Never Say Goodbye Read online

  Praise for Kim Sakwa’s #1 bestseller THE PROPHECY:

  “Gwen and Greylen are truly the power couple from the 15th century. Best book I have read all year.”

  —L.A. Moore, Goodreads User

  “A wonderful and enchanting love story with strong likable characters.”

  —Amazon Reviewer

  “The story not only contains humor, but romance, action, and unconditional love…It completely pulled me in.”

  —Amazon Reviewer

  “Unique, powerful storytelling carries the reader seamlessly from century to century, character to character, longing to longing, until fate unites the lovers.”

  —Lyn, Amazon Reviewer

  “I love time travel romances with huge hunky highlanders and this one did not disappoint.”

  —Amazon Reviewer

  “Gwen’s fiery and personable character charmed me.”

  —Kaurie, Amazon Reviewer

  “Excellently written and absolutely enjoyable… At least for a few days, I lived in 15th century Scotland… I highly recommend this book.”

  —Bruce, Amazon Reviewer

  “This is a fabulous read, one that I really enjoyed. I found myself laughing throughout the book.”

  —Barnesandnoble.com Reviewer

  “The Prophecy will take you away from the stresses of today, and into a completely different world.”

  —Luxe Getaways

  Cover

  Praise for The Prophecy

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue

  Join Kim Sakwa Online

  Never Say Goodbye is a work of fiction. The names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either products of my imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events are coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 Kim Sakwa

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

  ISBN 978-1-7336172-5-3

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2020906019

  Published in Clarkston, Michigan.

  Six-year-old Callesandra Eleanor Montgomery arranged her favorite dolls and stuffed animals, then sat to pour them some imaginary tea and tell them a story. Her little legs crossed beneath her blanket as she got comfortable, and her fingers brushed back the soft auburn curls that had come loose from her bow. At this time of day, she was supposed to be resting, but Callesandra was a precocious child with lots of energy. And perhaps by choice or need, this story was one she repeated every day without fail.

  It started with a stormy night, like all good stories should. Her papa, Admiral Alexander Montgomery, had thrown a party that night. Callie loved when her papa had parties. The men dressed in blue uniforms with big gold braids and the ladies wore pretty ball gowns with lots of lace. Music played all throughout the house and the tables were always filled with her favorite foods, like white soup, meat pies, jellies, and dry cake.

  But that night, the night in question, Callie didn’t care much about the party. She wasn’t feeling well. Janey, one of her nannies, kept trying to give her awful-tasting medicine, so to escape, Callie grabbed her three favorite dolls and snuck into her papa’s study. Her papa was busy at his desk, but when Callie came up next to him, he lifted her to his lap and hugged her tight. Her papa always hugged her. Then they heard Janey calling after her, and Papa put his finger to his lips, then moved his legs so she could hide beneath his desk. Callie loved it under Papa’s desk. She had a blanket and toys and, of course, her papa’s legs, so it was warm and cozy. She had just finished arranging her dolls when her papa’s best friend, Gregor, came in. Gregor was her favorite because he always picked her up and spun her around until she was twirling high in the air. But tonight, he sounded very serious.

  “There’s trouble, Alexander,” he’d said, and Callie stilled immediately.

  Her papa swore, something Callie had never heard before, and it scared her. His chair scraped the floor so loud she had to cover her ears from the sound.

  That was the night Callesandra met her new mama.

  After her papa and Gregor had left the study, Callie went back to her room. Janey made her take the yucky-tasting medicine after all, then helped Callie change into a nightgown. It was a short while later that she saw her new mama for the first time. She and Janey were in the hallway outside her mama’s room on the way back to bed when her mama called out, “Wait.”

  Callie was scared at first, because her mama was mean and pinched her a lot. Callie figured that’s just how mamas were, but when she stood before her, this mama spoke softly and was nice. Her new mama looked just like her old mama, but she wasn’t mean and didn’t hurt her. She had prettier eyes too. They sparkled blue, whereas her old mama’s eyes had been brown.

  The whole house had changed now that her mama was different. Now, Mama made her papa smile and laugh. And her mama taught Callie to play the piano and dance. She taught Papa how to dance too. Not that Papa didn’t know how to dance. It was just that Mama danced different. Callie loved this new mama so much and knew her papa did too.

  Callie still had her hiding spots, though, so she sometimes heard her mama and papa whisper about things. Things like her papa insisting that her mama was never to go near the cliffs again. Ever. Her papa was really fierce when he told her mama that. He was fierce anyway, even though he was always kind to Callie. He was an admiral in the Royal Navy. Callie thought it was funny to sometimes call him Admiral, just like Goodly, their butler.

