None of that mattered. All she could think about was Spencer. Spencer smiling. Spencer concentrating at the helm. Spencer barking out orders. Spencer standing by the rail as the wind whipped through his long black hair.

Spencer, Spencer, Spencer. Morning, noon, and night.

Jeez, she was pathetic!

The object of her thoughts materialized behind her. She was mortified to find herself blushing, as if the wretched man could read her thoughts!

"Look, just over the horizon. See the dark strip rising just over the water?" he asked as he placed one hand on her shoulder and pointed with the other.

She nodded, not able to speak quickly with him standing so close and taking her breath away.

"That, my lady, is London." He said this with so much dread that Destiny turned her face to look at him.

"I wish that there was a way to make this easier on you," she told him, unaware that her love for him was shining in her eyes and worried expression. But Spencer saw it, and his dread grew.

He managed a smile and squeezed her shoulders. "You make it easier by just being here, Destiny."

He knew that he'd lied to her. Her being with him, every moment of everyday was a sweet torment. On one hand he reveled in her company. Basking in the warmth of her smile or the sound of her laughter. But these feelings that she stirred within him, could never be voiced and could never be acknowledged. He was probably heir to the dukedom. Dukes had responsibilities. Dukes had to marry well and produce little blue blooded heirs. Dukes did not publically dally with commoners no matter how beautiful or enchanting they were.

Especially beautiful commoners that did belong to this century.

No. No one must find out. No one could ever suspect, especially Destiny...that he had fallen in love with her.

London was not how she'd pictured it. Some how she thought it would be something out of a play she'd seen once depicting the d.i.c.ken's tale, "The Christmas Carol". Something cozy with clean cobblestone streets, cute little English people herding sheep or something and and grand castle, or two set off in the distance.

Instead it was smelly, dirty, and the waterfront was filled with criminal looking men that looked worse than anything she'd ever seen on America's Most Wanted! She watched as a dirty little boy tried to pick someones pocket, then get knocked on his rear when he was found out.

It was a place that Destiny was certain that she didn't want to spend alot of time in!

Captain Spencer threw a large seaman's cape over her shoulders and guided her off the ship. "Stay close by me and for G.o.d's sake keep your head down. The less attention we draw our way, the better," he said quietly.

"Not a problem," she answered him with a shudder.

Without much trouble, Spencer managed to obtain a carriage and soon they were on their way to Ballington.

As they were leaving the city, Destiny couldn't get over the fact that she was seeing history the way it was two hundred years ago. She felt like she should get a pen and paper and take notes or something so that she could write a book about it when she got back...

Got back.... If she got back...

"Dear girl, you just went from a look that held pure awe and fascination to a frown of despair! I don't quite understand how you swing so swiftly from one mood to the next," Spencer contemplated from his side of the carriage. "Whatever has you upset, now?"

Destiny sighed. "Homesickness, I guess. Though, to see history pa.s.s before your eyes is quite unbelieveable. I was thinking of the book I could write about the real 19th century England. I could make millions!"

The Captain laughed. "A woman writing a book? Why, my dear, you would be laughed out of town for even suggesting such a thing!"

"Oh, Pul-ease!" she scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I'll have you know that women in my century frequently make the best seller's list, beating out many men for that honor!" She shifted in her seat, trying to get comfortable. "Really Captain. This male-chauvanistic thing you've got going is really getting on my nerves!"

Spencer raised an eyebrow. "And your atrocious vocabulary is beginning to wear on mine! It's appalling how the English language has deteriorated in just two hundred years!" It was a on-going argument between them, though it still seemed to ruffle Destiny's feathers every time.

"I'm not English. I'm..."

"Have I told you how lovely you are when you get angry," he mused, interrupting her retort. He watched as more color bled into her soft cheeks. "Which is why I bring you to that state often!"

Destiny frowned and turned away to look out the window once more. She hoped that he wouldn't see how his words affected her. "What else can I expect from a pirate!"

"True, but you must forget that about myself, as soon as we enter Ballington. You mustn't even call me Captain."

"What should I call you? Spencer?"

He winced. He wanted to tell her to call him anything her heart desired, but he knew that wasn't possible. "You must address me as 'my lord.' Tis what is proper."

"Proper, shmoper! I feel like I've fallen into a Barbara Cartland novel!" she complained. But Spencer only smiled absently, his mind else where.

They rode in silence for several miles. Again, Destiny shifted around in her seat, trying to find a s.p.a.ce on the seat that was more padded. The road was primitive and b.u.mpy and it would have been horrible driving over it in a car, much less a souped-up buggy! As she wiggled around her knee hit Spencer's knee and once again, as always, she felt a jolt of eletricity, run up her leg.

