I wrapped my arms around his neck again and held him, feeling his heartbeat merge with mine. Surely becoming Queen of England would be a better fate for Kit than having married that French aristocrat. That had to be an upside. Nick leaned into me, stroking my arms with the tips of his fingers. A flock of seagulls squawked as they glided over the Thames, signaling the full break of dawn. Through the window, the rallying calls of the Tower Hill spectators gathered in volume, ready for the second execution of the day…mine. We had to hurry.
Nick unfolded the note he’d written and placed it on the chipped floor tiles near the door.
“Come in haste,” he said, sliding into the bed. I was curious to read what he’d written in the note, but we both had to fall asleep before the guards came knocking, and I didn’t want to waste a moment of time. Plus, I’d come to Tudor England ready to don my best pair of rose-colored glasses and make the most of it, but now, I couldn’t wait to get home to the modern world.
I lay beside Nick and slid into his waiting arms. He took one sniff of the blanket and pushed it away, removing his black leather coat and draping it over me instead.
He wrapped an arm around me, clasping my hand wearing the blue-diamond ring so we were securely connected.
“What do we do if the ring doesn’t work, and we can’t get out of here?” I whispered into the linen pillow.
After a pause, he nodded at the window. “I suppose we will have to jump in truth.”
Fear crushed my stomach like a soda can as Nick tightened his embrace. The heaviness of his arm soothed me like a weighted blanket.
I shut my eyes and prayed silently for sleep and for the ring to work.
“I’m wide awake,” I hissed with rising panic. The executioner was waiting for me, and if the guards came in and found us in bed together, both Nick and I could end up headless.
A sudden memory shot me upward like a bullet. I clicked open the enchanted ring’s hidden compartment. “I forgot that I’ve got one sleeping pill left!” I said, wanting to kiss the little blue tablet. I snapped it into two halves.
“What is this?” Nick said as I dropped one piece into his palm and swallowed the other half.
“It’s medicine from my time that will help you go to sleep quickly.”
He brought the pill closer to his face. “A sleep remedy such as the poppy-seed or lettuce in the milk of a lady?”
I tried not to chuckle at his old-school lactation therapies. “I’m not exactly sure what this pill is, but it will work…you can swallow it, it won’t hurt you.”
“I trust you with my life,” he said nervously before downing the pill and wincing at the aftertaste. He lay back down beside me and took my hand, lacing our fingers together.
After a few moments, he spoke quietly, his nervous breath tickling the back of my shoulder. “Emmie, you know I will have no manner of princely splendor in your world. I will have naught to give you: no jewels, no cloth, no horse, no feasts, no lands, no—”
I silenced him with a gentle shush. “I don’t want those things,” I said. “I want to make my own jewelry, with wire and pliers, just like I used to. I want to make dinners for us…to learn how to cook properly. I just want you.”
I tugged his arm closer, butterflies hatching in my stomach at the thought of having Nick Tudor all to myself in a regular house. Could we actually have a normal life?
To push away the terrifying thought that the ring might not work and we would have to jump to our deaths after all, I tilted back to look at his calming face.
“So what are your final words?” I stammered lightly. “In case the guards break in, or the ring fails and we have to jump…it’s kind of morbid, but do you have any dying words, Your Majesty?”
We lay for a quiet moment before Nick spoke, his breath a soft kiss on my skin. “No matter where we shall travel, my lady—to the future or to God in heaven, I wish to be by your side. For I shall be a king no more, but merely a man, and I will worship and love you as such until the last breath of my immortal soul.” He kissed the skin behind my ear, sending a rush of sweet love through my veins. “Can you love me not as a king, Emmie, but as a man?”
My eyes watered with a rush of tears. “That’s all I’ve ever done.”
My stomach and my chest twisted with hopeful anticipation. Maybe now, I could finally prove to Nick that his wealth and power meant nothing to me, that all I wanted was an ordinary life with an ordinary Nick. Even though it made me uneasy to think what stealing him away from the sixteenth century would do to the Tudor dynasty as I knew it.
I cuddled into him. “Let’s go to sleep,” I whispered. “Ne dimittas. Don’t you dare let go of me.”
The last words I heard Nick Tudor say were a warm murmur against my neck. “As you love me, my lady, I wager my life and kingdom on it.”