All The Time You Need by Melissa Mayhue Read Free Book Online Page B

somehow…wrong.
    The earthquake—which was what it had to have been that she’d experienced—hadn’t done as much damage as she might expect. Though the tree, the bench, even the arbor walls still stood exactly where they had before, they weren’t at all the same as they had been. She would have sworn that the tree had been massive and old, but clearly, the trunk of this one was hardly more than a few inches in diameter. Even the gate was… Wait!
    What the hell was going on with the gate?
    Annie lurched forward, fastening her fingers around the iron bars before pushing with all her might. Granted, what she’d been through had taken its toll on her physically, but the gate that had been barely clinging to the stone walls by a single rusted hinge was now firmly in place and securely locked. She could understand if the earthquake had knocked a gate that had been in pristine shape off its hinges, but this was the exact opposite. This wasn’t just wrong, it was bizarre. Bizarre and totally impossible.
    “Hello?” she called out, her voice husky and cracking.
    It felt beyond foolish to even try to call for help, but if, for some unknown reason, workmen had come to repair the gate while she was unconscious, surely they would have attempted to give her some sort of aid. It certainly wasn’t as if she had been invisible, lying there in front of the bench, big as life. And even if they’d chosen to go for help rather than try to revive her themselves, why in heaven’s name would they have locked her in here?
    “I don’t get this,” she whispered. It was all just too weird.
    A rustling noise followed by a grunt caught her attention, and she pressed her face up against the bars in an attempt to see in the direction where she thought she’d heard the sounds. A young woman headed toward her, struggling under the burden of what appeared to be a heavy wooden bench. From her wild, copper-colored curls to her lady-in-waiting costume, she looked like someone on her way to a Halloween masquerade party.
    No matter. Annie was desperate for help from anywhere she could get it.
    “Hey,” Annie called, hoping to attract the woman’s attention. She’d barely heard that herself so she cleared her throat and tried again, a little louder. “Hey!”
    The young woman’s head snapped up and her eyes widened as she spotted Annie. She dropped the bench she’d struggled with and lifting the long skirts she wore, she ran forward to the gate to fasten her hands over Annie’s.
    “Yer unharmed, thanks be,” she said breathlessly. “Well, perhaps no' completely unharmed, but no' as badly hurt as I’d feared when I first spotted you there on the ground.”
    She brushed a finger over Annie’s cheek, and Annie flinched, a spasm of pain shooting through the spot.
    “I guess I hit it on the bench when I fell during the earthquake.” It was the only rational answer she had for the pain in her cheek. “I probably should get some ice on it.”
    As soon as she could get out of here and back to the cottage.
    “Aye, that would be a comfort, would it no'? Too bad there’s no ice to be had this time of year.”
    No ice? That made no more sense than anything else that was going on. It could be that the stranger was only referring to the fact that there was no ice nearby.
    It didn’t matter. Annie didn’t have the energy to try to piece together what the woman meant. There were more important things to worry about, and her strength seemed to be fading quickly as another wave of overwhelming exhaustion washed over her.
    “Can you please help me get out of here?”
    “That’s exactly what I intend to do.” The young woman smiled and ran back to the heavy bench she’d left behind, to drag it toward the gate. “I only need to get up to the lock and we’ll have you out in no time. I’m Alissaundre MacKillican, by the way,” she said as she lifted her skirts and scrambled up onto the bench. “Though my family calls me Lissa. By what name