  The second night that changed their lives forever came three months later, when her papa said that they were sailing for America. He was in his study barking orders. Her papa was really good at barking orders. Her mama said, “If you have a crisis, Papa is the only person you need with you.” Callie was hiding under his desk again; it really was the best hiding place. Her uncle Stephen, Gregor, and the rest of Papa’s men were carrying big, heavy chests down to the shore. Callie knew they were filled with gold and silver because she had peeked when she saw them piled up in the front hall. She had also seen the things that were really important to her papa in the trunks, like the instruments he used to make maps and to measure the stars. Janey and Beatrice were upstairs packing like the dickens so they could take their things with them. And her mama, well, she was looking for her!

  Her mama had come in earlier to tell Papa she had a bad feeling, but that wasn’t anything special. Callie’s new mama always had bad feelings, and Callie had to cover her mouth because she almost laughed when Papa said, “Really? You? A bad feeling?” Mama didn’t say anything, but Callie knew she was rolling her eyes. She knew everything about Mama now. Ever since that night with the yucky medicine and new mama arriving, they had spent so much time together that Callie almost forgot there had ever been a time when she wasn’t there.

  “Twenty minutes, Amanda,” Papa said. “That ship—we’re on it. If there’s anything you can’t live without, you’d better fetch it now.” Callie figured the one thing that her mama was trying to fetch was her
. She’d seen the ship her papa was talking about too. It had been anchored offshore all day. When her mama came back a few minutes later, she told her papa that she needed to talk to him, but Papa said it had to wait. Callie was starting to get a bad feeling all of her own because her mama had sounded so worried. So, while they rolled up maps and started tossing big leather books in another wooden chest, she snuck out of her papa’s study.

  Callie hid in the hall behind the tall clock until she saw her mama come out. She called Callie’s name, looking up and down the hallway before she started walking outside toward the stables. Callie ran to catch up with her. She had just come through the gates when someone grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth so she couldn’t scream. That was when she saw her mama up ahead, slung over another man’s shoulder. Her papa was going to be furious. Especially when he realized they were being taken to the cliffs. He was going to roar.

  Rain and lightning started just as the two men carrying Callie and her mama set them down and made them walk backward toward the opening of the tunnel that led right out to nothing. Callie knew it was a three-hundred-foot drop to the sea because her papa had told her so. She didn’t know how far three hundred feet was, but she knew it was too far. Callie hoped he was fibbing, but she knew better. Her papa never lied.

  The big, ugly man had a gun and the shorter one, the one who’d grabbed Callie, had a saber. Mama started crying, pleading with the men to let them go, or at least just Callie. She offered them anything they wanted, just so long as they let her daughter go. Callie started crying then too. She was so scared, but she knew her mama would do anything for her. The bad men didn’t care, though; they just laughed. That was when her mama took her chance. While they were laughing and not paying attention, her mama grabbed Callie’s hand and whispered that there was a ledge just beneath the opening and to hold on to her tight. Callie didn’t have time to wonder how her mama knew about the ledge, she just did as she was told. Her mama stepped over the cliff’s edge, and Callie went with her as they dropped down to the ledge that really was there, and not even that far down.

  Callie had no idea how strong her mama was until that night. She kept Callie safe and secure, pressed super tight between her body and the wall of the cliff while she held on to the rock above her head. Hidden now by the rock face, Callie heard the bad men start yelling at each other that they’d lost them. After a while, Mama said she thought the bad men were gone and she was going to try to lift Callie up so she could climb back inside the tunnel.

  Callie nodded, but before Mama could get a grip on her, lightning struck so close that Callie startled and slipped from the ledge. Her mama cried out and grabbed her with one hand, just in the nick of time. Her wrist hurt badly where Mama was gripping it, and her shins were scraped from her fall, but as Callie peeked down at the swirling water and sharp rocks below, she knew this was better. That was when Callie heard her papa roar from above. She couldn’t see his face, but Callie had never heard him roar like that before. She twisted around to see his hand clutched around her mama’s wrist and her hand clutched around his. Over the whipping wind, Callie heard him tell Mama he was going to lift them out. Callie could hear Uncle Stephen, too, and when she craned her neck, she saw he was lying on top of her papa’s legs so Papa wouldn’t fall.

  Callie panicked and cried out when her wrist started to slip through Mama’s hand because of the rain. Her mama told her papa and Callie heard something in her mama’s voice she’d never heard before—fear. Papa yelled at Uncle Stephen to let him go so he could jump down and get them. But Uncle Stephen wouldn’t get off Papa’s legs and her papa roared at her mama, “Don’t let go!”

  But Mama said, “She’s going to fall, Alexander!”

  That was the first time Callie ever heard her papa beg. She would never forget it. More than how it felt to be dangling there, soaking wet and afraid, she’d remember her papa’s voice.

  “Don’t let go, Amanda! Promise me! Don’t! Let! Go!”

  Then her mama made the saddest sound she’d ever heard. Callie remembered thinking that the last roar she’d heard from her papa sounded like he was being eaten by a pack of wild animals as her mama wrapped her body around her, and they fell.

