Page 21 of Last Knight (Knights Through Time #7)

The horse Ashley’s ring had purchased had flecks of gray in his coat, but he plodded along happy enough from what she could tell.

She swore she hadn’t thought about what time it was.

Not since her singing debut at the inn a couple of days ago.

Though she still glanced at her wrist out of habit and touched the now fraying pockets in her dress, imagining the nonexistent phone vibrating with urgent calls, emails, and texts.

Time. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, and hours to days. Time ebbed and flowed, and there was nothing she could do about it except go along.

Now she accepted the day as it unfolded.

They would arrive at Christian’s home when they got there.

It had snowed last night, not much, just enough to be pretty.

The woods were quiet, the occasional bird singing or the crack of a branch the only sign there was anyone else on the planet besides the two of them.

The next thing to figure out was how to get home. It wasn’t like she could walk through a doorway and find herself back in present-day Wales.

Mitch, Mr. Havers, and the merger seemed a lifetime ago. Even Ben. By now he’d guessed she stayed in London or broke up with him by disappearing, ghosting. He’d be seeing a supermodel, and she wished him well.

As to the rest of her life? The people she called friends she could count on one hand, the rest acquaintances.

Those from the gym and the people she saw out and about.

The ones she ran into over and over at the same restaurants and gym classes.

There were the virtual friends, made on social media, but she certainly wouldn’t call them real friends.

What would happen to her stuff if she was stuck here?

With no remaining family, she guessed the super in her building would pick through and take what he wanted, then trash the rest. Someone was going to drop to their knees and thank their lucky stars when they moved into her apartment.

Modern conveniences were what she’d miss if she had to make a new life here in medieval England.

It was disconcerting to wake up and not have an office or job to go to, not have the constant ringing of her phone.

She’d worked through high school and college then started her job in finance three days after she’d graduated—enough time to pack up her stuff and make the trip.

If she could get a message to her own time, she’d tell people to take up horseback riding.

It was better than the spa or meditating.

Ashley yawned, leaning back against Christian, inhaling the scent of man, horse, and something else that smelled like winter.

A scent, she’d come to decide, was the way he smelled.

The rhythm of the horse made her drowsy, and she struggled to keep her eyes open.

When she woke, they had stopped, and she found herself on the ground, sitting next to a small stream.

“I didn’t want to wake you. The horse needs rest.” Christian eyed the animal, and Ashley smiled at the look on his face. It was the same look she was sure was on her face whenever she held up a clearance item in the store—was it worth the price? Would it break right away ?

The horse, seemingly unconcerned with being evaluated, went about his horse business.

“I guess I was tired. The riding is getting better.” She stood and rubbed her backside. “I swear my legs and my butt have gone numb, and I don’t know if I’ll ever feel them again.”

“Aye, ’tis a rather fetching backside.”

A giggle broke free, and she clapped a hand over her mouth, but it was no use. He was so embarrassed at what he’d said that he turned a bright red, and she’d noticed his ears stuck out a little when he was embarrassed.

“Forgive me.”

“It’s all right. I could say the same about you.”

And then he turned even redder.

“I should see to the horse.”

Ashley splashed water on her face to help wake her up.

It was freezing. Too bad she stank at poetry; she’d like to compose an ode to hot water.

Christian had said it was going to snow again.

The weather guys on TV would be envious—he seemed to be able to predict the weather just by looking at the skies and smelling the air.

Time had passed and people changed; they could no longer tell the weather from looking at the sky. They moved indoors and to cities, becoming accustomed to modern conveniences. Though if she were being completely honest with herself, she was more used to the countryside than she’d let on.

The secret she kept from everyone was her upbringing and her condition.

The teenage mom who died of an overdose, fled rehab, and tried to sell her as a baby on Halloween; being adopted and living in a one-stoplight town.

She loved her parents, but they were content to live small, while Ashley had vowed to make it, to live in the biggest city, the only city.

