Read Online The Pocket Watch by Ceci Giltenan - Free Book Online Page B

to the chamber door. She knew this was goodbye, even if he didn’t. She looked up into his eyes, trying to find the words. “Logan, I—”
    To her surprise, he kissed her, silencing what she was about to say. His kiss was warm and intoxicating. It stirred feelings she thought were dead forever, promising sensual delights to come. She returned the kiss in full measure.
    When he finally broke the kiss, he sighed, resting his forehead on hers. “Ah, Maggie.”
    If his kiss had ignited her desire, hearing him speak her real name fanned it to full flame. “Ye called me Maggie,” was the only thing her befuddled brain could manage.
    “Aye, ye said ye wanted to be Maggie and I think Maggie has a better chance of making this work than Margaret did. Do ye agree?”
    “Aye, I suppose I do.”
    “Then I’ll leave ye to rest now, Maggie , but I’ll return after sext to escort ye to dinner.”
    Maggie frowned “Sext?” Her mind jumped to the twenty-first century meaning.
    “Aye, Maggie, sext—midday. It is almost terce now.”
    Of course, Latin, the canonical hours. That was stupid Maggie . “Oh. So terce would be…midmorning?”
    He cocked his head. “Ye don’t remember the hours of the day?”
    “Evidently not.”
    He smiled and shook his head as he opened the chamber door. “Aye, terce is midmorning. We’ll go over the others later, ye need to rest.” Before stepping into the hall, he caressed her cheek for a moment. “Until later,” then disappearing down the hall.
    She watched him leave, knowing there would be no later . “Good bye, Logan.”
    ~*~
    After leaving his betrothed in her chamber, Logan made his way back to the solar. He wasn’t sure what made him kiss her. He never had before. Her response thrilled him, making his step and his heart lighter than they had been in days. He had come to believe a lifetime married to Margaret would be little better than an eternity spent in hell. Maggie , however, was a different story.
    When he went to her chamber his only goal had been to come to an agreement by which they could live together without suffering unbridled hatred. At the time he hadn’t believed she had so thoroughly lost her memories. Furthermore, the drastic change in her personality led him to think either her shrewishness or her sweetness was a mask. Regardless, Margaret must have truly hated the idea of marrying him if she could resort to either.
    But as they talked it became obvious she was telling the truth about her memory and perhaps the sweetness was her true nature. The fact that she had effectively hidden it with dreadful behavior distressed him a bit. Still with the mask gone now, he thought perhaps they had a chance at happiness together.
    After the kiss at her door, for the first time since meeting her he dared to hope for more. Maggie was a woman he could come to love.
    ~ * ~
    Maggie sat cross-legged in the middle of the beautiful bed with the open pocket watch in her hand. She had been here one day and the hand had progressed one second, just as Gertrude had said it would. Yesterday had been Elliott’s wedding, the twenty-first day of June, both in her own century and this one. She had until the twentieth day of August, fifty nine days.
    Had it really only been a day since she had reawakened the pain and sorrow of Elliott’s betrayal by attending his wedding? It seemed a lifetime ago that she had sobbed in Gertrude’s arms, eventually uttering those fateful words Sometimes I wish I could have someone else’s life . Well here she sat, in the middle of someone else’s ruined life. Perhaps Margaret hadn’t thought it through, but unchecked, her actions had been destined to cause a war. Even if the accident hadn’t happened, deep down, Maggie knew Margaret would have stopped at nothing to prevent the wedding.
    Maggie also firmly believed Gertrude had known what lay in store. Perhaps she had only been trying to help Maggie put her own problems in perspective. Still, from where