Across the Winds of Time (34 page)

“Hush, my love. It is over now. Hush, do not cry. We are together.”

I clutched at his arms, perhaps to see if he was solid.

“But how can you be here? How did you get here? What happened? I thought you die—” I bit my lip and stared up into his face in wonder. “Are you a ghost, Darius?” I pressed my face against his chest, where his heart beat loudly if somewhat rapidly. “I don’t care,” I mumbled. “I’m not going to let you go. I can live with a ghost.”

I heard a rumbling in his chest, and I looked up to see him chuckling. With his free hand, he brushed the hair from my face as it blew in the wind.

“I am no ghost, my love. I was able to search the entire house for you. I was in the basement when it collapsed but was somehow protected down there until I was rescued.”

“So, your beautiful house did burn down after all,” I said with regret.

He nodded and pulled me tight against his lean body.

“Yes, it did.”

“But it has been rebuilt. Did you know that?”

“I do know that,” he murmured with a chuckle. “Come, let us go back to the rebuilt house, and we will discuss all.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and guided me down the path.

I stopped when we came near Molly’s grave. Darius seemed to know what I was looking at.

“She has a new stone, Darius,” I said in wonder. “Did you see that?”

“Yes,” he said in a husky voice. “I know.” He cleared his throat and tightened his grip on me. “Knowing the sandstone would not last, I ordered a new one for her.”

I swung to look up at him.

“Did you do that when you went into town that morning? Yesterday morning?”

Darius leaned down to brush his fingers against her stone, and then straightened to put his arm around me again.

“There is much to explain, I think, though I am not certain I understand everything myself,” he said with a bemused smile. “We will talk at the house. You look exhausted. I want to get you home before I have to carry you.” He chuckled and guided me down the path toward the house.

We were halfway down the hill when I remembered that Sara was still at the house.

“Sara is here. She is leaving today. She knows everything, Darius.” I heard the note of warning in my voice, but I really wasn’t certain why I needed it. Having Sara know about Darius and where he came from would make life easier—not harder.

Below me on the path with his hand on mine as he helped me down the hill, he paused and turned to me with a wide grin. I hadn’t seen that grin in so long.

“Good. I am pleased to hear it. Now, perhaps she will stop throwing daggers at me with her eyes.”

I returned his bright smile. “And you can stop sleeping on the couch.”

He tilted his head and eyed me appraisingly. “Did you purchase a bed for the spare room in my absence?”

My face burned. How long was this man going to do the old-fashioned thing?

“No?”

“Then until you do, I am consigned to the couch, I fear. The cats will keep me company.”

He pulled me to him, and because I was higher on the hill, we met at eye level. I resisted, needing to hear the truth. How did one ask? His eyes softened as he gazed at me, and he pressed his lips against mine. The passion of his kiss and the movement of his body left me in little doubt of his reactions to me.

As if he knew what I was thinking, he whispered against my ear.

“Not until we are properly married, my dear. I can wait for you.” At the moment he spoke the words, I realized that he and Molly had waited as well. Molly had indeed shared all of her memories with me.

I kissed him back with abandon.

“Okay, if you insist on being old-fashioned,” I whispered against his lips. “Then we’d better get married pretty soon, because I don’t know if I can wait!”

Darius threw back his head and laughed, but I caught the bronzing of his cheeks—no less red than mine must have been.

“I love that you say the most extraordinary things, Molly. I do not think I will ever tire of being surprised by you.”

We moved on and arrived at the house a few minutes later. Marmaduke, pacing at the drive, saw us and ran across the lawn to greet Darius who held me by one hand as he bent down to pet him.

Sara came running out the kitchen door.

“There you are,” she cried as she came toward us. “Do you have any idea what I thought when I couldn’t find you this morning?” She stopped in front of me with her hands on her hips. I was unrepentant.

“I’m sorry, Sara. I thought you’d still be sleeping.”

“And where have you been, I’d like to know?” she muttered at Darius who beamed at her. “1880, my foot.” She linked her arm in mine and pulled me toward the house, in turn pulling Darius because I wasn’t about to let go of him.

