In Due Time Read online

  Cooper turned his attention back to his food, seemingly finished with our conversation as he stuffed a meatball into his mouth. He spoke in between bites, his words muffled. “I know, I know…we live in the past, Dad. It’s only a small problem really.”

  “Only a small problem? How do you figure?”

  “That’s where Morna comes in.”

  The witch truly meddled too much for her own good, and she really seemed to like using my son as her accomplice. “Cooper, Morna’s been known to do a lot of things, but I hardly think she’s prone to kidnap the woman and force her back in time.”

  Cooper shook his head, not bothering to look over at me as he spoke.

  “I don’t know, Dad. I sure wouldn’t put anything past her.”

  Jane’s voice, which neared a shout as she struggled to make sure everyone could hear her, suddenly interrupted any thought I had of responding to Cooper’s very accurate comment about Morna.

  “Everyone, I have some big news.”

  I swallowed involuntarily, suddenly nervous. I didn’t know why, but before she even spoke I knew whatever Jane was about to say would complicate my already very complicated life. Jane’s announcements usually had a way of doing that. They rarely involved only her.

  “What is it?” Cooper’s voice, ever curious, spoke up by my side.

  “Well, as you all know, this is Kathleen’s last day here, but I don’t know if any of you know why. I didn’t want to tell you until everything was in place and we were absolutely sure it would happen, but Kathleen and I are pursuing a new business venture in Scotland. We’re moving there next week.”

  A fork fully wound with noodles, complete with a meatball stuck on its end made its way to my mouth as she uttered the word Scotland. As the word registered in my brain, I missed my mouth completely, sending the saucey mess splashing onto my shirt, smattering a stain all the way down my front.

  Whatever I’d expected her to say, it certainly hadn’t been that. I’d been right. This definitely complicated things. Jane undoubtedly assumed that her move to Scotland would put her a lot closer to Grace and Cooper. Unfortunately, what she didn’t understand was that we would be very far away from her indeed—by nearly four hundred years.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Dammit.” I stood, staring down at the mess I’d just made, still shocked by Jane’s latest news. “That’s definitely going to leave a stain.”

  “No, it won’t.” Jane stood with me, waving me into the kitchen as the rest of the table looked at me, silently condemning my clumsiness. I had to restrain to keep from flicking a spoonful of sauce on each of them.

  As soon as we got into the kitchen, Jane turned to dab at some of the sauce with a napkin. “We’ll be able to get it out—or should I say, Kathleen will. Have you met her yet?”

  Kathleen again. Even if Cooper was right, even if she were the woman of my dreams, Kathleen-whatever-her-last-name, was the last thing I needed to worry about right now. Right now, I needed to figure out what we needed to do about Jane and her sudden move to Scotland. Things were complicated enough without introducing more people to Morna and her time-traveling, meddling ways.

  “No.” I took the napkin from Jane’s hands and started blotting away at the tomato-stained mess. I only succeeded in making it worse. “I haven’t yet had that pleasure, but Cooper seems to have taken a liking to her.”

  Cooper suddenly burst through the kitchen doors, catching the tail end of my sentence. “For you, Dad! I like her for you.” He waved back at the kitchen doorway. “I can’t believe you guys left me out there with them. I just couldn’t stay.”

  Jane leaned against the counter, looking back at Cooper and me rather amusedly.

  “Oh, is that right, Coop? You know, I don’t think that’s such a bad idea. I was just telling your father myself how much he would like Kathleen.” She turned to look at me. “And you would like her, Jeffrey. And you can meet her now, when you go ask her to help you clean up that stain. She’s an expert at stuff like that. I lived with her for years, and I can’t tell you how many messes of mine she’s cleaned up.”

  I frowned at the two of them. It didn’t matter that I’d like to have a ‘lady friend,’ as Cooper called it, as much as he’d like me to have one. It drove me crazy that everyone seemed so invested in trying to help in the finding of such a person. Regardless, the stain did need cleaning. It was one of my favorite shirts, and I treat my stash of present-day clothes like they are pieces of gold. I had every intention of taking this one back into the past with me.

