Trapped in Time

by Evangeline Anderson

  “Very good…very good.” He pulled the rag away and stood back, nodding. “She should be extremely biddable now,” he told the other mother. “The effects last about five to six hours which ought to be enough time for you to get her to the park and have her annul her Joining to the Kindred.”

  “No!” Caroline moaned, her throat feeling rusty and dry. “Don’t…want…annulment.”

  “No, no, my dear.” Doctor Lovings shook his finger at her reprovingly. “You must say, ‘I do want an annulment.’”

  To Caroline’s horror, she found herself repeating him obediently.

  “I do want an annulment,” she parroted back to him in her dry and dusty new voice.

  “Very good.” He nodded and looked at the other mother, who seemed overjoyed.

  “Oh Doctor—how can I ever thank you? You must let me pay double your usual fee!”

  Dr. Lovings gave her a broad, self-satisfied smile. “That will not be necessary, dear Lady. For my fee has already been paid by an interested party.”

  “What? By whom?” the other mother exclaimed.

  “Why, by the very Viscount you mentioned yourself—Lord Harkens,” Doctor Lovings said. “He approached me and told me—in the most delicate and discrete manner possible, I assure you—that your sweet daughter was having some difficulties.”

  “He did?” The other mother fanned herself. “But Doctor Lovings, you must own that such behavior on the part of the Viscount is highly irregular!”

  “Certainly not,” Doctor Lovings said heartily. “It is simply that he is extremely interested in seeing poor Caroline cured. He is, as you say, a most eligible suitor and it seems he’s taken quite a fancy to your daughter.”

  “Oh my!” The other mother was all of a flutter at this news. “And to think, I had no idea when Lady Armouth told me of your great success with her own intractable daughter…”

  “As to that, I believe it was Lord Harkens who asked her Ladyship to give you news of me.” Doctor Lovings smiled and stroked his mustache again. “And may I say, how happy I am that he did. It has been a pleasure to serve you, Madam. And to treat your daughter. Shall we go downstairs and discuss an appropriate time to admit her to my clinic for hydro-electric therapy? The sooner, the better in extreme cases such as these.”

  “Oh yes, of course!” the other mother exclaimed. She turned back to Mary Ann. “I’m going to discuss matters with the doctor, Mary Ann. Be certain that you get Miss Caroline all dressed and ready for the park.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.” Mary Ann dropped a respectful curtsey.

  All this time, Caroline had been struggling to speak again. As the drug continued to work on her, she felt like a mummy wrapped in bandages that impeded her every movement. Finally, she was able to force out some words.

  “Can’t…do this…to me,” she panted out at last.

  “I most certainly can, Caroline,” the other mother snapped. “If you refuse to act in your own best interest then I must do it for you. Now…” She leaned down and poked a finger in Caroline’s face. “I don’t want to hear another word out of you from now until we get to the park. And when we get there, you’ll only say what I tell you to say! Do you understand? Don’t talk—just nod,” she added.

  Caroline wanted to shout and scream and spit in her face but she couldn’t—the drug wouldn’t let her. Instead, she felt her head nodding, like a puppet whose strings have been pulled.

  “Good.” The other mother looked vastly pleased with herself. “I’m glad that’s settled. Now, Doctor Lovings, we can finish our business downstairs.”

  As the two of them left the room, Caroline stared after them in hate and despair. She couldn’t do or say anything on her own now—she had no free will! And in a matter of hours, she was going to be forced to stand up in front of a crowd and publicly renounce Richard forever.

  What was she going to do?

  Chapter Twenty-three

  “Oh no, this is terrible!” Sophie exclaimed. “They drugged her—did you see that?”

  “It’s like some kind of a crazy Victorian soap opera over there,” Kat muttered, shaking her head. “I didn’t even know they had mind-control drugs in the Victorian era.”

