The Mammoth Book of Hot Romance Page 5

  “It’s true I helped my lady Morga and her man escape. I’ve taken care of the girl all her life, and I understood how she’d been with the last year king long enough to think of him as her husband and not want to bed a new man.” She looked Bern over. “Though I think she would have gotten the better of the bargain had she stayed and done her duty.”

  “Get on to the important part,” the chieftain urged.

  “The pair of them were angry and affronted at being forced to run from their home. After we made camp last night they talked about how they would betray the secrets of the stronghold’s defences to the Saxons.”

  Ched rubbed the back of his neck. “But that is the secret – we have no defences.”

  “The invaders weren’t aware of how weak we are,” the guard said. “They’ll march straight for us now.”

  “They will be here soon,” the woman said. “I had to come back to warn my people that their doom approaches.”

  Bern wished she hadn’t put it like that. It made him feel sorry for the indigenous population. Even worse, the way they all looked to him to take command made him feel responsible for them. These people were going to be easy pickings without some help. Bern thought of all the defenceless people camped out around the stronghold. They’d come here for a religious celebration, not to be slaughtered.

  “How will you defend us?” Lord Ched asked him.

  Ginger came forwards and put her hand on his arm. “I was studying the pool for advice on that very subject when you arrived. If you would let us continue with the divination the king will meet with you afterwards, better prepared to save his people.”

  The chieftain and his people left without another word.

  When they were alone, Ginger grabbed hold of the front of his tunic, held on tight, and talked fast. “Now you listen to me, Colonel Bern. I will not have you quoting rules and regs about non-interference and the possibility of changing history. We don’t have any solid history of this era to go on. But we do have myths and legends, and, hon, I think I know what’s going on here. You have to fight the invaders. You. You are the element necessary to slow down the incursions and give the native culture more time to recover from Roman rule. That way, when the Saxons do take over it’ll be overlaying a British-based culture rather than a Roman one. In our time we’ll have England the way we know it, but we won’t if you don’t take on the invaders here and now. You were meant to do this.”

  Bern gaped at her. “What the hell are you talking about? What makes me special?”

  “You said it yourself, last night, ‘at least I don’t have to pull it out of a stone’. You pulled the sword from the soil of Britain and claimed the kingship. You are—”

  “Don’t you dare put that on me.” He’d finally gotten where this was going.

  “Bern means ‘bear’,” she went on. “One of the translations of—”

  “No.”

  “And then there are your men’s names. There’s Kaye and—”

  “You’ve been drinking that spring water as well as looking into it, haven’t you?” His tone was harsh, but his instincts were shouting at him that she was right.

  He knew he’d hurt her feelings, but they were interrupted once again. This time it was the rest of the team that came into the sanctuary.

  “Look who we found, boss!” Kaye crowed. “Your gut was right again.”

  “Stop looking smug,” he ordered Ginger before he said to the newcomer, “Welcome to your rescue, Professor Owen.”

  “I’m grateful the Project sent a team for us.” He gave Ginger a nod and smile. She smiled back. “And if rumour is correct, you’ve come to the rescue just in the nick of time.”

  “We’ve heard that the Saxons are heading this way,” Kaye said. “Time for us to bug out, right?”

  Bern waited for Ginger to protest, but she crossed her arms and bit her lower lip instead of nagging him. Damn it! That made it even harder for him to say no to her.

  “I took an oath to protect these people last night,” he told the team. “The least we can do is give the locals a chance at getting away.”

  “What precisely to you mean by ‘we’?” Percy spoke up. “At no point do I recall having signed a social contract with these people. Going native is not one of our options.”

  “What’s wrong with helping people?” Owen demanded. “The locals have helped me survive for months. I owe them.”

  “So do I,” Ginger said.

  “Very touching, but irrelevant,” Percy responded.

  “You are such a wuss,” Gareth said. “Come on, fighting a bunch of barbarians will be fun.”

  “No it won’t,” Bern said sternly. “And don’t make the assumption that I’m asking for a consensus, or volunteers. This is a military operation, and I’m in command.”

  His soldiers immediately snapped to attention, and he nodded to them. Percy didn’t look happy, but at least this finally shut him up. Bern glanced at Ginger. She was looking at him with enough pride in her eyes to set his heart on fire. She made him feel like a hero. This wasn’t the time to kiss her all over the way he wanted to, but he did put his arm around her waist and draw her close.

  As they stood, hip to hip, he said, “Remember the hillside we crossed on the way here?” There were nods. “We’re going to set up our perimeter there. It’s time to break out the claymores, boys.”

  Ginger gave him a puzzled look, but her expression cleared before he could explain. “Oh, youo s not talking about big Scottish swords, are you?”

  “No, hon, I’m talking about things that blow up.”

  “Fire in the sky,” she said. “Just what the vision showed me.”

  This had better work, Ginger thought. She hugged herself tightly. Please God let it work. And don’t let anything happen to him – or any of the good guys – while you’re at it. Please Lady, she added, since she was officially a priestess of the goddess.