  “Fine. Where would I find her?”

  Jane shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea.”

  “Great.” Standing, I pointed at Cooper as I left the room. “Finish eating, then start getting ready for bed. Deal?”

  He gave me a thumbs up, obviously excited that I would finally be meeting this so-called Kathleen. “Deal.”

  “And Jane.” I reached out to grab her arm before leaving. “I want to talk to you about this Scotland thing. I…I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “What? I thought you would be thrilled. I know Grace will be.”

  “We’ll just talk about it later. I’m going to go see to this stain.”

  I had no idea what I would say to her later. I couldn’t very well tell Jane the truth. Who was I to tell her she shouldn’t move to Scotland? I had no good reason, nothing that would make her change her mind. But we wouldn’t be able to dodge Jane forever once she arrived in Scotland. Sooner or later, all of this would come to a boiling point.

  It would all have to wait for another day. Walking out of the room with Jane and Cooper’s eyes glued to my back, I went in search of the mysterious Kathleen.

  I wasn’t sure where to look. Knowing full well the size of the estate, I imagined there was a good possibility I would be at this for hours. Instead, as I rounded the corner leading to the hallway lined with various guest bedrooms, I was brought up short by the impact of someone walking directly into me.

  Clearly, neither one of us had noticed the other. We ran into each other with so much impact that I stumbled back a few paces, and the woman fell back hard onto her backside. Cooper’s description flashed in my mind.

  Kathleen.

  CHAPTER 6

  Kathleen looked up from the floor, eyes wide with shock, at her assailant. So this was the man that Jane had raved about. Well, he’d certainly made an impression, knocking her onto the floor with so much force she knew her butt would be bruised. She looked up at him, already knowing what she would see. She’d seen pictures, of course, when Jane had pulled out family albums to demonstrate that not only was he sweet and charming, but also that he was quite good looking.

  To her happy surprise, Kathleen found him even more attractive in person. He wasn’t movie star attractive, and he wasn’t the sort of good looking that makes a girl’s knees weak and her eggs quiver, but he was just the sort of good looking that Kathleen liked the best. He looked real, and honest, and good. He was short for a guy, but taller than her for her nose had been just about equal with his mouth when they collided. He was solid and strong with a handsome jawline covered with just the right amount of stubble.

  The one thing that seemed missing from his face was a smile, and the look of pure agony plastered across his features caused Kathleen to bubble over with laughter. Could he really be so concerned about knocking her over? It had only been a short fall, and it was her fault just as much as his. She’d been rushing around the entire day in her effort to finish her last day of work.

  “Hey.” He seemed lost in his thoughts, and Kathleen waved to him from the ground to pull him out of them. “Mr. Gloomy, can I have a hand?”

  Kathleen raised her right hand. He took it quickly, pulling her easily to her feet as he spoke to her for the first time.

  “I’m sorry. I should have been paying more attention. You must be Kathleen.”

  “Yes.” He still held onto her hand, and Kathleen used the opportunity to sha
ke his as way of introduction. “And you’re Jeffrey.”

  “Yes.”

  Still, he didn’t return Kathleen’s smile, and disappointment started to rise within her. Surely, the personality she saw now wasn’t what Jane had raved about so much. If it was, her friend must not think as much about her as Kathleen thought, to assume that she would be into someone so dull and non-reactive.

  An awkward silence followed until Kathleen noticed the spaghetti mess on the man’s shirt. Technically, she’d just finished her last assigned duty and had been happily on her way to pack her belongings. Now, the sight of anything that would provide an excuse to end this strange interaction thrilled her.

  She pointed to the stain. “Your shirt is a mess. Would you like some help with that?”

  Jeffrey fidgeted back and forth, and Kathleen relaxed at the gesture. Perhaps, he was just nervous—she remembered his son moving in much the same way. Maybe he was just shy. She hoped so. Shyness could be overcome, but if he really was just as boring as he seemed to be now, well, that wasn’t so easily changed.

