Always and Forever (28 page)

If she questioned his answer, she didn't let on and replied, "Ireland, I'm ready whenever you are."

Quinn found Ireland exquisite: from its windswept coasts and sweeping hills of green to its majestic cliffs, but what she found even more incredible was the feeling of magic in the air. The sense that all the legends and lore of this land were not fairy tales but real.

The village where the O'Cuinn family lived was in County Wicklow and it was some of the most beautiful country Quinn had ever seen. The village of EnnisKerry was quaint and charming and the O'Cuinn's lived just outside the village in a small thatched cottage surrounded by grazing sheep and cows, fields of heather, and stone walls that broke up the lush green landscape into patterned sections.

Gabriel reached for Quinn's hand as they started down the long gravel drive that led to the cottage. "They were very excited about the prospect of meeting you."

Quinn looked up and knew her confusion was clearly seen on her face. "Why?"

"You'll see," he teased.

He pulled her along and when they reached the door he didn't hesitate to knock. When the door opened, two things struck Quinn at once: first, the man that opened the door looked so much like her own father it caused her to draw in a startled breath; and, second, this man looking at her had the exact same reaction to seeing her.

"Blessed Danu," he whispered as he stepped forward and pulled Quinn into a warm hug. She felt his warm tears on her cheek.

"Wait until Colleen sees you!" He said excitedly as he pulled her into the house and down the hall. When she looked behind her, Gabriel was following after them with a knowing grin on his handsome face.

"Colleen, Quinn has arrived."

At that announcement, a woman appeared from the kitchen wearing an old house dress with a yellow apron over it. Her skin was wrinkled, her gray hair pulled up into a bun, and her turquoise eyes were both kind and vaguely familiar. Colleen walked forward and took Quinn's hands into her own.

"Welcome," she said in a heavy Irish brogue. And that was precisely how Quinn felt: welcome.

They settled around a small, scarred wooden table in the kitchen as Colleen busied herself serving tea and scones. The man, Gulliver, disappeared for a few minutes then returned with a box filled with photos and journals. He pulled a small portrait from an acid-free folder and slid it over the table to Quinn. She inhaled sharply.

"I look just like her," she said in stunned awe.

"Aye. That is Morgan O'Cuinn. O'Cuinn is the Gaelic pronunciation of Quinn."

Quinn's head snapped up but her words came out in barely over a whisper, "My name's Quinn Morgan."

"I know," the old man said as he pulled another portrait from the folder. Quinn had no problem identifying the man standing with Morgan.

"Archer," she said with sadness and longing.

"Aye," the old man looked over at Gabriel. "'Tisn't a coincidence that you are both here now."

Quinn looked over at Gabriel and here, in this cottage, he looked more like Archer than he ever had. And in that moment, she was stricken with the feeling of loss.

She forced herself back to the here-and-now and asked Colleen, "Can you tell me what happened to Morgan?"

Colleen pulled a journal from the box and handed it to Quinn. "Aye. But you should have this. It was hers."

Quinn attempted to refuse the journal by sliding it back towards Colleen. "No, I couldn't," she said.

"Please. It was meant for you, it's rightfully yours," was Colleen's response leaving Quinn confused but she knew the discussion was over.

"Morgan met Archer when she was 19 and it was love at first sight for both of them. Her family had moved into the village near where a large estate was being built with the hopes that the father would find work there. He did, of course, since building a place the size of Whispering Winds took lots of man power."

Quinn remembered watching the impressive building techniques that were all done by hand. Techniques that were at times fatal as she recalled the horrible death of that young man.

"Morgan would come almost daily with her father's lunches and it was on one such trip that she stopped along the river's edge to admire the castle and surrounding countryside. That was the first time Archer saw her, standing on the river's edge gazing up at what would one day be his home. And that was all it took."

"They had an unspoken agreement to meet every day at the river's edge, at first to walk and talk and then later to share picnics. He asked her to marry him in the exact spot along the river where he saw her that very first time."

"She was a commoner and he was soon to be an Earl. But Archer didn't care -- he defied his father and they married in secret. Shortly after they wed, she was with child. By all accounts, it was one of the very rare instances of true love and all that were lucky enough to be in their company could feel the love themselves."

"There wasn't a happier man in all of England when Nicholas was born, but shortly after his son's birth, Archer became gravely ill. It's said that Morgan spent her days tending to him and her nights praying that he would live. She often walked the river's edge hoping to find a connection to him there in their special place."

"One day she never returned from her walk. A few men who worked at the estate went out in search of her and found her body in almost the exact location where Archer had proposed. It was said she was strangled but no one knows for sure what happened to her."

"I don't understand. If she was murdered then why did Archer's father make up the lie about the nurse?"

Gabriel leaned up in his chair. "What lie?"

"Connie Daniels, the Earl's nurse," Quinn explained, "pretended to be Archer's wife. They had convinced him that she was his wife but in his heart, he knew she wasn't."

"In a journal that was found many years later, written in Morgan's mother's hand, she tells a rather odd tale. Shortly after Morgan's death the Earl declared her death was the result of complications from childbirth. Her death certification was altered and they never saw their grandson again. They had no way to fight the Earl, were forced to go along with his ruse because he was the law in those parts."

