Chapter Six
Penny
When Warmund started to walk away, Penny realized just how bad the situation was for her. She was in a strange place, in a forest no less, without anybody around to help her. She was utterly alone here. The only person that could even help her was Warmund. She hated having to rely on him, but she couldn’t deny that she had to. If it was just herself, maybe she’d try to go it alone, but with her children?
She ground her teeth together as she tried to hold all three of them in her arms. “Wait.”
Warmund turned, arching a brow at her. She should have known from those brows that he wasn’t really a construction worker; they were far too well manicured.
“I… I need your help.”
He opened his mouth and, for a moment, she thought he was going to refuse but he didn’t. Instead, he smiled and nodded. “And I am happy to help. I wasn’t raised to leave a damsel in distress, after all.”
If she wasn’t already on the brink of breaking down from the fear of this situation, that might have made her think twice about accepting his help. But all three of the children were screaming in her face again, and she could hardly think. When Warmund took Alex again, she reluctantly released him and started trying to calm the twins. After a few minutes, when they finally quieted, he hummed as he looked over her.
“I’ll carry the older ones,” he said. “They’re not walking yet, are they?”
Penny shook her head.
Warmund nodded once, then carefully handed Alex back to her. He was a lot more careful about it than she had been moments ago, and tears sprang to her eyes. No matter how terrified she was, there wasn’t any excuse for her to have been so rough with her baby! She checked him over, looking for any bruises, while Warmund gathered the twins into his arms. He lifted them with ease and they settled down, putting their heads on his shoulders. Even though they were both friendly and had never had problems with strangers, for them to accept someone so easily was unusual.
So what? she scolded herself. He’s here to completely change time without even thinking about what the repercussions will be. I have to stop him somehow.
How?
She kicked the ground angrily as she followed after him. What had she been thinking, feeling attracted to him? And why should she feel grateful to him now, when he was the one who got her in this predicament in the first place? She owed him nothing, not gratitude, not nothing. Even if this situation would be all the worse if the twins were screaming and reaching for her… Instead, they were quickly falling asleep on his shoulders…
Penny tried to stop thinking altogether then. The first thing she needed to do was get her children somewhere safe. Out here in the forest, they might be attacked by wild animals, or freeze when night fell. Not to mention that she couldn’t take care of all three by herself.
And he was going to leave us here by ourselves, she thought as she glared at Warmund’s back.
After an hour of walking through the brush, Penny was hot, tired, thirsty and covered in scrapes and bruises. Her arms and back ached from carrying Alex this whole way. When they came to a wide paved road, she sighed in relief. They’d be able to have a smooth walk now, at least.
“Ah!” Warmund let out a triumphant noise. “Yes! That’s where we are.”
Penny hurried up a little so she was even with him. A sign, written in a language she didn’t know, was only a few yards down the road. “Where?”
“In the royal forest. It’s not that big. If we go this way,” he jerked his head towards the sun, “we’ll get to a town by sundown. From there, it’s only a day’s journey to the palace. Now the only thing is finding out exactly when we are.”
Of course, he didn’t know that. Penny pressed her lips together to stop herself from bursting out over that.
Warmund, sensing something in her silence, glanced her way. “I’ll find somewhere to get you settled before I go to the palace. You’re a single mother, it’ll be easy for you to get the financial aid you need to live comfortably here.”
He really didn’t think about anybody but himself, did he? Penny shifted Alex’s weight and glared at him. “I don’t want to live comfortably here. I don’t want to live here at all. I want to go home.”
“Right. Good luck with that.” His tone was utterly dismissive.
“Well, excuse me if I don’t want to be in some strange place where—”
“Don’t get excited.” Warmund turned to her and let out a sigh, as though she was being unreasonable. “Listen. I have sympathy for what you’re going through. I really do, even if you don’t believe me. But the thing is, I have no way of getting you back. If I did, you’d be back already.”
So, he had just come here with the intent of changing everything but didn’t bother to figure out a way to check to make sure that it changed the way he wanted? She snorted, rolling her eyes. “And so you’re going to erase a bunch of relationships and kids, but you’re not going to check to make sure that your sister isn’t killed by staying here?”
