Time Travel Romances Boxed Set by Claire Delacroix Read Free Book Online Page B

work, work,
work?”

    *

    Aurelia certainly had not expected Bard, son
of Erc, to find her kiss repulsive! Her feathers ruffled with
feminine pride and she glared at the priest to whose company she
had been abandoned.
    The insult was even worse given the tingle
of awareness that kissing Bard had awakened within her.
    After all, Aurelia knew she was not plain!
Men came from far and wide to court her, but Aurelia turned them
all aside. She wanted a partner who cared for her, not merely her
face. Beauty, after all, would fade and it was the person within
who endured.
    Aurelia had learned much of the power of
that kind of partnership from her parents’ example and she wanted
no less for herself.
    All the same, Bard’s rejection irked her.
Why, she had even been called a beauty!
    But the new king of Dunhelm could not bear
to have her touch him. That just proved he was an unmannered
barbarian!
    The priest urged Aurelia impatiently toward
the stairs. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I don’t know about
you, but I could use a brandy. Let’s find you a guest room
pronto.”
    Guest? Ha! No doubt this priest would toss
her into some dank and dour prison, crawling with rats.
    Aurelia tightened her lips and stalked
toward the stairs. They would drag her out periodically to
interrogate her - perhaps even torture her! - then cast her back
into misery.
    Oh, she knew well enough the kind of
brutality of which Bard was capable! But she, she would not bend
readily to his will. Somehow she would find her sire, and somehow
she would prevail against this villain.
    Or Aurelia would die trying.
    Decision made, Aurelia stormed to the summit
of the stairs, then froze on the spot. She stared dumbstruck at the
changed scene before her.
    What had happened to the holding she knew as
well as the palm of her own hand?
    Walls had been ruined, the rubble moved so
that the structures Aurelia knew were virtually obliterated. Her
father’s great wooden hall was gone so completely that it might
never have existed. And she had raised a chalice of mead within
those carved walls this very morning, before the battle.
    At least, it seemed as though it had been
this very morning.
    Aurelia frowned and eyed stones heavy with
moss where there had not even been stones. She chewed her lip with
uncertainty and she had the odd sense that her mind taunted her to
reach for a truth hung just out of reach.
    She must have been drugged. There were
plants Aurelia knew well more than potent enough for such a
task.
    “ Come on,” the priest urged
impatiently. “Let’s get out of this miserable rain already. God, I
hate this place. Beats me why people choose to live
here.”
    Aurelia stepped forward at his demand, all
the while fighting to hide her response to Bard’s wanton
destruction. If she had not recognized the ritual well, Aurelia
might have doubted that she was home.
    Aurelia looked to the sea, knowing that it
would tell her no lies. She eyed the sweep of the coastline, the
reassuring shade of hazy blue with which the sea always met the
sky.
    That was familiar, at least. She recognized
the crags and beaches, the great stones and the waves that
stretched to the horizon, and felt her fears settle as surely as
the waves pounding on the shore.
    Back across the island and in the other
direction, Aurelia could barely discern the silhouetted towers that
had been falling apart as long as anyone could remember. The dimple
of an old chambered tomb, left by people long forgotten, could be
seen if she squinted into the morning sun.
    Were the crumbling towers shorter than
before? And what had happened to all the trees surrounding her
father’s hall? Bard’s men must have raided the towers for material
to build his great stone hall, just ahead. And the trees could have
been chopped and burned with alarming speed.
    This was her home, regardless of how quickly
Bard had managed to make his mark upon it.
    Aurelia took a deep breath and looked once
more at the construction they