Time Travel Romances Boxed Set (132 page)

The guard fell soundlessly. Niall hauled him
out of the way and eased the door shut behind him. He divested the
guard of his keys, his boots, his helm and his tabard, donning them
all in a hurry. He bound and gagged the guard deftly, using the
man’s own hose to render him helpless.

“
Matthew?” he
muttered.

“
Aye?” The boy’s voice
wavered in the darkness.

“
Hit him again if he so
much as stirs. I entrust you with this task.”

“
Aye, Uncle,” the boy
agreed, his assent launching a tirade of questions from the
others.

“
But Niall, what are you
doing?” Majella cried.

“
Where are you like going?
What’s happening now?”

“
Be
silent
!” Niall
chided, then hauled open the door. He heard a flurry of movement,
and someone brushed against him. He assumed ’twas Matthew and
hissed a warning to the others. “Stay here and feign sleep. I will
not be long.” Niall fitted the key the guard had held into the lock
once more, then checked the corridor between himself and the
exit.

No one but Odo in his chamber. Perfect.

He would fret about the guards in the keep
above once he encountered them.

Niall took a deep breath and stepped out
into the corridor, feigning nonchalance as he reached back to pull
the door closed behind himself. He paused. In truth, he was peering
down the hall, growing accustomed to the way this helm restricted
his vision. Reassured, he pulled the door shut with a clang and
turned the key.

“
And be quiet, you
miserable lot!” he roared in the very same moment that he saw that
he had been followed.

Too late Niall realized that that soft brush
of cloth had not been Matthew.

It had been Viviane.

A remarkably determined Viviane. She stood
with her arms folded across her chest, undaunted by the glare Niall
fixed upon her. Now that he had slammed the door so decisively, he
could hardly open it again without drawing the attention of other
guards and prisoners.

“
You will not escape
talking with me,” she declared in a heated undertone.

Niall cast a desperate glance down the
corridor, finding that mercifully they were yet unobserved.
“Viviane, this is neither the time nor the place…”

She poked him hard in the chest and her eyes
flashed. “Then I will follow you until it
is
the time and
the place, until we have talked about what has happened here and
until I know exactly what you’re thinking! Niall of Malloy, if you
think for one moment…”

Footsteps sounded in the cross corridor and
Niall clapped one hand over Viviane’s mouth. She gasped as he
hauled her back into the shadows. He stood facing the corner,
Viviane sheltered before him, her pulse fluttering beneath his
hand. He glared at her, hoping she could see enough of his eyes to
believe the seriousness of their situation.

“
Be still!” he muttered,
daring no more than that. Niall prayed first that Viviane could not
be seen, and second that she did not choose this moment to
challenge him.

A guard paced past Odo’s chamber with heavy
footsteps and glanced in their direction.

Niall’s heart stopped when that man halted,
and he was certain ’twas all gone awry before he had even
begun.

“
All well,
Paul?”

Niall said the first thing that came to
mind. “Having a piss in the corner, ’tis all,” he retorted
gruffly.

The other guard chuckled. “I leave you in
peace, then.” He saluted mockingly. “Enjoy.”

He turned and strode away. Niall did not
dare to breathe until his footsteps faded from earshot. And then,
he was not inclined to take his hand from Viviane’s mouth.

Not until he had had his say. “You are not
coming with me,” he said, his tone low and savage. “’Tis neither
your place nor your task.”

Viviane protested beneath the weight of his
hand and Niall gave her an impatient shake.

Time was wasting!

“
Viviane! ’Tis
dangerous
! I will not risk your welfare in this!” He dropped
his voice to a growl. “The best deed you can do is return to the
cell and ensure that all remain calm.”

“
Never!” the lady uttered
beneath his hand. Before Niall could swear, she squirmed and pulled
his hand to her chin. “I’m going with you, to make sure your
welfare isn’t risked,” she said with that stubborn tone he had
begun to recognize.

“
I forbid it!”

