Part 36 (1/2)

”He doesn't need a keeper. He certainly doesn't need me to babysit him.” The gla.s.s in her hands was shaking, and she had to set it down. ”I've done quite enough for him, don't you think?”

Perry lifted his gla.s.s to her in ironic salute. ”You would have made an admirable colleague in my old profession, Rose. I confess I don't understand you.”

”You don't have to. But if you feel I've done anything for you and Caroline, there's something I'd ask in return. It isn't much.” She grasped the leather thong around her neck and pulled the chip of Maya stone from under her jacket and T-s.h.i.+rt. ”You have a pendant like this one.”

A flicker of surprise crossed his face. ”That's Liam's. One of those wea””

”One of the two pendants you and Liam made four years ago,” she said. ”I want yours as well, Perry.”

”May I ask why?”

She cupped the cool stone in her hand. ”Call it a souvenir. You do have it, don't you?”

”Yes. In my rooms.”

”Will you give it to me?”

He inspected her as if he could wring the full story out of her by sheer concentration. ”Very well, Rose.”

Thank G.o.d. ”Then I have one more thing to ask. I need your help to arrange transportation back to the jungle as soon as possible.”

”Back to the jungle? Surelya””

”I know what I'm doing, Perry.” She stood up, testing her legs. They were prepared to hold her up now that the worst was past. ”Liam has told me he plans to be out of town as soon as he's recovered enough to travel. I want to be gone by the time he gets back, whatever it takes.” Her throat was aching, and she went on more briskly, ”I'll need to borrow a little money. Just what I need to get back to Guatemala.”

Perry steepled his ringers under his chin. ”I suppose I can't convince you not to go ahead with this madness.”

”No.”

”Then I'll do what I can to help, of course.”

”Thank you.” She started for the door and paused. ”I am glad to have known you, Perry. And Caroline.”

”It isn't farewell just yet,” he said.

But it would be very soon. In a matter of days she'd be beyond anyone's reach. Safe. With nothing more challenging before her than enduring a two-week sea voyage, tramping a couple hundred miles through the jungles, and trying to make a Maya time tunnel take her back to 1997.

Simple.

”I'll wait to hear from you,” she said.

She walked down the echoing hall to the great front doors, Norton loyally by her side. At the threshold she knelt before the wolfhound, rubbing his ears between her fingers.

”Well, fella, this is it. I probably won't be seeing you again.”

The dog thumped his tail against the polished floor. Mac fought to keep the tears in check just a little longer.

”I can tell you what I'm not going to miss about this time,” she joked. ”Long heavy dresses and corsets and inst.i.tutionalized male chauvinism, to name a few. I can't wait to get back to c.o.ke and feminism and nice, safe air travel anda Oh, h.e.l.l.” She flung her arms around the ma.s.sive, s.h.a.ggy neck. ”I'm going to miss you, Norton.”

And your master most of all, her heart whispered. She gave the dog a final caress and left him looking after her as she closed the door between them.

His bark reached her through the door. It became a howl as she strode away from the house, blindly following the route she knew would take her back to the Palace. Afternoon fog was beginning to roll in off the ocean, wreathing her in a chill that matched the lump of ice under her ribs.

Soona”she had to keep believing ita”life would be back to normal. No more crazy excursions for MacKenzie R. Sinclair. There was a small apartment, a quiet life, and a job waiting for her back home.

And memoriesa”more than enough to last her a lifetime.

Chapter Twenty-Four.

Ye G.o.ds! annihilate but s.p.a.ce and time, And make two lovers happy.

a”ALEXANDER POPE THE DAILY DOWNPOUR was nearly over. It was smack in the middle of the rainy season, but Mac was almost grateful for the hard going. It had kept her from thinking.

She leaned on her improvised walking stick and caught her breath. The mules stamped and s.h.i.+fted in the mud behind her, jingling their harnesses. Fernando soothed them with a quiet endearment and waited for Mac to signal them forward again.

Thank G.o.d for Fernando. She glanced back at the Maya muleteer. Somehow she hadn't been surprised to see him show up at the door of her grungy hotel room in Champerico. It hadn't been mere luck that she'd been able to hire the one person in Guatemala she knew to guide her back to the ruins: Fernando had been waiting for her.

Waiting for the pendants, the keys, he had asked her to return to the jungle. The keys he'd said would open the way back to the future. She'd shown the pendants to him, and he'd nodded and smiled and said nothing more, as if he'd always had utter faith in her ability to obtain them.

He hadn't asked about Liam. Mac had the feeling he knew Liam wasn't going to turn up. Fernando had simply minded his own business and set about his job of getting Mac to the ruins in one piece.

The Maya had done his job well. Their tiny expeditiona”Fernando, another muleteer, herself, and three mulesa”were nearly to the ruins. They'd pa.s.sed through Tikal less than an hour before. Mac knew where they were; she didn't think she'd forget as long as she lived. It had all started here.

And here it would end.

The trail Liam had cut through the jungle had already become overgrown, almost indistinguishable from the rest of the forest. Mac batted at the slight indentation with her walking stick. It was still the path of least resistance, and she knew exactly where it led.

She hitched up her loose cotton pants and adjusted her headband. No point in putting it off; in an hour she'd know. In an hour she'd either be back to her own time ora Forget that. There wasn't any ”or.” There was only forging on into the unknown. She straightened, lifted her chin, and waved Fernando ahead.

The ancient, vine-covered buildings waited for her, tranquil and unchanged, as if they had known she would return. There were a few more leaves covering the crumbling walls, a little more undergrowth to wade through. But she was there.

She went to the mules and began to untie the bundle that contained her backpack, a packet of food, and her faithful flashlight. She'd come to the past with so little; she was taking almost as little back. She had her old worn jeans and T-s.h.i.+rt packed into a roll hung to the backpack. She had the odds and ends she'd once used to try to convince Liam of her origins.

All but the watch. She'd never gotten it back, and now it was too late. h.e.l.l, she could always buy another. And Liam couldn't change history with a single waterproof watch. She'd had enough thinking about time to last her an eternity.

An eternity without Liam O'Shea.

”Bueno, seorita.”

She turned to Fernando, who regarded her with solemn attention. ”Si. This is it,” she said. She tugged the two pendants from under her loose s.h.i.+rt. Fernando's gaze rested on them a moment and returned to her face.