Always and Forever (45 page)

Nick stood, "A fair it is."

"With a dunking tank?" Quinn asked as a flood of memories made her heart ache.

"Of course," Nick replied.

"On one condition," Gabriel looked at Quinn as a wicked grin curved his lips. "This time, you're going for a swim."

Later that night Quinn and Gabriel lay in bed. Quinn's head was resting on Gabriel's shoulder as his fingers moved lazily up and down her spine. She was feeling so relaxed she almost didn't have the energy to speak but there was something she wanted to know.

"How did you get the miniature?"

"It's an odd story."

She lifted her head to rest on her upturned hand. "I'm listening."

"I was young, maybe six, and already I was pinching purses. I was scoping out my target when I felt the prickle of warning that someone was watching me. When I turned in their direction, I was oddly intrigued by my watcher because she was really old, clearly over a century. In my short life, I had never seen anyone that old before but it was the way she was watching me so intently that really piqued my interest. I had the sense that she was reading my thoughts before I even had them. When she started towards me, I was tempted to run but something kept me from doing so. I'll never forget the look in her eyes when she stopped right in front of me and then she reached for my hand and pressed something into it. As she wrapped her hands around mine she looked determined but it was her words that struck me because they were so strange. She said, 'Something wonderful awaits you but you need to go through the bad first.' It was eerie and her eyes, a color not blue but not green, seemed ancient but so very wise. After those rather cryptic words, she turned and walked away. I looked down at what she had given me and it was the miniature."

"And you kept it?"

"It became my talisman. When things got really bad, I just had to look at her..." his eyes found Quinn's, "at you. And I knew that everything would be okay, that there was something good waiting for me." A naughty grin tugged at the corners of his mouth before he added, "I think she may have underestimated just how good."

Quinn's smile took his breath away and for just a minute they did nothing more than stare at one another.

"That woman was Maude. She was the same woman who sent me back to Archer's time, the one who sent you to me."

"Who is she?"

"I don't know but we owe her so much."

He rolled over pinning Quinn under him and just before his mouth covered hers he whispered, "Understatement."

Quinn looked out at the fair which they had been able to assemble in just over three days. It was amazing and mainly because the town had really come through, arriving at Whispering Winds in mass ready to do whatever needed to be done. It looked so much like the fair in Archer's time that Quinn felt herself getting a bit nostalgic. She thought of him, just as he asked, and it wasn't a conscious thought because he was just as much apart of her as her soul.

She smiled at the thought but her smile faded quickly as she thought about the conversation with Niall that Gabriel told her about. Katherine had taken the bait and was coming. It bothered Quinn that Katherine would have shared that with her brother, a brother she really didn't even like apparently, but she was coming and hopefully by the end of the day it would all be over.

But that made her sad too because she knew when it was over that Gabriel would be leaving, going back to the future. She realized it wouldn't be long before she met the Gabriel of this time so it wasn't as if she was going to have to wait a lifetime to meet him again. Of course, the Gabriel of now wasn't going to know all of their history, or would he? Time travel was just too damn confusing.

The dunking tank was setup, and Quinn was slotted as the first to sit in the hot seat. She was actually looking forward to it. When Gabriel came up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist, she leaned back against him.

"Nervous?" he whispered in her ear.

"About taking a swim? Never." Her feigned outrage had him chuckling.

"I like seeing you wet, though preferably with less clothes."

She turned and grinned up at him. "Are you suggesting I wear nothing?"

"Not unless you want me to kill every man here. However..." he pulled her to him wrapping his arms around her waist, "later when we're alone, that could be very interesting."

Quinn had to shake her head to get the blood flowing into her brain again. "Now I'm going to have that visual in my head."

He lowered his voice to a whisper, "Well, while you're thinking on that, think on this too: I intend to lick you dry, Quinn. Every single drop."

And then he was walking away, whistling a merry tune as he went. Before he was too far from her, he looked back from over his shoulder and winked then got lost in the crowd. Quinn watched until he disappeared as both love and fear waged inside her.

Everyone had their places, someone was covering every major event, so when Katherine arrived they would know. Quinn wasn't sure how much time passed before a shiver of warning worked its way down her spine as an all too familiar voice came from behind her.

"Quinn, how nice to see you again." Quinn's heart literally stopped for a second before she turned and looked into shockingly pale blue eyes. She didn't notice the knife until it was pointed at her. "Let's go find Gabriel, shall we?"

Katherine didn't wait for an answer before she started forcing Quinn along. "You know, you should have listened to me. He's mine and he always will be. You may think you've won him but you haven't." They made their way through the crowds, the others catching sight of them and following after, until they reached Gabriel at the horse races. Quinn saw the rage in Gabriel eyes but when he spoke his voice didn't betray what he was feeling.

"Katherine, let her go. It's me you want."

Quinn felt the knife dig into the flesh of her back and Gabriel involuntarily took a step forward but Katherine stopped him with a shake of her head.