  Well, maybe not officially any more since soon she’d be leaving Lord Ched’s villa forever. She was standing in the woods at the source of the spring with a bundle of provisions at her feet, waiting for the rest of the team to join her. The plan was for her to wait safely out of the way while the men carried out the op. Bern had insisted she stay out of harm’s way, and she hadn’t argued. She was no warrior.

  Some of the other women had taken up arms to fight alongside their men after Bern gave a rousing speech to the gathered pilgrims. This was the ancient way of the Celts, and more proof as far as Ginger was concerned that this battle was going to slow the tide of invasion. The people were eager to follow Bern into battle. Their willingness to defend their homeland was a good sign, too. Right?

  Please Horned God and Lady of the Spring, don’t let me have started something that’s going to get a lot of people killed. Especially not Bern.

  She reminded herself that he was a competent professional soldier. He had a good strategy. He had explosives. He was going to win the day.

  The plan for the TTP team was that after the battle was joined, and the good guys were winning, they’d withdraw and join Ginger in the woods. With their obligation to help the people fulfilled, the team could then continue their search for a working nexus that would take them home.

  Home. Away from Bern. She dashed away tears. It had to be. If she went home with a broken heart and a deep ache for the way he made her body sing, she still had the memories to appreciate. At least they’d spent as much time as they could in the three days making love while waiting for the Saxons. And now the Saxons were here.

  Ginger paced nervously. What if it didn’t work? Was there something she could do to help?

  She hated the quiet here in the woods. Maybe she was safer here, but the sudden need to know what was going on got the better of her. She cut through the woods rather than take the path that led towards the villa.

  The perfect spring of the festival had been replaced by a pewter sky that threatened rain, and a wind that blew cooler than it should for this time of year. It was
a grim day, fit for a battle, she supposed.

  When she reached the south edge of the woods she got a good view down the valley to the hill beyond. Half of the British fighters were spread out below the hill, waiting there instead of occupying the high ground. She caught sight of chain mail and sword blades as grey as the day and the energy mixture of fear and anticipation hit her like a blow. She put herself behind a tree and waited, and watched.

  The atmosphere grew even more tense, thunder rumbled in the distance, and very soon a large band of warriors appeared on the crest of the hill. They saw the Britons waiting for them and drew to a halt. More of the invaders came up behind them, and more, until there was an army of several hundred fierce barbarians looking down upon the several dozen not-quite-so-fierce barbarians below. The Saxons formed into a long line that stretched out along the top of the hill, but since they held the high ground they didn’t seem to be in any hurry to rush the people below.

  Which was what Bern had counted on.

  A line of claymore minesbeen set right where the Saxons were now standing. When the mines went off there was indeed fire bursting up towards the sky. And screaming, and blood, and flying body parts.

  What was left of the Saxon invaders turned to flee, but that could not be allowed. Bern’s team and the other half of the British force came out of hiding in the woods on the far side of the hill and drove the remainder of the Saxons down the hill on to the swords of those waiting there.

  The reality was so much worse than her vision, but she never doubted the necessity of this battle. Ginger watched the carnage long enough to be assured that everything was going to turn out as planned. There was a victory here today at Camlan Hill. Legend would speak of magic making the very soil of Britain gape wide to send the enemy to the fires of hell.

  Only witnessing it must have upset her more than she realized because she got lost in the thick woods making her way back to the spring. By the time she found her way to the rendezvous point it had started to rain. Bern and the team were waiting for her. They’d brought horses with them.

  Bern stopped pacing and pulled her roughly to him by the elbows. “Where have you been, woman?”

  She was so happy to see him that she kissed him. His hands kneaded her back and buttocks with forceful swiftness that told her that he’d been as worried about her as she was him. She began to cry with relief, and was glad to have the rain to cover this excess of emotion.

  Except she knew it didn’t work when he kissed her cheeks and said, “You taste salty.”

  “And you smell sweaty,” she complained. “Let’s get out of here.”

  He kept his arms around her when she would have gone for her pack. “But where do we go from here?” He glanced towards Percy.

  The subject had been under discussion for days. The problem with this area was an overabundance of sites where energy concentrated. Ginger had stayed out of it, because she didn’t want to be dismissed out of hand as a total loon. Now she had to speak up.

  “We need to go to the Isle of Apples,” she told them.

  “Where’s that?” Bern asked.

  Gareth laughed. “So, I’m not the only one who’s seen the parallels.”

  Kaye nodded thoughtfully.

  Maybe she should have spoken up sooner.

  Percy pulled a handheld computer out of a leather pouch on his belt. He checked a map screen and then frowned at her. “I’ve worked out the search grid very carefully. There’s no reason to deviate from—”

  “Where is this Apple Island?” Bern asked.

  “Isle of Apples,” Ginger corrected. She cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and made herself publicly say, “Avalon.”

  “Oh, for crying out loud!” Percy yelled in disgust.

  She didn’t blame him. “I admit it might seem a little far-fetched.”

  “A little?” He sneered. “Living among these people has made you as superstitious as they are. You’ve come to accept their mythology as—”

  “It’s not one of the local myths,” Gareth said. “Not yet, anyway. It is one of our myths. Following it might lead us home.”

