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Chapter Five
“No. I camehere to—” he couldn’t finish and say he came here to escape the noose for killing the Viscount of Sutton right in front of the new lawman of Croydon. “I came here to start my life over. To take my second chance.”
He looked up at Noelle when she still hadn’t sat. “Don’t go.”
He couldn’t believe he was here with her. Trying to keep her from leaving. How long should he pursue her? He’d never gone through this before. No woman had ever sparked the flames of desire and need like she did.
“Aren’t you curious about all this?” he asked her.
“But you must swear not to go public with any of this,” Lancaster commanded like an emperor to his subject.
Noelle hesitated for a moment, which worried Sebastian, and then agreed. Her cheeks were alabaster white and the tip of her nose was red beneath her reindeer hat. Looking at her ravished his heart.
So he turned to Lancaster. Who was this guy? This had stopped being about a stolen brooch. This was about something much bigger, something magical.
“So, what is this all about?” he put to the older man. “How did you keep us hidden, and who are the men, for starters?”
“It was a simple incantation. You should have never seen it.”
“But we did,” Noelle pointed out.
“And now I am at a road I had tried to avoid. With someone I fear may be who I am hiding from.”
The door opened and a cool gust of air swished inside, bringing with it a man Sebastian had seen before. Two months ago. In seventeen twenty-four. He was Pendridge’s friend. Simeon was his name—or as the two horsemen had believed, Merlin. What was he doing here, and right after the horsemen left? When Sebastian realized he was coming over, he stood up.
“Yes,” said Lancaster. “I suppose you two have met.”
“What?” asked Noelle, “What’s going—”
“Surrey, what are you doing here?” Simeon demanded, looking confused and unpleased. “Do you and Lancaster know each other?”
“We just met,” Sebastian told him, returning to his seat. “I gather you know him, too.” He turned to Lancaster, who nodded. This was all too much to be a coincidence.
“He came here with a woman from the past,” Lancaster told Sebastian first. “I ran him over with my car two months ago,” the magician told Simeon.
Sebastian wondered if Lancaster was Merlin.
“The night you arrived,” Simeon deduced.
“Aye. The night the horsemen called you—”
“Okay, everybody just stop!” Noelle demanded. “I’m lost. Someone please explain to me what’s going on.” She turned to Simeon. “Who are you and where do you know Sebastian from?”
“Yes, forgive me,” the stranger gushed. “I am Roldan Simeon, trader extraordinaire. And I know Lord Surrey from…ehm…England.”
“What year?” she asked with a cheeky smile, resting her chin in her hand.
Simeon glanced at him as Sebastian nodded and returned to his seat. Simeon sighed. “From the past.”
“What year?” she asked the trader again.
“Seventeen twenty-four, dear lady.”
She shook her head. “How is this possible?” Her big blue eyes turned to Sebastian. “Are you really from the past?”
“Aye.”
“Roldan can travel through time,” Lancaster informed them as if he were speaking about his own child’s accomplishments.
