Love Beyond Time Quotes

“I don’t want you ever to doubt how much I love you, Mom, but I found it. That love you talked to me about at the inn? He’s here, and I have to stay with him. I’m safe and happy, and I know that’s all you’ve ever wanted for me.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“I should hope so. It is my coma, after all. Why would I decide to dream up a marriage with some ugly old fart?”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“mother’s chambers, and ye can get yerself cleaned up.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“Alasdair knew that if Morna’s predictions and spell came true, Blaire MacChristy would soon be replaced with a lass from the twenty-first century, and he was certain Eoin would not remain oblivious to the strange happenings.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“He found it difficult to believe that it would be a creature as gentle as a horse that would send him to his deathbed,”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“You’re going to Scotland with me! I’ve already registered you as my assistant on the dig.” I jerked up off the couch, hitting the coffee table and sloshing water out of the cup that sat in front of me. “What? You know I can’t. I have school. I teach kindergarteners. That’s like asking a substitute to walk straight through the gates of Hell!”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“I giggled inwardly at myself, deciding to enjoy the dream while it lasted.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“A hand on the middle of his back caused his eyes to spring open as he spun to see the realest vision he had ever seen standing before him. His feet grew suddenly unsteady and his throat was dry as he worked to choke back tears. “Lass, if ye be no real, leave me be and doona torture me so. My heart canna bear it.” Her slender arms wrapped around him, and his tears ran freely as he scooped her up tight.  “I couldn’t do it, Eoin. I know you told me to, and you’re going to be angry. But I just don’t care. My place is here.” “Nay, love. I’m no angry with ye. Why, I doona believe I’ve ever been so pleased in all my life.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“I am glad I shall die tonight, lass. For I doona think I could live a day without ye by my side. With each kiss I take a piece of ye to keep with me, and when I take my last breath, however it may find me, it shall be yer face that I see when my eyes close the last time.”  “Eoin,” I reached down to place my hand in his hair, coaxing him back up to me so that I could kiss him once more.  “It’s time, love. I canna stay to watch ye do the spell. I’m afraid I would stop ye from doing it. But ye must, just as I must now go to prepare the men. When I leave, change into yer strange clothes and do the spell as quickly as ye can.” We stood, and he wrapped his arms around me one last time. “I shall always love ye beyond time itself. Even after I’m dead and buried, ye shall feel my love for ye wherever ye may go.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“Now, listen to me. Doona ye tell me that ye won’t survive. Ye must. Knowing that I’ve kept ye safe is the only thing that will allow me to fight and die with my men and no flee from here like a coward. If ye love me, Bri, ye will go. And ye will live a long and happy life in yer own time.” I shook my head as I sobbed, wailing uncontrollably, all rationale gone. “This is my time now. Don’t make me do it, Eoin. Please. Don’t send me away. If you loved me, you wouldn’t ask it.” He slapped me, stunning me enough that my sobs subsided briefly.  “Doona ever say that I doona love ye. Do ye no understand what it takes of me to send ye back?” “No! Because I would never ask it of you.” He’d released his grip on my arms, and I crushed myself against him once more, holding on less tightly, slowly surrendering. I knew his mind was made up.  “Aye, I expect ye would, love, but I know tis hard for ye to see now.” “I’m scared, Eoin. I can’t stand the thought of leaving you. I’d rather die here.” “Nay, lass. I’d be no help to my men if I had to worry about ye. Ye must go now so that we can prepare the best we can. If by some miracle we are spared, I swear to ye, I shall find a way back to ye. Even if I must don awful shreds of clothing like the ones ye love so much and travel into that strange place to get ye.” I laughed against his chest. “I would love to see that. Eoin.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“He’d never understood how a lass could have such a hold on someone’s heart. Eoin grew up wondering why his father never remarried; he would’ve if it had been he who’d lost his wife. It was unnatural for a man to live alone so long, and how many years did it take for a heart to heal anyways? Surely not a lifetime.   But all of that was before Bri. And now, as he held her in his arms, feeling the warmth of her skin so vibrant and alive against him, he knew exactly the power a woman could wield over a man’s soul.