Spencer felt it too, because the eyes that met hers were burning with undisquised heat and..hunger. She usually backed down and away from him when he looked at her this way, scared of her own feelings that churned within her. But this time she didn't.

Maybe it was because she was homesick and lonely, maybe because they were alone in the close quarters of the carriage, or maybe she realized that she was denying the one thing that she craved the most.

His touch.

Spence,never taking his eyes from hers, picked up her hand and drew her to him. She let him place her

beside him, there sides completely touching. The heat radiating between them, though their garments.

Gently, he cradled her face in his hands.

"Destiny." He spoke her name in a whisper, but it was laced with yearning so deep it made her want to weep.

"Yes," was all she said, and was all the words he needed.

There lips met. Softly at first, then again with pa.s.sion. It took no effort to coax her lips apart and for him to delve into the sweet recesses of her month, tongues mating in a ritual older than time.

His hands left her face and smoothed down her throat past her shoulders and around her back drawing

her even closer to him. He was effected and shaken by this one kiss, more than he'd ever been in his

whole life.

"Oh, Spence," she cried, when his lips left her mouth and found the soft skin at her neck. "Who are you to make me feel this way? Why did it have to be you?"

Spence looked up and into her eyes. Softly he kissed the lids and then laid a feathery kiss on her nose.

"What, sweetness? What do I make you feel?" he breathed as he devoured her lips once again.

Her hand touched the side of his face and she pulled her lips from his. Destiny looked up into Spencers eyes and knew that what she was feeling for this man, could never happen with any other man. "Love. I lo.."

"NO!" he grounded out harshly and set her away from him. Swiftly he sat himself across from her and

covered his face with his hands.

Stunned, Destiny could do no more than stare at him. He dropped his hand but didn't look up at her.

Instead he stared out the window. His features were masked, and hard.

"You do not love me, Destiny. You cannot!" he told her wearily, as if the world rested on his shoulders.

"But...Spencer.." she cried.

"We shall speak of this no more! What happened should not have happened!"

Destiny blinked back tears at his cold tone. If hearts could actually break, hers would be shattered in a

million pieces.

Chapter 5.

Destiny's heart WAS broken. And she felt like crying all over the hateful man all of....five minutes. THEN she got angry. In fact the more she thought about it, the madder she got.

What was with her anyway? It was like being in this time was affecting her emotions! Had Destiny lost her grit, her decorum, for heaven sakes!! She couldn't believe she told him that she loved him. It was like something out of a bad movie!!

She narrowed her eyes at him and decided to give him a piece of her mind. "Look, Captain Bligh!" she started, sarcastically. He looked at her without understanding. "Just forget what I said, all right? It's this time-travel thing that's got me all mixed up and saying things I don't mean."

He looked uncomfortable and looked out the window. "Destiny... You don't have to say anything...."

She rolled her eyes. She's the one that made the horrifying confession and He's embarrased!!! "All I want, is to get out of this backwoods contraption, you people call transportation, and get some rest on a bed that isn't moving with the ocean. Then, I want to find a way to go back to the 20th century!"

Spencer briefly flicked a look her direction, then looked away. He shouldn't feel this way about her. Didn't she realize how hard it was for him to push her away? And to know that she loved him.... It was more than he ever dreamed of and at the same time, something that he could never endulged himself in. His future was uncertain. And what is she did find a way to go home, after he'd grown attached to her? He would be devasted.

For now, he'd ignore his heart, and listen to head. He had to find out what was going on at Ballington.

The silence hung thick and unnerving the rest of the way to the castle.

The Ballington Castle was truly a sight to behold. It was like something out of an BBC film! Beautiful landscaped grounds were bordered by a small villiage and crops that were neatly tended and well kept.

"Holy, moly! This is "some" family home!!" she said in one long breath.

For the first time in many miles, he smiled. "That's Ballington. It's good to see the old man has kept up the place. But then again, " he said, his tone cynical, "he always was more fond of his possessions than he was his own flesh and blood."

She looked at him with compa.s.sion. "Now Spence...Maybe he's changed. It's been years, since you've seen him."

He shook his head. "Men like him don't change, sweetheart. They just keep getting meaner and

meaner as they get older."

Destiny ignored the sentiment, knowing he hadn't meant it. She watched him as the bitterness faded away as he looked upon his boyhood home. She knew that he loved Ballington. She prayed that things would work out for him. After all he'd been through, he certainly deserved to claim his place in the family.

As they entered the grounds, villigers stopped what they were doing and looked curiously at them

as they rode by. Spence, unconciously started naming those he recognized.

"Ah...there's Mrs. Mintle. She would place her sweet meat pies on her window sills, and I would always come by and steal one or two."

Destiny gasped. "You didn't!"