Desi’s back ached, her legs throbbed, but worst of all, her heart splintered with a dull, relentless ache.After Caleb’s departure, she had remained below decks to aid Dr.Brandt.There was little she could do, save offer the conscious men a drink or lay cool cloths upon fevered brows.Whatever this affliction—be it plague, pestilence, or curse—it seemed to leech the life from their bodies.If she believed in God, she might have prayed for each soul; yet belief had long slipped from her grasp.All she could give were small mercies, a gentle hand upon a wrist, a whisper of comfort, a smile that coaxed a faint spark of hope from weary eyes.
Back in her cabin, a crewman brought her a crust of biscuit and a slice of salted fish, complaining that the cook had been confined to her cabin.Ayida, locked away for witchcraft, he’d said.No warm meal tonight.The man added that the captain would visit her later.
But later turned into hours.The biscuit was hard enough to crack a molar, the fish, dry and briny.Between pacing the cramped confines of her cabin and lying upon the narrow bunk, she stared out through the small window at the inky sea, where moonlight shimmered like powdered silver.Above, the heavens blazed with countless stars, cold, distant, unheeding.If there was a God, why did He always seem so far away?
And Caleb—where was he?No doubt brooding, sorrowed, or perhaps angered by her plea to return the Ring to her time.She had asked too much, perhaps.To break his vow to his father.To lose her forever.He was the most honorable man she had ever known—steadfast, generous, chivalrous.A man from legend and dream.
Yet even legends had their breaking points.
Still, for all her hunger and exhaustion, her heart leapt at the thought of being here again aboard theSentinel, in this time, inhisworld.Even as that heart was cleaved in two, half bound to her sister, half bound to him.How long could it endure before time and duty shattered it entirely?
The latch squealed softly.She turned.Caleb entered and closed the door behind him.For a moment he only stood there, lantern light painting gold across his jaw and catching the quiet adoration in his eyes.His presence filled the room—commanding, steady, yet tender.It took every ounce of her will not to fly into his arms.
“Forgive me for the lateness of the hour, Desi,” he said, his voice low, roughened by care.“There was much to attend to.”
“I understand.”She eased onto the edge of the bed, steadying herself for the conversation she dreaded.
Caleb removed his sword, laid it upon the dresser, and drew the single chair beside her.The silence stretched taut.She gestured toward the untouched biscuit.“I hear Ayida’s been locked away?”
He leaned forward, forearms braced upon his knees, eyes fixed on the deck.A strand of dark hair fell against his cheek.“Aye.Praise be to God, my eyes were at last opened to her true heart.”He shook his head, sorrow darkening his features.“She conjured dark arts aboard my ship, cast curses upon my men.And I, blind fool that I am, did not perceive it.”
“How could you have?”Desi asked softly.“She was kind to all of us.Even to me.”
“I have the Spirit of God within me,” he said.“To my shame, I would not listen.”
Desi hesitated, uneasy with such talk.“What will happen to her?”
“I’ll set her free come morn.If her repentance be genuine, I shall discern it.”He leaned back, gaze lifted at last to hers.“If not, Heaven help her.”
Silence swelled between them once more—the hush broken only by the sea’s rhythmic rush against the hull, the groan of timbers, the flutter of sailcloth overhead.Caleb reached for her hand, enclosing it between both of his—strong, calloused, yet infinitely gentle.His thumb brushed her knuckles in slow, tender strokes.She knew he wanted to avoid the inevitable as much as she did—the parting neither could bear to name.So when he asked her to tell him of her time, she was grateful for the distraction, for the fragile illusion that they still had all the time in the world.
♥
All through the day, a battle raged within Caleb, a battle between his love for Desi and… his love for Desi.Rot and Ruin, it made no sense.How could both sides of his heart war against the same cause?One demanded he keep her with him forever, and the other begged him to let her go, to save her sister.Neither would yield.
But when he saw her standing there, eyes luminous with affection, hair tumbling loose around her shoulders, looking more angel than mortal, the tide turned toward the side that pleadedStay.For one sweet moment, reason drowned beneath the current of longing.
Now, seated close enough to feel her warmth, he inhaled her scent of salt, citrus, and something faintly wild.The cabin swayed gently with the rhythm of the sea, lanternlight casting slow, golden ripples over the walls.He allowed the battle to advance no further tonight.He only wished to know more of her, of the strange world she hailed from.
He had once dismissed her talk of another time as folly.But now, after all he’d seen, he was not so certain.
When he asked her to describe her time, she blinked in surprise, then smiled, a soft, wistful curve that lit the dim cabin.“It’s very different from this time,” she said.“It would shock you to see it.”
“How so?”He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a brief kiss upon it before letting it go.
She took a breath, eyes bright with memory.“There are huge cities filled with millions of people.The buildings reach into the sky, taller than masts, taller than any fort tower.”
Caleb frowned.“Into the sky?What madness is this?”
She laughed lightly.“People don’t ride horses anymore either.We have cars.”
“Cars?”
“Like carriages, but they aren’t pulled by horses.They move on their own, powered by a kind of fuel.They call them automobiles.”
He arched a brow.“No horses?Surely there are still ships?”
“There are ships,” she said, “but most use engines powered by that same fuel.”
