He cracked the door and peered through it, mindful that it might not be some hapless victim, but someone who knew what they were doing and might bash his head in. There didn’t seem to be anyone inside. They’d completely cleared it of furniture and there was nowhere to hide.
Except behind the door.
A young girl stepped out, dressed in a dusty, rumpled gown. He squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as he clenched his fists to keep from hollering at her. His idiot cousin had done it again. She looked even younger than he remembered.
“Cousin Dexter?” a very posh, English, and non-Tilly voice asked.
His eyes flew open. “Good God, Ariana? Is that you? You’re the spitting image of your mother.”
She flung her arms around him. “I knew I’d remember what you looked like. I haven’t seen you since I was small, but I knew I would—” she stopped abruptly. Shoving herself away, she glared at him with all the ferocity and pompous arrogance he remembered from Ashford.
“You actually look quite a bit like your father, as well,” he said. “How old are you now? And bloody hell, what are you doing here?” His heart sank, recalling something. But surely not? He prayed not.
He didn’t think it possible but the glare on Ariana’s face darkened. “I’m seventeen, which you’d know if you didn’t stop visiting.” Her voice cracked and her blustery anger evaporated. “And if my parents hadn’t lied to me my entire life.”
“They had their reasons,” he said. “But wait, does this mean they don’t know where you’re at? You’ve got to return at once. Your mother is right now going mad with terror.”
“I assure you she’s not,” Ariana said.
“I assure you she is,” he asserted, positive by evading his question that Tilly had no idea where her firstborn child was. He didn’t need to have lived with a teenage girl these past years to see through that tactic. He barely kept himself from groaning at the thought of another teenager in his house. “I’m delighted to see you Ariana, but you need to return at once.”
She looked at him narrowly. “You don’t know how to use the portal, do you? That’s why the door is locked. That’s why that scary woman kept repeating for me to not be alarmed.” Ariana looked at all the corners of the room. “Where is she?” She lowered her voice. “Are we safe from her, Cousin Dexter?”
Dexter sighed. Not only had Emma kept her alarm system in place, she hadn’t turned off the recording that automatically played any time the motion sensor was set off. Emma thought her message was reassuring, but it was straight out of a horror movie.
“You can just call me Dexter,” he said. “Or Dex. That’s what your mum called me. And that voice is a recording. Believe it or not, the actual woman is very kind.”
She blinked a few times in confusion and he was glad to see that she didn’t seem to be a seasoned time traveler. Or hadn’t come very far forward. He didn’t bother to explain about cameras and motion sensors or recorded messages.
Ariana’s shoulders slumped. “You said mum called you Dex. She’s still alive, you know.”
“No, she’s not,” he said harshly. “Not in this time, she’s not. Nor should you be, which is why you need to go back.”
“Why did you stop visiting us? Did Mum and Father make you stop so they could keep their wretched secrets?”
Ah, classic move, completely ignoring all reason. She and Dahlia would get on like a house on fire. Good thing he was aware of these insidious maneuvers. But the bad thing was, he still didn’t know how to properly deal with them.
“The portal was closed by a powerful man who has since passed on. I don’t know how to do the spell he used to do that would allow me to travel back to visit you and the boys.” He decided honesty was the best policy. He knew he’d never be able to keep up if he tried to be cleverer than a teen girl. “How are Grayson and Christian, by the way?”
“You forgot Nathan,” she said.
His jaw dropped. “I didn’t know about Nathan. Four children? Good for you, Til.” Tears welled but he blinked them away, not wanting Ariana to sense he might be weakening. He did long to ask her some more questions. He was sorry he’d missed out on so much of his cousin’s life.
“They’re all right as rain. Are you going to keep me trapped in this room? Can’t I even have a cup of tea before I go back?”
He latched onto that. “So you’re going back? No arguments?”
She shrugged, breaking his heart. She was exactly like Tilly. “I only wanted to visit my family,” she said, biting her lower lip. “I only wanted some answers. If you’re so worried about Mum having the vapors over me, I know how to make it so I’ve only been gone ten minutes or so.” She crossed her arms and raised a very Ashford-like brow.
Exactly like Tilly but a hundred times brattier. He’d thought she was on the way to being spoiled the last time he saw her when she was only eight or nine years old. He knew he was backed into a corner, though, having no way to get her back on his own. He knew she knew it as well. Might as well have a nice catch up. If she was telling the truth, he supposed there was no harm in her staying.
“Come along,” he sighed. “I’ll take you home. I have a wife and a daughter just a few years younger than you.”
She flung her arms around him again. “Oh, thank you. I was so— just, thank you Cousin Dex.”
He patted her thin back. “It really is lovely to see you again. And all grown up. You’re as pretty as your mum. Mind, my place isn’t
