Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (112 page)

And she sipped her beverage, as content as a
cat by the fire.

Niall swallowed. He had put himself back in
the position he most wished to avoid. He had to say something to
keep Viviane at distance, something to undermine her conviction
that they would shortly share a bed, something to make her forget
her intent to charm him.

So, Niall said the first thing that came to
mind, prompted as it was by the smell of a warm sausage pastry.

“
Aye, I should be sorely
hungered if we still were in this washing room. ’Tis good indeed
that we were not delayed there overlong.”

Niall bit into his pastry with gusto.

Through his lashes, he watched Viviane catch
her breath and deliberately decided to make matters worse.

“
Indeed, I cannot imagine
what a man could love more than a warm pastry such as this one.” He
finished it with one hearty bite, quickly claiming another,
smacking his lips and feigning indifference to the lady’s
presence.

Viviane glared at him, her lips tight, then
sat back in her chair. Her eyes shone oddly but Niall refused to
let himself be swayed by the prospect of tears.

Nay, he had a mission. And he could only
fulfill his mission by ensuring Viviane’s desire was not
achieved.

Surprisingly, his own desire to kiss her did
not ease.

Indeed, Niall felt newly guilty for
disappointing her. ’Twas an irrational impulse and he would do best
to not linger upon it.

“
What is the coin of this
realm?” Niall asked, in a bid to distract her and prompt her
chatter once again. The woman loved to talk, after all, and she was
uncommonly good at explaining matters, even if she was prone to
attribute all to magic. “Let me see it. I would not err so
again.”

Viviane obligingly poured it onto the table
between them, though her manner indicated that she was unimpressed
by the chance to explain it to him.

’
Twas unlike any currency
Niall had ever seen before, the rims of the coins unnicked. There
were coins of all hues of metal, instead of simply gold or silver,
and they were most finely minted. There was a regent on one side -
a queen, no less! - which was familiar enough, and an animal on the
reverse, much like the emblems Niall knew well.

The images upon them however were more crisp
than any Niall had ever seen. This he suspected was a function of a
skilled die-maker.

“
Tell me of it,” he
asked.

The lady folded her arms across her chest
mutinously.

“
Viviane, ’tis all I ask of
you,” Niall murmured and saw her heave a sigh.

“
Are you
leaving?”

Niall held her gaze. “Not without you.”

’
Twas true. Just uttering
the words restored Niall’s glum mood, just as the deed clearly
delighted the lady.

“
I knew it!” she cried and
smiled for him again. Niall’s heart began to pound. “I’ll teach you
to love me,” Viviane pledged as she leaned closer, a tempting smile
playing over her full lips. She wrinkled her nose and shook her
finger at him playfully. “And it has been said that I can be
irresistible.”

Niall’s mouth went dry. Indeed, he believed
her claim well enough and could think of several ways to succumb to
her charms right here and now, though he fought to keep his
expression impassive.

Viviane barely noticed his response, her
cheerful manner restored. “This one is a dollar.” She fished out a
copper hued coin and handed it to Niall, the brushing of their
fingers in the transaction sending a tingle over his flesh. He
frowned that she might not guess his response. “They call it a
loonie, though I don’t know why.”

Niall turned the coin in his fingers.
Viviane spoke with good sense - there was naught about it that
resembled the moon. Its color was wrong, too brassy for even a
harvest moon and there was a water bird of some kind upon its
back.

“
And this one is worth two
of those,” she separated another from the pile and handed it to
him. ’Twas distinctive in that it was wrought of two different
metals, one encircling the other in a most skilled fashion. “They
call it a toonie.”

Niall glanced up, puzzled, and she
shrugged.

“
I don’t know why.” She
picked through the pile of smaller coins, laying them out in order.
“These ones are worth fractions of the loonie or the dollar,
whichever you want to call it.”

“
Like shillings and
pence.”

