Traveler trilogy Book 2, updates every Friday!
Five years after killing Levi Cornwall, Arthur Morgan is happy. He has a wife who loves him, an honest job he enjoys, and two beautiful children named Sadie and Hiram. All of it is turned on its head, h...
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Tori awoke in a cold sweat.
She barely made it to the washbasin in time to throw up in it, retching over the edge in a way that had become all too familiar to her. She'd grown used to the constant nausea by now, but that didn't mean it was comfortable in the slightest.
As she finished heaving, she realized that Arthur had come up behind her to hold her hair softly with his hands, keeping it out of the puddle of vomit in the basin. One hand clenched her hair in a loose ponytail, and the other softly stroked her back supportively. "Easy, darlin'," he whispered calmly in the dark. "Let it out."
"Little bastards," Tori panted, spitting bile out of her mouth as she poured herself a cup of water from the nearby pitcher. "I guess after how easy it was being pregnant with Sadie and Hiram, I'm due for my fair share of hardship. Naomi used to tell me I made pregnancy look easy. Guess I'm paying for that now."
"It don't help that there are two of them in there," Arthur reminded her as she rinsed her mouth out and spat the water back out into the basin.
She'd become a bit of a professional at rinsing her mouth out these days. Being intimately familiar with the taste of her own vomit on her tongue was a place she'd never imagined herself being in over the course of her life. Were it not for the love and support she received from Arthur, there was no way she could have endured this particular pregnancy. She certainly couldn't have done it alone.
"No," Tori agreed. "And the two little assholes in my uterus seem to have teamed up to make sure I never keep a meal down these days."
Arthur took her in his arms and kissed the top of her head. "How you feelin' now, sweetheart?"
Every time he uttered the word "sweetheart" to her, her heart never failed to melt. There was just something about his tone, the inflection of his voice, that made her feel weak in the knees and her soul as soft as butter.
"Better," she sighed. "Well enough to go back to bed, I think."
She had no idea of the time, but it seemed either quite late at night or early in the morning. The sky outside was dark, but she could hear rain drumming violently on the roof above them, as well as cracks of thunder that followed sudden, bright flashes of lightning.
Placing his hand on her back, Arthur helped guide her back to bed and helped her under the covers. As he slid in next to her, she wrapped her arms around him and snuggled into his side, with her head atop his shoulder and his arms around her as well.
"I've been thinking," she said at last as his body heat began to warm her up, "I want to go and see Mary Linton tomorrow."
She felt his whole body stiffen. Clearly the idea made him uncomfortable. "Why?" he asked in a quiet, even voice, although she could tell he was trying hard not to show any emotion whatsoever.
"Because," she said, "I'm her descendant. She's my family, Arthur, and apart from what my grandfather used to say about her before he died, I have no idea what she's like. I already met Micah Bell, and I figure there's no way she'll be as disappointing as he was."
