Page 20 of A Touch for All Time (For All Time #3)

“F orgive us, Lord Dartmouth,” one of the guardsmen said, sparing a nervous glance at Aria. “Your father sent us to take Miss Darling away.”

Away? Gray thought he was hearing wrong. But when one of them put his hand on her arm, Gray yanked the hand away. “How dare you touch her!”

“My lord, your father—!”

“Touch her again and I’ll cut off your arm,” Gray warned, stepping between the soldier and Aria and resting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Grayson!”

Gray turned, surprised to hear his father’s voice on the stairs.

“What are you doing protecting her?” the duke asked him. “Are the whispers true? Do you share affection for this woman? Step away from her.”

“What’s the meaning of this?” Gray demanded, not moving a hair away from her.

“She is accused of stealing my best wine from the cellars last night,” his father let him know.

“Ridiculous,” Gray told him. “She was with me last night.”

“Then it is true,” his father accused, “you were with her when she stole my wine. Did you drink it with her too?”

Ah, so this was about him, then. Now Gray understood. Cavendish was her accuser. He must have heard Gray and Aria in Gray’s solar and hatched his plan.

Had Gray made it so obvious that Cavendish went after her? He knew that if anyone was familiar with him at all, they’d know by his uncharacteristic behavior toward her that he cared for Aria Darling.

“Where was Cavendish last night, Father? I’m quite certain I heard him in the cellar while Miss Darling and I were in my solar.”

After all that had happened, and all the time the Duke of Devon hadn’t been there when his only son had needed him, Gray thought he would have learned that this man he called Father was nothing befitting his title. But the duke surprised him yet again.

“Grayson, step away from her or I’ll have you stand before the council with her.”

Gray didn’t move. Finally, Aria gave him a shove with the side of her body and pushed him away. Use your head, not your heart , her look seemed to say. He nodded slightly and moved aside. “But I’m going with her,” he told his father. “You’ll have to kill me to stop me.”

Resigned to not letting that happen at least, the duke nodded to the guards and turned to descend the stairs.

Gray looked for Cavendish while they were led to his father’s sitting room, but his accuser was nowhere to be seen. That is, until they stepped into the chambers, and he saw him rise from Gray’s chair.

Gray wanted to warn him not to step foot out of the castle, but if disaster struck, the animals would be blamed. He ground his jaw instead. “Did you tell the duke that Miss Darling stole his wine?”

“I saw her take it with my very own eyes, Brother.”

“Then you admit to being in the cellar,” Gray said with a deadly smirk. “I know why Miss Darling was there, but why were you there, Brother ?”

“My mother needed something for her headache and dispatched me to see to it.”

Gray chuckled without a sound of amusement leaving him. “Why would she use you as her dog to fetch her things, when she has a perfectly good husband she has trained even better than you?”

Cavendish smirked, then snorted. “Are you calling your father a dog?”

Gray stared at him. “I think I was perfectly clear.”

His father bristled but didn’t say anything.

“Are you going to answer my question? Why would your mother send you and not one of her many servants?”

“Are you accusing me of deceit?” Cavendish asked, feigning disbelief.

“Yes,” Gray told him without hesitation. “But we will save that for when I throw you and your mother out on your arses.” Without waiting for a response, Gray turned on his father again. “Are you truly going to listen to this worm? I suggest you have his chambers searched for your wine.”

Tabby—

I sent fifty of my best mice to search Mr. Cavendish’s chamber, Grayson , the head mouse answered before he finished asking.

Thank you, Tabby.

He would have smiled at the thought of having such good friends, but his father was glaring at Aria.

Gray moved to stand in front of her, blocking his father’s view. When his father glared at him instead of Aria, Gray shook his head in disgust at him. “Why would you be so careless about making an enemy of me?” From the corner of his eye he saw Harper in the doorway. He thought for certain the sound he was hearing was Aria’s heartbeat. He had danced to it. He remembered its rhythm. She was afraid. He wanted to turn to her and tell her not to be afraid of him.

But right now, he wanted to make the others around him tremble. “You already abandoned me as my father. Do you provoke me now as my enemy’s father?”

“Grayson,” the duke began, but then he stopped.

Gray scoffed at him. What was there this man before him could say? Son, forgive me. Gray scoffed at himself.

“Grayson,” the duke began again, “who is this woman you seek to protect?”

