Free Time Enough for Love by Morgan O'Neill Page A

secrets, would round trips be as easy as hopping on a jet for a vacation? Could she live here with Alberto and still visit her family and friends?
    No, that’s crazy. Gwen’s spirits sank and, almost without thinking, she tugged her earlobe. The old Carol Burnett gesture, something her family loved to do, felt comforting, but incomplete. She wished she could let everyone know she was okay. She fought tears, tears for the anguish she knew they felt. Her thoughts turned to her mother. She worried about her the most.
    “Mom.” Her whisper was soft, imperceptible to those around her.
    She looked up at the cold, clear sky. The gulf between them was vast, as distant as the stars. But then, a new hope stole into her thoughts: she could find a way to send a message through time, something her mother, her entire family, would recognize and understand. But how…?
    “Ladies, we have reached a safe distance,” Memmo broke into her thoughts, the faintness of his tone forcing her to listen to what he was saying. “You may speak now, if you keep your voices very low.”
    Gwen stirred. Her plan, whatever it turned out to be, would have to wait. For now, she needed to take care of Adelaide.
    She was aware of the queen moving beside her.
    “Thank you, good sir.” Adelaide’s voice trembled. She turned to Gwen. “My heart is heavy. Forgive me. We have been liberated from that dreadful prison, but I cannot forget what happened to Stefano.”
    Gwen was silent for a moment, seeing Stefano as he looked standing before the tourists in Santa Lucia, his golden hair back-lit, dazzling. It was just before she had learned he was her cousin. Just before they were wrenched back through time in an earthquake. Had Willa caused the earthquake, too? “I can’t forget, either. I hope Willa pays for what she did to him.”
    “Yes, she will pay. Berengar, too,” Adelaide said, her expression hard to read in the dark, yet her voice stronger now and filled with determination.
    Gwen gazed out over the water, realizing Adelaide actually knew Stefano much better than she, having spent so many days with him on the run. The queen must be devastated.
    “Pray, what did you wish to tell me before?” Adelaide asked.
    “I’m not sure this is the time.”
    “I hear the pain in your voice, Gwen. You must not carry such a burden alone. God willing, I may be able to help you, or at the very least share your burden. Please, my friend, tell me what troubles you so.”
    Still reluctant, Gwen nevertheless divulged what had happened in Willa’s garden, telling the queen everything except the time travel.
    “Merciful Lord,” Adelaide moaned, “she summoned you from Britannia through a witch-basin? My God, and poor Stefano, to be poisoned by her dark arts and forced to spend his last days in that hell. At least you are safe. I pray God he died swiftly, for he suffered terribly before the end.” She looked at La Rocca and crossed herself. “As to Willa’s scheming, its true purpose baffles me. Did she say why she tortured Stefano?”
    “No, I don’t know why,” Gwen said.
    “Alas, we may never learn the truth. Somehow, I believe Stefano is here with us. Yes, and he is free now. He has found his peace. It is beautiful here, isn’t it, despite the horror Willa and Berengar have brought upon this place.”
    Gwen nodded. “The wine dark sea.”
    “Do you quote Homer?”
    “Yes,” Gwen responded quietly. The gentle rise and fall of the oars, the soft sound as they broke the surface, made her reflective. “After everything I’ve experienced,” she continued, “and now, being on the water like this, I feel a bond with Odysseus.”
    “Yes, to be far from hearth and home, unable to return for so long, no matter our efforts or desire.” Adelaide turned to Memmo. “Sir,” she asked, “what month are we? I fear I have lost all track of time.”
    “August,” Memmo replied.
    “ Ante Diem XVII Kalends, ” Father Warinus added.
    Gwen did a quick