eaten something I recognize.”
“I’ll do better than that,” Oliver said. “I recorded the entire thing.”
Derrick laughed a little. “You didn’t.”
“Had to stay awake somehow, mate.”
Samantha laughed at Derrick’s curse, then leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. She had started a list earlier that morning, but realized she hadn’t finished it. She wasn’t quite sure what it would contain, but she knew what the last entry would be.
All’s well that ends well.
Or maybe all good things ended at the Ritz. She didn’t know, but she was happy to have the chance to decide.
• • •
She stood in the bathroom the next morning, looking at herself in the mirror. Did it show, that place she’d been? She didn’t feel any different physically, but she was definitely different mentally. She had stood in the midst of history and watched it roll on around her.
She was changed.
She considered braiding her hair, then put the brush down and walked out of the bathroom. No braid, no polyester, no quarter.
Derrick was sitting on the couch simply staring off into space. He looked at her immediately, then blinked in surprise.
“No braid?”
“Elizabethan England.”
He stood up, then walked over to pull her into his arms. He looked down at her seriously. “My turn today.”
“Is it?”
He bent his head and kissed her, so apparently it was.
“You know,” she managed a few minutes later, “you’ve got to stop that. It’s distracting you from stuff I’m sure you should be doing, like deciding what to have for breakfast.”
He smiled, kissed her once more, then put his arm around her and led her over to the couch. “Order whatever you like. I’ll trust you.”
“Well, it can’t be any worse than what we ate on our little trip to the past.”
“Please,” he said with a shiver. “Let’s not think about it.”
“And I think that was the good stuff.” She looked over the menu, ordered something hearty for him and less hearty for herself, then set the phone aside and looked at him. “Well?”
He took a deep breath, then reached over and handed her a manila envelope.
“What’s this?”
“Something Cameron sent over this morning. Faxes from Jamie.”
“Did we change history—” She stopped, then smiled. “No, I don’t imagine we did. Are these reviews?”
“I can’t bring myself to look.”
“If it makes you feel any better, you were astonishing.”
He blew out his breath. “I shouldn’t care.”
She reached for his hand. “You know, it’s a little frightening to think about failing at something you love. But you didn’t fail. You were riveting.”
“You just like me.”
“Yes, and I told you how absolutely amazing you were at least a dozen times last night.”
“I thought that was just to impress the lads.”
She smiled, because she didn’t believe that for a minute. “Where are they, by the way?”
“Off doing what they do. Wreaking havoc, making hay, causing a ruckus. Fetching reviews from Cameron and delivering them to me here with a smirk.”
She smiled and reached for the envelope. She pulled faxed copies of photocopies of what looked to be originals of some kind of seventeenth-century Variety magazine. She found what she was looking for, then handed it to him.
“You left women swooning and men wishing they could wield a sword like you.”
He smiled briefly, read, then slid the pages back into the envelope.
“Nice.”
She laughed a little. “That’s all you can say?”
“It’s what I did, not who I am.”
She smiled. “I said that first.”
“Well, aye, lass, I think you did.” He leaned toward her, then stopped. “If I start that up again, we’ll never get out of here.”
“Are we going somewhere?” she asked.
“I thought we might take a little trip north to Stratford. You should see Anne Hathaway’s house whilst we’re there. Not to be missed.”
“Is there an ulterior motive to this trip?”
“Come along and find out.” He nodded toward her room. “What’d Granny give you?”
“I didn’t want to look yet, because I was afraid of what Jamie would think. But I’ll go get it.”
She retrieved the pack from the dresser and carried it back in to find that Derrick had her bag sitting on the table. He looked up.
“Cameron brought this as well from its hiding place in his safe. I’m curious as to what it contains.”
“Which first?”
“Gems.”
She watched him pull the clear zippered bag out of her purse and lay it on the table. He opened the bag, spilled the gems out, then blinked in surprise. “There are forty-eight.”
She took a deep breath. “I know.”
He considered, then looked at her quite seriously. “I’m not sure, Miss Drummond,