Gray couldn’t help the snarl that wrinkled his nose and scrunched up his lips. “What right do you have to know?”

The duke didn’t answer. His stepson did.

“Your Grace,” he said, addressing the duke, “allow me to drag this ungrateful sot to the prison tower for speaking to you with such disrespect.”

Gray smiled and turned to aim it at Aria. She was deeply intuitive and seemed as if she could understand him without him speaking any words, like the animals did. If she could, in that moment he wanted her to know that nothing was about to happen. No one wanted to die.

In the next instant, he drew his sword and slashed the air with the sharp edge, coming to a stop over a hair rising off the pulse at his stepbrother’s throat. He turned the smile he wore like a mask on Cavendish.

“You were saying?” he asked.

No one breathed. No one dared. It was one of those times when being believed to be mad proved helpful. He knew he could kill Cavendish, but he wouldn’t do it in Dartmouth. No reason to stain the floors with a rat’s blood.

Gray could have demanded that Cavendish take back his accusation. He knew with a sword at his throat, Cavendish would have complied. But then he would have used the excuse that he only withdrew his accusation because he feared for his life.

“Cavendish, if her name ever leaves your mouth, I will hear of it, and I’ll come and kill you.”

“Fa—” the worm tried to call out to his father for help.

Gray’s blade drew a thin line of blood from Cavendish’s neck. The guards surrounding Aria left her and drew their swords, aiming them at Gray.

“Am I not your lord?” he asked them with a mixture of curiosity and anger staining his words.

Lucky for them, they nodded and withdrew. “Step away from the lady,” he warned them, keeping his blade completely still while a droplet of blood fell from the gleaming steel. They obeyed.

“Grayson,” his father shouted, “drop your sword! Have you gone completely mad?”

“Long ago,” Gray answered him. For a moment, even he believed it. Madness had eaten away his brain, so why not kill the boy who had broken his ribs three times and was responsible for almost as many bloody noses and sliced lips Harry Gable had inflicted on him?

“Grayson.”

His thoughts faltered at the sound of his grandmother’s voice. He had never forgotten it.

“Put down your sword this instant,” she warned calmly. “Or I’ll send her back right before your eyes.”

He blinked. What did she just say? He turned to look at her standing near Aria.

He dropped his sword as she commanded, but his eyes burned with blue fire when he set them on her. She hadn’t changed, save for the first time he saw tears in her eyes. He didn’t care how she looked. Trembling anger coursed through him. The first thing she did when she returned after fifteen years was to threaten him.

“If you disturb a hair on her head without her consent again, I’ll never forgive you,” he promised just as calmly. “I’ll figure out how to use my gifts and I’ll find her—if it takes me a lifetime, I’ll search—disturbing every moment of time I get my hands on—until I find her, and then I’ll send us back to this moment when I cut my strings from you once and for all.”

She looked horrified, with tears misting her eyes. Aria too, looked heartbroken with tears streaming down her cheeks. The sight enraged him more. Why would she ever want to stay in this miserable place?

“Why did you return, Grandmother?”

“It was time. Come, you’ve already said too much. Let’s go speak in private.”

“I’m not going anywhere without Aria.”

“Have you been in contact with my family?” Aria pleaded the instant his grandmother’s eyes met hers.

“They are well, dear girl,” Aria’s Mrs. B. assured her. “They think you went on a trip to Germany for the school.”

“They know I wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye,” Aria muttered to her as his grandmother passed her on her way to him. Gray heard her.

“You took her from her family,” he accused, tight-lipped.

“I can’t discuss it here,” Tessa told him.

He ground his jaw, wanting to hear what she had to say.

Taking Aria by the hand, he pulled her toward the exit.

“Father,” he heard Cavendish boldly say, “are you going to sit by and let them all walk out of here?”

Grayson , he heard Tabby’s voice in his head, we found the wine in Mr. Cavendish’s chambers. My family found three casks behind a curtain in his bedroom .

Gray smiled slightly and turned to one of the guardsmen. “Go check Cavendish’s chambers for the wine casks. His bedroom to be precise.”

“Yes, my lord,” the guard said, then hurried off, taking three other men with him.

Gray made a promise to himself that he would send fleas to visit Cavendish’s prison bed before the sun rose. For now, though, he thanked Tabby and followed his grandmother to the castle doors, where their wool coats were strewn over a chair.

Gray eyed Harper, who stayed with them, then slid his gaze to Aria. He moved closer to her and gazed into her cloudless blue eyes. “Are you well?”

