The Messenger: Mortal Beloved Time Travel Romance, #1 (15 page)

W
e didn’t have
time to dig a perfect grave for Tobias. We hauled large rocks, weighed his body down, and buried him in the pond. Samuel and I held hands as we each said one silent prayer for Tobias’s soul. Then, we raced back to the garrison.

I
n the barn
, I managed to dress in my colonial clothes and covered up the legion of bruises and punctures around my throat. But, I couldn’t cover the body aches, and pains, and stiffness that were settling in from having to fight for my life. I shoved the wet skins under the blankets. But I couldn’t find Angeni’s necklace. Probably lying on the bottom of the pond.

Samuel hugged me lightly, kissed my forehead, and his lips brushed my bruised neck. “I never would have let him get close to you if I believed he was consumed with evil. This is my fault.”

“No it’s not. I knew something was wrong and followed him. Maybe if I left Tobias alone—everything would be just fine. Maybe if I never traveled here—everything would be normal,” I said. “You and Tobias would still be best friends—hunting rabbits, sneaking out after dark, and exploring.”

“Tobias wanted me to take his concoction and travel, but I refused. It did not feel right.” Samuel shook his head. “I know that Angeni travels without potions or medicines. I have no idea how you traveled here. But if you had not? I would never have known it is possible to love this completely.”

“What about Tobias? What do we do now? ”

“We do nothing. We say nothing. There is nothing to be done. “I cannot lose you now, Madeline.” Samuel caressed my head and neck. “Promise me, I will not lose you?” He wiped the tears from my face.

“I promise,” I said. “You will not lose me. You will never lose me.”

“Now, go. Hurry to Elizabeth’s house,” he said. “Do not look back at me in case someone spots you. But know I follow until you are safely home.”

I
slipped
inside Elizabeth’s house, went to my sleeping mat, and lay down. But I couldn’t sleep. I tossed, and turned, and ruminated. Tobias was dead, because of me. Why did he want Samuel to travel? How did he know about Mama? Could his people really have caused our accident? Too many thoughts. Eventually my adrenaline crashed, and I dozed.

I
smelled burnt sage
, lavender and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

From the back seat, I could see the front of Mama’s car jutted out over the guard wire. We hung high between the open-aired parking garage and the riverbank below it. I screamed.

“You’re my good girl, Maddie,” Mama said, her forehead sweaty and bloody as she wrangled the last lock that held me in the booster seat. “We’re almost out of here.” When, some monstrous vehicle rammed us again from behind. Our car lurched forward for a second time, and Mama fell backward into the driver’s seat.

We hung nearly vertical, and I peered through our cracked windshield that distorted the view of the ground far below it.

Except for the creaking sounds our car made, everything else grew deathly quiet. A car door slammed behind us, and someone’s heavy shoes clipped methodically on the concrete. A man said, “It’s time, Rebecca.”

“No! I will not travel this time. I will not abandon Madeline this way.” Mama looked around frantically.

“You have to,” the man said. “If you don’t travel now, your combined weight will tip the car off the edge. You know how to stay alive. But Madeline doesn’t. She won’t survive falling ten stories. She will die, and you won’t even be around to bury her.”

He leaned out over the guardrail and waved at me though the crack in the window. “Hello, Madeline,” he said. “I think I’d recognize you anywhere.”

A thick chunky silver ring shone on his hand. I screamed. “Mama!”

She burst into tears, and shook her head. “No!”

The guy kicked the back of our car, and we teetered like a playground ride gone terribly wrong.

“It’s your choice. Stay and know that you’ve killed your daughter. Or leave, and possibly live to fight another day.”

Mama wiped the tears from her eyes. She reached over the seat, grabbed my hand, and said, “Life goes fast, Madeline. Know in your heart that I never wanted to leave you.” She blew me a kiss, and then let go of my hand.

Leave me?

Mama opened the driver’s door. That didn’t look good. There was nothing between the front seat and the ground but air.

“Now, Rebecca,” the guy said.

“Only if you promise to leave Madeline alone. Stay away from her. Promise me.”

“You know I do not make promises I cannot keep.”

“Fine. Take us both, because I’ll die with her. I will not travel,” Mama said.

