Page 100 of Once upon a Summer Night

“I’d like the chance to try it out,” Claire retorted. “Perhaps I can come with you!”

“Nay.”

“Nay?” Claire retorted with a laugh. “Once you’re gone, I can do whatever I want to—and avoiding a marriage is exactly what I want to do!”

“You have scores of men interested in you, lass. Pick one and be done with it already.”

“I don’t want them,” Claire replied defiantly. “I want someone who loves me for me, not for what my father can do for his reputation!”

Ellie slammed her hands down on the table, and everyone looked at her in shock.

She hadn’t felt this angry in a long time.

She hadn’t felt much ofanythingin a long time. After she had slapped Colin, she stumbled back to her chamber, barely keeping it together. She spent the last few hours kicking herself for making the same mistake of falling for the wrong guy.

Again.

Colin was so cold, sofinal, and though she wanted to believe it was an act…she didn’t know.You could never make me happy.

If that was the way he wanted to play it, then she didn’t need him. She didn’t need him to fulfill her life, and she certainly didn’t need him to get her home. She’d given it her best shot. She laid her heart open for him, and he walked all over it before throwing it at her.

And she’d be damned if another overbearing, well-intentioned man tried to ruin the hopes and dreams of a young woman.

“Reilly, if the girl wants to try her hand at time traveling, you aren’t going to be able to stop her unless she’s with you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. And even then, you have to sleep sometime. So don’t youdaretell her what she can and can’t do.” She spun to Claire. “And you. It’s true that sometimes you don’t get what you want in life. But sitting around complaining about it won’t change a damn thing. You need to go out and get what you can, take a chance, and be willing to fall flat on your face. Otherwise, what’s the point in all this?”

Claire nodded emphatically. “Absolutely! It’s suspected that the time traveling skips a generation, but who reallyknows? As my brothers have been in loads of scrapes without anyone coming to their rescue, and I obviously haven’t had that same luxury afforded to me—” she shot a dark look in Reilly’s direction “—all signs point toward my having some sort of ability.”

“Do not make me find your sire,” Reilly growled.

Claire rolled her eyes. “What do you think he’ll do? Lock me in a tower?”

“And what would force me to do such a thing?” Nioclas greeted them, striding into the kitchen.

“We heard your voices from outside, and thought we ought to see what the trouble was,” Bri explained, settling down at the bench by the prep table in the middle of the kitchen. “It seems we were just in time to hear the good stuff.”

“Can you travel through time, Mama?”

Bri laughed. “Well, yes. I did once, but it was to protect my unborn baby, though I didn’t know it was at the time. I have no desire to do so again, though. I’m quite happy here.”

Claire pressed, “But you can?”

Brianagh’s frown deepened, but it was Reilly who answered. “She is not a trained Protector, therefore, if she were to try without the aid of one of us, it could go very badly.”

“I would like to try.”

“Nay,” came the immediate response from her father.

Bri, however, looked thoughtful. “I suppose you could be one of the Protectors, Claire. But that would mean you give up everything. Your entire life as you know it.”

“I have no wish to marry. None,” Claire repeated.

“You are not leaving this castle,” Nioclas declared.

“She’s not a Protector,” Reilly growled. “I would know of it, Bri. Take me at my word.”

Bri looked troubled. “I do, Ry. There are things you must understand and think about before you jump through anytime portals. If, of course, you can time travel on your own, which we don’t know. Claire, don’t do anything without one of these men by your side.”

“Do not do anything,” Nioclas demanded, his face stern.

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