For All Time (Nantucket Brides 2)

“The baby?” Toby whispered.

Dr. Huntley shook his head. “Tabby and her son went together.”

“Oh, God,” Toby said, her words half prayer, half anguish.

Graydon stood up quickly and pulled Toby up to stand beside him. He put his arm firmly around her shoulders. “One other thing,” he said to Caleb. “How did Tabby’s body come to be scarred?”

Caleb looked surprised at the question, but he got his face under control. “When she was three she tripped on her skirt and fell into the fire. Her father pulled her out and rolled on her. He got some burns too.”

“And Garrett’s back?”

Caleb smiled. “That glorious tattoo? He was the envy of all of us. As for getting it, let’s just say that when in a foreign port even a Kingsley can sometimes drink too much rum.”

“Thank you,” Graydon said, and he walked with Toby out of the office, and out the front door. He didn’t let go of her until they had gone down Main Street, onto Kingsley Lane, and were inside the house. He put her on the couch in the living room and poured her a double shot of whiskey.

“Drink it,” he said.

“We killed them,” Toby whispered.

Graydon put the glass up to her lips and made her drin

k some.

“We destroyed Tabby and her baby.” She looked at him. “Garrett’s baby. Our baby. I know in my heart that you and I made him on that night. We created him, then we killed him.” Graydon sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms.

“You can’t think like that.”

“We changed history, but when we did, we murdered three people.”

“It was a very long time ago,” Graydon whispered, holding her head on his chest. She pulled back to glare at him.

“They’d all be dead now anyway, so what does it matter? Is that what you’re saying?” Her tone was belligerent.

Graydon started to defend himself but his eyes turned cold. “That’s exactly what I meant.”

She knew he was lying. He felt as bad about this as she did. She fell back onto his chest. “I don’t understand. The first time I went into that birthing room, I knew I’d died in there. But I hadn’t! That only happened after you and I changed things. How could that be?”

“Well,” Graydon said slowly, “the rules of reincarnation, time travel, and changing history work differently. Shall we consult the textbook on the subject?”

His attempt at a joke didn’t make her laugh but it did make her feel a bit better. “How do we fix this?”

“I think we should leave it alone.”

She pulled back to look at him. “We have to return to that time.”

“And do what?” he asked, his voice angry. “I’ve thought of nothing else since we left Caleb’s office. Do we go back and allow Tabby to be sold to Osborne? That didn’t work.” His eyes locked with hers. “Toby, maybe there is such a thing as destiny. Maybe we could change the past a thousand times and no matter what we did, Garrett and Tabby would end up apart, either by marriage to others or by death.”

“Like now?” She pushed away from him. “Their destiny—our destiny—is to find each other, then be separated forever? The sea, childbirth, your country, your future wife? It’s our destiny to never be together and I should accept my fate? Is that what you expect me to believe?!”

Graydon didn’t like what she was saying, but he did like that she was angry and not crying. “In my country—”

Standing up, Toby glared at him. “Your country is causing all the problems. Who has arranged marriages today?”

“Most of the world,” he said calmly. “And they do not have a fifty percent divorce rate.”

“That’s because the women can’t get away from the men. They’re trapped.”

Graydon sat where he was, knowing that her anger wasn’t about his country, wasn’t even about him.