The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

Donald,” Braham said. “I’ll catch up with ye later.”

“What about ye, Ensley? Are ye hungry?” Cullen asked.

“Not really,” Ensley said.

“Good,” Kit said. “Let’s take a walk. I want to hear about your trip.” Then she glanced at Cullen. “Unless you want to hear it, too.”

“I sense yer interest in Ensley’s journey has a different focus than mine.” He signaled, fine, go ahead, and Kit pulled her out of the room.

“Get all the scoop so that you can share it with me later,” Austin said.

“What kind of scoop?” Ensley sensed he wanted to kiss her, but the public display of their affection had already surprised Meredith, and Ensley didn’t want anyone gossiping about them.

“The farm, the horses, the crops. Whatever is going on out there.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll take notes.” Ensley followed Kit through the house, into the office, and out the French doors to a patio lined with sweet-scented spring flowers in reds and golds.

“Let’s walk down toward the lake, and you can start your tale from the beginning.”

“Which beginning?”

Kit’s head tilted curiously. “I guess the beginning of the beginning. From the moment you first disappeared in the fog, how you found JC, how you separated, and how you got here.”

“Can I give you the Cliffs Notes version?”

Kit looked over the edge of her glasses. “You’re teasing me, right?”

Ensley laughed. “I was talking about my adventure with Meredith, but she wasn’t interested, and I realized I was giving her way too many details for right now. Her mind is somewhere else.”

“Yes, I imagine it is.”

By the time they reached a wrought iron bench next to the lake, Ensley had summed up her trip, her separation from JC, and what happened on the train.

“So Tavis is back in the twelfth century, Remy got shot in the ass, and you and Austin are…?”

“…exploring a relationship.”

“That surprises me. I thought you and James Cullen were—”

“—and still are, friends,” Ensley said. “We missed that window and moved on. And now, after everything that’s happened, it’ll be quite a while before he’s ready for a relationship.”

“So you know what happened to JC?”

“A few minutes after Austin, Remy, and I landed in the cleanroom at Mallory Plantation, Elliott and JC came out of the fog. It was horrible. JC and his dad were physically fighting. David tried to subdue JC, but JC flipped him, and then he attacked Kenzie, took her gun, and threatened everyone. And suddenly, he screamed the most horrific scream I’ve ever heard. Charlotte was treating Remy’s wounds, but she sneaked up on JC and jabbed a needle into his ass to sedate him.”

“Oh, my God! But what I don’t understand is why Elliott took JC home. He put all of us at risk by doing that.”

“JC woke up in the cabin and started screaming like they were torturing him all over again. Elliott activated the brooch, tackled JC, and they returned.”

“Meredith will be furious when she discovers Elliott left her.”

“Kenzie told him he had to return immediately.”

“So where is he now?”

“When I came through the fog, Meredith was the first person I saw. She told me she’d just seen Elliott at the cabin, so she knows he took JC home.”

“That’s not good.”

“I overheard Elliott tell Charlotte that he and Meredith were taking turns watching over JC.”

“That’s a damn lie.”

“I know that now, but he said he was afraid JC would hurt his mother, so he brought him home.”

“I just took Elliott some food a little over an hour ago, and he still refused to let Meredith come inside the cabin.”

“Why?”

“Meredith disagreed with Elliott’s decision to follow Erik’s instructions. She wanted to take JC home to the hospital.”

“JC looks perfect, except his muscles are more developed, and he doesn’t have a scratch or bruise on him, but his mind can’t forget the torture.”

“Meredith will be livid.”

“She was preoccupied but not angry. There was a sadness about her, but she wasn’t furious.”

“That’s not good,” Kit said. “That means…well, I don’t know what it means, but it’s not good. Did JC ever mention to you about how his parents met?”

“In Scotland over Christmas, and Meredith got pregnant at the same time she was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a very traumatic time for his parents. JC said Kevin told him the whole story.”

“Meredith doesn’t handle medical situations very well. Her first husband had a stroke, and after a few days, she had to take him off life support. Before that, her father had a heart attack, and her mother died when she was young. I think her father was very demanding, and Meredith could never live up to his expectations. When Elliott locked her out of the cabin, it brought back a lot of past trauma.”

“I can’t believe Elliott locked her out because of a difference of opinion. JC always said his parents had the strongest marriage of anyone he knew.”

“Elliott also discovered Meredith hired Paul to report to her about what JC was doing.”

Ensley gasped. “To spy on him? JC would be furious over that. But I still don’t understand why that caused so much anger.”

“Elliott was furious over what she’d done, and he didn’t trust her to follow Erik’s instructions about not touching JC. So he drugged her, and Paul carried her back to the mansion.”

“Jesus!” Ensley said. “If somebody did that to me, it’d be all over.”

“Well, that’s what Meredith is saying, but we can’t let that happen.”

“Have you talked to Elliott?”

“Cullen and I are so incredibly pissed at him, and I told Elliott how we feel. He told me not to come back to the cabin if I was going to criticize him.”

“JC wouldn’t want his parents’ marriage to fall apart because of him.”

“That’s for sure.”

The sound of galloping horses had them both turning around. Cullen was riding toward them, leading two other horses.

“Oh, dear,” Kit said. “It must be Dad.”

When Cullen reached them, he jumped down. “Emily said to hurry. Donald doesn’t have much longer. Braham’s with him now.”

“Give me a leg up,” Kit said, and Cullen tossed her up