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

joy. She’d known he was attached to his horses, but the way he looked now told her the depth of that attachment. They were his kids, his team, and he needed them as much as they needed him.

Mercury stood alone in the paddock, watching as if he knew JC should be there, and he was going to stand back until he appeared. Elliott jogged over to the fence, and when Mercury saw him, he pawed the ground and shook his head. Then he trotted over to Elliott and nudged his chest until Meredith walked up, and he left Elliott to lay his head on Meredith’s shoulder.

She hugged him back, crying. “You miss him as much as we do.” She petted and stroked him. “James Cullen will be so happy to see you again.”

It was a miracle that Mercury was here, and Ensley saw it as a good sign that JC would again sit tall and relaxed in the saddle, shoulders back, hat tipped low on his forehead. She would keep that image front and center in her heart and pray for his full recovery.

Meredith smiled at Elliott. “It’s a good sign. Don’t you think?”

“Aye. A good sign.” Then he turned around and addressed the gathering of family members. “Let’s pack up. It’s time to go home.”

Sean came out of the barn, carrying a saddle. “The owner of the Midway Livery said they arrived two days ago. They didn’t know who they belonged to until one of the hands discovered a MacKlenna Farm logo on the back of the saddle. He brought them here to see if they were mine. I wish I could claim them.”

“All but Mercury are retrained former racehorses.”

“What about the bay stallion?”

“Remy Benoit, who works for me, calls him Gumbo, but he calls all horses that.”

“Aye. Emily mentioned he got shot during the escape from the train.”

“Not seriously, thank God. He’ll recover just fine, but he’s not attached to Gumbo. Ye can have him. He was a fantastic performer, but he never produced offspring of comparable quality. At least not by twenty-first-century standards.”

You can’t give away one of Austin’s horses.

As soon as Ensley had that thought, she almost smacked herself. Sean and Lyle Ann had been wonderful hosts, and the gift of a Thoroughbred was a perfect thank-you.

“Thank ye for the offer,” Sean said, “but I remember Kitherina’s story about her Thoroughbred Stormy and why she decided to leave him in the future. She was afraid the horses he sired couldn’t establish legitimate pedigrees, and that eliminated a racing career.”

“Good point. Well, if ye won’t take the horse, then come to the future with us.”

Sean kicked at several clods while he thought about the invitation. “I don’t know, Elliott. It’s tempting. Lyle Ann and I have a good life here, and as much as Cullen and Braham enjoy their lives in the future…” Sean shook his head. “It’s not for us right now.”

“Does that mean it might be later?”

Sean laughed. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, I tried.” Elliott pulled Sean in for a hug and slap on the back. “I’m glad we finally got to meet. If ye change yer mind, leave a message in the cave. Bury it beneath the Yggdrasil, and we’ll come back for ye.”

“I’ll do that.”

Elliott faced the family again. “We’ll leave in an hour.”

Austin took Ensley’s hand. “Let’s walk. It won’t take us long to pack.”

They walked over to the veranda and sat in the wicker chairs. Austin looked around for a minute before clearing his throat. “We’ve talked briefly about our options once we get home, but we didn’t talk about JC’s trip to the monastery or Tavis’s rescue. You mentioned you wanted to go with Elliott and Meredith. If you still want to go, I’d like to go with you.”

“Sure, that’d be great,” she said.

“As soon as we get back from Bhutan, Elliott will want to plan for Tavis’s rescue.”

“I’m going, and I don’t care what Elliott says.”

“He’ll probably consider it too dangerous.”

“After what I’ve been through, I’m ready for it. Bring it on.” As soon as the words spilled out, she realized how cocky it sounded, and she tried to reel it all back. “That didn’t come out the way I intended. It’s just that, besides rescuing Tavis, I want to see Erik’s home and meet his family, and this will be my only shot. Elliott can’t leave me behind.”

“I’ll leave it up to you to persuade him. But Ensley, you’ll be going back to medieval times when life was hard and dangerous, and since we’re on a rescue mission, it might not be peaceful, either.”

“I know that.”

“Then we have to be prepared. Erik wanted you to use his ax. If you commit to six weeks of training, you’ll be able to swing it as easily as a broom.”

“You think?”

“It won’t be easy, but I think you can do it, and I have the perfect trainer and training facility.”

“Austin, we’ve talked about this. I have to go back to New York to settle things and talk to my cousin and Barb.”

“We should be able to accomplish that in a couple of days. Don’t you think?”

She had the urge to stomp her feet. He was trying to manage her, and she didn’t like it at all. She’d been gone for weeks and wanted to go home for a while to soak in her tub, wear her comfy clothes, nap on her sofa, cook her favorite foods, and read her mail. She was homesick. She might get un-sick in a couple of days, but she wanted a chance to find out.

“You’re pressuring me to make a decision right now, and I can’t do that. Give me a chance to go home and wrap up my business. It’ll take as long as it takes. If you have to get back to the ranch, go on, and I’ll come later.”

Austin smiled, almost sadly. “I don’t mean to pressure you, and I did agree to go to New York and stay as long as needed,