She nodded but didn’t speak. They both felt the same weighted concern. Now that Tessa Blagden had returned, she could send Aria home. Gray believed her when she used Aria with which to threaten him. She didn’t need a key.

They stepped out of the castle and into the cool night. Gray turned his ear toward the night sound of the forest. His grandmother led them closer to it.

“Why are you leading us into the forest?” he asked the old woman. What if she was bringing them there to send Aria back without anyone witnessing it?

“No one will follow us there,” she answered him.

Of that, she was correct. No one would follow Gray into the woods without a quiver full of arrows, or even a pistol. He looked around. If anyone tried to harm the animals—

Finally, they came to a small clearing. His grandmother turned to him. Gray wanted to look away. She had hurt him so deeply he didn’t think he could look into her eyes without weeping the way he should have when he was ten.

“I know you both want answers,” she began, addressing Aria, as well. “I had no choice but to put you together when I did. Grayson, I’d hoped you would have used the key to leave here, but you chose to die on some useless battlefield instead.”

“How was I supposed to know what that key was for?” he accused.

“I told you it would lead you to your heart’s desire,” she argued while his thoughts drifted to Aria. “You don’t remember?”

“No, not really, but your surprise that I didn’t abandon Dartmouth the way you and my mother abandoned me, disgusts me. And why had you hoped that I would use the key to leave, Grandmother? Did you know what my life would be like? Did you know and you still left?”

“Your mother did not abandon you, Gray.” She shook her head sorrowfully. “Harper doesn’t even know this.” She cast the younger Blagden a guilty glance. “It was thought best that she wasn’t told, saving you and her unhelpful heartache. Emma was fleeing punishment for using time as her vengeful arena. But she didn’t need to be present to receive her punishment. When she brought her fourth victim to the harrowing future, she was sent back here and stripped of her time travel ability. The council of Devon was told of her whereabouts. She was captured and burned as a witch.”

Gray took a step back, shaken to the marrow. His mother was dead. Burned as a witch! He heard a sound and thought it came from his own heart, but it came from Harper’s. Her older sister was dead, and no one had told her.

“Perhaps if I had known my mother didn’t walk away from me…” Now, he set his murderous gaze on his grandmother without the threat of tears. “You pull all the strings, don’t you, Grandmother. If the end you desire is seen to fruition you don’t care about any of us.”

“That’s not true—”

“It is,” Aria interrupted her. “You took me from my family without my consent. That’s kidnapping, and on my brother’s birthday, no less. You took away a big chunk of my mother’s help, both financially and mentally.”

Gray snorted at his grandmother. “But you don’t understand loyalty, do you? Or compassion. Did you think for one moment what this would do to Aria? Worrying night and day about her family? To Harper, who now must live with the knowledge that her sister was burned to death, and she wasn’t told?”

“Emma chose the way she wished to live,” his grandmother told them. “And she chose the way she wished to die.”

Harper turned away, her face a mask of grief.

But Gray had no place for such sentiment. Not yet. First, he would tell his grandmother that he never wanted to look upon her face again. Even though…even though he still loved her. “So, my mother died because she broke some law of time travel, yet you would have me do it. You provided a way for Aria to do it.”

“I would have hidden you from the pain you suffered here,” his grandmother told him. “But I couldn’t take you. It’s strictly forbidden, even if… I could only give you the key, my dearest grandson. You had to do the rest. The key would have brought you to the future. I had to leave you to prepare that future for you, but you had forgotten about the key. You forgot everything. So, I sent her here to you to heal you. But this isn’t where she belongs.”

He closed his eyes. What if Aria chose to stay? Would she be punished, as his mother had been? “Then…why would you send me where I don’t belong?”

“My grandson,” she began tenderly, “you belong to either here or there. You see, you were conceived in Dartmouth Castle in 1767 and born in 1999 in an apartment in Astoria, New York.”

He laughed, it was a mocking sound, not a merry one. “You’re mad—”

“In an effort to escape your father, your foolish mother traveled there with you in her belly. She knew better than to give birth to you here. She knew the rules. She couldn’t stay. So she brought you back with her and returned to your father, until she grew miserable again.”

“Maybe,” Aria said scornfully, “she had him in the future because of things called hospitals and painkillers.”

Gray looked at her and found himself wondering what hospitals and painkillers would be like in the future. He was allowed to go. He was being told to go.

