Love Came Just in Time by Lynn Kurland Read Free Book Online Page A

threw her arms around him and clung.
    â€œOh, man,” she said, feeling herself beginning to wheeze again. It was a nasty habit she’d gotten into lately. She was certain wheezing was something no respectable Garrett ever found herself doing. “Oh, man, oh, man,” she wheezed again.
    â€œBy the saints, you’re trembling,” Miles said, sounding surprised. He stroked her back with his large hand. “There’s nothing to fear, Abigail.”
    â€œIt’s 1238!” she exclaimed against his very rough, very un-department-store-like shirt.
    â€œSee?” Miles said, obviously trying to sound soothing. “You’ve remembered the year. ‘Tis a most encouraging sign. I’m certain ’twas simply a bit of chill that seeped into your head and addled your wits for a time. Reason is most definitely returning to you.”
    Abby felt her tights beginning to slip and she made a grab for them before they migrated any further south. She tilted her head back and looked at Miles.
    â€œIt really is 1238, isn’t it?” she whispered. “And you really are Miles of Spendingthorn—”
    â€œSpeningethorpe—”
    â€œWhatever, and you really are a knight, aren’t you?”
    â€œFor what it is worth, aye, I am.”
    Well, stranger things had happened. Like Sir Sweetums walking through a thick, wooden plank of a door.
    Then there was her trip down into Murphy’s Pond the night before to consider. That had taken an awfully long time, hadn’t it?
    But seven hundred years?
    She rested her nose against Miles’s chest and contemplated. Garretts didn’t faint. Garretts didn’t run away from difficulties. Garretts didn’t lose their marbles.
    Funny, she’d never heard anything about Garretts not time-traveling.
    She looked up at Miles. “You don’t believe in witches, do you?”
    He smiled faintly. “Having come within scorching distance of a healthy bonfire myself, I would have to say nay, I do not believe in witches.”
    â€œThen I think you should sit down.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause you’re going to fall down when I tell you what I have to tell you. It’ll hurt less if you’re closer to the ground.”
    Miles looked at her archly. “The de Piagets of Artane do not faint.”
    Abby reached up and patted him on his beautiful cheek. “There’s a first time for everything, toots.”
    â€œToots? Why do you persist in calling me that?”
    Abby took his hand and pulled him back inside the hall. He’d just have to trust her on this one.
    And she definitely hoped he’d meant what he’d said about the witch thing, or she was certain her revelations would land her in the fire.

Chapter Four
    MILES FROWNED TO himself as he allowed Abigail to pull him back inside his hall. Something had obviously troubled her deeply, if her frantic flight from his fire was any indication. But what? She had looked at him as if she were seeing a ghost.
    He realized abruptly that he was allowing himself to be led and he dug in his heels. Abigail stopped and looked at him with that same, almost frantic look. Miles held his ground.
    â€œWhatever you have to tell me, you may most certainly tell me while we are standing. Indeed, I insist upon it.”
    He looked down at her as he said it, and wondered if she shouldn’t be the one sitting down. She was very pale. Saints, had she suffered some sort of injury that had damaged her mind so that she barely remembered the date?
    He lifted his hands and cupped her face, rubbing his thumbs gently across her cheeks. Her skin was so soft and fair. Perhaps she was a nobleman’s daughter who had become lost and wandered into his moat. Never mind how she was dressed. It was possible her sire employed seamstresses with very odd ideas on fashion. He should have questioned her sooner about her family, but he’d been too bemused by her actions