Read Across the Winds of Time Online
Authors: Bess McBride
Across the Winds of Time (35 page)
At that moment, Darius’s heirs pulled up into the driveway in their large town car. Cynthia waved from the passenger side but made no move to get out of the car. Laura climbed out and came up to the porch carrying a packet. Marmaduke jumped down to inspect the car as he always did.
“Hello there. We won’t stay. We’re just on the way to the cemetery for our last visit before we leave in the morning. I found these extra photographs, and I wanted to drop them off for you.”
“Laura! It’s so nice to see you,” I said as I stood up to take the pictures. “Are you sure you can’t stay?”
“No, we have so much to do. We’re nowhere near being ready to go,” she muttered with a brief smile. She turned to greet Sara and looked at Darius, who had risen at her arrival.
“Darren, it’s nice to see you again. Take care of this house now.” She tilted her head and gave him a frank appraising stare. “And take care of our Molly here. I can see that you’ll still be here when we return in a year for a visit.”
I colored and began to stammer with a sideways glance at Darius, who smiled serenely.
“I will take care of her, Laura. You have my word.”
“Okay then. We’ve got to run. Maybe we can stop by tomorrow morning before we leave.”
“That would be great,” I murmured. I gave her a final hug and watched as she got into the car. Cynthia waved with glee, and we waved back to her.
Marmaduke had given up inspecting the car and had taken up his position alternately standing or pacing across the front of the driveway. Laura turned on her engine, and I called to Marmaduke.
“Kitty. Come here. Get out of the road.”
Laura began to back up, and Darius ran off the porch and toward the cat. I ran after him, shouting at Laura to stop. She couldn’t hear me with her windows up, and she couldn’t see me waving with her head turned over her shoulder. For some reason, she didn’t see Marmaduke in the road.
Like a streak, Darius flew down the driveway shouting for Marmaduke. Marmaduke, suddenly frightened, ran into the road, and Darius ran after him.
I screamed then.
“Darius, don’t! Don’t go into the road,” I screamed. “Darius, come back.”
Darius snatched up the cat, who looked confused once he’d crossed his invisible barrier. Laura brought her car to a jerking halt, and I ran out into the street to grab Darius.
If he was traveling, I was going with him. I clung to him and looked back at Sara who stood next to the car. I waved to her, and she stared at me in horror.
I closed my eyes and waited for the kaleidoscope, but nothing happened. I felt nothing except Marmaduke’s sharp claws as he squirmed in Darius’s arms.
I opened my eyes and looked at Darius.
He looked and felt solid, as if he weren’t going anywhere. I looked down at our feet. We were definitely in the road. I could see both ways—toward the cemetery and toward town.
Darius looked down at me, and his wide smile seemed brighter than any sun I’d ever seen.
I heard Laura ask us if we were all right, but at that moment, I only had eyes and ears for Darius.
“It is over. I have found you. I do not need to search any longer,” he whispered. “I am here to stay with you, Molly, my love.”
I reached up and hugged him as tightly as I could, making Marmaduke bellow with rage. Darius put him down, and the cat ran back into the yard to lick his mussed up fur.
Darius put his arms around me, uncaring of who was watching. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sara and Laura talking.
“I came forward in time to find you, Molly, and I do not need to travel again. Everything that I love is right here in my arms.”
“She’s with us, Darius. She shared her memories with me.”
“Yes, she would do that,” he whispered against my hair. “And you would do that for her. Because you are the same woman. I do not know how this happened, but you came back to me—more clever, more lovely, more intoxicating than ever.”
“I love you, Darius.” I remembered Molly’s sparkling eyes—my eyes—and I knew that they sparkled now. “I have always loved you.”
A gentle gust of wind came from the direction of the cemetery and lifted my hair to blow it around my face.
Darius laughed and smoothed it back with tender hands.
“The wind seems to love you as much as I,” he chuckled. He put his arm around me, and we turned toward the house that he had built for me.
Time Travel Romance
(Book One of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)
(Book Three of the Train Through Time series)
(Book Two of the Train Through Time series)
(Book One of the Train Through Time series)
Contemporary/Romantic Suspense
Will Travel for Romance Boxed Set Books 1-5
Contemporary/Ghost Story
I began my first fiction-writing attempt when I was fourteen. I shut myself up in my bedroom one summer and obsessively worked on a time-travel/pirate novel set in the beloved Caribbean of my youth. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to hammer it out on a manual typewriter (oh yeah, I’m that old) before it was time to go back to school. The draft of that novel has long since disappeared, but the story still simmers within, and I will finish it one day soon.
I was born in Aruba to American parents and lived in Venezuela until my family returned to the United States when I was twelve. I couldn’t fight the global travel bug, and I joined the US Air Force at eighteen to “see the world.” After twenty-one wonderful and fulfilling years traveling the world and the birth of one beautiful daughter, I pursued my dream of finally getting a college education. With a license in mental health therapy, I worked with veterans and continue to work on behalf of veterans. I continue to travel, my first love, and almost all of my books involve travel.
I write time-travel romances, light paranormal/fantasy romances (lovelorn ghosty stuff), contemporary romances, and romantic suspense. Visit my website at