Lady X

He had been wandering the streets of Inverness, not far from his castle, when it came to him. He would go back in time and prevent Baudali from killing his family.

Time travel was not forbidden, but making alterations in time was…there were always consequences.

It was the grain of sand theory.

What evils, what harm would come of it? he asked himself. Why shouldna he bring back his parents and brother. They would only do good in this world. They were all that was good. Why shouldna he find the wizard and kill him?

What if it was destiny’s purpose that they die? Were they supposed to die? he wondered. He didn’t care. When he tried to save his parents, two years ago, he failed. He had arrived at just the right moment and somehow, once again, Baudali killed them. It was as though it was meant to be and nothing he did had worked.

He had taken his parents against their will to another location. His father had told him it would do no good. He knew it was their destiny to die that day.

Hunter refused to listen even though his father had said, that the fates had decreed his and his dear mother’s destiny. His beloved father had been right. It all happened so very differently, and yet, the results were always the same.

Baudali laughed before he vanished on that day.

So Hunter vowed that he would at least save his brother. He had to…Ferrell –was not meant to die. He was too bloody damned young.

While he created a world for himself so that he could take Baudali by surprise, he met the Lady Hester.

He didn’t believe he truly loved the wench. She had been exciting at a time when he needed excitement. He had made the mistake of thinking of her as an innocent, kind soul who was giving and sincere. She was nothing of the kind. If he had been in love, it had been with an illusion, none of it had been real and he was well out of her clutches.

All of these thoughts frenzied his mind.

Hunter moved across the bedroom chamber where he had retired to in the early morning hours, after a night of revelry. He winced as his head felt a bombardment of sensations, none of them good. It had been a long night of drinking and gambling.

Opening the door, he went to the staircase which happened to overlook the galley room below and saw his two drinking companions sprawled on the floor. Someone had put a cushion under each of their heads. He seemed to recall that he had done that.

He stretched once more and turned to find a chambermaid walking toward him with a flirtatious smile on her face. He rubbed his shadow beard. He had washed up, and changed his clothes, but all he really wanted was coffee, peace and quiet. Old habits had become a part of who he was. He looked her over and murmured, “Och, but ye be a sight for tired eyes.”

“Hello Scotty,” she said and he had a sudden vision of her last evening, lounging about in his lap. He smiled. He had taken a kiss from her and wondered if he’d taken anything else.

He grinned and asked softly, “Can I get coffee and a bite to eat then?”

“Yes, ye can. Ye can have anything, at all that ye want, in any way that ye want,” she said and her meaning was clear.

Right then, he realized that he had gone to bed without her in it. She was a provocative and pretty lass, but he was getting weary of bedding a chit without affection. That had been fine in his heyday, but it was not as satisfying now as it had once been.

He chuckled and gave her a gentle pat on her rump and sent her off to set the table with coffee and food, while he took the stairs and stood above his snoring companions.

“Come on then, Cressly, up with ye lad,” he said kicking at his friend’s boot with his own.

Sir Jacob Cressly grunted, opened his bloodshot brown eyes and said, “Make it stop spinning.” He closed his eyes and put his hand to forehead and groaned.

“Come on lad, coffee awaits,” Hunter persisted.

“Go the bloody hell away,” Jacob mumbled.

Hunter bent and grabbed his friend by the lapel of his blue short-tailed coat and pulled him up into a sitting position. He propped him against the legs of the wooden chair. He laughed and said, “Get up then, ye deadbeat dangler. We have a full day ahead of us.”

Jacob opened an eye and pleaded, “Do go away, Hunter, let a man die in peace.”

His lordship wondered for the hundredth time since he had met young Sir Jacob Cressly how the lad had been sucked into all this business, for he found he could not help but like him.

“Get up, Jake, or is it pity ye want?” He shook his head and his eyes glinted devilishly, “Ye won’t be getting any pity from me.” Grinning he added, “Ye’ll feel more the thing after ye’ve cleaned yerself up and had a bite to eat, ye will.” He glanced at the other man snoring soundly not too many feet away. “And while yer at it ye best be waking up the dead over there, as well.”

Young Jacob made a valiant attempt to stand under Hunter’s watchful eyes and exclaimed as he moaned every inch of the way, “Deuce take you for a devil, but then you are a Scot so what else could you be.”

“So I’m told, lad, so’m told,” Hunter said with an accompanying chuckle.