“As I had him to myself for the time that I did while he was carrying me back to the manor, I brought up our prior conversation. I told him that I still loved him and that I wanted him to be with me. I told him that I didn’t want to marry Lord Grayson, that my heart was his and his alone. I touched the ring he wears on his forefinger, the silver ring with the unusual carvings in it, and the deep red stone. I asked him if he would give me the ring and make me his. He pulled his hand away from me, and told me that I couldn’t be with him. He said that Lord Grayson loved me and wanted to marry me. He said that Lord Grayson could give me a life that Nathaniel couldn’t. He said that he could not give me children, and that a life with him would be far different than what I could ever imagine. I tried to tell him that it didn’t matter to me, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He told me to be more careful when riding my horses, and to turn my attentions to the man who loved me. He said that I would not be seeing him again, and he delivered me into the arms of Lord Giles Grayson. I have been healing since, at least my ankle has been, but my heart is destroyed. I know that he meant what he said. I saw the look in those beautiful green fiery eyes of his. I will never see him again. I will have to marry Lord Grayson, and settle myself to being his wife for the rest of my life, but in my heart, I will always love Nathaniel Ryder.”
Claire felt hot tears forming in her eyes, and they spilled over her eyelashes and down her cheeks as she read. There were so many similarities between Nathaniel and Nicholas. Far too many to be coincidence. From their looks as Elizabeth described Nathaniel, to their demeanor, to the ring that they both wore, which Claire had believed to be passed down, to them both seeming to appear out of nowhere and remain distant for periods of time. The biggest similarity was the scar. There was no way that two men centuries apart had exactly the same scar in exactly the same place. It just wasn’t possible. The other thing that had stayed hooked at the back of her mind was the slip of the tongue that had happened the first time they had met.
Nicholas had called out to her as she was standing by the grove of trees near the creek, and he had called her Elizabeth. She had thought nothing more of it until reading the last two entries in the journal she held in her hands, but as she thought back to it, the coincidence was too great to be ignored. It could not be coincidence. It was something else entirely. Something else that she could not possibly overlook. Something that she was going to have to bring up to him the next time she saw him.