“You need to have something to drink and eat. You look awful,” she said as she pulled open the door. Marmaduke ran into the kitchen in front of her. She stood aside and watched us enter much like a schoolteacher inspecting her charges after recess.

“You’ve got some explaining to do,” she said to Darius as she closed the door. “I’ve just finished making some of your toaster waffles, but I haven’t got the faintest idea how to make that hot chocolate of yours, Darren...” she made a face, “Darius, that is. Do you mind?” She pointed to a chair at the table for me and sent Darius a pointed look toward the kitchen with her eyes.

“I am pleased to do so. It is nice to be missed,” he said with a flash of bright teeth. “Sit, Molly. You do look tired. And you too, Sara. I will prepare the hot chocolate and serve the meal.”

I leaned my elbows on the table and rested my chin on my hands as I watched Darius’s every movement. He turned to look at me often, his smile widening more each time. Sara watched us both for a few minutes—her head turning side to side as if she watched a tennis match. I knew she had to be bursting with questions, but she restrained herself much better than I might have.

“Look, you two. There’s a lot I want to know. I have a bunch of questions for you—like where you found him,”—she gave me a pointed look—”but I want Molly to eat first...and you too, Darius, if you haven’t eaten in almost 24 hours like Molly here.”

“I think that is wise, Sara. I am worried about Molly’s health as well. She did not have a chance to eat while she was with me.” He looked at me. “Did you?”

I nodded. “Mrs. White fed me pancakes.”

“Ah!” he nodded. “Yes, I ate some before I left that morning,” he shook his head, “that is—back then.”

“Was she well when you last saw her?” I couldn’t keep a note of sadness from my voice.

“Yes, Molly. She was well.” He smiled faintly. “Confused, but well.”

He brought the hot chocolate to the table, and Sara jumped up to get the waffles and syrup. They put the food in front of me and stared at me until, self-consciously, I took a bite of the waffle.

“Okay, I’m eating now, you guys. Join in anytime,” I encouraged with an affectionate roll of my eyes.

Darius and Sara smiled at each other in the spirit of team work and ate their own food. I probably picked at my food more than ate it, but I was with two people I loved and all seemed right with the world at last.

Darius and I would marry, although that presented some logistical problems such as a birth certificate for him and having to bring someone to the house for the wedding because he couldn’t leave. Having children—and I sincerely hoped we would have children—might be a lonely process in that Darius would not be able to be at the hospital with me. I didn’t think I would want to have the children at home—not even for Darius. I could see small problems that might crop up, but nothing insurmountable. All in all, I was a happy woman. I sipped my hot chocolate and smiled serenely.

Though I had many, many questions, I held them until Darius and Sara had eaten. They both deserved a small measure of peace. We finished the meal and picked up our hot chocolate mugs to take them outside to the porch. Sara settled into a single easy chair and I sat on the loveseat next to Darius. Marmaduke, who had followed us out, took up a position on the porch railing and draped himself over it. Sassy frowned from inside the window.

“I can see Molly has a bunch of questions for you, Darius,” Sara grinned. “But I think I’ll get mine in first. Where did she find you this morning?”

“In the cemetery,” he answered, “where she found me the first time. That is where I seem to
appear
.”

“Are you a ghost? Or did you travel through time?” Her face reddened as if she doubted her sanity in asking the questions. I knew just how she felt.

“It would appear I have traveled through time. I was not dead last I checked.” He pretended to make a cursory survey of his chest, arms and legs.

“How do you travel through time?” she asked in her interrogation.

Darius looked at me and gave a slight shrug.

“I do not know. That last time I traveled—that is, the last time
we
traveled—it happened when we stepped into the road. Molly clung to me, and I believe that is why she traveled with me. It would seem that I cannot leave this property, or I will travel back in time again.” His face took on that look I hoped never to see again—an expression of despair. I grabbed his hand and clung to it. He turned to me and searched my face.

“It’s going to be all right,” I whispered.

He smiled, seeming to clear his troubled brow with effort. He brought my hand to his lips and kissed my palm, keeping it tucked safe within his own when he lowered it.