His gaze warmed on Aria. He didn’t have to lose her. Did it mean that much to him that he didn’t? How could his heart feel light when he’d just learned the truth about his mother? But his mother had been gone for eighteen years. He didn’t want to miss Aria for that long, or even for a day.

This key will lead you to your heart’s desire.

He reached out his fingertips and touched Aria’s temple. She was his heart’s desire.

It will help you heal.

The key had brought her to him, and she was healing his weary soul. He thought about what Harper had told him. He wouldn’t mind giving Aria seven children. He smiled slightly thinking about it.

She blushed as if reading his thoughts. He knew she didn’t possess that gift, but she could read his different, very subtle facial expressions.

“My dear, Aria,” his grandmother said, breaking through his thoughts of a future with Aria. “First, I know your dedication to your family. Dear girl, I know it better than anyone else. I saw the sacrifice you made every day for them. I wouldn’t leave them with nothing. I gave your mother your “pay” while you were away. Plus, a hefty bonus, which you deserve. She no longer has to worry about paying the rent or buying food. I didn’t take care of all of it while you were there because not having help strengthened you and made you an even better person.”

While she spoke, Gray noticed that Aria was holding back her tears. The tip of her pert nose turned red, and so did the whites of her eyes. Her cool blue irises grew more vivid and sparkling. But she remained silent, letting her friend explain herself.

“Perhaps I should have told you that you would be leaving them. But you never would have agreed to come here.”

Gray caught Aria’s eye when she glanced at him. Was she thinking that she wouldn’t have met him? How did she feel about that possibility?

“I’ll send you home, child.”

Gray turned away at her words. If he went with her, he’d be giving Dartmouth to Cavendish. Why did he care about people who thought he was a mad monster, or worse—a witch like his mother? Let Cavendish rule over them. Let them all be stuck in this drab life, void of creativity and originality. Aria showed him a little bit of her future in the way she danced and in the way she passed no judgment on him when she saw how he dressed and how he danced. He wanted to go with her when she went home.

“I’m sure the key will turn up,” his grandmother said, sounding convinced.

“Where is it?” Gray asked her. She didn’t answer him but continued speaking to Aria.

“The door is any door in this castle. When the time comes, just focus on something from home and turn the key.”

“All this time,” Aria said softly, “the door was any door?”

His grandmother nodded. “I am sorry, child, but…was coming here really so terrible?”

Gray faced her slowly, awaiting her answer.

“Does meeting him cancel out what you did to me?” Aria asked. “I was close to being frostbitten, alone and clueless in the past . My logical mind had to stop working. I had to trust a stranger and sleep in his sister’s bed. Every day, every second of being away from my family was difficult, but no, it wasn’t terrible after seeing Gray dance. After seeing him dance, I became selfish.”

His grandmother smiled. “You haven’t a selfish bone in your body. Aria,” she said a moment later, growing serious again. She glanced at him. “I love this boy desperately and I hated being away for so long, but…” her gaze rested on Aria again.… “I wouldn’t let anyone who wasn’t worthy of him get so close to him. Sarah Gable and Rose Planc de’Vere are lovely women, but they couldn’t make him happy. And after being alone for so long, he deserves a woman who will stay by his side all her days.”

Aria slipped her gaze to him. Did she look worried? When her teeth chattered, he stepped closer to her and took her hands in his. “Let’s return to the castle.”

“Gray,” his grandmother said, stopping him. “Don’t go tonight. There are affairs to be seen to here so that they will be uncontested in the future. I need you here for at least a day.”

He nodded and turned back for the castle with Aria’s hand in his.

*

Tessa Blagden had lived through many centuries. She’d seen many wonders. But this—this—

“He’s holding her hand,” she leaned in and said to Harper.

“I told you he cares for her.”

“Did you note the way he stared at her, how he smiled at her?” Tessa asked exuberantly. “From your past reports I was beginning to lose hope for his happiness. I wanted it for him so much.” Shaking her head with regret, she brought a napkin to her eyes and patted them dry. “Some things must be done.”

“What are you talking about?” Harper demanded. “Tell me the plan. I won’t be kept in the dark this time. Not when it comes to him.”

Tessa gave her a steady look full of love and compassion. Harper had done all and had given up all to do what was asked of her. In that, she was very much like Aria Darling. She deserved the truth about her sister, and now she deserved to know the rest.