After the Storm (34 page)

He took a few steps toward her so that his shadow touched her even though he didn't. She didn't think he realized he was looming over her. "We have to return to Downs Tower so we can go home, Olivia."

She crossed her arms. "I'm not going anywhere."

"We have to return to our own time." His expression became very bitter. "Unless you'd rather stay in the greenwood with your outlaw."

She got to her feet. Face to face with him, she said, "You are my outlaw.

Besides, the greenwood's full of bugs." When he didn't respond to her attempt at humor, she added, "And people with sharp, pointy weapons."

"Then you agree that it's safer for us to go home."

"I didn't say that." She touched the dagger at her waist. "We have sharp, pointy weapons too."

"And no inclination to use them."

"You're perfectly capable of—"

"I'm a dweeb, Olivia!"

Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

His angry shout sent her stumbling backwards. She just barely managed not to fall into the river. He followed her, and continued to loom despite the fact he wasn't that much taller than she was. It was an attitude thing. "Bas?"

He grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the water's edge. "Sebastian Bailey is a techno-dweeb, a geek, and happy to be one. I'm a scientist, not a soldier."

"Bas—"

"Listen to me, Olivia. I live for my job—and my job is not being a sword-wielding hero."

"But—"

"I understand technology, I understand science, supercomputers and temporal displacement theory. I understand hot showers and fast food and e-mail. I even understand how to program that holographic virtual reality chamber you insisted we buy last year. I do not understand this time, these people or anything about this society," he told her. His grip hurt, and he'd never looked more dangerous even while his words belied what he was doing. "And I don't want to."

"You've done all right." She realized she sounded sullen, and looked away. She was beginning to understand what he meant about her loving Bastien.

"I have not done all right."

"You ran an outlaw gang," she pointed out.

He heard the admiration in her voice, and hated it. She was seeing him in a romantic light that he neither deserved nor wanted. He wanted to go back to his safe, sanitized world and lock away the beast the last six months had brought out in him. It terrified him to think that the beast was the man she wanted.

"It wasn't a glorious adventure," he told her. "I loathed every minute of it. You wouldn't have, but I did."

Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

"What do you mean by that?"

She tried to pull away from him, but he wouldn't let her go. "What do you think I mean? You love adventures."

She shook her head. "I'm not that reckle—"

"Oh, yes you are. Who was the one laughing that time we were getting shot at by Mongols?"

"We shouldn't have been so close to their camp. Besides, I was covering you while you repaired the remote sensors."

"I know what we were doing. I was performing my job while you were in a fire fight."

"I did not enjoy it."

"Who was laughing?"

"I always laugh when I'm scared. You know, bravado."

"You've seen too many movies."

"You've given me this lecture before. Damn it, Bas, you've been through survival training. You're good at it."

"But i don't like it."

"Of course you don't like it. Nobody in their right mind really likes adventures."

"You do." After a significant moment of silence, she looked away. "Bastien did,"

he admitted when she wasn't looking. He let her go. "But he's dead now."

She rubbed her arm. "And you think I'm in love with him? Instead of you?"

"Aren't you?" He wished he hadn't asked.

He wished he didn't want to know. Nothing could be the same between them once he knew. But, then, how could anything ever be the same after the last six Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

months? She'd always been wild and free and reckless, and he'd loved her for it.

She'd known when to drag him out of his lab, out of the intricate puzzles that absorbed him. She'd made his life exciting, made him feel alive. Now all he wanted was to get back to the quiet life offered by his work and never come out again. What place did she have in the restrained environment he craved? What place did he have in her world? Maybe he should have asked years ago.

"Things and people change," she said, as though she'd read his mind. "But how I feel about you hasn't."

"I wish that were true."

"Damn it, Bas!"

"Stop hedging, Olivia."

The man was being relentless, and she almost hated him for making her analyze her feelings. She turned to look at the water, and her reflection in it. He came to stand behind her. When he put his hands on her shoulders, she leaned her head back against his chest, and the couple in the water mirrored their actions.

"This is very hard," she told him.

"I know."

He was right about Sebastian Bailey being a techno-dweeb, though she preferred the term wizard herself. She loved him the way he was. Sebastian needed her.

Bastien had been dangerous, exciting, incredibly sexy. Bastien had needed her, too.

"I love Bastien," she told her husband. "But no more than I love you. You are Bastien." She wasn't sure if he believed it. She wasn't even sure she did, but she did think it was the truth. It had to be. She hoped. Because she didn't want to have to cope with having betrayed her husband with the man she loved. Who just happened to be her husband. "This is too weird, babe," she said. "Let's go on to Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

something else, shall we?"

He stepped back, and rubbed his hands across his face. Even his reflection looked exhausted. "Let's go home," he said as she turned to him.

"We can't."

"You said you came in through the Downs gate. If it's operational—"

"It is." she interrupted. "But we can't go home yet."

She could tell he didn't want to ask. He did not look like he wanted to be calm or reasonable, but he managed. "Why?"

Libby didn't answer immediately. Instead she marched up the bank and started along the path they had taken to the ford the day before. Had it only been the day before? No wonder she was exhausted, they'd napped a bit after they'd reached the forest from Blackchurch but not enough to be truly rested. It wasn't just the emotional upheaval. She hadn't had a decent night's sleep since they'd made love in the abandoned hut. What was that, three days ago? Or closer to four? Maybe Bas was being so difficult for the same reasons she was, with the added inconvenience of his sore arm to deal with along with the sleep deprivation.

"You're just being cranky," she muttered as she turned her head to find him following close behind her.

"Where are you going?"

She took a deep breath, and prepared for one more argument. "To get your time machine back."

He grabbed her arm and spun her around. "What?"

"It was stolen by Sikes. You said Sikes's camp is somewhere across the river.