“
Yes, but they divide the
dollar into measures of a hundred called cents. So, this is a
quarter of a dollar, and this is called a dime and is worth ten
cents.”

“
Ten to the
dollar.”

“
Um hmm. And the nickel is
five cents and the penny is a single cent. Then there’s the paper
money.” She unfurled vellum so brightly hued and embellished that
it made Niall gasp. These pictures he could not so readily explain,
though it was clear there was real talent in the making of them.
The green one labeled ‘20’ even had a square upon it that gleamed
like gold held one way, and with the shiny green of a beetle’s back
the other.

He could not blame Viviane for calling this
magic, though Niall hoped he could prove ’twas otherwise.

“
They call it paper,”
Viviane confided in an undertone. “Barb says it’s made of wood and
they use this paper for everything, including books.”

Niall glanced up with surprise. “What of
vellum and parchment?”

“
Very expensive here.”
Viviane shrugged. “Paper is cheaper.”

Niall arched a brow, the idea of goods being
expensive having little to do with his idea of an otherworldly
paradise. His pulse quickened, his certainty growing that he was
right. “And whence does it come, this currency?”

“
You work for it, just like
in Cantlecroft, but get it at the bank.” She pointed to a building
with a large blue sign and Niall marked its location.

“
Moneychangers.”

Viviane nodded and Niall shook his head.
They were everywhere, with their exorbitant interest rates and fees
for services, worse than whores for cheating a man.

Their presence did not mesh with his
expectation of paradise either. All the same, he would visit there
later this day to have his own coin changed, though he would ensure
the moneychangers did not cheat him. They were well known for such
thievery, even in Cantlecroft, and Niall was even more convinced
that this place was more like home than not.

“
Barb pays me to be in the
shop and help her clients. She even lets me read the books so I can
suggest which ones people might like to read and oh, Niall, it’s so
interesting! I never imagined that there were so many books in the
world and so many stories being told, and so many marvelous
kingdoms being described.”

“
Though indeed -” she
leaned closer and Niall echoed her gesture before he caught himself
“- there is much that I do not understand.”

Viviane wrinkled her nose in a most fetching
manner. “They must all be tales of this magical realm, or perhaps
of other magical realms. ’Tis more than a little confusing, though
I must confess, my interest is in the romantic deeds. That I can
always
understand!” Her eyes shone in a most beguiling
manner as she talked and Niall had a hard time keeping his
skepticism in place.

Aye, he could have simply watched the woman
all the day long. No doubt that was her scheme - for ’twould keep
him from learning all he needed to know.

Niall snorted. “I was not aware that any
tales of paradise included the concept of labor for coin.”

Viviane sipped her drink. “Well, I don’t
work very hard.”

“
But you are not there this
day.”

Viviane shrugged. “Then Barb won’t pay
me.”

Niall was a practical man. Even this small
meal had cost considerable measure of Viviane’s coin. They must eat
thrice a day and oft more than this small feast. He could see the
limitations of this system already, particularly as he was
uncertain how long ’twould take to gain the knowledge he now
desired, let alone what measure these moneychangers would give him
in exchange for his own coin.

He and Viviane might spend a good bit of
time in each other’s company. Niall’s heart skipped a beat at the
prospect, though he knew ’twas just Viviane’s spell working its
witchery upon him.

Nay, his sole desire was to win good
apprenticeships for his nephews. And he must remain in the lady’s
presence, ideally sharing her quarters, to ensure that she did not
flee or use her charm to disappear.

’
Twas only the thought of
fulfilling his pledge that made his pulse quicken.

Niall scowled. “And your chamber? You pay
for this with coin or labor?”

“
Money. $200 per
month.”

“
And how much are you paid
by this Barb?”

Viviane ran through the numbers for him,
Niall calculating sums in his head as ever he had done. She
explained her wage and her mode of payment, which meant she had to
explain the odd manner of keeping hours in this place. He added and
subtracted, and was somewhat reassured that they would not
starve.

