by Gloria Gay
Jane thanked Cybil and told her she preferred to spend the day packing, so she would have her mind occupied and her thoughts away from the last time she saw Jestyn.
Nothing ever made it easier, except perhaps piling more work on herself to keep her mind busy as she had done the past year.
She had finally decided that returning to New York would be the best way to let go of the past because while she lived and worked in England every little thing reminded her of Jestyn. And she convinced herself that her transfer request was still in a drawer in her desk, although she had put off giving it to Jake again and again.
She wondered if she should make the trip back to Lydford and take the tour again as a last sentimental journey. Then she would force her mind to let go of her memories of Jestyn and try to live a normal life. She had gone there four times already so this would be the last time she would walk the halls of Greywick Hall, hoping, as she always did, that by some miracle she would see Jestyn again.
Would seeing the portrait again be good? She doubted it. It would wrench her right back to the past and she had made some progress. Hadn’t she? Her last visit had been three months ago.
Her eyes filled with tears. No. No progress whatsoever, if she was going to be true to herself and admit it.
So yes, she decided. She needed that final tour of the house again, before she gave Jake her transfer back to the States request.
She needed to see Jestyn’s portrait one last time or she would regret it the rest of her life.
After the tour she would leave Great Britain and become a New Yorker again. She would force herself to hand Jake her transfer request as soon as she returned from her trip to Lydford.
Jane’s lease on her car was due to expire – just a few weeks more were left on it. She would not renew it.
She checked her tote and her flashlight, as she always did before any trip long or short. She also checked the overnight bag she had packed. She had made reservations for one night at the same Exeter hotel where she had spent that wonderful time with Jestyn by the quays. If she was going to do this she might as well go all the way. She would regret it if she didn’t, once she was back in New York.
The hours flew by fast as Jane’s mind was immersed in memories and regrets and she was soon nearing her destination. And as she saw the turrets of Greywick Hall her heart started thumping.
Now she wished she had agreed to make the trip with Cybil.
Her mind was elsewhere as she went through the same history of Greywick Hall by the tour guides and then finally they were led to the portrait gallery.
As she had done the first time she had made the tour with Cybil, Jane lingered in front of Jestyn’s portrait as the tour crowd moved down the gallery.
Tears slid down her cheeks, unnoticed by her as she looked into Jestyn’s eyes in the portrait.
As always, nothing happened. No miracle made Jestyn appear. Finally, giving up at last, she headed back to her car and just as she was walking along the antique rose bushes she decided to return to the portrait for just one last look at the beloved face of her dreams.
The place was empty except for the guard who was entranced with his cell phone. She looked at Jestyn’s portrait and into his eyes.
She placed her hand on her heart.
“I have your hand on my heart, my love.”
“And I have your hand on mine, Jane.”
Jane whirled to the voice behind her.
“You!”
She and Jestyn embraced and held on until Jane noticed they had the guard’s attention on them.
“Jestyn! How…?”
“Let’s go outside, darling,” Jestyn said, while Jane’s heart was thumping at an alarming rate. Was this real? Was Jestyn real or was he only a figment of her imagination? Had she finally gone off the deep end with yearning, she asked herself as she followed him out to the gardens like a sleepwalker.
“I’ve taken this tour twice,” Jestyn told her, holding on to her hand as they walked along one of the garden paths where other tourists were walking, “each time hoping it would be the day. I hit the jackpot today,” he added with a wide grin.
“I’m not hallucinating?” Jane asked, still not convinced.
“If you are, then I’m also hallucinating,” he said with the smile she had dreamed of day and night.
He motioned to a bench and they sat close together.
“A few weeks after you left,” Jestyn said, looking deep into Jane’s eyes as they held hands, “I went to check up on the refurbishing of our curricle, the one you drove across Mystic Bridge. I was having the squabs redone and the carriage re-painted. I’m very fond of that carriage because it was the last place you were with me. Mr. Bendler, the carriage house manager, told me he had something for me. ‘I found this pendant stuck between the side of the carriage and the front seat,’ he told me. ‘I wanted to make certain to give it to you in person so I kept it in my safe. It appears to be a valuable piece of jewelry.’”
“The pendant!” Jane said. “What happened next, how did you…?”
“I told Cedric that I had to join you in your time, if it were at all possible, because the life I was leading was as an empty shell. Without you I had nothing. That I was going to consult Cannidge about it. I was sure he would advise me.”