Small-town life chafed at her, made her feel like life was passing her by and everyone else was off doing exciting things while she floundered.

Three years and a hell of a lot of hard work later, she’d packed her belongings into a friend’s car and swore she’d never end up in Pooler, Georgia again.

Vowed never to fail, swore she’d be a big success.

And she’d been on the way to achieving all that she wanted, until she landed here.

Now it seemed like a lifetime ago. Maybe it was time to build a new life.

She finished washing as best she could, and frowned at the state of her dress. The hem had come undone in places, there were several tears, and the pockets had come out of the seams. Guess the dress wasn’t meant for more than standing on stage or attending a party.

Tossing a pebble in the stream, she looked to Christian. He was readying the horse for them to leave. There was one other thing she was keeping from him. A really big deal-breaker thing.

If she could go home, it wouldn’t matter, but if she stayed… She knew how much he wanted a big family. And that was the one thing she couldn’t give him.

When she was fifteen, she’d had feminine issues and required surgery, the end result being she couldn’t have kids.

So no matter how charming she found him, it would never work between them, because she wanted to go back to her life and cross off every item on her list of goals, and he wanted a wife and a big family.

So she would enjoy his company and she wouldn’t fall in love with him.

No matter that he was the one guy where being with him didn’t seem like work.

Talking came easy, and with him she felt whole.

Hellfire and damnation, she was in love with him.

“Mistress Ashley? We should go.”

“Coming.” With a shake of her head, she stood, brushing off the dirty brown dress. If she kept telling herself she wasn’t falling in love with him, it would be true. It was the old fake it till you make it, right?

“Are we there yet? ”

Christian smiled, knowing it would not be long until she beseeched him to stop.

Over the past se’nnight he had come to know her temper well.

Though she no longer wondered what time it was or complained about the horse.

There were times she was quiet for a long time and he thought she was thinking of her home.

“It will not be long now until we reach Winterforth.”

“Can we stop? I need to use the ladies’ room.”

He found a safe place where any approaching riders would not see them, and helped her dismount. He had heard the expression before, the ladies’ room —his brothers’ wives said the same.

Her voice came from behind a bush. “Wait a minute. Winterforth? That’s the place those soldiers at the inn were gossiping about. You know, that guy they were talking about.”

He stiffened.

There was rustling in the bush, and he walked a few paces away to give her privacy. When she returned, he was tending to the horse.

“Come on, you remember Winterforth.”

“Of what do you speak?”

“The guy those men were saying couldn’t please a woman.”

He pressed his lips together. “Nay, they say he cannot get a woman with child. He has pleasured many women.”

“Why are you getting so defensive? It’s not like you know the guy.”

But something on his face must’ve given him away, for she pursed her lips.

“Oh, you do know him.”

Instead of answering, he stomped about.

“Is he your boss?”

At his blank look, she tried again.

“Your lord?”

“Nay.”

“Oh my gosh, don’t tell me it’s one of your brothers? ”

“Nay, none of them. I no longer wish to speak on the matter.” He lifted her back on the horse and climbed up behind her.

As they rode, she kept asking questions to vex him.

“Who cares if this guy can’t have kids? Why does it matter?”

He snarled in her ear. “Why? A man is not a man if he cannot get a woman with child, just as a woman is no woman if she cannot bear babes. ’Tis our duty to have children, to carry on our name.”

When she spoke, her voice was so quiet he had to lean close to hear her words.

“I didn’t know you felt so strongly.”

“How could you? You are a stranger to my land.”

He felt her stiffen, but she did not say anything, choosing to keep the secret from whence she came, the one she’d told him when she was in her cups.

And she did as he had seen Robert’s wife Elizabeth do many times: she changed the course of their speech.

“So where is Winterforth? Is it close to London?”

“Four days’ ride from London. It controls a vast expanse of land. You will see its bridge controls the only way across the river.”