Some Enchanted Waltz (35 page)

A long sigh answered her. Looking down at her with sympathetic eyes, Dan puffed his pipe thoughtfully. The tobacco scent lingered between them, wreathing them with smoke.  At last, Dan shrugged. “Hell, I don’t know.  I’m an engineer not a scientist. We were working at the radio station. I was hooking up the transmitter to the generator because of the lightning storm and you were getting ready to reboot the transmitter on my signal. As far as I can figure, lightning struck the radio tower and went straight down through the transmitter at the exact moment you rebooted the system and began entering the frequency code.” Dan rose to pace in front of her as he sucked in his precious tobacco smoke and released it in a long string of grey.

 “Next thing I knew, I woke up in a cottage almost thirty miles from here,” He continued.  “Someone fished me out of the bay. They thought I was dead, and I came back to life. It was just lightning shock.  These yokels don’t understand that. And you woke up here.” He gestured to the elegant furnishing about them. “I didn’t find you until two weeks ago, and you were married to Dillon and quite content to be so.”

Tara studied the plush canopy above her head, her mind’s eye seeing flashes of pure white light, swirls of blue, as energy crackling about her. “I remember.” She murmured
The lightning again
.  She couldn’t forget those torturous moments of pain. She’d been burned by the energy surge. She lifted her hands in the air before her, examining the palms. “My hands were burned. I woke up in a puddle of water. It was freezing cold. I couldn’t get up, I was paralyzed.”

“Lightning paralysis. Common. It’s a miracle we’re even alive, kid.”

“The soldiers found me. They accused me of being a spy. They were going to hurt me, and then he came; a masked man named Captain Midnight. I’ve since learned that it was really Adrian. I passed out, and woke up here. I didn’t know who I was--he told me I was his fiancée from America, that I came here on a ship to marry him, and the ship I was on went down and I alone survived.
He lied to me
. He took advantage of me when I was helpless. He even fed me some story about it not being safe for me to go live at the Inn if we didn’t marry, and . . . that it would cause a scandal if I lived here without marrying him. . . . he lied to me, Dan!”

“Hey, hey, take it easy, now.” Dan moved quickly to the bed and sank down beside her. He took Tara’s hands in his, squeezing them. “Its okay, Tara. The soldiers believed you were a courier carrying valuable information to the rebels.” Dan leaned forward, giving her an imploring look. “And, believe it or not, there was a shipwreck the night we came here. Lightning struck the mast during the storm and the whole thing toppled over, everyone died. Adrian concocted a false identity for you so no one would question how you came to be here or accuse you of being a spy and arrest you.”

 “You mean, he was protecting me?” Tara answered with awe.

 “Yes, and at the same time he was protecting himself, too. He needed a bride--fast--or his own house of cards was going to fall. He was being blackmailed--“

“Yes, I know about that.” Tara interrupted him. “The sheriff suspects he’s Captain Midnight. He wanted Adrian to marry his daughter, making her a countess.”

 “And then you appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, out of the future, we know, and yet out of the magic of mists as far as he is concerned. At first, even Adrian thought you were a rebel spy. He was trying to protect you. You were injured, unconscious, so he brought you here to keep you safe. And then, he came to believe you were a fairy, sent to him by magic to rescue his sorry ass. The dude still swears by that delusion. Can you believe it? Fairies.” Dan scoffed with a toss of his head. “Superstitious dolt!”

Tara pursed her lips and nodded, agreeing with Dan on the surface. Like most mortals of the future, Dan would think she was nuts if she told him it was true. “Yeah, go figure.” She murmured, giving him a weak smile.

Dan chuckled, amused by the notion of her supposed fey blood. “And he believes I’m a giant from the same enchanted place you hail from. Christ, I don’t fit in anywhere.” His face soured. His posture sagged. “I’m a freak. I’m a six-foot-six freak of nature. I might as well be a frickin’ dwarf! At least they have their own Reality TV show.”