Quinn sat back in her chair as a breath-stealing pain sliced through her. "Morgan was murdered." Just thinking about Archer learning that his wife had died so violently had her heart breaking. She thought about the rest of the story and turned to Colleen.

"Archer's father was cruel and driven by purely selfish motives so if he was going to the trouble of covering up Morgan's death then he more than likely had a hand in it. What I don't understand is why, after Morgan was dead, did he try to make Archer believe another was his wife?"

It was Gabriel who answered that. "If Archer knew that his wife had been killed he would have stopped at nothing to uncover how and by whom. And the answer would lead Archer to learn that it was at the hand, or command, of his own father. I'd bet money that the Earl was just covering his own ass."

"It's good that he never knew because it would have destroyed him: from his blinding rage and need for revenge, to the guilt at somehow being responsible," Quinn said sadly.

"You seem to understand Archer well," Colleen offered in curiosity.

"I understand loving someone as much as I imagine he loved Morgan and the devastation he must have felt at losing her. The hole in your heart that you know will never heal and the reality that a small part of you was lost with them," Quinn went on, "But if he had known she hadn't died of natural causes, but had been murdered…that it wasn't her fate to die but that she had been killed at the hand of some vile person, I can't imagine he'd ever have gotten over that. To never see her again, to never hold her hand or touch her hair, to never look into her eyes and see all of your world's happiness looking back at you. To lose that is hard enough but to have it taken from you is just cruel."

Quinn pushed back from the table and noticed Gabriel lowering his head with a stricken look in his eyes. It made her catch her breath. Had he experienced a loss like that? The thought that he had left her a bit unsteady as she slowly made her way to the window to look out at the cows in the distance.

She gave away the agony that she was feeling for both Archer and Gabriel when she spoke next, "Do you know where she was laid to rest?"

"No, lass, there seems to be some confusion as to where she was buried," Colleen replied.

"So there's no place for anyone to go to mourn or remember her?" Quinn whispered.

"We remember her by telling the story of her life and by keeping her, and all those who came after her, in our hearts and our prayers," Colleen stated strongly.

"What do you think it all means? Morgan and Archer..." Quinn looked over at Gabriel who was watching her with a look so tender despite the heartache that still burned in his eyes, "...Gabriel and me?"

Colleen stood and took Quinn's hands into her old, withered ones. "I think, Quinn, that in life there are souls who are destined. Throughout the ages they find each other again and again. I believe that you and Archer are two such souls and no matter how many times you're pulled apart you will always find each other. But I think that the wrong needs to be righted and the promise needs to be kept for all to be as it should."

"Whose promise?" Quinn asked.

Colleen gently squeezed Quinn's hands for emphasis and replied, "I think you already know that."

"So, it was real," she said with awe in her voice.

"Yes."

"And he's gone." Quinn sadly stated.

Colleen looked over at Gabriel then turned back to Quinn. "Or is he?"

Quinn looked at Gabriel and, for just a moment, she
did
see Archer looking back.

"Follow along the path you've started, Quinn. The answer to the mystery that ties your soul to Morgan's and Gabriel's to Archer is just within your reach," Colleen offered cryptically and in that moment, she reminded Quinn of Maude.

"You don't happen to have a sister named Maude, do you?" Quinn asked half-teasing but the grin that curved Colleen's mouth looked like affirmation. Suddenly, Gulliver changed the subject.

"We're having a small dance later. Won't you both come?"

Quinn and Gabriel answered at the same time. "We'd love to."

As they walked back to their bed and breakfast, Quinn's mind was reeling from both Colleen's story and the possible link she shared with Maude: the woman Quinn was convinced had set her on her magical journey. She needed to find her.

Gabriel was very quiet and when she looked up at him she could tell he was very deep in thought. She remembered his reaction in the kitchen earlier, the look of total despair, and wondered who he had lost.

Quinn was completely caught unaware when a sharp pang of jealousy filled her from just thinking about that unknown woman. She was disgusted with her innate reaction and hid from it by taking Gabriel's hand.

When he turned those clover-green eyes on her, she sprang, "How is it that none of this seems to come as a surprise to you?"

His devil-may-care smile didn't fool her. And neither did his answer, "I guess because I've known the Scarcliff family for so long." He turned from her gaze because he didn't want her to see what he was really thinking.

The talk of fated souls and linked destinies had freaked him out because he knew all too well how spot on Colleen's remarks had been.

He remembered living in Dublin and then just up and moving to England as if it was the most natural thing for him to do. He remembered the first time he crossed over the threshold of Whispering Winds and felt the most staggering sense of coming home. The fact that he felt such a kinship to the Scarcliffs had always been a bit troublesome for a loner such as himself, but to possibly have a piece of Archer Scarcliff's soul? That was almost more than he could get his mind around.

But what really freaked him out the most was that the first time he saw Quinn it was like a lightning bolt to his heart. And hearing that Archer and Morgan's first meeting was much the same was disturbing. Was it possible that they kept finding each other because they were destined? He thought the answer was "yes". It was practically more than he could comprehend. And Quinn had to feel completely overwhelmed by it too.