We have to find his camp."

"Why?"

Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

"We have to get the time machine back."

Bas was almost quivering with anger. "Don't be ridiculous."

"I'm not being ridiculous. I'm being a Wolfe. Time Search is our responsibility.

Wolfes do not screw up and then not fix it."

"It was not your responsibility."

"As I recall, the reason we used to get me assigned to the Lilydrake team was my ability to deal with local problems. A time machine that someone might figure out how to turn on could create a massive local problem."

"That isn't going to happen."

"We don't know that. We don't know what Warin was doing with Sikes's band.

He might have trained some apprentices. He might have been close to getting the thing to work. When it does all of time is going to belong to the person who controls your temporal displacement device. Do you want it in the hands of outlaws? These aren't those little guys out of
Time Bandits
, babe."

"No one but me is ever going to get the TDD to work."

"Can you be sure?"

He glared at her, and she glared right back for a good long time. Eventually, he gave a jerky nod. "Conceded. It's possible Warin was able to work out some of the bugs. He was getting information from me, I think. You're right, the device does have to be retrieved from Sikes."

"Then let's go get it."

His hand landed heavily on her shoulder. "No. We are returning to our own time and turning the problem over to competent professionals."

She bristled. "We're competent professionals."

"I'm not."

Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

He sounded so adamant about his lack of abilities that she wanted to kick him.

But that would be uncivilized, and he'd just be smug about the effects of living in the Middle Ages on her already fierce nature. She kicked him anyway.

He winced but didn't move. "Feel better?"

"Aggression often makes me feel better."

"I know. It could also get you killed. That's why I'm not going to let you do anything as stupid as confronting Sikes on your own."

"You're not going to
let
me?" Her indignant shout echoed through the forest.

It had to be exhaustion that was making her act so irrational. She knew that she was not normally so close to hysteria, or incapable of reasonable discussion. She did admit that she was prone to violence when angry, but she could normally control that too. There was nothing wrong with having a temper, it was just using it that was stupid. And with that in mind, she decided that it would be wiser not to physically assault her husband anymore.

She took a deep breath and said calmly, "I'm not going to confront Sikes on my own. I'll have you with me." She was surprised when Bas threw back his head and laughed. "What?"

He pulled her into an embrace. His chest still vibrated with laughter as he hugged her. "Darling, what do you expect me to do? Challenge Sikes to a duel?

My laptop versus his broadsword? I don't think so."

Put that way, as a confrontation of a civilized modern man versus an unprincipled barbarian, his argument sounded logical. Instinct told her they didn't have time for logic. That there was a missing piece to what had happened that they hadn't considered. That something awful was going to happen, and soon. "We have to try."

Sebastian could tell he wasn't going to be able to talk her out of this insanity. He Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

wondered if he should just pretend to go along with it and divert her somehow.

After all, she didn't know her way around the forest the way he did. Or perhaps she did, now that she had her memory back. Her knowing the area had been another excuse for accompanying him back to Lilydrake when another historian should have been assigned to the project. He wished he hadn't wanted her with him so badly that he'd gone along with it. His unprofessional behavior had gotten her hurt. He wasn't going to let her get hurt again.

He was glad when she didn't continue the argument immediately. She leaned her body against his and rested her head on his shoulder. He wished he could hold her in the protective circle of his arms forever, but he knew his Olivia. He was proud of her fierce sense of responsibility. In a little while she would try to dash away to do what a woman had to do.

He needed a diversion, something that would give him time to talk her around to a sensible course of action. When his own stomach rumbled with hunger, he smiled. Sheer necessity was on his side for once.

He told her, "We're not going anywhere until we get some food in us."

Libby stepped away from him and looked around them. "I am starving." She hated to waste any more time, but she was tired, she was hungry. Sebastian was no better off than she was. "We're near the ford. I think I saw watercress growing there."

Bas made a gagging noise. "I hate living off the land. Besides, I was thinking of something a little more nutritious than a salad. I think a little hunting is in order."

He rolled his left shoulder, then lifted his arm. "I can use a bow. Thank God for modern emergency medicine."

Libby looked him over from head to foot. "Bow?"

He realized his weapons, bow, quiver and quarter-staff, were missing as she Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

spoke. He knew where he'd left them, in the same place he'd gotten his memory back. Bastien would have automatically taken them with him when they moved on to the river. It had never occurred to him to do so. Well, Sebastian Bailey still knew how to hunt with a bow. Hours and hours and endless wretched hours had to be spent in primitive survival training for all Time Search personnel. He'd hated every moment of it and had firmly drawn the line at learning to use a sword. Those hacking weapons were meant to maim and kill, which he contended was the ultimate interaction with the local population. He had gotten rather good at archery, however.

"I better go get my bow," he told her.

"Then a rabbit," she answered.

He closed his eyes and dreamed of pepperoni pizza. Extra cheese. "Whatever."

"I'll wait by the ford, with the watercress and a fire going."

He looked at her suspiciously. "You're not going to do anything stupid are you, Olivia?"

She was the picture of false innocence when she replied, "Not without you, Bas."

"Promise."

She grew serious. "I do promise. I'm not going anywhere without you ever again."

He believed her. He kissed her cheek. "Fine. I'll be back as soon as I can."

In the end he didn't shoot a rabbit. He didn't even use his bow, but managed to catch a pair of hedgehogs. He didn't feel like a particularly mighty hunter as he made his way to the ford, and was rather pleased that he didn't. He was not Bastien. He could live with not being Bastien. He just hoped his wife could.

He smelled wood smoke in the air before he stepped out of the woods. He called Sizemore, Susan - After the Storm

a greeting as he reached the ford, but no answer came back. He supposed the noise of the river muffled the sound of his voice, or that she didn't hear him because she was away from the fire she'd built.