Time to Heal Read online

  Not that she ever would have done that, Emmeline thought, as she walked through the park. She was content in her new life—content but not happy, especially since she’d been forced to give up Jamie.

  But what kind of life could she have given him if she hadn’t given him up, she wondered for the thousandth time. It was better for him to be raised as the ward of a Viscount rather than the son of a whore. Wasn’t it?

  For technically, she was a whore, though she never sold her sexual favors. Instead, she beat the living daylights out of the many male supplicants who came to Mother Griffith’s door, seeking discipline and release they couldn’t find at home.

  It had seemed a strange thing to do, to Emmeline at first—strange and distasteful—especially when they bowed and groveled and begged to lick her boots, as many of them did. But in time she got used to it. She supposed one could get used to anything if one had to—and now it seemed almost normal to spank grown men as though they were naughty children and tell them they had been a very, very bad boy.

  But this was not how my life was meant to be, she couldn’t help thinking. I wasn’t meant to live in a whorehouse and beat men for a living. I was supposed to marry a kind man who loved me and loved the children I would bear him. One who would never hurt or attack me—one who would protect me instead.

  But that was not how her life had turned out. Instead of being married to a gentleman and living in a cozy home with her new baby, she was going back to Mother Griffith’s while her sick child was being kept from her.

  Despair rose in her heart at the thought. Would she never see Jamie again? It seemed she would not, if her mother had any say in the matter. And if she never saw her son again, what was the point of going on? Emmeline thought of the long list of male supplicants she would no doubt have to see and beat tonight and rage rose inside her abruptly, replacing the despair with a fiercer emotion.

  “By God,” she muttered to herself, kicking a patch of graying snow as she left the park. “I’ll beat them all right. It was a man who put me here—a man who ruined my life. Jack Torrington may be dead but his brethren shall pay for his sins tonight!”

  Five

  “There—you are as ready as I can make you to enter my world,” Richard said, taking a step back and eyeing Skahr up and down. “You look quite respectable—well, other than the dagger in your belt.”

  “You should have seen it before he shrank it down to a dagger,” Caroline told her husband. “It’s much more respectable now, I promise you.”

  “Well, whatever the case, I think he is ready.” Richard nodded. Then he fixed Skahr with a stern gaze. “Kindly remember that Emmeline is my kinswoman and I will take you to task if you harm so much as a hair on her head.”

  Skahr couldn’t help thinking again that Emmeline must be a magnificent warrior. Her kinsman clearly thought she was so deadly that he wouldn’t even be able to cut a lock of her hair before she beat him thoroughly.

  “I look forward to meeting your kinswoman,” he told the other male, nodding. “And I promise that I will treat her with all the respect which is due to her.”

  “See that you do,” Richard said shortly. “Now listen, she is residing at a place in Graves Street called Mother Griffith’s.”

  “This is the name of her home?” Skahr asked.

  “Not her home exactly, though she lives there. It is also a place of business. She…” Richard made a face as though the words he had to say were distasteful to him. “She makes her living, er…beating men. But you must not judge her for it!” he added fiercely.

  Skahr frowned at him.

  “Why would I judge her? According to the prophecy I am following, she is exactly the female I am seeking.”

  “Very well, then.” Richard looked slightly mollified. “You have the money Kat synthesized for you and you know how to use it. Simply hail a hansom and tell the driver you wish to go to Mother Griffith’s on Graves Street. There you may ask for Emmeline as ‘The Countess.’” He made another face. “I believe that is the title they have given her.”

  “I see.” Skahr nodded. “Yes, I can do all this. And should I give her a message from you?”

  “Yes.” Richard’s face looked suddenly tense and regretful. “Tell her…tell her that I didn’t mean to abandon her and that I am most dreadfully sorry. Tell her that I love her very much.”

  Skahr nodded again.

  “I will give her your message. And now, I must go.”

  He looked at the large brass frame of the PORTAL machine, which worked by some kind of magic he didn’t understand that Caroline had dubbed “science.” It was currently showing Emmeline’s world, which had some horse-drawn wagons called “carriages,” but also vehicles which moved though no horses were hooked to them at all. Skahr assumed this was more “science” magic and thought nothing of it. Every world had its own laws and magics—he didn’t intend to break his head about them as long as they worked.

  The people visible through the PORTAL’s window were dressed much as he himself was—well, the males were, anyway. The females had on long, flowing garments which belled out around them and looked extremely impractical. How could they run or fight in such garments, Skahr wondered?

  Also, all of the females that he could see passing by the window were small and weak-looking—possibly even smaller than the females of the Mother Ship. Where were the fighting women—the ones like Maeve’s Zonians back home?

  Of course, just because he didn’t see any females who looked able to beat a male in combat, didn’t mean there were none in that world, Skahr reminded himself. Not all the females of his own world were as large and powerful as males. The females of his own Clan were smaller by at least a head in height and were not nearly as muscular.

  Perhaps he was only seeing the smaller females out and about in the strange otherworldly town. Maybe this Mother Griffith’s place where Emmeline lived was a warrior complex—a fighting arena where she and other Zonians challenged males and beat them every day.

  The thought gave him hope and he prepared to step through the brass window—no need to use the shard of the Peace Crystal the Old One had given him, since the way to the other world was already prepared.

  “Wait,” Caroline said to him, just before he stepped over the brass frame.

  Skahr turned back. “Yes?”

  “Will you come back here once you have Emmeline or will you take her straight to your own world to, uh, heal your crystal?” she asked.

  Skahr shrugged. “I do not know. I will use my crystal shard and see where it brings us.”

  “What?” Richard asked sharply. “What do you mean, will he take Emmeline into his own world? No one said anything about that!”

  “Oh, I’m sorry—I thought I told you!” Caroline’s hand flew to her mouth. “But apparently the Goddess gave Skahr a quest to fulfill—the reason he’s going to get Emmeline in the first place is because she’s the only one who can heal the sick Peace Crystal in his own world.”

  “This was not what I envisioned when the Goddess said she would send Emmeline a protector,” Richard growled, still frowning. “I do not like the idea of her going into other worlds!”

  “Why not?” Caroline challenged him. “I went into another world—yours. And if I hadn’t, we never would have met. The Goddess made that possible—she had a plan the whole time I was stuck in your world and you were stuck in mine. Even when everything seemed crazy and wrong, she made it all come out right.”

  “I still don’t like it,” Richard muttered, a little less fiercely, though he still did not look happy about the prospect of his kinswoman visiting Skahr’s world.

  “We have to trust that she has a plan again—a plan for Skahr and Emmeline.” Caroline stroked his arm soothingly. “I know you want to protect her, Richard but if I had been protected, I never would have met you and you’d still be married to the other Caroline who didn’t really love you.”

  The Blood Kindred sighed deeply.

  “Well…I suppos