  “Yes. Yes, if you don’t mind, I really would. I was looking for you, actually.”

  He attempted a smile and Kathleen took heart, turning to wave him downstairs and into the laundry room.

  “Here, come with me and we’ll get you cleaned up.”

  * * *

  What was the matter with me? Had it really been so long since I’d been in the presence of a beautiful woman that I’d lost my ability to form a cohesive sentence? I had to have been freaking her out, with the expressionless look on my face and my serious lack of manners or conversational skills.

  I was just in shock. While I knew their intentions to be good, I truly didn’t expect Kathleen to be the beauty Jane and Cooper had made her out to be. She was. On top of that, she’d been kind and helpful, even though I was rewarding her friendliness by behaving weird and spacey. I needed to get a grip and start acting like myself.

  “So, this is your last day, huh? You must be excited.”

  I could only see the side of her face as she leaned over the sink to start the water running, but the corner of her mouth pulled up in a smile as she spoke. “Oh, you can speak like a human. I was beginning to wonder.”

  Gosh, that was even worse. Not only was she beautiful and kind, she was witty and said just what she thought. I liked that in a woman—a bit of spunk and fire.

  I laughed, feeling more confident as I took a step toward her. “Oh yes, I’ll talk your ear off if you give me a chance.”

  She turned toward me, flicking her fingers over the sink to shake off excess water before pointing at my shirt and gesturing for me to unbutton it as she answered my earlier question. “Yes, it is. Then, we’re headed to Scotland.” A look of panic crossed her face for a brief second. “Jane did already tell you guys right? I didn’t just spill the beans?”

  I nodded and started in on my buttons. “Yes, she told us. I’m afraid Jane is going to find herself very disappointed.”

  “Oh God, you’re bleeding. Stop right now.”

  The pitch of her voice caused me to jump as she walked over to me, grabbing my right wrist and holding up my index finger. Sure enough, there was a deep open line in the tip that had fresh blood oozing out rather rapidly. In my shock over Jane’s announcement, I’d not noticed it at all.

  “I must have sliced it open the same time I threw this food all over myself.”

  “Here, stay right there and don’t touch that shirt again.” She ran from the room, returning quickly with a bandage as she grabbed my finger and dragged me over to the sink. I could very well have cleaned and bound my own cut, but I liked the way her hands felt against mine and decided to allow myself to enjoy the moment.

  Once I was wrapped up and no longer bleeding, she turned her attention back to my shirt, causing the breath to lodge in my chest as she reached up to touch the button just below my collar. I knew she only worked the buttons because she needed to clean my shirt, but it seemed an intimate thing to have her undress me, and it made every thought in my head fuzzy as her fingertips bumped against my undershirt.

  “I’m sure I could manage that if you need to prep the cleaning solution or something.”

  Or anything, really. I just desperately needed her to take her hands away from my chest. She had to see what it was doing to my breathing no matter how much I tried to hide it.

  Apparently, even if she did take notice, it didn’t bother her, for she shook her head and kept working away, pausing mid-way down as she looked up at me confused.

  “No, you can’t do it yourself because I don’t want you to risk getting any more blood on the shirt. The spaghetti sauce is going to be hard enough to get out. Why did you say Jane would be disappointed? Disappointed about what?”

  I breathed in through my nose, hoping that when I answered her, my voice wouldn’t come out shaky. “She thinks that by living in Scotland she will be able to see Cooper and Grace a lot more often.”

  “Won’t she?”

  Thankfully, she finished the buttons and stepped away allowing me a moment to compose myself as I shrugged out of the shirt and extended it in her direction. “No. She won’t.”

  “Hmm…” she looked over her shoulder at me as she sprayed a solution over the front of my shirt. “That’s a shame.” I swore there was flirtation in her eyes.

  She was absolutely right—it was a shame. If we weren’t around to see Jane, I wouldn’t be around to see Kathleen either.