  They kept falling and falling and Callie was sure they would crash soon, but they didn’t. They landed in the water, and her mama swam them both to shore. Callie remembered then what Grandpapa Montgomery used to tell her about stormy nights, the cliffs, and the tunnels: “Every once in a while, something fantastical happens on a stormy night and a horrible wrong is righted.” Callie figured that’s what happened to her papa and her new mama, that something fantastical had taken place on that first stormy night.

  Callie didn’t know what made the cliffs and tunnels special, but her papa had once told her that whenever he was out on one of his ships, he could see a special pattern that ran down that whole side of the rock wall. Callie told her mama about it when they were resting on the shore, what her pappy had said about fantastical things, and that must be why they were okay. And maybe also why it wasn’t storming anymore.

  But then Callie saw her mama’s hand and wrist. It didn’t look so good. Papa had been holding her tight. Callie looked at her own hand and wrist then—it was reddish and hurt, but not like her mama’s. Her mama’s wrist was kind of purple and the top of her hand and one of her fingers was bleeding really bad.

  When they got back to the house, her papa wasn’t there. The house wasn’t Papa’s anymore, Mama explained. It was just Mama’s. Her mama got really fierce then, just like Papa would when he wanted Callie to remember something very important. She’d said, “Callesandra, no matter what happens, you are my daughter.” She made Callie repeat it. Then she said, “No one will ever, ever, take you away from me. Do you understand me?” Callie didn’t. This was her mama, of course that was true, but she didn’t tell her that, wondering instead when her papa would come, and everything would be okay. Her papa could fix her mama’s hand like he had before when it had to be stitched. He could fix everything.

  But Papa didn’t fix her mama’s hand this time. Instead Mama called someone named Aunt Sam. Callie had never met her before, but her mama had talked about her all the time. When her mama brushed her hair at night, she would tell stories about how she and Aunt Sam became friends—best friends. Now, as Callie looked around the house, she realized just how very, very different it looked than before. All the furniture was new and funny-looking, nowhere near as lovely as the furniture she was used to. The pictures on the walls were different, too, and the kitchen was filled with odd gadgets and shiny objects that looked like nothing she had ever seen before. Callie was about to ask her mama where they were, how they had gotten to this strange place, when Mama grabbed something off of the kitchen counter and held it up to Callie. It didn’t look like too much to her, but Mama explained to her that it was called a “phone” and that if she pressed in just the right spot, it would connect her to Aunt Sam, who had one too.

  Callie was skeptical at first about her mama’s phone, which was just a little smooth and shiny rectangle that she had to be very careful with, but then she realized she really liked it. A lot. Mama cried when she heard Aunt Sam’s voice; she was on the speaker, so Callie heard her too. At first, hearing Aunt Sam’s voice magically blare into the room scared her, but then she realized it was okay because her mama was so happy about it.

  “Jesus, Ammy—are you okay? Where have you been? Amanda—” Aunt Sam started crying then too.

  “Sam,” Mama choked out. “I need help.”

  That night, Callie met a man called Mr. Finch, who, according to her aunt Sam, was the person who would take care of everything. But her mama told her that Mr. Finch was a bodyguard, someone who protected people. And since Papa wasn’t here to protect them, Mr. Finch would. Callie was okay with him either way because when he first came to the house, he knelt down right in front of her and smiled really big. He spoke so
ftly and told her, “It’s going to be okay, Cal.” No one had ever called her Cal before, but she didn’t mind, she liked the way he said it. And there was something about Mr. Finch that made her feel safe.

  They rode together in a big truck. Callie was scared at first because she had never seen one before. But her mama explained that it was quicker than a horse and it was how they traveled places. Mr. Finch lifted her inside right onto her mama’s lap, then put what he called a “seat belt” over them both. Her mama rubbed Callie’s back and hummed pretty music while Callie looked out the windows. They went super fast, reminding her of what it felt like when Gregor would spin her around. And even though the house and the land they drove by looked kind of the same, everything was so very different.

  It was dark by the time Mr. Finch stopped behind a building. A man was waiting outside, and he told Mr. Finch that it was “clear” to go in. That was when her mama told her that she had to have surgery. Callie didn’t really know what that was until the man who was waiting for them told her that he was a doctor. He said that her mama probably needed to have part of her bone replaced because it had been crushed. Callie felt her own wrist then, imagining it crushed instead of nice and whole. The doctor told her mama he would fix her finger and the back of her hand, too, so there wouldn’t be scars, but Mama shook her head. “They don’t have to be ugly,” she said, her voice firm, “but I want to be able to look at these scars forever.”

  Right before they took her mama to the operating room, she turned to Callie and gave her a long, hard look. “We’re going to be okay, baby. I promise,” she said. “Mr. Finch is going to take care of you and Aunt Sam will be here tomorrow.” Callie cried because she hadn’t been away from her mama for so long before. But then Mr. Finch picked her up and hugged her tight, just like one of Papa’s hugs. And it wasn’t too much later before she and Mr. Finch were able to sit in the same room as her mama until she woke up.