Time Scout by Robert Asprin & Linda Evans

Kit tightened his hand around the shot glass.

Why was it, he always managed to find a way to flub the most important relationships in his life?

He didn’t have an answer to that, either.

Margo couldn’t believe it She stood trembling in the corner of Goldie Morran’s shop and fought desperately not to cry. After everything she’d been through, after everything she’d proven … She’d even risked losing the gate ito ask a Time Tours guide to watch over Achilles until she could properly free him the next time the gate cycled. She’d handled every adversity and responsibility chance had thrown at her, doing better than she had any right to expect, but nobody was giving her so much as a moment to explain. They all just assumed the worst and dismissed her as a brainless, incapable fool. Worse, Malcolm had told Kit about her lie.

She straightened her back against a weight heavier than the whole Himalayan mountain range and forced her chin up. She might have been kicked out of training, but she wasn’t quitting. Somehow, Margo would prove herself.

”Margo?”

She glanced around to find Goldie Morran watching her. The customers had all departed, their business transacted for the moment Goldie smiled, a sympathetic gesture from one woman to another.

”Don’t take it so hard,” the older woman said. “You’ve clearly proven your mettle. A week down time alone, you said?”

”Yes. In Rome.”

Goldie nodded. “Why don’t we finish that transaction Kit interrupted? I’d like to talk to you.”

Margo fumbled in her belt pouch for the coins she’d brought back to exchange. She thought about selling the Circus gemstone, but decided to send it through with a Time Tours guide the next time Porta Romae cycled Achilles could sell it and use the money to support himself. She was proud of that plan and since ATF would only tax her for it if she tried to take it back through Primary, that was exactly what she intended to do. She might run away from her problems, but she didn’t run from responsibility.