  “They might not have in your own Earth’s past time period,” Sylvan said grimly. “But remember, Terra—as they call their version of Earth—is in a different universe. There may be elements there that are unavailable here. Just as their historical events shadow but do not exactly mirror the events in your own history, their medicines and science may be slightly skewed as well.”

  “Well that stuff, whatever it is, certainly seems to be working on poor Caroline.” Sophie sounded like she might cry. “And all she wants is to be with Richard—you can tell they’re meant to be together—they’ve been Dream Sharing for years.”

  “Yes, it is obvious that Richard is her intended mate,” Sylvan acknowledged. “In fact, in researching him—or rather, his double in this universe, last night—I found out something rather startling about him.”

  “You did? What?” Sophie demanded. “What?”

  “Well,” Sylvan began. “It turns out that he—”

  “What did I miss? I came as fast as I could!” Liv came racing into the lab.

  All of them had been spending every spare minute here for the past several days, ever since Sylvan had gotten the PORTAL up and running again. Through trial and error, he had found a way to focus in on Caroline, but no way to bring her back yet. His theory was that she would have to come back in the exact same place she had left—i.e. the park. And so far she hadn’t gotten there, so they had been unable to draw her back to her own world.

  “That awful mother of hers drugged her,” Sophie said, filling her sister in on the latest plot-twist in Caroline’s bizarre Multiverse adventures. “And they’re going to make her say she doesn’t love Richard and wants to annul their Joining.”

  “That’s horrible!” Liv exclaimed. She looked at Sylvan. “Can’t we do anything at all?”

  “Not as far as I can see,” he said, shaking his head. “Until and unless she goes back to the park and stands in the exact spot where she was brought through to the alternate universe in the first place, we will be unable to draw her back into this one.”

  “But what happens when we bring her back?” Kat objected. “It seems like she’s willing to give up everything to be with Richard. Can we send her back again if she wants to go?”

  “That, I do not know,” Sylvan admitted. “My theory is that she was drawn there in the first place by the void created by the other Caroline’s death. I do not know if that same void will pull her back again or not.”

  “Should we risk it then?” Liv asked. “What if she can’t get back? She’ll hate us forever if she doesn’t get to be with the man the Goddess meant for her.”

  “And it is in the Goddess’s hands that we must place this matter,” Sylvan said firmly. “If she truly meant for Richard and Caroline to be together, then she will make it possible for them to spend their lives with each other.”

  “Well I don’t see how!” Sophia exclaimed. “Not now that she’s drugged and under the control of that awful woman—the other Caroline’s mother, I mean!”

  “We will have to wait and see and watch for our chance to bring Caroline back into our world once she gets to the park,” Sylvan said. “Until then, all we can do is pray.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Richard got to the park just as the ceremony was beginning. Why Caroline’s mother insisted on an out-of-doors event, he didn’t understand. Perhaps she thought she could invite more people that way and the word of his rejection and Caroline’s subsequent freedom would spread more quickly to her suitors.

  Happily, he no longer had to concern himself with such matters. He thought of the way Caroline had melted against him the night before—the way she had given herself so completely as he brought her to the peak again and again. Gods, she’d been so responsive—so loving, finally returning his passion and emotion
.

  Her love gave Richard strength and purpose he hadn’t had before. He felt like a weary traveler in the desert who had finally found a refreshing oasis—one he wanted to stay at all his days.

  So when he came to the edge of the small crowd and looked up at the hastily erected wooden platform where Caroline and her mother were standing, along with a bewigged judge who held some official-looking documents in his hands, he felt fairly confident that he would soon be able to bring his wife home with him.

  One look at her mother’s face, however, and his confidence was decidedly shaken. There was an expression of smug self-satisfaction on her features that should be at odds with the news that Caroline had to convey. But she seemed not at all bothered by the impending announcement.

  Caroline herself, looked almost expressionless. She was standing as still as a wax statue, looking lovely in the pale green organdy dress with emerald green ribbons belling out around her. But she did not meet his eyes when he endeavored to catch her gaze and her arms hung limply by her sides, reminding him of a puppet whose strings had been cut.

