Page 64 of No Place in Time

He did not smile. “No. As you see, I am alive.” Then he whispered, “Now that I’ve seen you again, I feel more alive than ever before.”

She felt a warmth rise in her face, and she turned away.

Finn was alive.

∞∞∞

She rode alone to the chapel ruins on the Veyron estate the next morning.

The broken arch stood against the sky, the stone walls crumbling with age. She did not have to wait long. He came silently.

When she saw him, her knees nearly gave way. He was thinner, marked by some hardship she couldn’t name, and yet devastatingly handsome. He was her Finn—the same strong shoulders, the same curve of his mouth, the same look in his eyes that saw no one else in the world but her.

She wanted to run into his arms, but she checked herself.

“You vanished,” she said, her voice restrained. “Without a word.”

He took a step closer.

“The machine,” Finn said, his voice raw. “I only meant to test it, but it threw me forward. More than a year. Cecily, I had no way back.” His eyes pleaded with her. “All I could do was wait.”

A year. The word echoed in the space between them. Before she could fully grasp the chasm of that lost time, he spoke again. “There’s more. Something I should have told you from the start.”

But she already knew. “You’re a Veyron.” The words tasted dry in her mouth. “You lied. You are the son of the man who started all this.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should never have deceived you. But when I understood how you felt about my father, my family, I was afraid to tell you.”

Tears welled in her eyes.

“I was ill,” she said. “I was completely alone. And you left.”

“I know.” His voice was rough with emotion. “The thought of you alone, ill… Cecily, it has haunted me every day. That I survived to find you safe is the miracle I prayed for.”

She took a step toward him, almost reaching out her hand to touch his face.

“Finn, I’m to be married. To a Veyron. Julian, the baron of your family estate.”

“I learned of it,” he said. His jaw tensed.

He reached out and gently pushed back a lock of her hair, then wiped away a tear from her cheek.

“They took me north to fight the Scots,” he said, his gaze distant. “I was injured trying to get back to you. The widow found me.” He touched his side, a flicker of pain crossing his face. “She saved my life.”

He took a hard breath. “When is the wedding?””

“The banns were read yesterday,” she said.

His face hardened. She looked down at her hands and realized Finn was holding them.

“The banns cannot be undone,” she added.

“Then we must go.”

She looked up. “You mean, the machine?”

“Yes.”

“Where? When?” she asked.