Warmund frowned.
“Yeah, that’s right.” She drew herself up and glowered at him. “What if you stopping the assassins just means that they decide to kill her next time instead of kidnapping her? What if by interfering, you actually cause her death? What if you do succeed, and one day when she’s out flying a lightning bolt hits her and—"
“Whatever. You’re just trying to confuse me.” He started stalking away again.
Penny’s legs protested as she pushed herself forward. All she wanted to do right then was to sit down. Or rather, curl up in the grass at the side of the road and have a nap. Followed by waking up back home, finding all of this a strange dream that she could tell the others over the Friday night D&D game. But of course, none of that happened. Instead, she was left panting as she trotted after the dragon, who walked on ahead of her as if he didn’t care whether she kept up or not.
“Do you mind slowing down a little?” she snapped. “Some of us aren’t Olympic sprinters, you know.”
Warmund glanced at her and slowed his step.
“That’s better.” Penny shifted Alex again. He was making unhappy noises. With a sinking heart, she smelled the familiar scent of a diaper needing changed. But she had nothing to change it here, not even anything to soothe her burning throat! How was she supposed to make it in this world alone with three babies depending on her?
“Don’t start crying,” Warmund groaned, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. “You have your children here. Even if you don’t get back to your world, it’s not like you’re separated from them. You should look on the bright side. You’ll be fine.”
Penny stared at him, slack-jawed. Was he serious, or was he just an idiot? Maybe she was being a little harsh, but she didn’t give a damn. Her future, her children’s safety, and her home had all been taken away from her in the blink of an eye.
“How is everything going to be fine?” she snarled at him. “When I’m here alone with you? How is everything supposed to be fine when I have no way to support myself? No way to contact my friends and family? No way to vaccinate my kids against whatever horrible diseases you guys have in this world? How is it supposed to be fine when my babies die from dysentery or polio or the plague?”
“One, you won’t be alone here with me for much longer. When we get to the city near the palace, you can go to a woman’s shelter and they will put you up for as long as you need to get back on your feet. Two, we don’t have horrible diseases. We have magic and have wiped out things like polio and chicken pox and the common cold.” Warmund sped up again, causing her to pant to keep up. “And third, if you’re so concerned about your kids, you’d keep them here. If the future is going to be erased like you think, don’t you think they would be better protected here?”
Penny didn’t reply. Partly because she couldn’t, not when she was struggling to keep up with him. Alex started to fuss louder, but the twins stayed fast asleep on Warmund’s shoulders. She fought the tears burning in her eyes.
You didn’t say anything about the family and friends who I’ll never get to see again.
***
By the time they reached the village, got a room in the inn and Warmund brought her clothing that wouldn’t stand out in a crowd, she was so utterly exhausted that all she could do was change Alex’s diaper and then fall asleep. Later, she woke up to the twins playing on the floor, babbling away to one another. When she opened her eyes, she saw that Warmund was with them. She considered protesting but was still so tired that she only closed her eyes and went back to sleep.
It was dark by the time she woke again. Warmund stood at the window and the twins were curled up in a nest of blankets on the floor, sound asleep. Alex stretched and stirred in her arms, cooing contentedly. She sat up, stretched and winced at the fullness in her breasts.
“Don’t look,” she told Warmund, causing him to turn, just as she opened her new dress.
His dark eyes glittered in the candlelight, but he turned away again. “Could have given me some warning there, woman.”
Penny snorted a little, then guided Alex to her breast. The release of pressure made her sigh. “Anything exciting out there?”
“Not as exciting as what’s in here.”
She gaped. “Was that you trying to flirt?”
Warmund turned back to her and gave her a wink. “What can I say? I’m an opportunist.”
Penny’s blood ran cold. That’s what the man she met at the bar nine months before Alex was born had said. The man whose name she never got, the man with whom she’d had the riskiest, most reckless sex. And now, as she gazed at Warmund’s face, half-hidden in shadow, everything came rushing back to her. The face in her memory had been hazy, but now it sharped in excruciating detail.
Warmund was Alex’s father. God help her, she’d found him—and he was the last man on earth she wanted to share a baby with.