River of Time

by Zoe Matthews

  “That sounds like a great plan,” Victoria said. Collins helped her to her feet. As they left the room to prepare to attend the festivities, Victoria slipped both keys into her pocket. She wanted them to stay with her for one more day.

  Chapter 5

  A darkly clothed man stood behind one of the large oak trees that were providing shade in Victoria’s beautiful flower garden. He moved his head slightly around the trunk of the tree and watched gleefully as Victoria and Collins left the house. Soon they were walking down the street and out of sight. He knew the house was empty because of some ridiculous festival the city was having, but it didn’t matter to him what the people in this time period were celebrating. What mattered was that he now had his opportunity to search for the two keys. He had been waiting patiently for days, traveling back and forth between 1892 and his own time period of 1569. Finally, the opportunity presented itself. In just a short while, he would have the keys in his possession. Then he could start his plans.

  He remembered the day he found out about the two other keys. For years he had been searching for a second key, and rumors had led him to Ireland. He had finally tracked it down in a small store and had just walked into the building, but Victoria had gotten there first. He remembered she had picked up the key just as he was ready to reach for it himself. He had stayed in the background, waiting for her to put the key back after looking at it curiously, but she hadn’t done that. Instead, she had pulled another key out of her pocket and compared the two. Sliding her key back in its place, she had purchased the second key, and then she quickly left the store.

  The man considered that day a dark, but also beautiful, time in his life. He had lost his chance to purchase the second key, but he had also discovered there was a third one. He tried to follow her, but she had disappeared, nowhere to be found. He assumed she had used the keys to return to her time.

  It took two years to track Victoria down. He was finally able to find her when he time traveled to Denver in the late 1880’s and saw Victoria purchasing some items in a store he was browsing in. He discreetly followed her to the house he was watching now.

  The man had great plans for the keys. The first thing he was going to do was travel back in time to 1564, five years before his own time and force Nellie to marry him. He had been in love with her, since they were children, but she had chosen to marry another. He knew if he could force her to go back in time by five years, he would be able to make her marry him. Then she would be his wife.

  The next plan he was going to put into place was to use the keys to change history. Throughout his travels using his own key, he had discovered many things wrong with the world. He would use the keys in order to stop wars and battles and to start his own. Eventually, with the help of all three keys, he would be a great ruler over many different time periods. He knew the more keys he had, the more specific time he could travel to. Time traveling with one key was limiting. He could choose the place and year he wished to travel, but he would arrive the same day of the year he had left. He had learned from folklore that with two keys, you could choose any day of any year. He hoped that with three keys, he might even find a way to exist twice in the same time. He couldn’t help the smile that crept on his face, as he imagined people worshiping him as a god. He could be anywhere and everywhere; he would have total control over his people!

  He waited for a few minutes to make sure Victoria and Collins didn’t return, and when he was sure it was safe, he slipped out from behind the tree trunk and quickly made his way to the back of the house. He envied the large, Victorian home. To him, it was a mansion. The homes in this time period were much nicer than the small cottage he owned in his own time. He instantly decided that he would eventually take this home for himself. But not today. Today, he was there only to get the keys.

  He let himself inside the home through the servant’s entrance. It wasn’t locked and he was glad he didn’t have to break in. He was hoping he would find the keys, and no one would even know he had been there. He found himself in a large kitchen and allowed himself a moment to look around. The kitchen had a large, cook stove, cupboards full of beautiful dishes, and a large, cherry-wood table. He wished he could spend some time exploring the house, but knew he needed to get the keys. Maybe after he found them, he would spare some time to look around a bit. After all, very soon this was going to be his own home.

  The black cloak he was wearing was making him hot, so he slipped it off, and draped it over one of the kitchen chairs. Instinct told him the keys were not going to be in the kitchen, so he kept going, poking his head in various rooms as he went. When he saw a room that looked like an office, he decided to start his search there. He made sure he was very careful as he searched. If he opened a drawer, he closed it after looking through the contents. If he moved an item, he moved it back to its original position. He didn’t find the keys, so he continued to another room. This room had large comfortable chairs and sofas. There was a beautiful fireplace surrounded by large, gray stones. He knew this was a room used to relax in. A few books sat on a short table in between the two chairs. On one of the books, he saw a small wooden box. As he picked it up to open it, his own key vibrated in his pocket, and he knew he had found the keys. Just like he suspected, the key he owned and the two keys Victoria had were connected together in some way. He opened the lid and frowned fiercely. The two keys were not there.

  He threw the box down to the floor in disgust. Where did she put them? He knew the box was where she stored the keys because of the vibration of his own key. But where were they? Had she suspected he was coming and had hidden them away?