  “Gambling on what might happen is not a scientific or logical basis for finding the correct nexus,” Percy argued.

  Bern rubbed his jaw and chuckled. “Might doesn’t always make right. I just remembered where that came from. But where is Avalon? Hasn’t that always been a mystery?”

  “It doesn’t exist. You’re not going along with this, are you, Colonel?” Percy demanded. He pointed accusingly at Ginger. “Why? Because she’s good in bed?”

  Ginger was rather pleased that several team members stepped forwards, but Bern gto Percy first, and punched him in the jaw. Percy hit the wet ground, and was wise enough to stay down. He sat in the mud, rubbed his jaw and kept his mouth shut.

  “So, where do we go?” Bern asked her.

  “Tradition points to Glastonbury,” she answered.

  “There’s a nexus on top of that big hill there?” he asked.

  She shook her head, and glanced at Percy. “Not on top of the tor, right?” He grimaced, but nodded. “There’s a sacred spring called Chalice Well at the foot of Glastonbury Tor. I think that’s where we have to go.”

  “Let’s do it. Mount up,” Bern ordered the team. “We need to get out of here before the locals come looking for us so they can throw a feast in our honour.”

  As the men moved to mount their animals, he snatched Ginger around the waist and put her up on the horse in front of him. She snuggled back against him, and he wrapped his cape around both of them. In this warm, intimate position he leaned forwards to whisper, “Being like this with you almost makes me like riding a horse.”

  She tilted her head against his shoulder, determined to draw every bit of nearness to him she could in the time they had left. “Then let’s enjoy the ride.”

  * * *

  “I don’t believe it,” Percy said. He double-checked his equipment as the water of the Glastonbury spring bubbled up at his feet. Then he gave Ginger a sour look. “She’s right.”

  “The energy reading is right?” Kaye asked.

  “It’s off the scale,” Percy answered.

  “Enough to take both teams home?” Owen asked.

  “Jump in and find out,” Percy invited. He glanced around the green and lovely glade. “Before the priestesses we chased off come back.”

  “With an angry mob,” Kaye added.

  If at all possible TTP operatives were supposed to appear and vanish without any witnesses around. Scaring the locals with the sound and light show that accompanied time travel was considered not only impolite, but possibly dangerous to the primary time line TTP visits wove in and out of. And the problem with places like sacred springs as nexus points was that the places tended to be occupied with priests and pilgrims and such like. So, Bern had had his people approach this one with swords drawn and chase everyone away. Percy was right about their not having much time for goodbyes.

  “Form up into teams,” he said. He took Ginger’s hand before she could join the people she’d travelled into the past with. He drew her away from the spring and tilted her chin up with his fingers. “You are so beautiful,” he told her.

  “In a pale, freckled sort of way,” she answered. She tried to sound light, but her voice came out tight and strained.

  “I’ll miss you, Dr Virginia White.” Words couldn’t begin to describe what this was doing to him.

  “Have I thanked you for rescuing me, yet?” she asked. She gave him a brief, hard embrace. “It’s been a pleasure knowing you, Colonel Andrew Bern.”

  He kissed her then. It was hard and quick, and not enough. He ran the back of his hand across her cheek. “Hey, we made history.”

  “Or something like it.”

  He nodded, and his throat was too tight for him to manage to say more than, “Go.”

  She gave him a sad smile, and went over to join Kaye and Owen who were already standing in the spring’s shallow pool. They each p
laced their left thumbs over the inside of their right wrists. Ginger’s gaze didn’t leave his.

  “On my mark,” Kaye said. “Activate.”

  Everyone pressed down hard on the retrieval implant.

  The column of light that sprang from the water blinded him. The roar of the shock wave was deafening. Bern refused to look away. The last thing he saw was Ginger’s face as she whispered, “Goodbye.”

  Ginger looked up from the photo before her on the desk, and sighed. A copper bowl filled with water sat on the desk, but she wasn’t interested in looking into it. Being a psychic wasn’t as much fun for her as it used to be. It had been six months since she’d got back to her own time. Six months and three days to be precise, not that she was counting. She’d done the debriefing and written up her report, and been sent back to her regular life until such time as the TTP deemed her special skills necessary again. For now her regular life consisted of working with law enforcement on cold case files, and being alone.

  She sighed again, and stood up. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate being back. She loved her house and garden. She loved central heating and modern medicine and interactive holographic entertainment and regular meals of anything she wanted. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed shopping for shoes until she’d entered her first mall. She loved being home. It was just that …

  She missed Bern.

  Her body ached for him when she was alone in her bed at night, but the notion of taking another lover was anathema. Even trying a holo lover hadn’t worked for her.

  She got up and began to pace around her office. She was well aware that Bern had returned to the present three days before, and even more aware that it didn’t matter. Maybe there was some way that she could introduce herself to him, but how fair would it be to him when she knew their past and he didn’t? There was no way for them to pick up where they’d left off. There was a good chance he wouldn’t even be interested in her under normal circumstances. Maybe she wouldn’t be interested in him.