Heart of Time (Knight Traveler) by Regan Black Read Free Book Online Page B

offered an excellent way of illustrating valuable life lessons. Precautions and dire warnings aside, she’d never believed she’d come face to face with a knight from the past.
    Yet, if Nick wasn’t playing games, Gawain the Gallant was standing right here, glowering at the city she loved and braced for a battle she couldn’t fathom. She glanced again at her cousin. Nick couldn’t seriously believe this was the original Gawain the Gallant. There had to be another explanation.
    Amid twenty-first century progress, the world was advanced and complex and no amount of exceptional storytelling could convince her that an antique dagger, in the wrong hands, could release some great and terrible evil. A quick scan of daily headlines proved that sort of trouble already oozed from every nook and cranny of the world. The O’Malley dagger couldn’t possibly have any influence over those tragedies, big or small.
    Still, it was a terrible embarrassment to be the first O’Malley to lose the dagger. Yesterday, the dagger and the supporting tale seemed like a grand fairy tale perpetrated by her elders to ensure the O’Malley ruby stayed in the family, some sort of insurance against the family fortune. She knew firsthand it was hard work and diligence that kept the very modern, very successful businesses going strong.
    Now, faced with this rough-edged, antiquated man with the dreamy blue eyes and handsome greyhound at his side, she wondered what else Nick knew that she didn’t. He’d accepted the man’s shocking appearance, the accent, and the name readily enough.
    Gawain the Gallant . Seriously?
    She shook her head to clear the persistent cobwebs. Part of her, the fanciful little girl deep inside her heart wanted to believe it, but this man couldn’t possibly be the same Gawain who’d ridden with King Arthur. She had to think of him as Wayne, a 21 st century actor dedicated to earning his pay. Despite her Irish heritage, she couldn’t wrap her brain around the concept of a visitor from 1500 years ago. If all of it were true, if she accepted a time-traveling knight, she had to accept other aspects of the tale. The terrifying elements she’d rather not consider.
    To her, the stranger was a walking nightmare. He frightened her, stalking across the street and demanding information they didn’t have, his lean, attentive dog at his side. She’d tried to believe it was chance, some random stranger suffering a delusion, but that was even more improbable than the reality her cousin had just begun to explain.
    “There is no time to waste. I need answers immediately,” Wayne said. “How was the dagger stolen?”
    Nick winced at the demand and Tara leaped to his defense. “Are your ears full of cotton?” She was tall among the women of her family, but Wayne made her feel petite. “Nick said he’d explain when we have some privacy.”
    “That is enough out of you,” Wayne shot back. “This isn’t your business.”
    “Quiet. Both of you,” Nick intervened, stepping between them. “You’re drawing attention.”
    “In Time’s Square?” She waved a hand. “Who would notice us over the Naked Cowboy,” she flicked a hand that direction, “or anyone else?”
    She clamped her mouth shut at Nick’s sharp glare. She probably shouldn’t piss off the one family member she’d confided in. “Fine. We can take the subway back to the pub.”
    “He won’t be happy on the subway,” Nick countered. “And the pub isn’t safe.”
    “We can’t walk across the East River either,” Tara said. “Unless that’s another trick up your sleeve.”
    “Do you not have horses?” Wayne asked.
    Tara laughed. “We don’t have horses in the city.”
    “Trouble,” Nick interjected. He held up his hand, palm facing Wayne. “Can you, umm...” He gestured for Wayne to mirror his movement.
    The bigger man frowned as he pressed his palm to Nick’s in the slowest high five ever recorded. “What’s that about?” Tara asked. “What are