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“The hand that touched my shoulder was my anchor, and I gladly turned into his embrace. He too understood the grief of loss, with his father’s death occurring shortly before my arrival. He didn’t ask what I’d been doing. He looked around at the tidy room and at the words on the page and silently sat down beside me, wrapping me in his arms.  He held me without saying a word, silently stroking my back, bending occasionally to plant a gentle kiss on the top of my head, letting me know that he was there for as long as I needed him.  Eventually I pulled away and managed a smile to reassure him that I wasn’t re-thinking my decision. He smiled back and reached for my hand.  “I know it may no be customary. My parents kept separate bedchambers throughout their marriage, but how would ye feel about moving into my bedchamber? I doona like the thought of ye being so far away. I want to fall asleep each night with ye next to me, wrapped in my arms.” I stood and pulled him toward the doorway. “I would love to. I’d already asked Mary this morning if she would have someone move my belongings across the hall. In my time, it would be uncustomary for us not to share a room. Besides, I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“Lass, I know that ye have been searching for the ring so that ye can go home. While, we were away, Arran found it.” “He did?” Shocked, I tried to normalize my expression as he continued.  “Aye,” he paused to retrieve it and held it out to me, eventually setting it in between us when I didn’t reach out for it.  “I almost threw it in the ocean.” “You what?” The pitch of my voice was oddly high and screechy, making me sound angry rather than shocked.  “Aye, lass. I’m verra sorry, but I dinna want to give ye the ring. I know that I canna keep it from ye, but I’d like to ask ye something before I let ye have it.” “Of course.” My heart restarted as hope began to crawl through the fear rooted in my stomach.  “Doona go, lass.” He squeezed my hands tightly in between his own, and I was sure my heart was going to burst with happiness. “I’ve fallen in love with ye, Bri, and I doona wish to be parted from ye. If ye doona love me, I shall give ye the ring, but I could no let ye leave without telling ye.” My voice cracked as I spoke to him, and a tear broke free from my left eye. “No.” He didn’t give me a chance to finish. “I’m so verra sorry for keeping the ring from ye, lass. I just wasna ready to let ye go.” I pried my hands loose and reached up to grab hold of his face. “No, listen. Let me finish.” He stopped talking, pursing his lips awkwardly like a fish, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Its no so funny, lass. Ye’re breaking my heart. I only ask that ye do it swiftly.” “Hush. It is funny. Your face looks ridiculous. I meant, ‘no,’ I’m not mad at you. I had something to tell you tonight as well.” “Aye?” “I was going to tell you that I wanted to stop looking for the ring. I can’t leave here. This is my home now and I’ve fallen in love with everyone. Mary, Kip, Arran, Griffin, even you.” I winked at him before continuing, “Before, I only thought I had to go back because of my mother and Blaire. She deserved the chance to return to her home, but she doesn’t want it. “How do ye know, lass?” “It’s the spell book. We can write messages to one another that cross over through time. My mother knows I’m safe here, and as long as she knows that, she’ll be okay with my decision. And Blaire, she said she wants to stay. That means I’m free, Eoin. I’m free to stay with you. If you’ll have me?” “Have ye, lass? Did ye no just hear what I said to ye? I’ll have ye and ye alone.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“He knew he had to give her a choice.  He stopped and pulled her close to him just before they entered the staircase. He wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head as she murmured into his chest.  “Is everything alright, Eoin?” “Aye, lass, all is well. Tomorrow evening, would ye accompany me somewhere? I’d like to surprise ye with something.” He felt her grin against his chest. “Of course. I love surprises.” Tomorrow he would tell her everything; tell her that he found the ring, tell her that he loved her, tell her that he didn’t want her to leave. He would place his heart in her hands. And the choice would be hers.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“It didn’t really matter. Even if she still did want to return home, he knew he couldn’t bring himself to let her go. She’d captured his heart completely and he didn’t want to spend his life with any other. If she didn’t love him already, he could make her love him with time.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“Doona need it? Christ, Eoin, have ye gone mad? The lass canna stay here.” Eoin cringed as the thought of her leaving caused an uncomfortable pain to hit him right below his ribs. “Aye, she can. She’s my wife, Arran, whether I knew it was her that I married or no. If ye hadna gone and pried the ring off of our father’s dead finger, then she wouldna had a choice. I canna lose her, Arran. I’m no going to give her the ring.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“I’d fallen asleep wrapped in his arms, only to be awakened a few hours later by his lips kissing the side of my cheek and trailing down my neck.  