Forever Knight: Thornton Brothers Time Travel (A Thornton Brothers Time Travel Romance Book 2) (21 page)

“But it is raining. I would think that would count. No matter. I know I belong here.”

“With me by your side, always.” He pressed his lips to hers, breathing into her mouth, nibbling her lips as she sighed into him. Now he had only to ask her to be his for all time.

“Would you truly give up the wonders of your time? What about your family?”

Elizabeth stroked Robert’s cheek. “My parents raised me to believe in finding the fun, as they called it. To embrace change and look for the adventure in even the smallest things. They were always traveling around the country. I lived with my grandmother, and she raised me to be independent. The last I heard, my parents were on their way to India for a year. I haven’t seen them in several years.”

As she kissed him, his cheek felt like sandpaper against her lips. The man could shave twice a day and still have a five o’clock shadow. She traced his jaw line with small kisses before sitting back in the chair. “I know they would be happy for me.”

Growling, he took hold of her hair, plundering her mouth. “I could kiss you for eternity.” He ran his hands through her hair, and she remembered him telling her she looked like his horse. Now she knew he meant it as a compliment, even though it came out ugly. He’d almost succeeded in pushing her away.

“I would have liked to meet your parents. My darling Elizabeth, you have made me the happiest man in England to say you will stay.”

A knock sounded on the door. Featherton entered as she caught her breath from the kiss. The man looked the most upset she’d ever seen him. What on earth could ruffle such an unflappable man?

“My lord, lady. Best come into the courtyard.”

As they followed him down the stairs, Elizabeth heard the commotion. The voice made her stop. Robert almost ran into her back.

“It’s him.”

“One of the wheels broke on the carriage. I require shelter.” Lord Radford stood before him.

Robert landed a blow to Radford’s gut.

The man doubled over, gasping for air. “Why did you do that?” Radford hunched over, breathing through his mouth.

“That is for your treatment of my lady.”

Radford ruffled up his feathers. “Your lady? She is mine. I won her fair and square.”

“She is mine now. Consider her payment for me allowing you to stay here and provide you with a new wheel for your carriage.”

Radford huffed and puffed but agreed. Robert laid a hand on his arm. “My servants are off limits to you. I have heard you do not understand what no means.”

The man sneered at him. “The strange lass has bewitched you. Servants are ours to do with as we please.”

Robert raked a look over him. “Nay. Not at Highworth.”

A calculated look appeared in Radford’s eyes. “Shall we have one last wager, then?”

Elizabeth laid a hand on his arm. “Robert. Do not do this.”

He bent down to her, his lips close to her ear, and whispered, “Do not doubt me. I lost on purpose before to send you with him. Only because I thought I could not keep you safe. This time I will not lose, and he will never plague us again.”

He thought she would be pleased, but the fury on her face made him take a step back.

“Haven’t you learned anything? When something is really important, you should not handle it so carelessly. The risk is too great—or don’t you care?”

Radford snorted. “You allow a woman to speak to you thus?”

Robert shrugged away from her. “What are the stakes?”

“For her. Swords at dawn.”

“Robert, don’t.”

He made a pretense of thinking on the offer. “She is too valuable. ’Tis not enough. I also want the three serving women. They would make a fine addition to my household. And, of course, the entire contents of your cellar. I heard you have recently acquired a large shipment of spirits.”

Radford narrowed his eyes. “You have grown lazy with a blade. Too much time drinking, not enough time fighting. I accept your stakes. And if I win—which I will, make no mistake—I will take her, your horses, and your gold.”

Robert inclined his head. “You are welcome at my table to eat. At dawn I will best you.”

Featherton glared at him as he passed by. “If you’ll follow me, Lord Radford, I’ll take you to your chamber.”

Robert trailed his lady to her chamber. The sooner he married her, the sooner he could wake with her every morn. As he entered the chamber, he had a moment to duck before the basin hit the wall close to his head and shattered.

“Are you insane? He could have killed me last time, and now you bet me again? Haven’t you learned anything?”

“Listen to me, Elizabeth. This way I will get the women back for you. Isn’t that what you wanted, to save them?”

She threw up her hands. “Not like this. What if you lose? Did you think of that? Then I will have to go with him again.”

He shook his head. “I will not lose.”

Robert knew he would remember her anger for years to come. The violence burnt so brightly within her that he was surprised she did not burst into flame. Why could she not see that this was the best way to free the women she wished to help? Yet she bellowed at him.

She put her hands on her hips. “But if you do? Are you not honor bound as a knight and lord to send me with him?”
 

Robert had to admit, she had him there. And his brief hesitation cost him.

“I knew it. You would send me back. After all we have been through. All the progress we have made. And now you act like a jerk again. I was stupid to stay here. I want to leave.”

“Where will you go?” She could not leave. Highworth was her home now.

She paced around the room. “I don’t know. Anywhere but here. I’m sure someone would take me to clean for them. I’m sure I can be of use. As long as it isn’t here. I don’t want to live with someone who thinks so little of me he would offer me up like a piece of property.”

