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“No, it’s the last of it and tomorrow I can get more.”

  She and Daire looked across the table at each other, both holding the dish, and the reality of parting became real. No more would the four of them be in the little house together. No more laughing over shared jokes. Toby would never again clash swords with a Lanconian. She and Lorcan would never put on a yoga show with the men watching. She wouldn’t go shopping with Lorcan and get her into Nantucket whites. Toby would have no more use for the Lanconian she’d learned to speak.

  Graydon looked at the unhappy faces of the others, took the plate from Daire, and set it by Toby. “I will send you cheese,” he said, his voice almost harsh.

  Lorcan gave her king-to-be a look of reproach and put her hand on Toby’s. “I will send you some lace that they make in the mountains. The Ulten women are good at crafts.”

  Toby nodded. “I’ll send you seeds for those tomatoes you like, and when those shoes we ordered arrive I’ll send them too.” There were tears in the eyes of both women.

  Graydon stood up so fast his chair tipped backward. It would have fallen if Daire hadn’t caught it. “Daire and I will spend the day out,” he said and his voice was cold, sounding uncaring. He looked at Lorcan. “You will prepare for …” Graydon’s voice nearly broke but he recovered himself. “For tomorrow.”

  Through all this he didn’t look at Toby but kept his eyes on his fellow Lanconians. He didn’t even glance at her when he left the room, Daire behind him.

  “He is in pain,” Lorcan said.

  “I know,” Toby whispered. “Shall we clean this up and start on the packing?”

  It took hours to get all Rory’s clothes back into the many bags he’d left for Graydon to use. The packing was hard for Toby, as every item conjured up bittersweet memories. This was the shirt Graydon had worn when they cleaned up the grounds of the wedding. He wore these trousers when they’d grilled hot dogs and Graydon had squirted mustard on the leg. His workout clothes were just out of the dryer, and for a moment Toby buried her face in the soft white cloth.

  It was three weeks until Victoria’s wedding and Lexie wasn’t to return until after it, so Toby would be alone in the house. She dreaded it. She wouldn’t even have a job to go to every day. But then, the way she felt today, she might spend the three weeks crying.

  Congratulations! she thought. She had joined the millions of women who knew what a broken heart felt like. It was a very, very bad feeling. No wonder people had tried so hard to keep this from happening to her!

  “And I should have listened to them,” Toby muttered as she jammed Graydon’s workout clothes into a duffel bag. She looked at Lorcan. “I bet he has a valet to unpack for him.”

  “Yes,” Lorcan said. “He has everything a future king needs.”

  Toby grimaced. “No sand in his shoes like he’s had here. No dishes to wash, no greenhouse to water, no one asking him what color ribbons Victoria would like.”

  “No,” Lorcan said as she put Graydon’s shoes into their protective bags. “And no one to yell at him when he gets too full of himself. There will be no one who would dare tell him that what he just said was stupid.”

  “He’ll be glad of that,” Toby said.

  “No one to tease and laugh with, to share every meal with, to listen to his whispered stories of his life, to hear of his problems with his students or of his father’s threats, which he’s endured all his life.”

  Toby was watching Lorcan, realizing that she was talking about her and Daire. They’d shared a room for all these weeks, but never had there been a hint that anything private went on between them. But Toby had learned that it wasn’t natural to Lanconians to let their feelings show.

  Stepping back, Toby looked at the huge pile of luggage. It was two o’clock and they still had a lot to do. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s leave this for later. You and I are going out on the town. We’ll have a huge lunch, then go shopping. We’ll buy so many souvenirs for you to take back that people will call Lanconia the new Nantucket.”

  Lorcan smiled. “I like that idea very much.”

  The two women didn’t return until six P.M. They were laden with many shopping bags full of all they’d bought. In spite of their good intentions it had not been a happy outing.

  Lorcan had looked at Toby over the lunch table. “I have never before had a woman friend, a B …”

  “A BFF. Best Friend Forever. I understand. Men like you, so women don’t.”

  “You are right,” Lorcan said. “But you are different.”

  Toby smiled at the compliment, and she wanted to say that they’d have to get together in the future, but she didn’t think it would happen. There was no way Toby could visit Lanconia. And see Graydon with another woman? No, she couldn’t bear that. And Lorcan would probably get involved with protecting people and never take a vacation.

  After lunch they walked around the old, twisted, beautiful sidewalks of Nantucket and acted like tourists, stopping in every shop and looking at everything. They discovered that they both loved mermaids and purchased little boxes, letter openers, even buttons with mermaids on them.

  They also bought T-shirts, sweatshirts, and jackets with Nantucket emblazoned on them. That all of the garments were in a size to fit Daire and Graydon was not something they commented on.

  At five they stopped to have drinks made with tequila.

  “You and I should get Virgin Marys,” Toby said in disgust and raised her glass. “To the last of our kind.”

  “I hope we are the very last,” Lorcan said.

  Both women looked so miserable that they burst out laughing. What followed was a conversation of what each woman had done to entice the man she loved.

  “Black lace bra and tiny matching underpants,” Toby said.

  “I arranged to be caught getting out of the shower with only a hand towel to cover me,” Lorcan said rather proudly.

  “I wish we’d compared notes. But did it work?”

  Lorcan raised her glass, their second one. “Still a virgin.”

  “Me too,” Toby said sadly and they drank deeply.

  By the time they picked up their many shopping bags and headed home, they were feeling much better. Lorcan went into the family room she shared with Daire, and Toby went up the back stairs to the private sitting room she and Graydon used. To her shock, all the luggage was gone.

  “They’ve left,” she whispered, then dropped the bags and yelled down the stairs, “The men are gone!”

  Lorcan, with her long legs, took the stairs two at a time. Toby and Lorcan had left the room in a mess, with some bags packed, some half empty. Clothes and shoes had been on every piece of furniture.

  “Do you think Daire and Graydon finished the packing?” Toby asked.

  Lorcan sat down in a chair. “No. Not possible. Someone from Lanconia has come and carried everything away. Perhaps Prince Rory’s valet.”

  Toby sat down opposite her. She didn’t have to say her thoughts, that it really was all over. Maybe this morning had been their last meal together.

  Lorcan glanced through the open door into Toby’s bedroom. “What is that?”

  They went to look. Spread on Toby’s bed was the beautiful Regency dress. Beside it was a notecard with a crest on it. Oh, great, she thought. Graydon had left her a goodbye note and the gift of a dress. Was vellum any better than a Post-it?

  When Toby didn’t pick up the note, Lorcan did and held it out to her, but Toby didn’t take it. Lorcan raised her eyebrows in question, and when Toby nodded, Lorcan began to read. “My dearest wife, Tabby.”

  Lorcan closed the card and handed it to Toby, who read it in silence.

  My dearest wife, Tabby,

  Please join me in the small parlor of our home for dinner and dancing.

  Your husband, Garrett

  “How are you with corset fastenings?” Toby asked. “I have a date.” Smiling broadly, Lorcan opened the box of undergarments.

  As soon as Toby saw the small parlor in BEYOND TIME she