“Here, we have servants.” Tara offered, reaching forward to squeeze his arm. There was a reason they had developed a deep bond of friendship. They were social misfits, sad, miserable, lonely people from the future. Here, it seemed, they were family.

“Tara, you have to play along with his delusion. We have no money and no place to go. Besides, you did love him during your amnesia. He thinks I’m your father--God--there is so much at stake here, so much you don't understand, and I can’t explain it all before he comes back--please, just play along, pretend you love him even if you don’t, just until we can figure out what to do.” Dan pleaded, gazing at her in desperation.

He made it sound as if they were trapped in Bagdad during the Gulf War and had to survive by their wits. “I do love him, Dan.” She gave him a sheepish smile, almost ashamed for admitting to falling for a guy she just met, a guy who took advantage of her in her weakness and used her as a shield to protect himself from his enemy. “It’s like waking up to your fantasy--he’s gorgeous. It’s like being in an episode of
Highlander
.”

“Except we’re really here, not on a TV set we can leave to return to the real world.  And we’re going to be stuck here, probably for the rest of our lives.”

“As you pointed out,” Tara reminded him, “It could be worse.” The more she thought about going
home
, the more Tara realized she really didn’t mind being stuck here so much. What did she have to go home to? A rented trailer in a dive called a trailer park, a history degree that was useless unless she finished her master’s and found a teaching job at a prestigious college. A job as a DJ. at a radio station that paid just over minimum wage? Here, she was a countess, married to a hot Irish lord. Here, she was living history, living in a castle, with servants, nice clothes and a surrogate father who obviously cared about her enough to spend weeks searching for her. “So, do I call you, Dad?”

“Nope, you’ve been calling me Papa. Stick with it, or he’ll get suspicious. Don’t let on to him that you know anything different. Things are tangled enough here without having to explain our little jaunt through time to a man who believes in leprechauns, giants and fairies. He might get pissed at us and then there will be hell to pay.”

“Okay, fairies we are.” Tara beamed at him.
One of us, it seems!

Dan winked at her, his wide grin splitting his face. “Why, Tara, me darlin’, everyone knows the fairy folk claim the treasures of shipwrecks, everyone.” He spoke in a false Irish brogue. “Everyone knows that fairies love music, and horses, and oft times, me girl, they take mortal lovers. Luring’ them into their secret fairy glens and seducing them by dancing some enchanted waltz that enslaves the mortal man forever.”

“Adrian believes all this?” Tara gasped, doing her best to pretend surprise. Yes, she’d heard the same things from Adrian’s lips that night when he was drunk in Cork. And now she knew that it was true. She was part fey, lost, and then found by a man desperate enough to take her into his protection, a man who was now in deeply in love with her. Was it magic that made Adrian gaze at her with adoration? Or was it love?

“Yep, and you’re a fairy. I’m your father, a giant, from the ranks of Finn McCoul. Hey, don’t spoil it. He’ll believe this easier than that we came from two hundred years in the future.” Dan warned with ominous eyes.

A sound of footsteps came from hallway. Dan and Tara exchanged a look.

Adrian’s tall frame stood inside the open door. “How is she?”

“Right as rain, my boy. A bit of a headache, nothing more.”

The relief on Adrian’s face was transparent. Tara studied the man she married during her memory loss. He was perfect. Tall, dark and handsome, so the old cliché’ went. He was slender, regal, exuding a sensual masculine presence that was difficult to resist. Ah, Lord Dillon had his own magic charms, it seemed.

He came to her, his eyes fastened to hers, searching, pleading, praying she would accept him. Tara smiled and extended her hand to him. Adrian hurried to her side and embraced her. This was the reality she’d always dreamed of; a home, a man that loved her, a gallant man from another time.

“I’ll just be down the hall if you need me, child.” Dan blustered. Tara winked at him from over her husband's shoulders. He gave her the thumbs up sign and sauntered off with an amused smile.

After Dan left, Adrian held Tara through the long night. He’d taken to sharing her bed, as lovers do, but on this night he merely lay on his side pressed tight behind her, his arm draped about her waist in a protective gesture as he snored lightly against her hair.