  The man’s chest started to heave, as he got more and more furious. He was going to find those keys, if it was the last thing he did. He needed them, wanted them, and coveted them. He knew they weren’t in the office, so he went up the stairs. There were four, large rooms up there, along with a room that was an indoor outhouse. Over the next few hours, he went through room by room frantically searching for the keys. At first he tried to be careful, but eventually, he didn’t care anymore. He threw things out of drawers, closets, and trunks. When he didn’t find the keys in one room, he went to the next. When he had searched three of the rooms, he approached the fourth and found the door locked. This made him furious. After doing everything he could to jimmy the lock, he pulled his own key out of his pocket and transported himself into the room. What he found amazed him.

  The room looked like a small museum. It didn’t have a bed or dresser for clothes. Instead, it had shelves full of items that had been collected from different, time periods. He saw scrolls from the ancient, time periods, some paintings, and a slew of dresses, hats, gloves, and shoes. There were tables that held larger items that wouldn’t fit on the shelves. There was even a small bookshelf filled with books. The man knew Victoria had traveled to many different times and collected all the items in the room to show from her travels. The man walked around the room, looking at each item, and only respect for Victoria and her diligence in collecting so many items kept him from destroying this room out of spite. Logically, the keys should have been in this room, but he knew they were not; his own key was not vibrating.

  The man left the room, leaving the door open. He ran down the stairs and back into the office. Finding a piece of paper and pen, he quickly wrote a note:

  I know you have two keys. I know what they are used for. I want them. They are meant to be mine. I will be back in two days, and, if you don’t give me the keys, there will be repercussions.

  Golin

  ****

  Later that evening, Victoria and Collins decided to return home. It had been a delightful day. They had enjoyed a picnic with some of their friends. Victoria had spent some time looking at various booths that sold homemade items and had purchased a beautiful necklace with turquoise stones. Later when it had grown dark, there was an exciting, fireworks display.

  When they entered Victoria’s home, she noticed Collins immediately becoming stiff, as if he
knew something was wrong.

  “Something isn’t right,” he half-whispered to her.

  She looked around, not seeing anything amiss. “What do you mean?”

  “Stay here,” he commanded her and ran up the stairs.

  Victoria tried to obey his command, but, as she heard him opening the bedroom doors, she couldn’t stay, as he requested, and went up the stairs.

  “Collins?” she called. “Is everything alright?”

  She stepped into her bedroom and gasped with disbelief. Someone had come into her home and had gone through all of her things. Clothing was strewn everywhere. Her perfume bottles had been knocked over and some thrown to the floor, leaking their precious liquid. The quilts and blankets on her bed had been removed and one of them had been ripped almost in half.

  “Oh, my heavens,” she breathed in disbelief. Collins appeared at the doorway.

  “I’ve quickly searched the entire house. Whoever did this is gone now.”

  “What could they have been looking for?” Victoria asked with a shaky voice.

  Collins shrugged. “The other bedrooms look the same as yours, except the one at the end of the hall.”

  “The one that is locked,” Victoria said.

  Collins shook his head. “The door is wide open, although I have no idea how the person got inside. But nothing in that room has been disturbed.”

  Victoria ran to the room she kept all of her mementos she had collected in. As she traveled to different times, she would bring one or two items back with her. She had collected quite a few things over the years. She secretly called it her “Time-Travel Room.”

  Sure enough, the door stood wide open. There was no evidence of someone breaking the lock or the door down to get inside. She found it strange that whoever had ransacked the other rooms had left this one alone.

  “We should send for the police,” Victoria told Collins. “I will need to see if anything was taken.”

  “Let’s wait to send for the police,” Collins advised. “I have a feeling the break-in has to do with the keys.”

  “But no one knows of the keys except us,, and now Kimberly and Patrick’s family,” Victoria protested. “We’ve been very careful.”

  “Someone has figured it out,” Collins guided her out of the room and down the stairs. “Let’s search the rest of the house. Maybe we can find a clue.”

  Victoria wasn’t sure if someone would leave a clue that would lead them to who did this, but she knew, if Collins was right, and it was someone who was after the keys, sending for the police was out of the question. They both hurried into her office. Victoria was surprised that whoever had ransacked the bedrooms hadn’t done the same with this room. Collins left her side and walked to her oak desk. Picking up a piece of paper, he read what was on it quietly and then handed it to her.

  “It looks like we know someone is after the keys for sure,” Victoria commented, as she sank into one of the chairs that sat in front of the desk.

  “Yes, and his name is Golin,” Collins replied. Taking the paperback from her, he read it again and then set it back on the desk.

  “Golin is a strange name,” Victoria murmured. She suddenly felt exhausted.

  “It’s going to take some time to figure out who he is, how he found out about the keys, and why he wants them.”