  Richard frowned—what was going on? The crowd of on-lookers was likewise restive. There was a refreshment table set up to one side of the platform, under the rustling trees, and he saw several gentlemen eyeing the bowl of punch longingly. Clearly no one could be served until the announcement was made and the ceremony of annulment concluded and so they were impatient for it to begin. Richard was impatient as well, but not for the same reasons. At last, Caroline’s mother began to speak.

  “Friends and neighbors,” she began, stepping to the front of the platform. “I thank you all for gathering here today to bear witness to this momentous event. As you all know, many years in the past a law was enacted that allowed the Kindred to force Terran females to Join with them. When the law was made, it seemed a fitting response to the way we had been saved from the threat of the Scourge.” She sniffed. “However, it was before we were privy to the knowledge of certain…unnatural practices these aliens in our midst favor. Delicacy prevents me from elaborating but I feel certain you all know that of which I speak.”

  She wrinkled her nose and looked at Richard, as though accusing him of such practices himself. He stared blandly back at her. Let her accuse him if she liked, with all her puritanical wrath and blind ignorance. He would never apologize for bringing pleasure to his wife—for loving her as the Goddess had intended. But he couldn’t help feeling uneasy as she continued.

  “Thankfully, Good King George, when he made the Kindred Joining Law, put certain safety clauses in place,” Caroline’s mother went on. “To wit—if a Terran woman, who is forced to Join with a Kindred, can keep herself pure and avoid his advances throughout the Claiming Period, she is allowed to declare her Joining with him null and void and find a more suitable match among her own people.”

  She smiled at someone in the crowd as she spoke. Following her eyes, Richard saw that she was looking at none other than Lord Harkens himself. The blackguard was smiling and nodding at everything she said, as though thoroughly approving of her words.

  Richard frowned—what was going on? Hadn’t Caroline’s accusations of Harkens, whilst under the influence of the cocaine-laced tea, frightened the Viscount off? He’d been certain that no matter what else happened, he wouldn’t have to worry about Caroline falling into the clutches of the vile Harkens.

  Now he was not so sure.

  He tried to still the drumming of his heart as he watched events unfold on the stage. Soon Caroline would be called upon to publicly either claim or repudiate him. And hadn’t she sworn to do the former and not the latter? Hadn’t he heard her proclaiming loudly to her mother that she loved him and wanted to stay with him only that morning? Surely all would be made right in a moment.

  Wouldn’t it?

  “I am happy now to announce that my daughter, Caroline Lambert, officially declares the annulment of her Joining to Doctor Richard Vii of the Blood Kindred,” Caroline’s mother continued. “And I am doubly happy to have you all here to witness it. The honorable Judge Cartwright has the papers of annulment.” She nodded at the official standing to her right, wearing a large, powdered wig and a somber expression. “So if the interested parties will come forward and sign, we can celebrate the auspicious beginning of a new and much better part of my sweet Caroline’s life.”

  “Wait!” Richard called angrily above the murmuring of the crowd. “Wait, Mrs. Lambert—you cannot speak for your daughter in this matter. The law demands that she speak for herself—publicly and in the sight of God and Man she must announce her own will. She is my wife and until she says otherwise, we are still Joined.”

  “Very well.” Caroline’s mother smirked at him openly and the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach grew. What was going on here? Surely his sweet Caroline would avow her love for him now—wouldn’t she?

  Bending her head, Caroline’s mother whispered something in Caroline’s ear. Then she gave her a little push, as though to urge her to speak.

  “I…” Caroline wet her lips with her tongue. She looked out over the crowd of her friends and neighbors, over the wind rustling in the dark blue leaves and grass, but she never looked once at Richard.

  “Go on,” her mother urged her, giving her another none-too-gentle nudge. “Out with it, Caroline!”

