The Pirate

'They belong to the community,' Meredith answered distractedly as she signed on to the computer. 'They're for everyone. This is a public library.'

'And we will find our answers in these books?' he said.

'No,' Meredith said. 'I doubt that there are any books here that will help us.'

He sat down beside her and peered at the computer screen. 'I thought you said we were seeking information about sending me back. Why are you looking into this box?' he demanded. 'There are many books here which would help us. We must look at them.'

Meredith sighed. 'This box is a computer, Griffin, and there's more information in here than in a thousand libraries this size.'

Griffin scoffed in disbelief, then slouched down in his chair like a petulant child. 'This I don't believe. You are wasting time.'

She could already hear the impatience growing in his voice and she knew he was about to fall into one of his dark moods. He'd been with her just a day and a half and already she could read him as if she'd known him for years.

Last night, he had paced the night away, impatiently covering every inch of the floor like a caged tiger. From her bed, she had heard him prowling around the cottage, muttering to himself and sometimes to Ben Gunn, keeping the leather purse always close at hand, as if he was worried he might be swept away at any moment.

This morning, he had been preoccupied, his mind firmly focused in the past, on Edward Teach-which was exactly where her mind should have been focused, too. She wanted to talk to him of his life, to learn everything he knew about Blackbeard. Though she wouldn't be able to use most of it in her book without an original source to back up what he told her, it would give her work new insight into the famous pirate. Still, something held her back from telling him about her work.

What was it? Was she afraid he might suspect what she suspected-that she was somehow responsible for bringing him here? Every time she looked at him, she felt the same nagging sense of guilt. And every impulse she had to broach the subject of the pirate was buried beneath that guilt.

'When is this friend of yours going to call?'

Meredith glanced over at him and forced a smile, hoping to defuse his mood. 'I told you, Kelsey is attending a symposium at Wake Forest,' she explained. 'She'll call as soon as she returns. Maybe tomorrow or the next day.'

'And you are certain this Kelsey will be able to find a way for me to go back?'

'I don't know,' Meredith replied. 'Griffin, I won't get anything done if you keep talking to me. This takes concentration. It's like navigating a boat.'

He stood up and began to pace the floor behind her. 'I feel so damn useless here,' he muttered. 'I am not accustomed to idleness. I need to do something.'

'In this century, we place great value on our leisure time,' Meredith commented lightly. 'That's why people visit this island, for the laid-back life-style.'

He stopped suddenly and stared down at her. 'Well, I am not from this century, am I?' he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. With that, he turned and stalked toward the door, yanking it open before he stepped outside.

With a soft curse, Meredith pushed herself back from the computer and stood, shooting an apologetic smile to a wide-eyed Trina. She found Griffin outside where he'd taken up pacing the sidewalk. She grabbed his elbow and drew him to a stop. 'Griffin, I'm doing everything I can to help you. But you have to be patient. This is very complicated.'

He stared at her for a moment, anger blazing in his gaze. Then, with a resigned sigh, he closed his eyes and raked his fingers through his hair, schooling his temper. 'Forgive me. I did not mean to speak so harshly.'

'I understand,' Meredith said. She paused, then looked up at him hopefully. 'I was thinking that maybe you'd enjoy a trip to Bath, or Bath Town, as you call it. I can borrow a car and we can take the ferry across to Swan Quarter early tomorrow morning. You can tell me all about how the town used to be. You can show me where Blackbeard had his house.'

'To what end?' he muttered.

'I-I just thought it might-'

'Occupy my mind?' he completed. 'I don't need my mind filled with trivial matters. I have plenty to do. I was to deliver the purse to Spotswood's man before I returned to sail with the Adventure. But while I am here, the work goes on without me. How am I to know whether they are proceeding?'

She slipped her arm through his and paced alongside him. 'Well, there is a theory that would have us believe that if history is altered, the books written about the event will also change. So, I suppose we could just look at the books that have been written about Blackbeard and see if they've changed.'

'Whose theory is this?'

'I'm not sure. I saw it in a movie called Back to the Future,' she said.

'A movie?'

'A video,' Meredith said. 'It's like a play you watch on… well, just think of it as a play.'

'Ah,' he said, nodding. 'And this video was written by a respected scholar, an expert in this science… this physics, like your colleague, Kelsey?'

'No, not exactly. Movies and videos are entertainment. They're fuel for the imagination. Even though there are plenty of books and movies about the subject, no one has ever really traveled in time.'

He stopped short and spun her around to face him. 'No one?'

A tremor raced through her at the look in his eyes and she bit her bottom lip. 'I-I thought you understood that. As far as I know, no one has ever traveled in time.'

A myriad of emotions crossed his face before he spoke again. 'Then I am the first,' he stated softly. 'And I must be the first to return, as well.'

Meredith drew a deep breath and screwed up her courage to say the words she'd wanted to say since he'd come to her. Words she knew would anger him. 'What if you can't get back?' she asked.

'I will not consider that possibility,' he said. 'I must return.'

She swallowed hard. 'Is-is there someone waiting for you?' She felt her cheeks flame. 'I mean, do you have a girlfriend… or maybe a fiancee… or a wife?'

Meredith risked a glance up. He was staring up at the sky, his gaze fixed on some invisible star. His eyes were frosted with pain and his thoughts had drifted to a different time. She'd never seen such a look on a person's face, such intense anguish, so tightly controlled yet so visible.

She wanted to reach out and pull him into her arms to comfort him. But she couldn't. There was a woman in his life, a woman he missed very much.

Her heart sank. What did she expect? She was twenty-eight, yet no one questioned her single status. He was only a few years older, yet the times he had lived in dictated early marriage. 'Do you?' she asked gently. 'Do you have a wife waiting for you?'

His jaw tightened and she saw a nerve twitch in his cheek. 'No,' he replied, his voice ragged. 'I have no wife, no…family.'

Meredith breathed a silent sigh of relief, but she quickly admonished herself. She would do well to remember that Griffin Rourke was not some fantasy pirate, but a flesh-and-blood man, a man with his own demons to plague his dreams. And he didn't belong here. If she continued to harbor these illusions about him, she'd only get hurt when he left.

If he left. The prospect of Griffin remaining in her time hung over them like a storm cloud. Whether she was attracted to him or not, it was her responsibility to see that he got home. She couldn't help believing that she had somehow brought him here, that he'd been an unwilling participant in some great cosmic happening.

'Why don't we go get some lunch,' she suggested, hoping to shift the mood of their conversation. 'I can work at the library later this afternoon.'

'I am not hungry,' he murmured. 'I would like to take a walk. Alone.'

Meredith nodded and pulled her hand from around his arm, knowing it would be best to leave him to his own thoughts. 'I'll meet you back at the cottage then.'

He nodded curtly, and without looking at her, set off down the street.

'Let him go,' Meredith whispered to herself. 'You'll have to let him go sooner or later, so do it now.' As she