The Midsummer Wife by Jacqueline Church Simonds

Author:Jacqueline Church Simonds [Simonds, Jacqueline Church]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Strange Fictions Press
Published: 2018-06-24T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Hours later, frustrated and tired, Ava joined Ron in Steadbye Place’s gorgeous two-story library. He was fast asleep over his book, a history of Britain in the pre-William the Conqueror era. She kissed his nose.

Sleepily, he blinked up at her. “Hi,” he said, and kissed her. “You’re the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever woken up to!”

Anything Ava was thinking evaporated. “Sorry to be so long.”

“Not at all,” he said, closing the book and putting it on the table. He reached out and indicated she should sit in his lap. Ava snuggled in, enjoying the pleasure of being in his arms in front of a fire. “Now, what’s going on?”

Ava blew out a breath, in a flash as irritated as when she came in. “Oh, it’s fine. I got our invitation to meet with the government.”

“Really? That’s excellent!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, day after tomorrow.”

“Uh-huh,” he said, watching her. “But…”

“But nothing. We get our meeting and we’ll show the relics to support our claim of who and what we are.”

“And there’s more to it,” he said.

“Just, I thought I was stubborn!”

Ron asked, “The person you’re in contact with didn’t believe you?”

“Not at all. Despite the fact that her mother called beforehand and set it up. Vera’s entirely suspicious and really didn’t want to agree to this.”

“It does sound crazy,” he admitted.

“I quite understand that. I wasn’t expecting it to be easy. But this woman is unbelievably suspicious. She disconnected me twice!”

“That seems excessive,” he said.

“Anyway, that’s done.”

He kissed her. It was hard to be irritated with that Vera Whatshername when Ron’s tongue was in her mouth. But as badly as she wanted to drag him off to bed, she could feel questions pressing in his mind. She had to deal with his concerns first. “Ask what you want answered.” She slid off his lap and sat beside him.

Ron sat back, a frown edging his lips. “You’re reading my thoughts?”

“As Anya wrote that she said to Arthur: ‘Your thoughts should be your own. It’s rude to enter into someone’s mind without permission.’ But I can feel your concerns. You won’t be happy until they’re answered. So ask, and I’ll try to tell you what you want to know.”

He took her hand in his. “I don’t feel like a 1,500-year-old king,” he said. “I feel very much like a confused twenty-first century ordinary man.”

“Well, not so ordinary, by any measure. But I know what you mean. I don’t exactly have a strong sense that I was some Nordic healer. I’m reasonably certain the Goddess wouldn’t lie, though.”

Ron looked away and didn’t speak for a long while.

As the seconds ticked by, Ava became more worried.

Finally he said, “Forgive me for saying this: The Goddess may not lie, but Ava does.”

And this is why all our carefully constructed stories were a very bad idea, Ava thought at the mental journal. “Harper pointed out today I don’t do it very well, either. Look, I’m sorry. As I said last night, I couldn’t just swoop in and dump all this on you and Harper.

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