“So what you are saying is that you are from another time?” Matthew asked, flabbergasted, fifteen minutes later.
“Yes. I am not from another plane, but I am from another time. My country—”
“The one from across the ocean?”
“Yes. My country has not even been founded yet.”
“But your ancestors came from the land of the Scots?”
“Yes, so I came to learn more about the people I come from.”
“How did your family end up in your country—what did you call it?—America?”
“In a few hundred years from now, my ancestors will go to my country, and they have—or should I say, will be—there for over two hundred years before I was—will be?—born.”
“And Alison told you all this?”
“Well, she told me the necklace brought me here, because I have to do something.”
“What?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. All I know is that I am supposed to stay in your sight at all times, until I’ve done it.”
“How will you know if you’ve done it?”
“I’m not sure…but I think it is safe to say that I’ll know.”
“Well then,” Matthew said with the air of a man who had resigned himself to a conclusion. “I guess that means I won’t be going to the fields at Stirling.”
“No! Go, please! She didn’t say I was to stop you from doing what you need to do! Besides…how do we know that what I came to do isn’t at Stirling?”
“But that would be the height of dishonor for me, to endanger a woman.”
“Clearly, you missed my point about being from another time. In my time, women aren’t viewed the way that they are in your time. Women fight in the army all the time.”
“Really? Aren’t your leaders worried that one of them will get hurt?”
“Of course, but no more worried than they are about the men.”
Matthew considered his dilemma: to take a woman to battle with him would be to risk dishonoring himself if she was injured. To stay behind would be to risk dishonoring himself if her task was in the battle, which could also harm her. Left with a choice between the lesser of two evils, Matthew was forced to choose the option that risked dishonoring himself less: “How will you protect yourself if I am caught in fighting?”
“I was on the archery team at my high school, so I can join the archers.”
“High school? Is that like the upper schools in Oxford and Cambridge?”
“No, high school in my time is like a junior university: you have to go to high school before going to a university. Anyway, I can join the archers and help the fight.”
“Aye,” Matthew finally agreed. I will bring you with me…but if the fighting becomes too fierce, you are to run and save your own life. Do you understand?”
“Okay.”
They spent the rest of the morning preparing for the battle, never leaving each other’s line of sight, just in case Lily’s task presented itself. Together, they saddled horses and discussed the differences between their times. Lily began to focus on her attraction for Matthew, all while wondering if he had any feelings of attraction for her as well.
The fact was, however, that Matthew was deeply attracted to her from the time that he first discovered her in his bed. There was something about her brash nature, making her unlike any other woman than he had ever come into contact with, that he found himself dreaming about her throughout the day. Her close proximity to him was not helping him overcome his feelings, either. Sure, she was fully clothed now, but he was unable to shake the deep-seated feelings of lust that were building inside him. Being around Lily for this extended period of time was only serving to remind him of how incredibly attractive she was, and how amazingly erotic she had seemed earlier that morning.
Lily was so amazingly beautiful and saucy that Matthew could not help but wonder if there was anything he could do to convince her to stay in the past rather than return to her own time.
Lily, too, kept looking at Matthew throughout the morning, stealing glances whenever she was able to. He was unlike the many assholes that she had dated in the past, and even her bosses at the law firm, because he was the very picture of what a gentleman should be. The “nobility” in her time were not so worried with treating a woman with respect or dignity, because they were so blinded by desire for the area between a woman’s legs. It was almost as if a woman was a trophy to be showcased, not a partner to go through life with.
Matthew, it seemed, was so focused on trying to protect his king and his country that he didn’t appear to have an overt concern for the sweetness between her legs…but oh, how much she wanted him to crave it.