Rendezvous With Yesterday (The Gifted Ones #2)(119)

“Josh,” Beth quickly interrupted. “It’s a really long and truly bizarre story. I’d rather not tell it on an empty stomach.” As if on cue, a low growl emanated from her midriff. “Could we call out for pizza or heat something up first? I feel like I haven’t eaten in a week.”

Robert laughed. “You ate more than I did yestereve.”

She grimaced. “I know, but it came right back up again as soon as I left the great hall.”

He sobered. “What?”

“I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you would worry, but my stomach has been so queasy the last few days that I haven’t been able to keep anything down.” She hadn’t been sleeping well, either, which might explain her new tendency to cry at the drop of a hat. She had been pretty stressed of late.

Robert frowned and gently pressed the palm of his hand to her forehead. “Are you ill, Beth?”

“No, I’m fine. It’s just nerves. We were waiting for Seth to come. And then, when he did and said he would help us, I was afraid it wouldn’t work, or that something would go wrong and we wouldn’t make it back here, or that—”

“Make it back from where, Beth?” Josh demanded, his patience visibly fraying. “Where have you been all this time? How did you survive your wounds? The detectives said—”

“The man who took me healed me.”

“What man? Was he in league with Kingsley and Vergoma?”

“No.”

“Was it Robert?”

“No.” She held up a hand, forestalling further questions. “Josh, I know these last two months have been difficult, but if you would just—”

“Two months,” he practically bellowed. “Two months?”

She glanced at Robert uneasily. “I know it’s been a little bit more than that, but…”

Disbelief, fury and confusion clouded Josh’s features. “Beth, you’ve been gone for two years!” he shouted, abandoning Middle English entirely.

Beth gaped up at him. “What?”

“Two years! I’ve been looking for you for two years! What happened to you? Did the man who took you…?” He swallowed hard. “Did he hurt you, Beth?”



“No,” she assured him, reverting to modern English. “No, he didn’t. Actually, he helped me. I never would have survived if he hadn’t healed me.”

“Well, did he hold you captive or something? Where have you been all this time?”

She glanced uneasily at Robert.

Robert watched them with furrowed brow.

“He didn’t hold me captive,” she told Josh. “I wasn’t a prisoner and wasn’t mistreated or anything. But I couldn’t contact you or come home. Not until today.”

“I don’t understand. What the hell does that mean? Were you in witness protection or something?” He motioned to Robert. “And why is he dressed like that? Why does he speak Middle English?”

She bit her lip. “Okay, here’s the thing. I’m going to tell you exactly what happened, beginning in the clearing when you passed out and ending with my coming here today, but it’s going to sound really unbelievable, and you’re going to think that whatever happened to me made me lose it mentally, but it’s all true, I’m completely sane, and I want to say right now that I have the pictures to prove it.”

Josh stared at her, then looked at Robert, who shrugged, not understanding.

Beth nodded and returned to using Middle English. “Robert, please hand me my cell phone.”





Two hours and three pizzas later, Beth sprawled next to Robert on the sofa, so full she could barely breathe. Across from them, Josh leaned forward in his favorite chair, elbows on his knees, and pored over the photos spread across the scuffed-up coffee table between them. He had uploaded them from Beth’s cell phone and printed them while they waited for the pizzas to arrive. All colorful pictures taken of Fosterly and its inhabitants.

“Do you believe me now?” Beth asked around a wide yawn. Just as she had known he would, Josh had panicked halfway through her tale, believing she had suffered some kind of mental breakdown. Hence the pictures.

“How can this be?” Josh murmured, spearing a hand through his thick brown locks. “Time travel isn’t possible. It just isn’t.” He shook his head. “Do you know how screwed up the world would be if time travel were possible?”

Robert grunted. “’Tis precisely what Beth told me when she sought to convince me of the truth.”

Josh frowned and held up a photo. “Is this William Shatner?”

Beth grinned. “No. His name is Edward. But he looks a lot like him, doesn’t he?”

Josh continued to examine the photos. “What about this one? This teenager. Why does he look familiar to me?”

Beth took the picture and studied it. “I don’t know. Something about him seemed familiar to me, too, but I could never figure out what. That’s Marcus, Robert’s squire. I wish you could meet him, Josh. He’s the sweetest kid.”

“Hmm.”

She returned the picture to the array on the coffee table. “Come on, Josh. You know me. You know I would never lie to you. I have no reason to lie to you about where I’ve been or why I haven’t contacted you. So the only explanations left are that I actually did go back in time or that I’m delusional.” She settled back against the cushions once more and motioned to the coffee table. “You can’t take pictures of delusions. And be honest. Aside from claiming I went back in time, does anything else about me seem off? Anything that would indicate I’ve suffered some kind of breakdown or have been… I don’t know… mentally reconditioned to believe I went back in time by some captor?”