Free Time Masters Book One; The Call (An Urban Fantasy, Time Travel Romance) by Geralyn Beauchamp Page A

it, pretending to read.
    Shona, satisfied she had quelled the little verbal foray against Kitty, turned to the tea canister.
    “He’s gonna need it,” came her father’s mumbled statement from behind the paper. Shona turned again and eyed him, or at least the top of his graying head, the only thing showing above the paper’s rim. Coward.
    “I heard that,” she said flatly .
      Evan Whittard peeked over his paper, his blue eyes glistening, and grinned. “I know.”
    Shona promptly threw a tea bag at him, hitting the paper instead.
    “Oh boy! Are we picking on your father this morning already?” Maggie asked, coming into the kitchen in time to see the tea bag land with a small thump on the table.
    “You forget you already did?” Evan retorted. “No fair two against one.”
    Maggie planted herself in his lap, putting her arms around his neck. “Here, I’ll protect you, dear. Shona will have to go through me if she wants to get to you.”
    Shona turned and stared at them in her odd scholastic sort of way, her voice matching her look. “It seems to me that it is still two against one. Only now I seem to be the one.”
    The tone brought both her parent’s attention to her. She stood looking at them, one eyebrow raised inquisitively. Maggie and Evan glanced at each other both knowing Shona’s mood swings were becoming more and more frequent. Hot to cold, surging emotions then nothing. It was something they had been told to watch out for.
    Maggie extracted herself from her husband’s lap and stood. “Are you ready?” she asked Shona.
    “Yes.” Shona turned toward the counter again, putting back the cup she had taken from the cupboard, abandoning the idea of tea. “Let us go.”
    Evan walked them to the door and kissed them both good-bye . Shona felt oddly detached at his brief peck on the cheek and wondered why she was feeling that way around him lately. She didn’t feel that way around her Mother. In fact, she was feeling increasingly more comfortable around her, whereas her father ... it was as if he was becoming more distant, or distanced, from her. The relationship had not changed. What could be making her feel this way?
    Maggie interrupted Shona’s thoughts as they pulled out of the driveway. “Julia will be by this evening. She said she has something to tell us.”
    “Did she say what it was?” Shona asked as they drove down from the west hills of the city into downtown.
    “No, but I have a strong feeling it has something to do with that European university she’s been in contact with lately.”
    “The one in France?”
    Maggie threw a smile at her. “That’s the one. Excited?”
    Shona stared out her window and watched the expensive old homes pass by. “I do not really know,” she replied quietly.
    “Well, no use jumping to any conclusions until we hear what Julia has found out about them. Let’s not worry about it now.” Maggie looked at Shona. “Are you sure you feel all right?”
    “I am sure.” Shona’s voice was weak as she fought fo r some semblance of control, the waves of emptiness hit ting her harder by the minute. Th ey had come so fast she could think of nothing to defend herself with. She didn’t want to break down in front of her mother, and cert ainly didn’t want her mother fi nding out what was wrong. If that happened, any hope of getting out of her parent’s house and claiming her own freedom would be gone. She concentrated on Julia and the news she held. If Shona could get accepted to this new univer sity, her dream of going abroad, not to mention just getting out of the house, could at last be realized.
    Shona Elsey Whittard loved her parents, loved her home, her few friends and her music. She had a lot; everything she could possibly ask for, some would say. Except for the freedom to run her own life and make her own decisions. She had so many people telling her how envious they were of h er singing talent.  But i f all her competitors and fellow musicians only