  Damn the seventeenth century. Even if Kathleen was intentionally flirting, it would be pointless to reciprocate. In the same country we might be, but unfortunately, not in the same century.

  CHAPTER 7

  “Aunt Jane…Jane…wake up sleepy head.” Cooper crawled up onto the bed next to his aunt who lay snoring with her mouth open, drool dripping out the side of her mouth. He leaned down and blew softly into her ear, knowing it would wake her up.

  As expected, her eyelid slowly lifted as she regarded him with a look that he knew had more than a few bad words in it. “Coooooppppp…what time is it, you crazy kid? Don’t you ever sleep?”

  Cooper glanced at the digital clock next to his aunt’s bed and pulled one corner of his lip down in apology. He knew it was early, he always woke early, but he’d not realized it was still in the fives. “Don’t be mad, okay? I usually try to wait until the sixes, but I need your help.”

  Jane rolled over onto her back, reaching to wipe the drool from her mouth with the back of her hand before slowly pulling herself up to a sitting position. “Cooper, are you telling me that it is five-something in the morning? If you weren’t so darn cute, I would pull your head off, kiddo.”

  Cooper smiled and scooted in to snuggle, knowing it would help brighten Aunt Jane’s mood. “Sorry. You know me, I just have trouble sleeping very much. Always have.”

  “I know. When you were an infant, your mother was so sleep deprived, I thought we were going to have to institutionalize her.”

  Cooper scrunched his brows together. He was good with words, but that was a big one. “What does that mean?”

  Jane shook her head and leaned over to turn on the nightstand lamp. “Never mind. What do you need help with?”

  “Dad and Kathleen! I know he liked her, I could tell after he came back from getting his shirt cleaned up, but he’s not gonna do anything about it. We gotta make them spend more time together.”

  Jane sat quietly for a moment, and Cooper knew she was trying to think of an idea. “Well, I’m supposed to bring Kathleen back to my apartment this morning. We’ve got to start boxing it up for the big move.”

  Cooper slumped over in the bed. Surely Aunt Jane wasn’t going to give up that easy. “So what are you saying? That we can’t do anything? We gotta do something, Aunt Jane.”

  “I know, I know. What if we pretend I’m not feeling well? That I’m too sick to take her into town? Kathleen could drive herself, of course, but it would be nice for her to have some help while packing.�
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  Cooper smiled, he loved Aunt Jane so much. He couldn’t wait for her to be in Scotland too, and he didn’t care what Dad said, they would see Jane and Kathleen all the time. He knew Morna would see to it that they would. “I think that is such a good idea.”

  Aunt Jane yawned and sunk back lower into the bed. “Alright. Here’s what we’ll do. I’m going to go back to sleep for a few hours. You wait until your dad wakes up and then bring him in here. I’ll pretend to be sick and ask him to take Kathleen into the city, okay?”

  Cooper leaned over to kiss his aunt on the forehead as she scooted down into the sheets to return to her sleeping. He whispered as he slid off the bed. “Okay, Aunt Jane. Sleep sweet. I’ll see you in a few hours. Be sure to act real, real sick, otherwise Dad will know you’re faking. He spots me every time.”

  * * *

  Obviously, she was faking. I could see that the moment I walked into the bedroom. Jane didn’t get sick and certainly not with a headache. I’d known Jane my entire life, and I’d never known her to have a headache. My son and his aunt were scheming. Again.

  “Jane,” I lowered my voice in the hopes that Cooper wouldn’t hear me as I cursed. “You are full of shit. Wake up and get out of this bed because there is no way that I’m driving Kathleen all the way to the city. I hardly know her. I doubt seriously that she would be comfortable with that.”

  “Dad!” Of course he’d heard me. “Don’t say that word. What’s the matter with you?”

  I glanced over my shoulder and gave Cooper a look that said, ‘I’ll deal with you later.’ Understanding its meaning well enough, he stepped back a pace and said nothing.