Rendezvous With Yesterday (The Gifted Ones #2)(121)

Josh stared at her. “Are you shitting me?”

“No.”

“You think you’re going to live out the rest of your life in the Middle Ages?” he asked, voice rising.

“Yes.”

“Do you know how short your life will be if you do that? That’s insane! Their life expectancy wasn’t even half what ours is. Fifty was old. If you go back there, you’ll only have maybe thirty years… if you’re lucky. If you stay here you could have seventy!”

“Josh—”

“And without modern medicine you probably wouldn’t even have the thirty. You could die in childbirth or—”

“She will not,” Robert interrupted.

Beth looked at him in surprise. Had he actually been following that? Because she and Josh had totally abandoned Middle English somewhere along the way. “I’m sorry, Robert. I didn’t mean to switch languages. Did you understand any of that?”



“I understood much of it,” he said.

Really? He must have learned more modern English than she had realized.

Robert trained his gaze on Josh. “Beth will not die in childbirth. She will live a long and healthy life if she returns with me to my time.”

Josh made a scoffing sound. “According to whom?”

“According to Seth,” he replied.

Josh frowned. “The time traveler with all the gifts?”

Robert nodded.

Beth blinked. “Seth really said that?”

“Aye.”

“When?”

Robert raised the hand he clasped to his lips for a kiss. “Whilst you and the others supped last night, I drew him aside and tried to convince him to let us live out our lives here in your time.”

“Why?” she asked softly. Seth had given them no indication that he might change his mind. And it would’ve required Robert to leave his own family behind.

“I wanted you to be happy,” he said simply. “So much so that I did beg him to let us remain here. But he would not.”

“I am happy, Robert.” She cupped his strong jaw in her free hand. “As long as I’m with you, I’m happy.”

He shook his head. “You described such wonders in your world, Beth, that I thought you would have a better life here. I feared living in my time would be a hardship. And, having seen all I have today, I know it will be.”

“Nay. It won’t. Not as long as I have you,” she insisted. “And you’ve only seen the good things my time has to offer. There are a lot of bad things in my world, too.”

He stroked her hand with his thumb. “I believe Seth read my doubts clearly, for he assured me that you and I would have a very long and happy life together at Fosterly.”

She sent him a wry smile. “And if anyone would know, he would.”

Robert chuckled. “Aye. I believed him.”

“I believe him, too.” Smiling, she returned her attention to her brother. “It’ll be okay, Josh. I know it. I feel it.”

“Beth.”

“You’ve always told me to trust my instincts. Well, my instincts are telling me not to fight this.”

He must have read her determination, because he ceded the battle. For now. “How long will you be here?”

“A week. Then we have to go back.”

And it might take her that long to convince her brother she would be well.





Chapter Twenty



Robert smiled down at Beth as she took his hand and swung it back and forth.

He had abandoned his armor in favor of jeans and a T-shirt Josh had generously lent him. On his feet, he wore a pair of Josh’s sneakers, which Robert decided were the most comfortable shoes he had ever worn. It was like walking on cushions.

Beth was similarly garbed in jeans and a T-shirt, but hers molded themselves to every curve.

Josh had invited their friends Marc and Grant to dinner and expected them to arrive soon.

Beth’s pretty face was flushed with excitement. She remained in constant motion, shifting from side to side or bobbing up and down on her toes. As Josh had phrased it, she was totally bouncing off the walls.

“I have never seen you thus,” Robert murmured, thoroughly entertained. He would not have thought anything could distract him from the miraculous television the siblings’ living room boasted, or the gas range with its stunning blue fire in the kitchen. But Beth enchanted him.

She did a funny little shuffle and dance with her feet that made Josh laugh from his position across the living room. “Do you like it or hate it?”

Robert grinned. “I like it.” It made him want to take her in his arms and—

The doorbell rang.

Emitting a squeak of excitement, Beth jumped up and down, then dragged Robert out of the living room and into the hallway that led to the bedrooms and bathroom.

“Do you not wish to stay and greet your friends?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I want to surprise them.”

They heard Josh open the door and greet his guests. Two deep male voices joined his. Beth released Robert’s hand and covered her lips with her fingers as though she found it almost impossible to hold back the delighted flow of words that threatened to burst free.

She was so adorable that Robert was tempted to drag her into the nearest bedroom and make love to her. But just as he decided her friends would have to wait, she jumped into the doorway to the living room and yelled, “Surprise!”