Prologue
2010
AD, Virginia Coast United States
It took a
certain amount of courage to leave a safe and comfortable life, to leap into
the void, and risk failure. Liane
Gautier-MacGregor sighed–one
sigh was all she would allow–then
faced the slow, even swells of the Atlantic . Normally, she loved the solitude of the
narrow beach but, tonight, it echoed with loneliness.
Dreams,
lies, broken trust. She shrugged; they
were all the same. Take her
ex-husband. Please, she added
with a snarky smile. For a long time,
she’d thought Devyn was the man of her dreams.
“Which just goes to show,” she said, shrugging.
Far out
to sea, a pale line of fog rose out of the ocean depths. High above the fog, a star pulsed in the
indigo sky.
“Star
light, star bright,” Liane began, then paused, unsure what to wish for. A blast of cold air shoved her backward. Pulling her jacket together, she braced
herself against the wind. What did
ex-husbands and the weather have in common?
Can’t count on either of them.
Glancing at the star again, she muttered, “It’s probably a satellite
anyway.”
From atop
the bluff, the dull thump of her ex-husband’s car door, followed by the BMW’s
throaty growl echoed off the trees and cottage walls. She turned to see the top landing of the sea
stairs. Twin beams of light speared the
darkness then angled away.
She was
alone. In the dark. On a deserted beach.
Liane
shivered. Gautiers were never
afraid. At least, that’s what her father
had always said. She drew in a breath of
salt-laden air, then turned to carefully retrace her footsteps. She could see them clearly in the moonlight
and for a moment wished she could as easily retrace her life’s footsteps. Go back to a time before her marriage, before
she’d become such a huge disappointment to her parents. To herself.
A wave
lapped over her left foot, filling her shoe with icy water. She jumped sideways before the next wave
hit. Waves shouldn’t reach this high on
the little beach. She puzzled over it
for a moment. Maybe a storm was
coming? But the sky was clear, filled
with stars and a brilliant full moon.
In fact,
her wishing star, or satellite, twinkled even more brightly. “Star light, star bright. First star I see tonight.”
She
chuckled. Well, it was the first star
she’d noticed that night at any rate.
“May I have, may I wish–”
She
paused again, and thought. “What I wish
tonight.”
The BMW’s
engine noise faded in the distance. She
shivered at the sudden stillness. “I
wish for a new beginning.”
Okay, so
that was going to happen anyway now that her divorce was final. "I wish for a good new beginning."
Vague,
that was too vague, she decided. Maybe--
"I wish that I'm brave enough to succeed at a new beginning."
Fear of
failure, fear of success...it didn't matter what you called it. The fact was, she was a coward in so many
different aspects of her life. And so
much would be different if she had been a tenth as brave as her mother or
father. Her head lowered as grief rolled
over her. Her chest tightened,
constricting her breath. But, her head
jerked sideways in a negating gesture, she wasn’t brave and her parents were
dead because of her cowardice. Because she’d
let her father drive when he wasn’t familiar with icy roads. She cast a sad, longing look at the star.
Her
wishing star jinked sideways, then elongated.
Was it a comet? So much for
wishes. “Should have wished for a telescope.”
As she
watched the comet-star, a buzzing, tickling sensation swept over her. Her scalp tingled, her hair lifted. She looked around uneasily as the wind died. Even the waves, so restless moments ago,
hesitated, stuck in mid-curl.
Her gaze,
drawn to the sky, settled on the not-star as it sped toward the moon. Liane’s throat filled with dread as, with a
flash of blinding whiteness and an utter lack of sound, the moon exploded.
She
gasped in terrified awe as fragments whirled silently through the sky. Get inside! screamed the primitive
part of her mind, inside, inside, inside. Obeying the silent command, she sped toward
the sea stairs but the wind came at her like a battering ram. She stumbled, fell back, and caught herself
as her shoes filled with cold ocean water.
The tide surged, slammed into her knees.
With a
supreme effort, Liane dragged herself forward then–
The sea,
the beach, the moon and stars–all
spun in rapid circles around her. A
queer, sideways slide, a wrenching shift, threw her off-balance.
From
somewhere came her ex-husband’s startled yell followed by the deep mechanical
growl of his BMW.
She
flailed as a kaleidoscope of color burned across her eyes and drummed through
her skull. Swept up, she clawed empty
air. Tiny zaps, electrically charged,
sizzled over her, around her, through her.
Then, as if a giant hand reached out to snatch her from the maelstrom–
Liane reeled in broad
daylight, the sun beating over the waves and blinding her with its brilliance.
Chapter 1
“They that rise wi’ the sun hae their
wark weel begun.”
260 AQ, Virginia Coast
Dizzy and
off-balance, Liane had a single moment to gape at the suddenly day-lit beach
before a man-shaped wrecking-ball slammed into her, dumping her into the chilly
surf. “Erp!”
“Guh!” The man sprawled on top of her. A frothing wave crashed over her, filling her
nose and mouth with the briny taste of seawater. The man levered himself up and gaped at her
through a pair of startling green eyes--her ex-husband’s green eyes.
“Blethering hell,
woman! Where did you come from?” He leaped to his feet, staring at her with an
equal mixture of irritation, astonishment and concern. He offered her a hand up. “Are you hurt?”
The
last thing she wanted to do was touch him–unless
she had a two-by-four in her hands–so
she ignored him. She stood, brushing her
wet clothes with sharp flicks of her hands.
Movement from the corner of her eye had her turn in time to see a dark
bay horse scaling the bluff. What the
hell was a horse doing here? For that
matter, she turned to her ex, what was he
doing here? “What are you doing here?”
His
green eyes narrowed. “I might ask you
the same, lass.”
His
Scottish burr startled her. So did his
clothing–a red
and black kilt, a blue coat, unbuttoned to reveal a snowy white shirt, wetly
plastered to his chest, argyle socks over silver-buckled boots. Her gaze settled on his bare knees. Even if he was a two-timing snake, Devyn had
gorgeous knees...for a man, she added grudgingly. Sneering, she said, “Cute outfit. Where’d you get it? Scots R Us?”
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