  “I think he might have a key of his own,” Victoria commented. “The door to my Time-Travel Room wasn’t broken into. He somehow was able to get into that room without needing to open the door.”

  “Good point,” Collins replied. He sighed and walked around the desk. “Let’s check out the rest of the house.”

  Together, they explored the parlor and then the kitchen. In the kitchen, they both saw an item of clothing draped over one of the chairs. Collins picked it up and held it out. It was a large, black cloak. It had a particularly unpleasant smell.

  “He left something behind.” Collins quickly checked the pockets but found nothing that would help them figure out who its owner was.

  Victoria took a few steps back from the cloak. She didn’t want to touch it. Watching Collins set it down on the table, she closed her eyes tightly, hoping that when she opened them, the nightmare they came back to, after an absolutely delightful day, would be over.

  “We need to talk,” Collins announced decidedly. He held out his hand, and, although she had never done so before, Victoria placed her own in his without hesitation. “Let’s go into the parlor.”

  Once they were in her favorite room of her house, she sat down on the sofa and waited silently while Collins quickly searched the room. Nothing was out of place. Victoria saw there was one exception; the wooden box she kept her two keys in was lying open on the floor in front of the table she had set it on. She quickly slid her hand into the pocket, where she had put the keys hours before. She was very glad she had followed her instincts, wanting to have the keys with her one last time.

  Collins picked up the box. “The keys are gone.”

  “No, I have them,” Victoria pulled both keys out of her pocket. “For some reason, I didn’t want to part with them. I put them in my pocket before we left.”

  Collins sighed with relief. “I’m glad whoever is after those keys didn’t find them, but this shows us that we need to give them to Patrick and Kimberly as soon as possible.”

  Victoria nodded her head in agreement. It was definitely time to give up ownership. She trusted Kimberly and Patrick and knew they would use them wisely and take good care of them. The keys would be safe deep in the Rocky Mountains on their ranch.

  “I’m very concerned about your safety,” Collins told her, as he sat down beside her on the sofa. “There are people here during the day, but you are alone at night. What if Golin comes back again? He could harm you.”

  “Once we take the keys to the ranch, I should be fine,” Victoria replied, trying to soothe his fears.

  Collins shook his head. “Golin won’t know that we no longer have them.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair, making some of it stand up straight.

  Victoria was surprised at the gesture. Collins had always been so formal around her. She considered him a good friend, especially since her late husband, Charles, had passed on. She had been so grateful when he chose to stay on as butler. He had been with them, since her marriage to Charles, never finding love for himself. But even though they had become friends, he had always been very careful to keep to his role as butler.

  “I have something to ask you, something I’ve wanted to talk to you about for some time,” Collins confessed.

  Victoria’s heart skipped a beat at his words. He looked at her very intently with the same peculiar look in his eyes she had seen just that morning.

  “Will you marry me?” he asked, taking her hand in his own. He continued to look at her, not allowing his gaze to move even for a moment.

  Victoria’s breath caught in her throat. Did she hear him right? Was he asking her to marry him? Out of everything she thought he might say, this was the last thing she expected.

  “Collins…” Victoria started to say but he interrupted.

  “Let me say what I need to say before you give your answer.”

  Victoria nodded her head in agreement.

  “I know you still love Charles. You had a wonderful marriage with him. I promise I will never try to take his place. I know he will always have a place in your heart. But I’m asking you to make some room for me. I have grown to love you.”

  “Collins, I do think of you as a dear friend,” she told him gently. “But I don’t know if I will ever be able to love someone again.”

  Collin’s eyes showed disappointment, but he plunged ahead. “But are you fond of me?”

  “Of course,” Victoria replied. “I just don’t know if it will be fair to you if I accept.”

  “I believe some people are blessed enough to have a love like you and Charles had, but I also believe we can choose to love another. I still would like to marry you. We can continue as we ar
e…as good friends. Maybe someday, the friendship will turn into love.”

  Victoria was silent, as she thought about what he had said. She had been feeling at loose ends lately in her life, feeling sadness that she would likely be alone for some years to come. She was 65-years-old, but she was healthy and still had quite a bit of energy. Collins was a few years older than she was, but he also was still healthy and full of life.

  She wondered what Charles would have thought, if he had known he wouldn’t live very long. Would he be agreeable to a marriage between his butler and his wife? Victoria knew immediately the answer would be yes. He wouldn’t want Victoria to be alone for the rest of her years on the earth. She knew he, too, considered Collins a good friend. The three of them had immigrated together years ago from England, soon after Victoria had married Charles. In England, marriage to one’s butler wouldn’t have been possible in their social class. Here in America, such things no longer mattered to most people, especially in the west.