From my vantage point, sitting low in a field of wildflowers and blackberry bushes, I watched Maxwell help Thorn, Jacob, and Miles into the red-and-gold carriage. He climbed up and gently tapped the horses into action. The carriage shades were drawn down to keep the low morning sun from the eyes of the passengers. As it passed, I stood and gave Maxwell a steady gaze. He nodded, bobbing his red-and-gold-checked cap. He hadn’t forgotten about our midnight plan. I heaved a sigh and sat down again.

A flower caught my attention, and I plucked it from its house of dirt. Orange and fragrant, I twirled it through my fingers and wondered about its botanical name. The rising sun felt warm on my shoulders and I lay back, my body cushioned on the spongy ground. The smell of coffee and cinnamon from Cook’s kitchen found me where I lay. I closed my eyes and thought about my family. Lights had glimmered in the tall trees around Uncle Vince’s and Aunt Kate’s quirky Queen Anne Hill house on the night of Evan’s and my fifteenth birthday party. Yellow balloons bounced around in the breeze, and a picnic table on the deck held presents and the birthday cakes Mom had made for us that morning before she and Dad left for the airport, and their long trip home to Cape Town. Carrot cake for Evan and raspberry whipped cream on cinnamon sponge-cake for me. A tradition I could count on.

And that’s when Rapp showed up out of nowhere.

And that’s when the trouble started. I had taken one look at him and been struck by love-lightning. And now his ancestor lived here, today, right this minute, in Monte Cristo.

It was too much.

Under the collar of my dress, I located Kerry’s chain with my ring hanging from the end. A small rectangle of black onyx held a row of three tiny diamonds planted down the center and sat on a thin platinum band. I swung it around above my head and watched the diamond chips sparkle in the morning sun.

I had been expecting money for my birthday. As usual. Like Evan got. Like we always got from Grandpa. Lia said he had combed through Grandma’s stuff and chosen the ring himself. He was crushed that I didn’t act excited about his present. But I was still mad at Grandma for dying, leaving Grandpa sad, leaving him to rattle around that big house by himself. I didn’t want her ring, but I took it out on him. I acted like a jerk. And I hated myself for that.

I wrung the picture of Grandpa’s crestfallen face out of my mind. I would just have to make it up to him when I saw him next. Have a do-over. It would be the motivation to get

me home.

Clear blue sky towered above me, and little red birds twittered and chirped in the gnarled tree twisting down the slope from where I lay. The tiny feathered things hopped from branch to branch singing their song for me, unaware I was a fifteen-year-old freak of nature, not of their world. They might flap away, frightened and in a hurry, if they only knew.

Vibrations from the ground rattled through my shoulders and back. Galloping horse hooves brought me back to the bright Monte Cristo morning. I sat up and saw a lone rider

hurtle up the road. Jumping to my feet, I stuffed the ring back inside my dress.

A horse came to an abrupt dusty stop and its rider hopped from the saddle. He caught me around the waist, the smell of horses and leather lifting off his shirt. And just like that, Tor Loken had his arms around me.

“How grand to find you in your flower nest.”

I knocked his hands away and took a step back. “What are you doing?”

“You needn’t worry. I saw the red carriage pass by just now. Your mother is away from the house and your father is at work. There is no one spying across the landscape, looking for you in our hiding spot.”

“What?”

He frowned. “Have you forgotten our sworn secret?”

I exhaled—Tor and Emma. “No, I . . . bumped my head a week ago, and I’m . . . still recovering.” I brushed my hair away to show him the stitches.

He took my hand and tugged me back. He pressed his lips to my forehead. “Is that better?” My breath caught. He was staring at my mouth. He wanted to kiss me. I pushed closer,

my body buzzing as he ran kisses from my cheek to my lips. His skin smelled like sunshine. My heart swelled and landed with an excruciating thud in my throat. He slid his arms around my back, and with his possessive hands he pulled me tight against his body. I’d never been this close to anyone. But my body knew what to do. I raised my arms up around him and pressed my frantic heart close to his. I let him kiss me. Deeply. I let his tongue play with mine. He tasted like honey.

He thought I was Emma.

I broke away before I burst, stabs of heat gushing in quick beats through my body, air not quite making it into my lungs. When my eyes slid back to him, he devoured my face with his fern-colored eyes. They crinkled along with the sides of his mouth from the enormous smile he rained down on me. I hugged my arms around myself. It was like I had known him forever.

“The rest of the crew will be here soon. Your father wants the barn project finished by October, before the weather turns. I will see you every day until then, even if it’s through a window.”

His face, so like the one I had left behind, was etched with love and desire and care for the person standing in front of him. Tor was a friend to Emma, so he was a friend to me. I took my chance, pushing through my shyness, and blurted out my troubles.

“I have to talk to you about something. The lunch yesterday at the hotel? They’re sending me to a boarding school in Baltimore this Sunday. John . . . my father . . . took me there to tell me. The plan is for me to never come back here. They want me to find a husband and stay forever.”

Tor paced to his horse and back to me. And then back to his horse and back again. He kicked at a flower. He looked like he was going to explode. “No!”

“I know. I won’t go. I’ll run away before I get on a train to Baltimore.”

“I want to marry you now. I can’t wait any longer. This is torment, Emma.”

Marry? Their romance was more than just a fling. Tor and Emma were secretly engaged.

A funnel of dirt and thunder churned up the road. A large wagon carted by a team of four horses barreled toward us. Tor caught the reins, before his red horse skittered away. “I must think hard on this, and now the crew has arrived. Your father plans on meeting me here at ten o’clock and he mustn’t see me with you.”

“Tor, wait. I want you to go with me tonight to see Simeon. Maxwell and I—”

“Simeon the recluse?”

“Say you’ll go with me. I’m in a desperate situation. I’ll explain then.”

Dust from the wagon’s wheels curled around us as it passed in the road. Gravel shot out and fell at our feet. Men’s voices called out to Tor.

He yelled over the noise. “Yes, of course. I would follow you to the moon if asked.”

“Talk to Maxwell when he comes back later today. He’s making a plan.”

“You’re confusing me . . .”

“Trust me.”

I glided on air through the brilliant wildflowers toward the house, still with the feel of his mouth on mine. I licked my lips and tasted honey. My first kiss. With a guy from 1895. Who looked just like someone I had been wishing, more than anything, would kiss me a week before.

You couldn’t make this up.

Suddenly starving and craving something yummy, I headed to the kitchen and Cook’s warm cinnamon rolls. I would sneak one upstairs into Emma’s room and eat it there. Alone, I would think about what just happened, replay it again and again in my mind until it made sense.

And I didn’t want to see John when he came home. I didn’t want to see him, and I didn’t want to talk to him. He let himself be pushed around by that woman. He had gone along with Thorn’s unholy plan.