I smiled into his lips and faced him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “I don’t have the energy to do it again tonight, Eoin. I’m a bit out of practice.” He kissed the tip of my nose before pulling back to prop himself up on his elbow. “Aye, that may be so. But ye were no a virgin, aye?” At first I was a bit taken aback by his question. At my age, it seemed odd that he would assume that I was. At second thought, I realized just how surprising it most likely was to him to find that I wasn’t. While most men in this time found themselves in the bed of another far before marriage, any respectable woman would never have let herself be “ruined” before reaching her marriage bed.  “No. I wasn’t. It’s different where I come from. People often have sex before marriage.”  He frowned at my answer. “I see, lass.” “Does it bother you that I wasn’t?” “Nay, I canna fault ye for the life that ye lived before ye came into my life. But, I’ll nay say it pleases me. Thinking of another man holding ye and touching ye as I just have stirs a rather dreadful feeling in my chest. I’d like to bludgeon the lad that did so.” I smiled, pleased at his jealousy. “All three of them?” He sat completely upright in the bed. “Three! My God, Bri! Tell me, lass, were ye a harlot in the time ye came from?” It was my turn to frown. “No, I was not! I can assure you that for someone my age that is a very respectable number! Just ask Mitsy! She’s got me beat for sure!” “What’s a Mitsy, lass?” “Mitsy is a person. A friend. Who, come to think of it, is probably worried sick about me.” He lay back down and draped an arm over me as he snuggled in closely. “I’m sorry, lass. I suspect there are a good many things that I doona know about ye that would surprise me.” “Yes, I’m sure there are. We are from different worlds, Eoin.” “Aye, lass. But for now, they are the same world, and that’s all I can bear to think of now.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“Come here, lass. This is it.” I walked over to his side, surprised when he turned toward me, opening his arms and prompting me to sit on his knee. Hesitantly, I took a seat, trying to think of spilled finger paint, runny noses, and sticky fingers; anything to keep me from concentrating on the hard chiseled body I now found wrapped around my own.  “What does it say?” “This is the spell she used. See, her own notes are written along here.” He grabbed my hand from my lap and, using his hand, guided my fingers along the side of the page. Tingles swam over every inch of my body. Cheetos in the carpet, boogers on the chair backs, pink eye outbreak. No thought helped.  “I see. Will it work to switch us back?” “Aye. I think it will.” He didn’t let go of my hand as he continued. “We need a few items. Mary can locate most of them. But it speaks of my father’s ring, and I doona know where that is. I believe he always meant to leave it to me, but his death was sudden, and I doona think it crossed his mind.” “Well, we can find it, right?” “Ach, lass. I suppose we shall have to. But it says something else as well.” I looked up into his eyes, waiting for him to continue.  “The spell will only work until midnight on the twenty-eighth of December, then ye canna return home.” “Well, we have to find it by then anyway. That’s right around when they think the massacre happens.” “Aye, we shall. Doona worry. Knowledge is the best defense we could have. It willna come to that.”   His left hand laid casually upon my knee while his right wrapped around my back, his palm now resting just above my hip on the curve of my waist. He squeezed me in closer to him, drawing his right hand up to my shoulder so that it brought the side of my face closer to his lips.  “I know I’ve given ye no more than trouble, lass, but I shall be sorry to see ye go.” With that he leaned in as if to kiss the side of my cheek, and I nearly turned us both onto the floor with my quick leap out of his lap.  “Yes. I’ll be a little sad too. I think of you, and Mary, and Arran as friends, and it will be odd to no longer get to see you.” I awkwardly patted him on the shoulder and turned abruptly to make my way out of the spell room, cursing my heated cheeks with each step. I knew they’d given me away.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“What in God’s name do ye think the two of ye are doing? Bri, get down from that bed this instant, and for God’s sake, stop throwing things! Eoin, stop ranting in Gaelic. The lass has no idea what ye are saying. It’s time we had a talk, all three of us, but I will have no part in it while the two of ye are acting like ye have gone and lost yer minds.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“Let me explain, Eoin. I’m not a witch. I . . .”  He immediately interrupted me with more words in Gaelic that I didn’t understand before he turned and walked over to the window seat to stare outside.  “What do ye expect me to do with ye now, lass? I should’ve left ye down in the dungeon to rot, but I expect ye spelled me so that I would relent and release ye, aye? What did ye plan to do, Blaire, place spells on us to do yer bidding and torture me for having married ye? I canna believe Arran was right! What a wicked bitch ye are!” Anger flared within me, and I made no effort to continue the accent I’d tried so hard to use over the past weeks. “Are you crazy? Have I done or said anything to anyone since I’ve been here that would make you think that I wanted to hurt you? If you’d just stop all of your insane ranting and listen to me, I could explain what I was doing in the spell room.” “How did ye even know about the room, Blaire? Ye had no business being in that part of the castle at all!” “Mary showed me. It’s where she found me when I showed up here.” “Ye are a damned liar, Blaire! Do ye no remember the day ye arrived? Ye insulted just about everyone in the castle, and ye nearly broke poor Kip’s back with the inconsiderate load ye piled onto him!” “No!” I was no longer afraid, but I was so angry I was on the verge of tears. Each breath seemed painful in my chest. “I don’t remember the day Blaire arrived because I’m not Blaire! I don’t understand why or how I got here, but I’ve spent almost every minute since I showed up in this godforsaken place trying to get back home to Texas.” “Not Blaire? Texas? God, Arran was right! How could I have been so blind? Well, I’ll no more be fooled by ye, and I’ll no have ye causing havoc here anymore.” He reached as if to grab for my arm, but I evaded him, jumping quickly to the left and chunking the nearest object I could reach at his head. It hit him square on the nose. With a ferocious growl, he leapt in my direction once more.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“Blaire, do ye remember the time ye shot me in the arse? Did ye really think it necessary? All I did was tell ye that you could no come down to the village with me and Arran.” He turned to watch her closely, hoping she would correct him. He knew why she’d really shot him. His father had spent what seemed like half a day explaining to him why he was never to speak to a lady in such a hurtful way ever again.  “Nay, Eoin. That isn’t why I shot ye, that day. I shot ye because ye told me I was the ugliest lass that ye’d ever seen, and ye’d rather kiss Griffin’s arse than be married to me someday. It was the summer we walked in on our fathers discussing the betrothal.”  “Aye. That’s right. I do apologize, Blaire. I was young and foolish. At that age, I’d rather have kissed Griffin’s arse than any lass.” He laughed, thinking himself foolish for giving Arran’s notion any thought.  As they reached the castle grounds and Eoin stashed their equipment away, he thought of one last question as Bri turned to make her way up to her room in the castle. “I canna remember which ear it is that yer father canna hear from. Which is it?” “It’s his right.”  As she turned and walked inside the castle, Eoin felt his heart drop into the deepest depths of his stomach.  He knew it had always been her father’s left ear.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“What’s wrong, lass? She’s got more fire in her than she looks. She’ll be a fine ride for ye.” “How do I get on her?”  The question surprised him, but he ignored it as he bent to offer her his assistance in mounting the horse. No sooner had Blaire situated herself on the mare than the mare started whining and trying to pull at the reins that kept her fastened to the edge of the stables.  “What do I do with her, Eoin?” “Just stroke her, lean forward and whisper in her ear, calm her as ye would yer own horse.”  He turned and climbed onto Griffin, leaning forward to untie the reins of both horses so that they could set off toward the village. He rode ahead a short distance, waiting for Blaire and the mare to join him, but when he heard no hooves he turned to see Blaire and the mare sitting at the side of the stables where he’d left them.   Clicking, he steered Griffin back toward the stables. “What’s the matter with ye, lass? Do ye no longer want to go?” “No, I do want to. I just don’t know how to do this.” Eoin frowned as he pulled back on Griffin’s reins, stopping him next to Sheila. He knew Blaire could ride. He’d seen her do it many times, with many different horses. Why was she feigning ignorance now? Perhaps, she was afraid that he’d be angry with her for not wanting to accompany him. Or mayhap she wanted a reason to ride with him on the same horse.  While he wasn’t sure of the reason, he enjoyed the second possibility much more. “Would ye like to ride with me, lass? Griffin may be old, but he can carry ye and me together, easily.” “Aye, I think that would be best.” Ah, so she did want to ride next to him. He smiled inwardly at himself, pleased at the notion, as he lifted her from Sheila’s back and placed her snugly in between his legs astride Griffin.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time

“Ach, lassie! Ye sure have managed to upset the men around here. One’s yearning for ye so much he has no stayed sober in days, and the other’s calling ye a whore, and that’s the nicest of it! Now, stand up! I’ve sent both of the boys away for a bit. I’ll bring ye back up and place ye in his late mother’s chambers, and ye can get yerself cleaned up. I expect ye’ll have some time alone. It will take the lads a wee bit o’ time to calm down and realize how foolish they’ve both been.”
― Bethany Claire, Love Beyond Time