  “I hereby announce the annulment of my Joining to Richard Vii. Thank you all for coming to see me become a free woman today.”

  As she finished speaking, her eyes at last met Richard’s and he thought he saw a desperate unhappiness there. But then she looked away again and stepped back, to the smattering of applause coming from the audience.

  Richard stood there, stunned. What had just happened? How could it be that the woman he loved—who had sworn she loved him back—had just severed her life from his for all eternity? How could it be that he had no choice other than to sign her away forever when he signed the articles of annulment?

  He felt numb—the way one does after receiving a deep wound which does not yet hurt but will soon prove fatal. And yet, the questions kept coming—crowding his brain like unwanted guests at a party. How could things have come to this? How could he be losing the woman he loved? How could it be that Caroline was no longer his wife?

  “Doctor Vii, if you please,” Caroline’s mother was calling, that obnoxious smirk still on her face. “We need your signature on the official documents of annulment and then you can go.”

  Numbly, Richard walked forward to sign. What else could he do?

  * * * * *

  Caroline wanted to cry—wanted to scream and shout that it wasn’t true—that she still loved him and never wanted to leave him. But there was nothing she could do. The drug still had her in its grip and she was powerless to do or say anything besides what the other mother told her to.

  She’d been struggling to break its hold over her ever since they’d arrived at the park but with no success. And, as if losing Richard wasn’t bad enough, there were worse things in store for her.

  The moment they had arrived, they had been greeted by none other than Lord Harkens himself.

  “Ah, Mrs. Lambert,” he’d murmured, handing her out of the carriage. “And the lovely Caroline, my bride to be.”

  What? Caroline’s eyes widened but she couldn’t ask the question aloud because the other mother had commanded her to be quiet and only speak when she was told. But the portly Viscount must have seen the uncertainty in her eyes because he spoke on.

  “Yes, that’s right my dear—your mother and I have it all arranged,” he told her, beaming. “The moment you’re free of that Kindred, you and I will be legally married by the same judge who performs your annulment. Of course,” he added, glancing briefly at the other mother, “We shall have a larger, more formal ceremony later. But for now, as long as the legalities are observed, I think I may promise you that tonight shall be our wedding night!”

  Caroline had stared at him in horror that she was unable to express. So the other m
other was going to have her married off before the ink was even dry on the annulment papers? And then she would have to spend the night with the lecherous Viscount?

  This was awful!

  No! she screamed inside her head. No, no, no! I don’t want this! This isn’t how my life is supposed to go! I’m supposed to be with Richard—I know I am! Please, somebody help me—get me out of here—let me see Richard!

  But when she did see him, it was at the awful annulment ceremony. And then she was forced to say the words that would break his heart and tear them apart forever. She heard herself speak, saw the shocked expression on his face, and knew that this was the end of their relationship. Inside she was weeping as though her heart would break but on the outside she could feel that her face was a maddening mask of calm.

  He probably thinks I don’t care about him at all, she thought desperately. He thinks I tricked him—that I lied to him about how I felt. He’ll leave and go up to the Mother Ship and I’ll be stuck here with the awful Lord Harkens, trapped in this horrible time period forever!

  She was trapped indeed—trapped in a strange universe and trapped in time itself. But she was, at least, in the park. This was where she’d been meaning to go all along, wasn’t it? This was the place where a window might open—if Commander Sylvan had figured out how to work PORTAL.

  She dragged her gaze from Richard, as he approached the stage like a doomed man walking to the gallows, and looked at the big old tree where she had initially appeared in this world in the first place. Its branches overhung the left side of the wooden stage and there was a white scar in the bark of its trunk, showing where the lightning had struck what seemed like a million years ago but was actually only three days past.

  How had she come so far in such a short time? Caroline wondered. How had she gone from believing she would never find love and deciding to live only for her work to finding her soul mate in another universe and being willing to give up her work, her life—her whole world—just to be with him?