“He saved my life.” William told her, letting Jason down. Heedless of the rain, their son promptly toddled off to retrieve her daggers.
William hauled her into his arms. “Are you hurt?” He had to pry her hands from the hilt of the dagger. She couldn’t make her fingers work. He handed the blade to Callan.
Lucy opened her mouth to reply when the air changed. The hair all over her body stood up as Lucy held onto William, who had turned as white as snow.
“What is happening?” Callan called out, fear in his voice as he took one step towards them.
Where was Jason? As she called to her son, a massive bolt of lightning flashed, blinding in its intensity. Blinking away the afterimage, she recoiled, expecting to see Callan also flinching from the strike.
But where he’d stood just seconds before, there was only empty space.
“Bloody hell.” William grabbed Jason, pulling him to them as the three of them stood alone on the battlements.
Lucy gaped in stunned disbelief. Callan had vanished into thin air, as if he had never been.
“It cannot be,” she whispered. Yet the evidence stared her plainly in the face.
The same mystical force that had brought her to the past had now taken him.
William leftto tell the men Agnes was dead while Lucy took Jason to Mabel. She wanted him to sit by the fire until he was warm and dry before going to be so he didn’t catch a chill.
By the time she walked through the connecting door into their chamber, it was well after midnight. The storm had subsided into a gentle rain, and Lucy was exhausted. She’d stripped off her wet clothes, pulled on a chemise and robe and sat in front of the fire, unseeing, not even moving when William hauled her up in his arms, and sat, settling her on his lap.
Her teeth chattered. “I killed her,” she whispered, the awful scene replaying over and over behind her eyes.
“You did.” He held her so tight, she squeaked. “She would have killed Jason and you if she’d had time.”
She met his stricken gaze as his hand shook.
“I thought I had lost you.” He said, crushing his mouth to hers, needing to feel her close to him. “I will love you until my last breath.”
Lucy twined her fingers through his hair. “I will never leave you. I will love you forever and a day.”
A few days later,Lucy was up in her tower room working on a shawl while the boys napped, when William came striding in, the door banging against the wall.
He’d been melancholy ever since Callan vanished. After barely discovering he had a brother, Callan was now lost to them, spirited away through the mists of time itself.
He kissed her soundly. “I have a gift for you.”
Lucy put the crochet hook down. “I love gifts.”
“Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”
She did and felt cool metal sliding onto her finger.
When she opened her eyes, Lucy put a hand to her mouth.
“It’s beautiful.” The ring had a heavy gold band like her wedding ring, though this one had a sapphire and a diamond instead of an emerald.
“I had the goldsmith in London fashion it for you. In honor of our two beautiful sons.”
Lucy went up on her tiptoes to kiss him. “I love it.” Then she grinned. “Maybe we should have more children, so you can give me more rings.”
A laugh escaped, the strain around his eyes easing.
“We have an entire chest of jewels for you to choose from.”
She’d dressed in a blue gown to match his blue tunic and hose today. The jewels they’d discovered in the cove had likely been buried for hundreds of years. For now, they were locked away.
