Robert had held her while she’d cried. Those first few nights when grief over losing Josh had seemed unbearable, when confusion and fear had overwhelmed her, she had crawled into his bed like a child seeking the comfort of a parent after a gruesome nightmare, and he had voiced not one objection. Despite the discomfort he must have felt when his body had responded to her own cuddled up against his, he had not pressured her for greater intimacy. Nor had he pressured her to explain her tears or grim silence.
He had protected her. He had sheltered her. He had lied about where she had come from so others would accept her, and had done all he could to ease her transition into his world. He had shared his painful past with her, confessed the grief and regret he had felt over the deaths of his lover and their son. He had made her laugh and teased her and tried to please her in a thousand ways.
And he had made love to her with such aching tenderness.
It couldn’t have been a lie. It couldn’t all have been a lie.
“Beth?”
She nodded, giving him permission to speak, needing him to make it right.
“I have told you of Alyssa, of her family and the other gifted ones,” he began. “How each was born with special talents or abilities the rest of us lack.”
“You said she could heal.” Beth didn’t know whether she acknowledged it or leveled an accusation.
He nodded and switched to her other hand. “Alyssa and her grandmother were both born with the ability to heal with their hands. Her mother can scry the future. Her cousin Meghan can move things with her mind and her brother Geoffrey…”
“Can travel through time,” she finished for him numbly. She would have withdrawn her hand, but Robert wouldn’t let her.
“In truth, Alyssa has never disclosed her brother’s gifts. I believe she has avoided doing so because she thinks ’twill make me fear him.”
“You said he brought me back in time.”
“Sir Geoffrey meets the description of the man you saw after you were wounded. Tall. Dark eyes. Long dark hair. Garbed in the black robes favored by the gifted ones. You said such was uncommon in your time.”
The robes were. “You don’t know for sure it was him?”
“Nay. And I will not until Alyssa confirms it.”
She took a moment to absorb that. “Have you suspected this all along?”
Some of the tightness in her chest eased when he shook his head. “I knew not any of the gifted ones were capable of such an incredible feat. Not until you mentioned the man in black the morning we rode for Terrington. Ere then, I could find no explanation for what had brought you to me.”
“That was three weeks ago, Robert. Why didn’t you tell me then?”
“I knew ’twould trouble you, Beth. I knew you would worry and fret every moment of every day until Alyssa arrived and could answer your questions.”
No sense in denying it. “So, you were trying to protect me?”
He nodded. “If I am wrong… Had I told you, I would have raised your hopes for naught.”
“And if you’re right?”
He sighed and pressed his lips to her fingers. “I needed this time with you, Beth.”
Her throat tightened as he stared at her with his heart in his eyes.
“If Sir Geoffrey can walk through time and agrees to return you to the future, to take you out of my life…” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I needed this time with you. I needed the memories we have created to help sustain me after you leave, after you return to your home.”
Home.
A tear spilled over her lashes and traced a chilly path down one cheek. Her throat grew so thick Beth had to clear it before she could speak. “The thing is, I’m not sure I know where home is anymore, Robert.”
She loved him. She would always love Robert.
But she loved her brother, too, and had left him bleeding to death in that forest.
Cupping the back of her head in one large palm, Robert pressed a tender kiss to her lips, then wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
Beth fisted her hands in his tunic, pulling him even closer.
They remained thus for a long time.
And though both feared what the future would bring, Robert did not ask her to stay. Not because he didn’t love her, Beth knew. But because he would always place her happiness and her desires before his own.
Burying her face in his warm neck, she wept.
Chapter Seventeen
Beth and Robert made their way down to the great hall, as somber as a funeral procession.
Beth’s anxiety over meeting the wondrously perfect Alyssa had evaporated beneath the onslaught of apprehension spawned by the bombshell Robert had dropped in his solar.
Robert stopped her halfway down the stairs. “Beth, I feel I should warn you…”
She groaned. “Ro-bert.” She really couldn’t take any more bad news today.
His lips twitched. “I only wished to impart that Alyssa’s gifts have grown considerably in recent years and—”
“Grown how?”
“She is far more powerful than she used to be. When she touches you now, she can not only heal you and read your emotions, she can also hear your thoughts as clearly as though you have spoken them aloud and glean images from your past.”