Or maybe a lot.
“Beth, have you never believed me when I told you I love you?”
She frowned. “Of course I believed you.”
“Nay, you did not,” he protested with a scowl. “If you believed me, such would not have even occurred to you. You would know that there is naught I wish to change about you. I love you as you are.”
Beth held up her hands. “Look, we both know everyone thinks I’m weird.”
“I care naught what anyone else thinks!” he practically bellowed, startling her into silence. He was getting that red-in-the-face, murderous look that came over him whenever he thought someone maligned Alyssa. “I love you! I love everything about you. Your wisdom. Your wit. Your laughter. Your strength. Your beauty. Your scent. Your touch. There is naught about you that is not perfect and anyone who suggests otherwise will find my sword embedded in his belly!”
Wow.
Just… wow.
He actually seemed hurt that she might think he wanted to change her. “I don’t get it,” she broached hesitantly. “You said you thought Alyssa could help me. If you weren’t talking about etiquette lessons, what did you mean?”
“I meant—” He clamped his lips shut. Pacing away from her, he raked his fingers through his hair as he was wont to do when troubled.
“Robert?”
His back to her, he propped his hands on his hips and lowered his head. When next he spoke, his voice was low. Reluctant. As though she forcibly dragged the words from him against his will. “You told me that the day you traveled back in time, a man came to you, garbed all in black.”
She nodded slowly. “The monk? Or the guy dressed like a monk? Yeah. I mean, aye. But it wasn’t real, remember? It was a hallucination.”
He turned to face her. “I believe it was real, Beth. I believe the man in the dark robe came to you, healed you, and carried you back in time.”
What?
She frowned. “Okay. Let’s say he was real. What does that have to do with Alyssa?”
“I believe Alyssa’s brother was the one who brought you to me. The one who brought you back in time.” His throat worked. “And if I am right, she can summon him here to Fosterly to take you home again.”
Beth stared at him, uncomprehending.
The gears that powered her brain ground to a screeching halt, preventing her from processing whatever Robert was trying to tell her. She didn’t want to process it. “I don’t…” Closing her eyes, she shook her head slightly to clear it. “You think the man I thought I saw after I was shot… you’re saying that was Alyssa’s brother?”
“I believe so, aye.”
Opening her eyes, Beth stared at him.
He kept his expression blank. Only a slight tic in his jaw betrayed his unease.
She must have misunderstood. He couldn’t be saying what she thought he was.
Could he? Could she have been such a fool?
Nausea struck, as did a fierce pounding in her head. Her breath shortened. “Alyssa’s brother can travel through time?” Her eyes burned as tears blurred her vision. “You knew? All this time, while I’ve been questioning my sanity and trying to understand what happened to me, trying to figure out how the hell I came here, you knew and you said nothing?” The pain of his betrayal pierced her breast and made her head swim.
“Beth—”
“Shut up!” Raising a trembling hand to her forehead, she drew her fingers across it. “I can’t believe this,” she whispered. “I can’t believe this. So… what? This was all a game to you?”
“Nay, I—”
“Bringing me here, watching me flounder and struggle to get my bearings, making me fall in love with you—”
“Beth—”
“Shut up!”
It didn’t make any sense. Robert wasn’t cruel. He was not a cruel man. She would bet her life on it. She had bet her life on it, in a way. How could he have done this to her?
Her head began to swim. “I can’t think. I feel dizzy.”
Robert swiftly closed the distance between them and, taking her arm, guided her to one of the chairs before the hearth. As Beth sank weakly onto the polished wood, he knelt before her and took her icy hands in his own. “Beth, love, listen to me.”
“I trusted you,” she whispered.
“And your trust was not misplaced,” he vowed earnestly, his warm hands chafing her fingers to warm them. “Please, Beth, let me speak.”