“Elizabeth. Calm down. You will feel better after we eat.” And that was the entirely wrong thing to say. She screamed and yelled at him, throwing everything she could reach. Robert decided it was best to leave. He backed out of the room, shutting the door, hearing the pitcher shatter as it hit the wood.

In the hall as Robert made his way to the table, Thomas chuckled. “I’d say that didn’t go as you thought.”

Robert rolled his eyes. “She does not understand. I am the best swordsman around. How can she doubt I will best him?”

Thomas blew out a breath. “For someone who knows so much about women, sometimes you know nothing. You have hurt her feelings. It does not matter if you are the best swordsman in all the land. She feels you do not value her, that you would betray her. And that is why she is so angry.”

Robert hadn’t even thought of it. He believed she would understand why he did what he did. “But I will get back the women she wanted to help.”

“But the way you went about it is not acceptable to her. She is not like women of this time, Robert. You have made a grave mistake.”

Robert let out a sigh. “She refused to come down for supper. I will wait until the morrow. If I go back in there now, she may stab me with the dagger I gave her. When I win, all will be well.”

Thomas looked unconvinced. “If you say so.”

Elizabeth was rethinking her decision to skip supper because she was mad at Robert. While rationally she accepted the idea, the other part of her, the part he’d hurt, rebelled. The man was making the same mistake all over again. She knew he was angry that she thought he could lose, that somehow she didn’t believe in him. But it was always a possibility. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a wager.

She felt like a spoiled brat when one of the servants cleaned up the mess she’d made. Elizabeth had offered to help, but they shooed her away. A replacement pitcher and basin were brought to the room, making her feel even worse for being wasteful when things were much harder to come by in this time. It wasn’t like at home where you could just toss the object in the trash and go buy another. She had behaved badly, but Robert pushed her too far.

She decided things would look better in the morning, and went to bed early. A noise woke her. Where was Gavin? He usually slept on a small bed in the corner. The door to her chamber was open. In her anger, she must’ve forgotten to lock it before she went to bed. When she got up to close the door, there he stood.

“What have you done with Gavin?”

As Elizabeth asked the question, she saw the boy sprawled on the floor in the corridor, a candlestick on the ground beside him.

“He will live.” And, quiet as a rat, Radford stepped out of the shadows, shoving her against the wall, his leg going between hers. He held her wrists so she couldn’t strike him.

He leaned down, smelling like a brewery. “I will have you this night. And then I will kill that Thornton bastard for interfering.”

She managed to hit his forehead with her own, making him release her. There was nowhere to go but in her room. Elizabeth backed in, searching for a weapon. Feeling like the mouse a cat took its time to stalk and play with before killing, she searched for the dagger. And she made a promise to herself. If she got out of this okay, she would keep that dagger on her at all times, even when she slept.

Radford cornered her, punching her in the stomach so hard she doubled over, falling to the floor, gasping for air. He grabbed hold of her hair and pulled her head back, forcing her to look at him. “I will have you tonight.”

Thunder cracked, sounding like it was right outside the window. Rain made wet droplets on the window seat and floor. Lightning lit up the room and she spied the dagger under a blanket on the window seat. She reached for it, but Radford knocked it from her hand. He backhanded her and lunged for the blade.

She’d managed to get to her feet when there was pressure, then cold on her arm. Dumbly, Elizabeth looked down at the blade sticking out of her bicep. At first she didn’t feel anything, then red spread across her sleeve and pain radiated in all directions, sending her back to her knees. Gasping through the pain, she saw Janet slide out from under the bed and run out of the room.

Robert was talking with Thomas when Janet tugged on his arm.

“What is it, little one?”

She screwed up her face in concentration, but nothing happened.
 

“’Tis all right. Speech will come when ’tis time.”

The child stamped her foot and tried again. This time a tiny sound came from her mouth. The high-pitched voice sent ice through his body.

“My lord, come now. He is killing her.”

The child turned and ran up the stairs, Robert and Thomas on her heels.

He reached Elizabeth’s chamber to see Gavin sprawled on the floor.

Janet took a deep breath. “I will tend him. Go.”

As Robert entered the chamber, he saw Radford pull a dagger from his lady’s arm and raise it above his head. Robert unsheathed his sword and cut Radford down with one blow. As the man lay there, eyes open and unseeing, he crawled over to Elizabeth. She was pale as the moon.

“My love, did he stab you anywhere else?”

Her eyes were unfocused as he helped her to sit up. “Elizabeth, where are you hurt?”

Blood seeped from her arm. Robert pulled the ribbon from her hair and bound her arm. As he did, thunder crashed, the wind blew rain into the chamber, and lightning flashed.

Before his eyes, she faded. ’Twas the only way to describe it. One moment he was holding her in his arms, the next he could still see her but no longer feel her. She was going back to her own time. In his foolishness, he had lost her.

“Nay. Do not leave me.” He looked to the heavens, beseeching the fates. “I love her. Do not take her from me.”