“Oh Jes!”
“Once Cedric had resigned himself to not seeing me again if I was successful, he told me to calm down and plan my journey to your time carefully because otherwise I would have problems, just as you had had in our time.
“He said that if I brought some of our gold coins to the future they would be even more valuable as antiques and I would be able to establish myself in London before I attempted to search for you. He was right, darling, for I couldn’t just wander the streets, asking for handouts in order to eat.
“But you and I didn’t come to the future at the same time. You said you had been here a whole year after you returned. I have only been here a little more than a month.
“I turned the bag of gold coins into a nice bank account and rented the townhouse my family had lost through the decades. While I looked for you I also enrolled in university and I’m planning to—”
“To study aeronautics!” Jane finished for him.
“How did you know?”
“I’m a witch, remember?” Jane said with a laugh, then added, “I noticed how fascinated you were with the photo of the airlines I showed you.”
“I asked the owner of the restaurant where I often eat how one goes about finding someone who is a journalist.”
“Google?”
“How did you know?” Jestyn asked.
“Just a wild guess,” Jane said.
“So I thought I’d come here just one more time before I started to search for you with that Google thing. Mr. Almandier told me he would help me with Google since I don’t know yet how to handle computers. I’m going to take a computer course at the university before anything else because Mr. Almandier said I would be like a babe in the woods otherwise.”
“I can’t believe I’m actually looking at you,” Jane said. “I’ve spent the most miserable year of my life, convinced I would never see you again, my darling.”
“I can’t believe I’m here, looking at you when that is what I thought of day and night for the past year!” Jestyn said with a wide smile. He stood up and then kneeled before Jane.
“My darling Jane,” he said. “Will marry me?”
“I will, Jestyn. With all my heart I will!” There were tears in Jane’s eyes as Jestyn kissed her.
The End…
Epilogue
“What bothers me to no end,” Jane said to Jestyn as they were having supper at Jestyn’s townhouse, “is that that awful Wilma Millthorpe got away with it. She would have had me killed if you and Cedric hadn’t saved me.”
“It’s almost impossible to bring a criminal suit against a member of the nobility, Jane, even if it were possible to gather evidence from paid agitators. The criminal
suit would have to be presented in the House of Lords and it would have to be against both the Earl and Countess of Millthorpe, since Rosswell aided her in her machinations.”
“So she got away with it,” Jane said.
“Not exactly,” said Jestyn with a smile. “Wilma was furious the last time I saw her,” Jestyn added. “She and Millthorpe came by a few weeks after you left.”
“Why was she furious?” Jane asked. “She got what she wanted, she ran me out of town.”
“I had the pendant that had been found in my carriage,” Jestyn said. “Cannidge told me he was sure I could use the pendant the same way you did, to get to the future. He looked it up in those scrolls of his.
“So I told Wilma that I was going to the United States, to marry you, and that I would make the United States my home and live the rest of my life there with you.”
“What did she say?”
“She went completely crazy and started screaming and throwing things about in the drawing room – our drawing room! She broke several figurines, a valuable vase and one window before Millthorpe and two of my footmen were able to restrain her. Lorraine and her mother had rushed over when they heard the ruckus and were appalled at her. Within the following hour all of Lydford had heard about it.
“Letters by express must have sped to London because her season invitations were retracted.”
“Well,” Jane said with a wide smile, “I always thought she was a nut case.”
About the Author
Author Gloria Gay’s love of painting and writing has always been hopelessly entwined in her life. Her debut novel, First Season, earned a four-star review from Romantic Times Book Review and she went on to publish Forced Offer, Canceled Courtship and Known to All. Recently, Boroughs Publishing Group published her Regency historical romances, Scandal at Almack’s and Lovely Little Liar.
Gloria recently published, with Kindle Direct, a new edition of Canceled Courtship, under the title, KISSED IN THE DARK and a new edition of First Season under the title, LOVE IN A DANGEROUS SEASON, as well as ENCHANTED SUMMER, a Regency romance.
Gloria is grateful for the time you spent reading her time travel romance, A BRIDGE THROUGH TIME and would appreciate your thoughts in a review at a site of your choice.
Gloria and her husband Enrique, an architect, have three grown children and six grand-children and they are lucky to have them all living near them in San Diego, California.
If you would like to be notified about future books by her, please let her know at gloriagay.com.