“Yes, it is,” he said quietly. “I lost you and I have learned my lesson.”

I looked back at Sara who stared at us. I could see her brain was working out the logistics as I had done.

“That will present some problems, I can see, but you two will work it out,” she announced. Darius sent her a grateful smile, and I nodded optimistically.

“Yes, we will.”

“Your turn, Molly. My flight doesn’t leave for four hours,” Sara said as she settled back in her chair and sipped the chocolate she brought outside with her.

I looked at them both, wondering where to start. I guessed I ought to start at the beginning, as they say. I turned to Darius.

“Where did you go yesterday morning...when you left?”

“Yesterday morning?” he hesitated. “Do you mean the morning of the fire?”

“Yes, yesterday morning,” I said with a knit between my eyebrows. He seemed a bit confused. I suspected he might have been disoriented from all the traveling back and forth in time. I know I was.

He stared out to the yard and his eyes took on a distant look for a moment.

“I met with the lawyer and prepared a will, leaving the estate to my brother. I made sure to leave Mrs. White and her family provided for. And I secured some funds for myself so that I do not come to you destitute,” he said with a smile. His face sobered.

“When I returned,” he said in a husky voice, “and Mrs. White told me she thought you might be in the burning house...” He couldn’t seem to finish.

I squeezed his hand.

“I felt the same way.”

He looked at me with soft eyes and nodded. I bit my lip and looked to Sara and back at Darius, hoping they would bear with my otherworldly experiences and not think about institutionalizing me. I took a deep breath.

“I met Molly in the cemetery yesterday, Darius—in your time.”

Darius tilted his head and regarded me with a puzzled expression. I waited for his questions. I still had many of my own. He studied my face for a minute before he smiled gently and nodded.

“I believe you.”

“Tell me about her stone,” I asked softly. Sara looked at me curiously but held her tongue.

Darius looked down at our hands and laced his fingers through mine before he answered.

“I had the stone replaced before I returned.”

“I don’t understand how you found time to order a new stone. Do you mean between yesterday and this morning?” I looked at the sun, still early in the day.

“Time has passed since you left, Molly. You do not think I was rescued from the basement looking as clean as this, do you?” He surveyed his suit—similar to the one I’d first seen him in. “I had many things I needed to do before I could come to you.”

“What things?” I whispered.

He looked over his shoulder at Sassy who sat in the large picture window behind us. He chuckled.

“Well, I had to rebuild the house, for one.”

I gasped and threw a look at Sara who stared at Darius with wide eyes.

“I could not have you return to a burnt shell,” he murmured with a self-satisfied smile.

“How-how long did it take you to rebuild the house?” I stammered.

“One year,” he said quietly. “I lost you one year ago.”

I shook my dazed head.

“How is that possible? How can you have lived a year when I’ve only lived a day?”

“A better question might be how can he travel in time at all?” Sara muttered as she pulled her feet onto her chair and rested her chin on her knees.

He shrugged his shoulders.

“I still do not know. Given that I was terrified to leave the property—for fear that I might accidentally travel before the house was finished, it took considerably longer than I thought. I avoided entering the road and had everything delivered, and I did not return to the cemetery until just this morning...in my time.”

I turned a confused face to Darius.

“So, you went to the cemetery this morning? Did you see Molly?”

Darius shook his head with a faint smile. “No, I have not seen her since she died—at least, not until I saw you a year ago.”

“And what happened to James?” Sara asked in an even voice.

“He is in prison,” Darius said quietly.

“Good,” she said with a smile.

“I agree,” Darius returned her grin.

Although I was relieved I would never have to see James again, I was more curious about Darius and his apparent ability to travel through time—at least this time.

“What happened this morning? How did you travel?” I asked.

He gave me a sheepish look and glanced at Sara before dropping his gaze to our entwined hands.

“This is difficult to say. I finished the house yesterday, and I returned to the cemetery for the first time in a year this morning—in my time. I knelt at Molly’s gravestone, and I prayed. I prayed to return to you. And the colors began.”