“But you have to,” the guy said. Except now he sounded worried, his voice cracked. “We need your—”

“Expertise? Experience? Magic?” Mama asked. “Promise me, Malachi, that you and your people will not lay a hand on Madeline until she reaches the age.”

The car creaked in the wind for what seemed like an eternity.

“I promise you on Hunters’ blood, that we will not touch Madeline until she is of age. But only if you come with us now.”

Mama nodded. “It’s done,” she said, resigned. “Look at me, Madeline.”

I did.

“Listen for my voice. If you hear it, when you hear it, please come to me.” She looked me square in my eyes. “I love you always, my darling daughter.”

Mama stepped out of the car and hovered for seconds in the air. Her face was pure, her eyes clear. Then she plummeted toward the earth, the wind blowing her long hair up into the air.

The car immediately tilted back toward the parking garage floor. The back wheels landed with a thud on the floor. I heard the
clip, clip, clip
of the guy’s shoes as he walked away from our car.

Someone in the garage hollered, “Oh my God! Call 911!”

“There’s someone in the back seat of that car!”

“It’s a kid!”

A small, white bird flew off into the sky, right where Mama had fallen. I realized I was alone, and I screamed again.

E
lizabeth jiggled
my shoulders and woke me. I winced. Every piece of my body hurt. “Another bad dream?”

I nodded and struggled to be back in this world. Not the dream where I just remembered our entire car accident—and how Mama disappeared. She hadn’t wanted to leave me. All these years, all my anger—it wasn’t her fault.

“I am happy you returned yesterday. I know the Reverend Wilkins was harsh, and what he did to your necklace must have felt terrible. But he has to be strict. That is his job.”

“He’s an idiot.” I patted my collar, making sure it was high on my neck, and she wouldn’t spot the bruises. I could always say they were from the Reverend’s violence, not Tobias.

“I made you porridge.” She handed me the bowl and looked at me a little funny. “How did you get mud on your face?”

I shrugged. “I was at the barn for a bit yesterday. Are you feeling okay? How’s the baby? Is Jebediah back yet?”

“The baby and I feel healthy.” Elizabeth leaned toward me and kissed me on my head. She pushed herself to standing and walked off. “Thanks to you. Do not forget we have special church services to welcome our men home from the war.”

“Okay,” I said. We both heard the sounds at the same time.

Yelling and hollering; foot stomping and cheering; crying and laughing. A few gunshots rang out. The troops were obviously home. The celebration had begun. But as quickly as the fireworks began, they disappeared. There was an uneasy quiet. Something didn’t feel right.

Jebediah Ballard flung open the front door to the house, strode in, swept Elizabeth into his arms, and kissed her passionately. He pulled away, and placed his hand gently on her enormous belly.

“You are back. You are back!” Elizabeth burst into tears as I studied my feet, but managed to peek at them. No wonder she was taken with him. While Jebediah was obviously older than her by about fifteen years, he was handsome and in great physical shape.

“I missed you so much, Elizabeth. I thought of you every hour. Every day,” Jebediah said. “How is our child?”

“Alive. Healthy.” Elizabeth wiped her tears away. “We almost lost this child. But Angeni and Abigail helped save the both of us.”

Jebediah backed away from Elizabeth and registered me. “You look different, Abigail.” He eyeballed me.

“I have a scar.”

“War wound,” he said. “You are a relative. Call me Jebediah. Like you used to, before your unfortunate accident. I need you to sit, Elizabeth. I have disturbing news.”

Elizabeth’s face blanched. He held her hand as she awkwardly sat on the chair she used when the school kids were here.

“Who amongst our soldiers did not make it back?” she asked.

“Earnest Young and Raymond Forde were killed in battle. They died honorably.”

“Oh,” she said and collapsed her forehead into her hand, while her other hand clutched her heart.

“I know Raymond Forde was your suitor before we met,” Jebediah said. “His loss will bring you pain.”

“Yes, it will. But Raymond was never more than a true friend, Jebediah. Nothing more…”

Enough. I didn’t know how much more drama Elizabeth could take right now. She was so close to having her baby. The last thing she needed was to go into early labor.

“Excuse me, Jebediah. I think—”

He waved me off, like I was a gnat. “That is not the worst,” he said. “On our way home we passed the Big Rock Pond. The one by the caves.”

