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

anywhere, Remy,” Charlotte said, “and Emily, you have to be at the hospital. You can’t take six days off.”

Emily emerged wearing blue scrubs, and Ensley almost drooled to do the same. But when she stripped out of this dress, she wanted to be heading for the tub. She could wait a few more minutes.

“I can call and ask,” Emily said, pulling pins out of her updo. “I have vacation days that I haven’t taken.”

Charlotte plucked out a few pins Emily missed, then handed her a hair tieback she found in the pocket of her white lab coat. “If this was an emergency, I wouldn’t stop you, but it’s not necessary.”

Remy shuffled out of the exam room. “I’m fine, and I want to go.”

“Charlotte just removed two bullets from yer ass. Ye’re not going anywhere,” Elliott said. “Ye can’t even walk without pain. How do ye think ye can climb a mountain?”

“If you and Emily both leave, then I have to come with you. Who’ll take care of me if I relapse?” Remy said to Charlotte.

Charlotte looked at him over the rim of her glasses. “Good try, Remy, but I won’t agree to let you go. JC might be a handful on the flight, and I don’t want you moving around and ripping out your stitches.”

“You’re not the boss of me.”

“While you’re under my care, I am.”

“Charlotte’s right, lad,” Elliott said. “I need ye healed up and healthy to go back for Tavis.”

“What the fuck am I supposed to do while I’m left here by myself?”

“You can start with cleaning up your vocabulary,” Charlotte said.

“I thought you had a gig you wanted to play this weekend,” Austin said. “If you go, you’ll miss it.”

Remy shuffled back to bed. “Fuck it!”

“It’s a sixteen-hour flight, plus fueling in Luton, England, and Istanbul, Turkey, and ye can’t sit down,” Elliott said. “So relax, enjoy the time off, and rehearse.”

“It takes several hours to hike up the mountain, and even under normal conditions, it’s difficult. The humidity will make it much worse,” Charlotte said. “With that kind of physical exertion, your stitches will come out.”

Austin chuckled. “Ensley and I plan to go so we can help with JC.”

Elliott studied Ensley briefly. Then he cleared his throat. “I appreciate ye wanting to help James Cullen, but ye’ve had a rough few weeks, lass.”

Ensley stared back in a panic, her heart galloping. Elliott was going to tell her she couldn’t go, and that was unacceptable. “He came to my rescue at great cost to himself. I’m not going to bail out on him now.”

“I’m not sure ye’re up for it,” he said.

She licked her lips before taking a deep breath. “Of course, I’m up for it. And if you leave me out, I’ll find another way to get there. I know! I’ll go through the cave.”

“Good try, lass. But ye can’t open the wall without a brooch. And neither Braham nor I will give ye one—and this time there isn’t one to steal.”

“But the sunstone brooch is mine.”

“Was yers,” Elliott said. “It’s now part of our collection. We have the brooch, and ye have our protection.”

She gasped. “Is this a continuation of your bad mood or a new one?” She licked her lips again and steeled her spine. “Maybe I don’t need a brooch. Maybe there’s a way to find the light without going inside the cave.”

“Ensley!” David snapped. “Do not mess with the light. We don’t know enough about it yet. I’m president of MacCorp, and I order ye to stay away from the cave.”

“You’re not in a position to do that,” she said. “Erik—” All eyes turned toward her, and she realized she had spoken more sharply than she meant to.

“This isn’t about Erik,” David said. “It’s about yer safety and that of the clan. The Illuminati might know about the light and are already waiting for someone to walk through it. For God’s sake, don’t do something that could bring us all down.”

Austin rolled his tongue around his cheek and raised his eyebrows, the equivalent of rolling his eyes behind her back, and she turned her fury on him.

“So…what? You’re on their side?”

“There’s only one side here, Ensley,” Austin said. “And for what it’s worth, I’ve been on the receiving end of David’s dictates, and it only stings for a few minutes. He doesn’t throw his title around unless it’s important.”

Silence descended on the room for a moment. Then, realizing this wasn’t a battle she wanted to fight, she said, “Okay. I’ll stay away from the cave.”

Meredith put her arm around Ensley and hugged her. “It means a lot to me that you’re willing to take on Elliott to get what you want. He won’t invite you, but I will. You and Austin are more than welcome to join us. But the trip won’t be easy, and it might be too much on your hip.”

Ensley snugged against Meredith’s shoulder. “Nothing I’ve done lately has been easy, and my hip pain is part of my life. I’ll deal with it, but I can’t go to the Himalayas dressed like this. I have to go shopping. Is there a store nearby?”

“There’s a women’s clothes closet at the house packed with outfits for different sizes, seasons, and circumstances. You’re welcome to use whatever you find.”

“You’re the same size as JL and Sophia,” Charlotte said. “And it’ll be warm and humid in Bhutan, so look for cotton pants, cotton shirts, soft-soled shoes, maybe a lightweight wool sweater. Oh, and yoga pants to wear on the plane. You’ll want to be comfortable.”

“I don’t have any money with me.” She looked at Austin. “Will you float me a loan?”

Charlotte chuckled. “We don’t want your money. The next time you’re here, you can leave something behind to replace what you borrowed.”

“Which will be an improvement over the clothes you’ll find in the closet,” Meredith said, giving Ensley a level look. “You’re a New York City editor. The women who leave things in the closet are all moms with young children, so