"Unless you want to watch your love bleed out before you, stay back." Katherine studied him a moment before she asked, "Why couldn't you have loved me? What does she have that I don't?"

Gabriel's voice was full of conviction when he replied, "My heart and my soul."

"I should kill her, right here in front of you, and make you suffer as you've made me suffer. I loved you. I would have made you very happy. I would have done anything for you, I even killed for you but you never gave me the time of day and then she walked into your life. Her!" Katherine's eyes were wild and she looked rabid as spittle dripped from her snarling lips. "I hate her almost as much as I hate you."

"Take me then and leave her alone," he begged.

"Killing her is me showing her a kindness, unlike you who will be forced to live a life without her."

A terrible premonition flashed through Quinn's mind and the sense of someone walking over her grave had the hair on her arms standing on end. Charles arrived then with the police and soon Katherine found herself surrounded. It was then that Quinn felt most afraid because desperate people did desperate things, especially since there was no way out for Katherine.

Everything went deadly still as the seconds seemed to tick away like hours and then Katherine all but purred, "This isn't over, Gabriel. Don't delude yourself into believing that it is."

Madness burned brightly in her eyes as a twisted smile curved her lips. She held Gabriel's stare for a moment before she dropped the knife, lifted her hands in the air and surrendered. Quinn felt relief, absolutely, but something wasn't right. Why would Katherine come here just to give up so easily? It bothered her and, she knew from the look on Gabriel's face, that it bothered him too. Then Katherine was being taken away and the idea that it was over, that she was going to be put behind bars where she belonged, had Quinn forgetting her apprehension and she ran to Gabriel. He held his arms opened wide for her and pulled her close.

"It's over now," he whispered and though she heard a bit of doubt in his voice, she settled more closely against him.

The fair continued on and, once Katherine was escorted away, everyone got into the spirit of the day: enjoying the activities, the food, and, yes, Quinn went for a swim at the hand of the man she loved. She looked like a drowned rat but she couldn't have been happier.

Later, everyone retired to the great hall for drinks. The discussion centered around Katherine and they were all proud of themselves for the ease in which they had captured her. She was going away and would no longer be able to hurt anyone again.

The Scarcliff treasure was still in its box since it hadn't been revealed to the townspeople, not after the drama of the arrest. Quinn was happy about that because the treasure was her private link to Archer and, she couldn't deny, she liked keeping that link private.

It needed to be locked up, safe and sound in the vault though, and she asked Nick to take care of it.

Quinn leaned over to press her lips to Gabriel's. His hand snaked out to wrap around the back of her neck as he pulled her to him. When he finally released her, he did so rather reluctantly.

"I'll be right back," Quinn whispered.

"I'll be waiting."

Quinn headed to Nick's solar where he was standing near the vault. "It's unlocked so when you're done just push the door closed."

Without another word he left, pulling the door closed softly behind him. Quinn opened the box and looked once again at the treasures.

"It's over, Archer," she cried. Tears filled her eyes as she thought about Archer and the life he was forced to live because of someone manipulating history, someone who was born almost three hundred years after he was. It wasn't fair that his life was so altered because of Katherine.

Quinn thought she was just imagining it when she felt the air chill around her, thought she was daydreaming when she looked up to see the familiar figure standing near the fireplace, but when he took a step closer and she saw his beloved face, her heart leapt.

"Archer?"

His words sent a chill of fear through her. "Quinn, my love, be careful, she's here."

The words were like déjà vu and then she remembered the note she had found, the one that was tucked with the wooden horse, the one that was smudged. He hadn't been warning her of a
he
but a
she
.

"Archer!"

"It isn't over," he whispered but before she could ask what wasn't over the door to the solar opened and in walked Mrs. Payne and she was carrying a gun.

It was complete confusion that Quinn felt at first. What was Mrs. Payne doing here and why the hell did she have a gun? But as soon as she came a bit closer and Quinn saw the pale eyes, she felt her heart constrict in her chest and understanding settled over her like a lead blanket. Mrs. Payne was morphing into Katherine right before her eyes!

"So, I finally get you alone," she practically cackled.

Quinn turned back to Archer whose was looking at Katherine and the expression on his face sent a shiver through her. When he turned back to her, she saw love and a steely determination.

"I won't lose you again," he whispered before he faded before her eyes. She acutely felt the lost of him but then Katherine started toward her forcing Quinn to focus on the mad woman holding a gun.

"I am so going to enjoy killing you," she exclaimed.

Looking at Katherine, realization dawned and she wanted to kick herself. She hadn't even thought about aging but, of course, the Katherine who had killed her in the future would have aged from her traveling through time. But then who was the woman at the fair?

"Confused I see. It was me at the fair, too, my younger me." When Katherine's comment was met with confusion she continued, "I just needed to instruct my younger self of what to do. Little notes in places I was sure to find and my younger me knew to come to your fair and allow you to believe it was done, over. It was a leap of faith that you would all be looking for a young Katherine, leaving Mrs. Payne in the background and completely unnoticed. And now I have you to myself and can finally finish what I started."