“
Then I will follow you,”
Viviane insisted.

The worst of it was that Niall knew she
would do it.

“
What manner of woman are
you to show such disregard for your own welfare?” he demanded with
no small measure of annoyance.

To his astonishment, Viviane smiled. “I’m a
writer,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “And you were the one who
assured me that I should do my research.”

“
What nonsense is
this?”

She tapped him in the middle of his chest,
that admiration dawning in her eyes yet again and seriously
affecting Niall’s determination to leave her behind. “I want to see
a hero in action. You’re going to get my moonstone, aren’t
you?”

And Niall smiled despite himself. He shook
his head but she smiled up at him, so certain of his course that he
had to challenge her. “What makes you think as much?”

“
It’s the only way out.”
Viviane smiled. “We can all wish upon it and be gone. But there’s
no way that all of us could retrieve it without being caught. And I
know that if anyone can get us out of this, it is you, so you must
be planning to fetch the stone and return it here.”

Niall studied her, the light in Viviane’s
eyes bolstering his conviction that he truly could repair all that
had gone awry. Indeed, ’twas hard to resist the temptation of
spending a little longer in Viviane’s company before they were
parted for all time.

“
You will do as I bid you,”
he insisted gruffly, knowing full well that she would not. He
gripped her shoulders and stared down into her marvelous eyes even
as her smile broadened. Indeed, he suspected that he had not fooled
her a whit - she seemed just as persuaded as ever that he was her
knight.

And Niall could not honestly say that he was
disappointed. Still he had to guard his tongue and not give her a
reason to be unhappy once their paths parted as indeed they
must.

He did not trouble to correct the false
assumptions in her summary of his plan. ’Twas true he meant to
retrieve the stone, ’twas true that he intended to bring it back
here.

But that was so Viviane and Monty could
leave as one. Niall briefly considered the wisdom of fetching Monty
now, but discarded it immediately. The man could not keep silent
and he was too odd in appearance. He would attract attention, the
last thing they needed.

To be sure, so might Viviane, but Niall
could not deny himself this last indulgence of her company.

“
You will heed me, you will
do
naught
that is reckless. And you will be
silent.”

The lady threw her arms around Niall’s neck
and kissed the tip of his nose through the front of the helm,
nearly bouncing in her anticipation.

“
I knew you would let me
come,” she declared gleefully. “Just as I know that I’ll get the
truth out of you. You must have some feelings for me, regardless of
what you say, and I’m not leaving your side until I know the truth
of it.”

Niall’s blood froze that she should be able
to read his thoughts so readily as that. He glowered at her, to no
visible effect.

But Viviane appeared jubilant and Niall knew
there was only one matter that made her so happy as this.

Zounds, but she was going to talk of love
again!

’
Twas only a matter of
time. And Niall knew himself well enough to know that he was a poor
liar, certainly poor enough that Viviane would not be
deceived.

He had no time to waste.

“
Where are we going?” the
lady demanded. “And what are we going to do? How are we going to
save the others? I just knew you would have a plan, because that’s
what real heroes do - they have a plan and they take a chance and
they put themselves at risk to see the people they care about safe,
and you know…”

Niall enforced his dictate for silence in
the only way that he knew for certain would work. He caught
Viviane’s jaw in his hand, bent down and kissed her soundly.

As ’twas likely to be his last taste of the
lady, he made it a kiss to remember.

Indeed, when he was done, Viviane clutched
his shoulders as though she could not trust her legs to keep her
upright. She ran the tip of her tongue across her lips so slowly
that he nearly kissed her again. Niall’s heart thundered as Viviane
stared up at him with wonder, as though he had hung the stars in
the firmament.

That sense of invincibility redoubled in a
most intoxicating way. Niall grinned down at Viviane and tapped the
tip of her nose with one fingertip. Truly, he could not resist
teasing her.

“
Finally,” he said, heaving
the sigh of a man sorely tested. “Silence!”