“Yes, I know of it.” She looked up at him, her face turning gray.

“We came upon a fresh body washed up on the shores.”

My hands trembled.

“Another wartime casualty?” Elizabeth asked. “Someone we know?”

A lump grew in my throat and my breath turned raspy.

“The body was Tobias. As far as we can tell—it was not a battle. Someone murdered Malachi’s son.”

In my dream I watched Mama step out of our car, and drop toward the earth. A man named Malachi made her do that. I hyperventilated.

“Oh no! Malachi and Tobias were as close as a father and son could be,” Elizabeth said. “He will be devastated.” She wiped tears away. “Do you have any idea what happened? Who would do this?”

Jebediah nodded. “We found this tangled in Tobias’s clothing.” He pulled Angeni’s necklace from his pocket, and stuck it in front of Elizabeth’s nose. “I know you care for Angeni. But she tracked and killed Tobias in a blatant act of revenge.”

“No!” I cried.

“
Do not push me, Abigail
!” Jebediah spat. “I have heard all about your unholy relations with Samuel. You have strained everyone here to his or her breaking points. If inclined, I could have you arrested as well.”

They arrested Angeni.

“No, Jebediah, no.” Elizabeth took his hand. “Abigail saved our baby. It’s a son. I know it. She saved our firstborn son.”

“Really?” Jebediah smiled. “A son, you believe?”

I broke into a sweat, watched the walls close in on me, and stopped breathing. I launched into a full-blown panic attack.

A
pparently
, I lay on the floor for several hours, which felt like days, while Elizabeth applied cold cloths to my head. “It must be a touch of her head wounds,” I heard her say multiple times.

When I recovered from my attack, and could sit up, Elizabeth told me that Jebediah had left the house. Apparently he, Reverend Wilkins, and Malachi were seeing to Tobias’s burial. Angeni was already under arrest. They imprisoned her in a tiny cell, almost like an underground shed, attached to the church.

“How can they believe Angeni killed Tobias?” I asked. “She’s nearly blind. There’s no way she’d be able to track him to wherever that pond is.”

“Everyone knows Angeni is magical. She is different. Jealous people have called her a witch. It is the necklace. That is really the only proof,” Elizabeth said. “Are you feeling better?”

I didn’t know what I was feeling anymore. Guilt. Enormous guilt. This was all my fault. I felt terror. Panic. Excruciating sadness. “What will they do to her?” I asked.

“They will try her. If found guilty, they will hang her,” Elizabeth said.

“Will anyone testify for her?” I asked. “Will anyone come to her defense?”

She sighed. “No.”

A
ngeni’s trial
was held the next day in the church. Seems the garrison’s entire population had shown up, and there was a waiting line to get in. I caught my first glimpse of Malachi when the crowd parted for him to enter the building.

He was an older Native man. He was dark-skinned with a tuft of black hair adorned with three feathers sprouting from the top of his shaved head. He was lean, ripped, and had an athlete’s body. His eyes were weathered, but knowing. His lips were thin and hard. He wore a thick, chunky, silver ring on his left hand, and was dressed in animal skins, not unlike those I wore the night I tracked Tobias.

After the jurors entered, the crowds pushed and shoved to get in to see the show. Despite Elizabeth’s requests for me to stay away—I had to be there. I had to support Angeni. But, as I elbowed my way into the church, Daniel and one of his friends grabbed me, and yanked me back from the church steps.

“Hey!” I said.

Daniel replied. “If you are here, you will only make things worse for everyone.” They escorted, (aka, dragged) me back to Elizabeth’s house where we waited. I didn’t put up a fight, or try to escape. I knew that this time—they were right.

Daniel came and went throughout the trial, giving us updates. The news was passed from a person close to the church door to the people gathered outside because Angeni’s trial was standing room only.

Three witnesses for the prosecution were called. One testified she had seen Angeni practicing black magic: summoning the demons and shape shifting into a wolf who ate colonial babies after they were born. That’s why so many of the garrison’s children died in infancy.

Another witness swore under oath, that Angeni was a spy for King Philip. She’d sneak into the woods at night and give Philip’s liaison a full accounting of where the colonial troops would be, and how he could best attack them. Apparently, she was also a mind reader, and knew what the colonial generals were planning.

