A Laird to Hold by Angeline Fortin (free children's ebooks online .TXT) 📕

Jameson would not look at him. The lengthy section of his comb-over hung down the side of his head, and his tie was askew, his suit rumpled. Hardly the dapper man he’d once known.

Donell wagged his head from side to side, scuffing a booted foot across a black burn in the carpet. “Och, when did ye become such a bitter mon?”

“You know when. I’ll continue to fight until my last breath for it.”

“It disnae need to come to that, lad. Let me take ye away from here.”

“And deposit me somewhere along the way like you did last time we met?” Jameson laughed, bitter. “I’ve been stuck here for twenty years because of you.”

“I did it for the sake of all mankind.”

“You did it to save your own ass!” Jameson finally faced him, fire burning in his eyes. “I’m only here because I tried to stop you. Your arrogance killed my wife!”

“And my own,” Donell reminded him sadly. Defeat sat ill upon him. They’d both lost so much for his quest. They’d both suffered for it. Jameson didn’t see it the same as he. The good of the human race outweighed any personal loss. As painful as it might be, it was true. “Even so, I ken ‘twas the proper thing to do. I’d do it again. Undoing what I hae done might bring Tess back to ye but it would ruin us all.”

The future he’d known, the future he’d come from had been a catastrophe. Man versus machine. Wars that had cost billions of lives and destroyed much of the planet.

Donell’s effort to create a timeline to put an end to the devastation had its own price. Lives saved but others lost in the process. His wife had been one of them. And as a result of her early demise because of the changes he’d made, his beloved child had never even been conceived.

But Donell remembered his daughter, Tess, as an echo of that altered life. Just as Jameson, who’d initially worked side by side with him, retained the memory of Donell’s daughter. Jameson’s wife.

While Donell mourned the loss with all his heart knowing that was how it must be, Jameson had been unable to move on. Determined to undo all they’d done to save the world. Undo the changes Donell had put in place.

Changes that ensured the existence of one woman who would become the savior of a future earth.

Hugh and Claire’s child was just the beginning. From that babe, a better future became possible. He’d seen it. Orchestrated it.

One life saved to birth a new generation of invention needed to prevent tragedy.

One life to make the changes the future world needed to carry on.

One life secured to save the lives of so many.

It was worth the sacrifice he’d made, whether Jameson acknowledged that or not.

Jameson sneered at him. “I knew the moment Mark-Davis came up with a working time portal—primitive as it was—something wasn’t right. No one else was even close to such a breakthrough. I know. I’ve been tracking it all for years. I should have expected from the get-go you had something to do with it. It stinks of you and your fucked up fairy tale mission.”

“’Tis nae fairy tale, lad. We made mistakes. We all did,” Donell tried to change Jameson’s mind again. “We were the ones who made the annihilation of our way of life possible to begin with. We did it. I was the only one who kent we had to fix it. Whatever the cost.”

Jameson chuckled humorlessly. “So, you set me down in the middle of a nightmare I couldn’t escape. Did you think I wouldn’t continue to fight you?”

Donell sighed. “There will always be men like you, Phillip. Men who try to hold back the future. I hae rectified the wrong. All is well.”

“For now, perhaps. But they are a blight on humanity. I will not stop trying to wipe them off the face of the earth. Before they spawn further.”

“’Tis already happened, Phillip.”

Jameson fumed in impotent rage. Aye, there was nothing he could do to stop Donell. It was time he accepted it. Moved on. Donell would reset the timeline as often as necessary to maintain the new peace.

Even if his own heart was broken a thousand times over in the process.

“Let me take ye somewhere, far away from here, lad,” Donell urged. “Somewhere of yer choosing. A place ye might find peace and happiness again. Before it’s too late. Yer quest is a futile one. Nae matter what ye do, I will be there to set it to rights.”

“Who will see to that if you’re dead?”

 

Scarlett

Scarlett stared at the motel room door, her insides knotting with nerves and uncertainty. The solemn peal of the Canongate Toll Booth Clock rang out in the distance to mark the hour.

Bong.

Each strike like a death knell in her heart. If Laird wouldn’t accept it was a no-win situation, then she’d have to do what Captain Kirk did.

Cheat.

Take out Jameson before he could hurt anyone else. Including Laird. Laird would be wrong in thinking she wanted Jameson’s blood for herself. She wanted the madman punished, yes, but more than retribution, she wanted to ensure not a drop of her husband’s blood hit the ground.

She couldn’t bear to lose him after all she’d lost today. The way Laird talked, his intention might as well have been to be a sacrificial lamb.

Dong.

Scarlett wouldn’t have it.

It was her turn to take care of her family. No matter what Laird said, she knew it had to be her. He might consider her his responsibility, but he was hers as well. It could not be solely his job to see to