Read Online Now and for Never by Lesley Livingston - Free Book Online

not a loop make. Where’s ‘here’? Where is that island?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Milo sighed. “But I have a feeling we’ll find out sooner rather than later.”
    â€œSooner better be sometime in the next three days, according to this,” Al said.
    â€œMeanwhile,” Milo said, closing the computer and shoving it back into its case, “we’d better pay a visit to our friendly local archaeologist. Because no one’s going anywhere until we get Clare’s shimmer trigger from Bloody Nicky’s stash.”
    â€œNo problemo.” Clare shrugged and pushed her chair back. “I mean, hey—he kind of owes us a favour for having him so successfully beheaded, doesn’t he? And I figure he’ll be only too happy to help us retrieve his protégé from back in the day. He’ll be tickled, right?”
    â€œRight!” Al smiled and stood.
    Clare put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a quick hug. Everything was going to work out just fine, she thought.
    â€œRight,” Piper echoed. “Easy peasy lemon squeezy …”
    Clare and Al turned to blink at her. Milo snorted in amusement at the Britishism.
    â€œGood thing we’re going in search of a linguist.” Clare shook her head. “Sometimes I just don’t understand a thing that girl says.”

6
    R etrieving the coin from Nicholas Ashbourne would prove neither easy peasy nor particularly lemon squeezy, Clare thought—given the bitter expression that scrunched up the good professor’s face as they tried to explain what the deal was with Marcus and just what the four intrepid teens had been up to since the last time he’d seen them.
    Clare was flummoxed. Granted, their return meant they’d seen Postumus successfully beheaded, but hadn’t that been the whole point? And the temporal-flux crossover that had allowed the Legion commander to live on in his Nicholas Ashbourne persona should have more than made up for that, right?
    Well, maybe.
    But the flamboyant archaeologist hardly seemed grateful. What he seemed, in fact, was mightily pissed off. Not at first, maybe. But when Clare mentioned that Goggles had acted as her temporal anchor during this most recent bout of Shenanigans, Nick fairly blew a gasket.
    â€œYou what ?” he almost shouted, rounding on Piper and gripping her hard by both arms. “Are you all right?” he demanded.
    â€œWhat? I’m fine!” Piper blinked up at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
    But Ashbourne just stared down at her, shaking her as if to make certain she didn’t have any telltale rattling that meant she wasn’t fine. Piper shot Clare a perplexed glance. Clare passed the glance on to Al, who shrugged and passed it on to Milo. Finally, Ashbourne spun around and pointed a large, blunt finger at the three of them, jabbing at the air.
    â€œThis meddling stops.” His voice was like a gunshot ringing through the tent. “Now.”
    â€œUh … what’s up, doc?” Clare asked, frowning at him.
    At a rustling sound Clare glanced over to see Al clutching to her chest the package she’d brought for the professor. Before heading to the dig site they’d stopped by the B&B so that Al could gather up the exquisite Roman costume Postumus had lent her when she’d been a prisoner in his camp. The gesture—calculated to make Al feel more like a “guest” than a prisoner—had also been incredibly kind. After all, the clothes had belonged to Postumus’s dead wife. Al had truly appreciated it, and thought the erstwhile Roman praefect might in turn appreciate having the items returned. Keepsakes from another time. Another life. She’d put the delicate sandals and the neatly folded lengths of silky cloth into a paper bag and was just pulling them out when Postumus/Ashbourne freaked out about Piper.
    But as Al stuffed the stola back in the bag,