Forever Beside You in Time by Bess McBride

Author:Bess McBride [McBride, Bess]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Time Travel
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Jonathan locked his hands behind his back as he fought the urge to pull Aurora into his arms—struggling against what seemed to him to be the most natural thing in the world—the desire to hold the woman he loved. For he knew without a doubt that he was quite madly and deeply in love with the strange creature before him who had come from the future.

Yet there could be no repeat of the night he had embraced her. Not now. Not now that he was committed to another woman. He had waited at the bench by the pond, willing Aurie to come to him. Despising himself for his weakness. Wondering how he could live without her.

Whether she found a way to return to the future or whether she said farewell to him—a man who was not free to love her—seemed hardly to matter at the moment. She would leave him some day, of that he was certain.

“I found dinner to be most diffi—”

“Dinner was hideous,” Aurie said at the same time.

He laughed at the same time as she. The act relaxed him, and he unclenched his hands from behind his back.

“Will you sit for a while?” he asked, gesturing toward the bench. Aurie moved to take a seat, and he sat down beside her. Her plimsolls peeped out from beneath her skirt.

“I am sorry dinner was hideous, Miss Morrison,” Jonathan said. “I presume you do not mean the food.”

“No, not the food. The whole thing was just miserable,” she said. “I just hated seeing you with Emily. I was jealous,” she said simply. “Goofy, I know. I only met you a few days ago.”

“Or over one hundred years ago,” he said with a smile. His heart pounded to hear her declaration. “I was jealous, as well,” he said. “For the vast majority of the day, I might add.”

“Alistair,” she said.

“Mr. Graham,” he confirmed with a nod. “And I find that you, Mr. Graham, and Anna took a moonlight stroll after supper.”

She turned to face him with a pained look on her face.

“Jonathan, about Emily,” she began but hesitated.

Jonathan resisted the almost overwhelming urge to take her hands in his, fearing he might envelope her in an embrace and never let her go.

“I am sorry, Aurora,” he said. “I wish with all my heart that I could ease this burden for us, for I feel certain that we both feel the same. But I cannot.”

“It’s not just that,” she said. She hesitated again, and he waited to hear her words.

“Never mind,” she finished. “It’s not my place,” she said cryptically.

“I wish I knew what you wanted to say to me, Aurora, but I cannot force the words from you. You will tell me when the time is right,” Jonathan said. “I only hope that it is not goodbye. For I have promised to help you return to your own time if such a thing is possible. If that is still your desire.” Jonathan swallowed hard and braced himself.

Under the torchlights, Aurie’s eyes shone with unshed tears, and Jonathan cursed himself for bringing her more grief.

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