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He reached up and touched her cheek. "There are a few things in a man's life that he never forgets: the first time he mounts a horse, his first fisticuffs..." he grinned, "...the first time he takes a woman to his bed, falling in love, becoming a father. I remember falling in love, I remember when Nickie was born, but somehow I also remember hating her and I don't even remember marrying her or bedding her."
Quinn wasn't sure what emotion was stronger, confusion over Archer's words or the jealousy that he had loved another with such fierce intensity: an intensity that even now caused his jaw to tense and his shoulders to square. She pushed herself past her own issues to ask, "How is that possible, you not remembering?"
"I suppose for you to truly understand, you need to understand about my father. He was an evil man. As soon as I was born, I was pulled from my mother's arms and whisked away to the old ancestral home of the Scarcliffs and there my training began. Every day, from the time I could walk, I was trained to become the next great Earl of Scarcliff. He didn't want a son, he wanted immortality and I was his means. He did everything in his power to bend me to his will but somehow I survived it and eventually, and with great reluctance and pressure from his peers, I was sent off to University."
"I came home after I graduated and with the money left for me from my mother's side of the family, I immediately started building Whispering Winds. I no longer lived in fear of my father and went so far as to renounce his legacy which included the threat of closing up the Scarcliff ancestral home as soon as I assumed the title. He was livid that I would defy him but I was also a full grown man who would no longer tolerate the beatings he so loved to mete out."
"Six years later Nickie was born and this is the time that gets confusing for me because shortly after his birth I became gravely ill. Apparently, I was delirious with fever for over a week and when the fever finally broke, I was weak for months afterwards. The fever had affected my brain because not all of my memories were there and though I remembered Nickie and my wife, it was more impressions than actually memories. The doctors and my father kept me from them for fear that I would pass to them my illness but I remember the day I was allowed to see them again."
"I was beside myself with joy when Nickie was brought to me and I knew him instantly. But the woman who was holding him, the one they claimed was my wife, the mother of my child, I didn't recognize her at all. In my heart I remembered my wife as a beauty with a wonderful wit. Her name was Morgan," he was silent a moment as a wistful smile touched his lips before he continued, "But the woman who stood before me, Connie they called her, was nothing like what I remembered. My father, the doctor, even some of the villagers, tried to convince me that I was mistaken about my wife, still confused from my illness. My mother and sisters had never met Morgan because I met her after I returned from University and they were staying in London. I wish that they had met her but they stayed away because they feared my father, specifically how I might suffer if they reached out to me because my father liked to keep me apart from the rest of the family. He wanted to make me feel dependent on only him."
"I began to believe what I was being told when my dream wife never appeared to claim her son or me. At least in my waking hours. In sleep I dreamt of her, every time I closed my eyes she was there, the wife of my dreams. I thought I was going insane and that's why I kept myself from Nickie. I wasn't sure that I had come out of my illness with my sanity completely intact and, in truth every time I saw him I thought of her, the one who wasn't real."
"For the past six years I have dreamt and longed for a woman who doesn't exist." He reached up and framed Quinn's face, his voice gravelly when he added, "When I saw you that first time in my great hall, I thought I really had gone mad because there you were standing before me."
Quinn went very still. "What do you mean?"
His gaze was like a soft caress as it swept over her features before he whispered, "You, Quinn, are the woman I have always dreamt about."
She went ghostly white at that statement and as Archer tried to pull her into his arms to comfort her, she pulled back and when she spoke her voice was oddly detached.
"Seven years ago I graduated from University and treated myself to a vacation before I started working. And though I had planned to go elsewhere, at the last minute I came here, to England. I found your castle on that trip, was drawn to it, led to it as if I knew it would be there. I spent the years since trying to learn everything I could about the place. And on the day I came here to your time, I was staying in your home and I saw you, by the river, waiting. And if I'm not being too silly, it looked as if you were waiting for me."
"Magic," he whispered before his mouth covered hers.
The following morning Quinn proposed her plan on how they could sniff out the truth on Katherine.
"We need to discreetly look into Katherine's past. I have an idea where to look but Archer you're out because asking probing questions about your betrothed will just raise all kinds of red flags, and Thaddeus, being his best friend excludes you too. We need someone who can blend in and move about with complete anonymity. Someone like Douglas Grant would be perfect but he needs to stay focused on what he's already looking into."
Quinn reached for her cup of tea as she eyed the two men across the table from her. They seemed to understand what she wasn't saying but were having trouble believing it. Archer's words were deceivingly soft when he asked, "Who are you suggesting should do this sleuth work?"
"Me, of course."
Archer dropped his hands hard on the tabletop as he declared quite firmly, "No."
"Hear me out, first," Quinn pleaded.
He leaned back and waved his hand rather magnanimously. "It's still going to be 'no' but by all means continue."
Quinn was very tempted to stick her tongue out at him but controlled that childish impulse and forged on.
"I won't be walking around London dressed like this, since I would be linked to you, but if I was dressed as a gentleman no one would pay me the slightest notice."
She waited and she wasn't disappointed in their reactions to her plan when they both stood with looks of outrage distorting their features. It was Thaddeus who spoke first.
"Are you insane? I really would like to see this future of yours to know if everyone acts as you do or if you are crazy even among them."
Quinn delicately dabbed the corners of her mouth as if she hadn't a care in the world while determination burned through her.
"I am a bit of a renegade but I am not wrong. We need to be able to slip in and out of any venue without drawing attention and the only one who can do that, who we can trust with such a delicate job, is me. And I do believe being so average in height that I would make a very nondescript gentleman easily overlooked by everyone. It's perfect. You know that it is."
"It's madness, Quinn, utter madness." Archer was pacing now and Quinn realized she enjoyed seeing that beautiful male form prowling like a caged panther. He was altogether yummy but she forced her focus from his sexual energy and stood.
"I understand this is all very strange for you. A woman who acts so decidedly, who isn't content with balls and tea parties, or gowns and needlepoint. But I have two brothers and so I was always treated more like boy than a girl growing up. I like playing football, drinking beer from a can and eating buffalo wings with my fingers. Fast cars, who-done-its and adventure, that's me. On my 16th birthday, I went bungee jumping and loved it. I can pull this off. I can play the role to perfection and if what I believe is true we're going to know exactly who Katherine Danvers is."
Thaddeus and Archer were looking at her oddly.
"I didn't understand at least half of what you just said. What is a buffalo wing? And what in the name of God is bungee jumping?"' Archer was standing still now, his powerful arms crossed over his muscular chest. Quinn couldn't help the small smile, he looked positively put out.