’
Twas then that Viviane
told him of the healthy tithe taken from her earnings.

“
It’s a tax,” she
explained. “From the government.”

“
What government? I have
seen neither king nor court!”

“
Well, there isn’t actually
one here…”

“
Nay? And what do they do
with your coin? I see no knights, no steeds, no armory. Is all this
hidden away from the eye? What of the master of the market?” He
poked at his over-small pastry. “Does no one police the
measures?”

Viviane dropped her voice and leaned closer.
“I haven’t seen any signs of anything like that,” she admitted.
“And they say the money goes away to Ottawa, wherever that might
be.”

“
Distant kings, who take
coin and grant naught in return! They are no better than thieves in
the night!” Niall roared so loudly that others turned to look. He
shook a finger at Viviane. “You should refuse to pay their tithes,
for no one should pay a due without winning something in
return.”

“
You can’t do that. They
take it from your pay before it’s given to you.”

Niall was appalled. “What manner of
dishonesty runs amok in this land that none are trusted to pay
their tithes and taxes?”

“
It’s just the way they do
things here.” Viviane shrugged. “You’ll have to get used to
it.”

“
I shall never become
accustomed to having my purse raided.” Niall fixed her with a
skeptical glance. “One would think that
Avalon
would be
spared the drudgery of labor, coin and taxes. It has always seemed
to me that those were the inventions of kings of men.”

Viviane looked surprised. “I never thought
of it that way.”

“
There is no other way to
think of it,” Niall said sternly. “You had best return to your
labor this day, for you will have need of the coin.”

Viviane straightened, that hurt flashing
through her eyes once again. “I thought we would spend the day
together.”

“
I have matters to tend,”
Niall said gruffly, staring at the table instead of into those
wondrous eyes. Indeed, he did not dare risk too much of the lady’s
companionship, for he knew already how she could make him forget
his sworn word.

“
I see,” Viviane said
frostily. She put her cup firmly only the table, pushed to her feet
and left, without a backward glance.

Niall watched her walk away through the rain
and felt a nigh overwhelming sense of failure. It seemed he had
done little to ease the fact that she was vexed with him. ’Twas a
conundrum to not be able to lie to the lady, yet at the same time
to seek her favor.

Niall sighed and sipped from his cup. Aye,
he knew that confessing that he was the one dispatched to retrieve
her would do little to improve Viviane’s current opinion of
him.

But she was a witch. And she had enchanted
him. And the guilt he felt was not only magically induced but kept
him from fulfilling his duty.

When Niall thought of matters that way -
without the distraction of a lady’s lovely face - all made good
sense.

Even if it made his innards writhe to know
that Viviane would be the one to suffer the price. Niall
determinedly finished his pastry, being certain to consume every
single crumb.

Sooner begun, sooner finished, he concluded
and pushed to his feet with purpose. Niall’s lips tightened to a
grim line.

First, the moneychangers.

*

Derek moseyed into the bank that Monday
morning to do his weekly cash run and was surprised to find
Viviane’s friend there. Niall seemed to be in the midst of an
argument with the teller at the service counter, but Derek
deliberately minded his business.

He’d better not mention this to Paula, he
reasoned as he counted his bills again at the teller’s counter.
She’d kill him for not eavesdropping on the details.

Derek had no sooner had that thought than
there was no choice but to eavesdrop.

“
You would cheat me!” Niall
roared.

Everyone in the bank turned to look and the
reedy man behind the counter turned red to the tips of his ears. He
tried to apologize, but Niall gave him no choice.

In fact, the man in Derek’s clothes shook a
finger at the clerk. “This ploy of taking my coin for appraisal is
an old one, indeed. I know well enough that you have an accomplice
who will trade the gold for some folly that deceives the eye yet
holds no value. Nay! My coin remains in mine own hand until you
offer the coin of the realm in exchange.”