Tara couldn’t sleep.  Her mind was jazzed up by the revelations of the day.

The reality of coming from the future made sense of her odd impressions during her memory lapse. Dan’s arrival and his acknowledgement of existing inventions far beyond this primitive time was a relief. She no longer feared not fitting in. Often, she’d felt like an alien from another world. Now she had a boon companion from the future to confer and commiserate with.

Dan had worried over her. He tried to find her. Tears clogged her throat in the darkness. That man would never know how much it meant to know he searched diligently until he found her.

Rolling over onto her back, Tara wiggled closer to Adrian’s toasty body, determined to savor the comforting warmth of his flesh pressed to hers. Adrian was another unexpected blessing. Tara knew going into this arrangement that it wasn’t about love, it was the stereotypical marriage of convenience she read about in history texts. Yet, he’d come to love her, there was no doubt of it. Adrian’s willingness to take her in, to give her a home and a family when she’d been denied the luxury for most of her life had been part of the reason she so readily accepted his offer.

Well, that and she had no place to go here and no money to get there.

Tara sighed and laced her fingers through his large hand as his arm draped heavily over her waist and shoulder. Stranded in a castle with a rich, handsome Irish Lord offering to marry you--it was a freakin’ fairytale; every woman’s fantasy.

Okay, maybe not the stranded part. The happily ever after part was eternal.

She gazed across the room at the comforting red-orange glow of the fire, afraid to reflect upon the larger truth that smacked her between the eyes tonight.

Tara stalled, thinking of Adrian’s manly beauty, his chiseled features, his firm, warm skin as he lay naked beside her. And those intriguing silvery eyes. They were so compelling, pale silver orbs set in a sun-bronzed face framed by jet black hair. She just couldn’t help thinking of a wolf’s eyes. Tara relived the night of the ball in her mind, she remembered dancing with him in their private suite and making love for the first time.

And then she thought of Dan, her faithful friend both here and in the future. The ‘giant’ who teased her openly and yet nursed a deep protectiveness for her in his heart, like a true father. Dan had searched for her, he came to help her, both here and on that awful night when she’d been attacked by the rival fey prince.

No, I don’t want to think about it
.

Her mind would not retreat once the suggestion was made.
Damn it.
Tara ground her teeth, turned abruptly and huddled into Adrian’s unconscious frame. She pressed her cheek against his chest, seeking the warmth and protection his body afforded. Adrian stirred briefly, muttering her name before drifting off again.

Mike had been his name. Tara met him in the Fairy-Ring chat-room. He’d gone by the username Darkling Prince. The name sounded sexy, alluring. The bad boy persona every woman was drawn to. As a mature woman she should have known better than to give him her number and chat with him on the phone. Once she talked to the creep, heard his voice, Tara followed her instincts and broke off the relationship. She blocked his calls and his emails. She changed her phone number. It wasn’t enough.

Mike already had enough info on her to find out where she lived, and where she worked. He had the advantage, as Tara had forgotten her past, her fey origins. Her recurring dreams were just that, weird, disjointed images that made no sense in her world.  Why did he seek her out again? The bastard tore her from her family, stranding Tara in the distant future as a small child.

Why did the Darkling Fey Prince want to harm her so badly?

The night of the attack forced itself into her mind despite her resistance. Tara had been in the transmitter room at the radio station taking the hourly meter readings.  Behind the transmitter room was a storeroom with a back door leading to a field and some woods. The door was usually kept locked. Those who smoked at the radio station went out back to enjoy their vice throughout the day, and for some reason, the door had not been locked that night. As she stood with clipboard in hand, taking notes, Mike slipped behind Tara without her being aware of his presence as the loud noise of the transmitter   reduced one’s perceptions in the room to only heat, steady rumbling and vibrations.

Tara was overpowered quickly. The jerk dragged her out of the transmitter room and into the main office area of the small station, intent on raping her, but then Dan had come striding in from the front door, dropping by for an unexpected visit.