didn’t he?” she asked.

Hannah nodded then put her index finger up to her throat and imitated the neck slashing motion that Grant had threatened her with.

Rachel closed her eyes with the painful bliss that was her son nursing for the first time in
nearly a day. H
er milk was starting to come in;
she could feel it. She reached her hand out to the frightened girl next to her. “I won’t let him hurt you,” she said strongly as she clasped her hand, “I’ll kill him first.”

Hannah was shocked at the words
,
but even more so at the fire in the very young mother’s eyes. She looked to be her own age but had the iron jaw set of a warrior. She believed that this woman really would kill that mean man if he tried to hurt her. “Uh, okay, thank you,” she said and nodded. “I don’t really like sayin’ it, but that makes me feel better.”

Rachel’s glare of hatred for her brother melted to compassion for the new friend she had just made by threatening to kill her own kin. Well, he was worth getting rid of. But first
,
she had to figure out how to do it.

August 18, 1781

Lost in North Carolina

M

arty Melbourne was on his own now. He had left the four others back at the impromptu camp he had helped set up. Ian Kin
caid had been seriously wounded:
a hatchet gash to th
e neck and a botched castration.
H
is young son, Wee Ian
, had been beaten, but was alive,
willing
,
and capable of taking care of his wounded father’s needs. Marty’s son, James, and his wife, Leah, were there also
.
  The newlywed couple had traveled ‘back’ in time from 2013 to help him here in 1781.
Soon
they
would be
on their way to live with her mother, Evie. Evie was another time traveler and married to Ian’s cousin Wallace, the son of Jody Pomeroy, Scottish-born soldier, farmer, and American patriot. Evie had undergone a mysterious age reversal so now appeared younger than her adult daughter
,
Leah.

Only last week Marty had sent the cryptic letter requesting
James’s
assistance in this time era, hoping that the sealed epistle would make it to London. He had given instructions with the letter that it be held in trust at the House of Lords until 2013. At that time, it was to be delivered to
James’s
post office box. Evidently
,
all had gone according to plan. James and Leah had arrived yesterday and had given Ian Kincaid the blood transfusion needed to save his life. The act gave substance to the Cherokee Indian legend of the
Nûñnë’hĩ, the
‘fairy,’ who had come and put his spirit into Star Walker, Ian Kincaid, in order to heal his broken body. Now, Ian would live to sire the child, Scout Kincaid, who would become his son
James’s
ancestor.

So, now that his son’s heritage had bee
n assured, he could go back to the 21
st
century to be with the lad’s mother, Bibb, the woman he should have married decades ago. He could also meet the son he never knew he had, Billy Burke. Bibb had secretly birthed then given up for adoption
their
love child,
her
first-born son. Bibb now had liver cancer and needed to undergo a liver transplant. Yes, Marty desperately wanted to go back ‘home’ to the 21
st
century. But first
,
he had to find
his way back to the time portal,
The Trees that marked the magnetic anomaly that facilitated time travel. He already had the other two factors needed to complete the journey: the rare Greek coin and a focus person in the targeted time period, his beloved Bibb
.

“Well, I
thought
this was the right direction,” Marty said to his horse. “At least I remember the creek was on my right and the morning sun was in my eyes on my way in. Crap! You’re turned around, Melbourne! You’re supposed to be going the opposite direction of how you got here! Stop daydreaming about your homecoming and find those trees!”

Marty got off the horse and led her to the creek, allowing her to drink and graze while he pulled out the map and rechecked his location. After ten minutes of looking at the map, turning it 90 degrees, looking at the course of the creek, turning the map again and looking at the creek still again, he decided to take a short nap. “Stay,” he said to the horse
and
grabbed a short length of soft rope out of his saddlebag
to hobble
her. “We still have a ways to go
,
but I can’t think straight. I didn’t sleep a wink last night and i
t’s creeping up on me. Hopefully,
a nap will clear my head because if I don’t get us lined out and started in the right direction, we’ll wind up at the Pomeroy’s before Leah and James. And
,
I’m not even heading that way! Hmph!”