The last witness testified she once overheard Angeni talked about the future. Shiny fast-moving ways to travel. Tall buildings that rose almost one hundred stories into the air. But yet families still loved each other. Could you imagine that? Families still loved each other.
Another heinous crime.

The Reverend Wilkins called for witnesses to speak on Angeni’s behalf: no one came forward. Not one person whose fever she lowered, whose broken arm she set, whose child she saved from a dreaded infection.

The verdict was handed down within minutes following the testimony. Angeni was found guilty. The Reverend Wilkins sentenced her. She would be hanged the next day on the commons.

I lost it. I screamed and cried. Elizabeth tried to make me drink the medicinals, but I refused. To say I was in shock was an understatement. I had to find Samuel. I think Daniel and his friends had kept him out of sight as well. They did not want to fan the flames of this crowd’s insane anger worse than it already was.

“Where is he?” I asked Daniel. He just shook his head. “Where is Samuel?” I asked Elizabeth.

“Where is he always?” she replied. “Go to him. Just hurry back, I beg you.”

I
found
Samuel at the barn. He hunched over Nathan’s stall. No longer was he filled with confidence. He looked worse than beaten. “I am so sorry.” I hugged him as hard as I could. But it was like hugging a stone. He didn’t lift even one finger to touch my face or my hand.

I pulled away from him. “I have a plan. I will go to Jebediah and the Reverend. I will tell them I borrowed Angeni’s necklace. That it was me who tracked Tobias that night.”

“They will not believe you, a colonial girl, tracked Tobias, a Hunter, outside the garrison’s walls.” Samuel stroked Nathan’s mane.

“I will make them believe me. I will show them my bruises, my wounds where Tobias attacked and tried to kill me. They will punish me, they will put me in the stocks, beat me, but they won’t hang me. They won’t kill me.”

Why wouldn’t he look at me? Oh, no. Samuel blamed me. And he had every right.

“You cannot do that,” he said.

“Why not? It will save Angeni. You and she can leave and be done with this place.”
Please forgive me and take me with you.

“I went to Reverend Wilkins and General Jebediah. I told them Tobias and I were hunting. That we argued, fought, I killed him, buried him, and took full responsibility,” he said. “They did not believe me. This is entirely my fault.”

“It’s not your fault, Samuel. You can’t say—”

“It is! I fell in love with someone I was not allowed be friendly with, let alone love. I courted you; I encouraged Angeni to help me. I shared my feelings about you with Tobias. Everything that happened is a direct result of actions I had no right taking.”

“But we can save Angeni. You of all people cannot watch her die. She is a mother to you.”

“We cannot save her. And I will not watch Angeni die.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am leaving.” He walked away from the stall.

Strike another blow to my heart.
I couldn’t stop myself. I slapped him as hard as I could across his face. He just took it, his head whipped to the side. He wiped a speck of blood from his lower lip.

Oh, no. I was the most awful person in the entire world.

“I’m sorry. I am so sorry! But you can’t leave,” I cried.

“I have no choice.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I do not. Malachi’s a Hunter. If you and I leave together, he will figure it out immediately, and will hunt you. You must pretend to be Abigail. Play the game. Give it time.”

“I’ve given it enough time.” I bit my lip.

“Give it more. Perhaps, you will find your way back to your life in the future. You will meet a man from that time who loves you and can make a normal life with you. I cannot give you a normal life. Right now, I cannot give you any life.”

Please don’t go. Don’t go!

He walked toward the door.

“You leave now—and you’re no better than any guy I ever met in my real life,” I said. “Who cares if you are a Wampanoag man, a ‘Child of the Morning Light’? Does that count for anything, if you can’t stick out a little darkness? If you leave now—you’re just another self-centered, arrogant guy, who comes and goes as he pleases.” I balled my hands into fists and tried to cover the shaking.

Please be real. Please be the guy who loves me forever.

He looked at me. “No matter what our destinies, I will love you forever, Madeline.” And just like that he left through the small door. He was gone.

By the time I dragged myself back to Elizabeth’s house, my eyes were nearly swollen shut from the tears I cried.