And before Viviane could comment or even
gasp, Niall pivoted. He seized her hand and led her down the empty
hall at a hasty pace. Truly, they had already lingered
overlong.

For Niall knew there would be no second
chances this night.

*

Viviane realized very quickly that her
impulsiveness could cost them both dearly. Niall, after all, looked
just like any of the other guards in the keep and could have passed
undetected without her presence beside him. But even with Odo’s
cloak over her shoulders and the hood over her hair, Viviane was an
oddity whose presence prompted questions from all they
encountered.

After the second intervention, Niall clearly
got tired of making up tales, then having to knock out the
questioner anyway. He cut right to the chase - as Monty would have
said - and took the third sentry down before that man could even
open his mouth. Niall had harvested a sword from the first sentry
and a dagger from the second, now entrusted Viviane with the dagger
of the third.

“
Hide it,” he instructed
tersely, gripped her hand and moved on.

The corridors of the keep were filled with
shadows, only lit periodically with flickering torches. The keep
was silent, that silence only periodically interrupted with the
distant sound of footfalls or snores. The corridors twisted and
turned, branching over and over again, and Viviane was glad that
Niall knew the way.

And that he certainly did. He moved quickly
through the labyrinth, deftly dodging from shadow to shadow, his
boots making no sound on the stone floors. Viviane tried to follow
suit, though she was sure anyone would be able to hear the
frightened pounding of her heart.

But after that third guard, they encountered
no others.

In fact, the keep was almost too quiet.

They reached the hall and traversed its
brooding breadth, the act of stepping out of the shadows making
Viviane understand how wild things felt when they left the
underbrush. She was certain that a thousand eyes followed their
course from the half-hidden doorways circling the room and knew she
saw the gleam of eyes more than once.

But Niall cut a brisk pace to the stairs,
then shoved her up them. The sentry at the first floor made a soft
cry when he fell, Niall and Viviane freezing for a breathless
moment until ’twas clear none would come to his aid.

A pair of servants slept along the corridor
here, the very sight troubling Viviane. Niall strode on, his step
silent, and just as they passed the second sleeping servant,
Viviane tripped. She caught herself and snatched at Niall’s back to
keep from falling, her inadvertent move prompting him to glance
back.

His eyes flashed emerald fire and his arm
flew out. Viviane jumped at the close proximity of the clang of
steel on steel.

That last servant had leapt to his feet and
had meant to strike them down. Viviane gasped and got out of the
way, her eyes widening in horror as the men battled.

The fight was swift, that servant equipped
with only a small blade. Niall dispatched him with a trio of blows,
each harder than the last, and the man slumped to the floor.
Viviane eyed his fallen body in shock as she understood fully the
danger of their course, but Niall seized her arm, his expression
grim.

He jerked a thumb in the direction of the
next staircase and urged her onward once more. This time, he kept
his blade unsheathed and Viviane knew he expected a challenge.

She remembered that these stairs led to the
archbishop’s chamber. Niall must be assuming that the moonstone was
still where he had thrown it, though how he imagined they would
snatch it from under the archbishop’s nose, Viviane couldn’t
guess.

Maybe that man slept heavily.

Maybe he slept elsewhere.

Niall must know something she didn’t
know.

The stairs were more narrow here, the
shadows deeper. In fact, it seemed as though a cold draught flowed
down the stairs like a silvery fog. Viviane could almost see it,
despite the darkness, and thought it was seeping from under the
door at the summit. It glowed faintly, the light increasing as they
progressed up the stairs, and reminded her unexpectedly of her
moonstone.

But fog didn’t spread
within
a
keep.

She and Niall exchanged a puzzled glance,
their steps slowing of one accord. Niall shrugged and they
continued on, their gazes flicking from one side to the other.
Nothing but bare stone greeted their eyes, not a sound echoed ahead
or behind. A single torch was mounted above the landing at the top
of the stairs, its light dancing over the stone.