“That’s true—that’s exactly what she said,” the dark-haired woman said and the auburn-haired woman they had called “Kat” was nodding as well.
“I believe now, that she was incorrect in that theory,” Sylvan said thoughtfully. “I think that the PORTAL actually acts as a kind of conduit between worlds and that if one of the rare individuals who has doubles in every universe is looking through the window, it is more likely to show their double than not—and much more likely to draw them into that world if a sudden vacuum is created.”
“Which is what happened when your Caroline was struck by lightning,” Olivia said. “It wasn’t our Caroline’s fault that she just happened to tune into your world at the exact moment your Caroline was killed. It just…happened.”
“I see,” Richard said dully. “It just happened.”
“I swear this is the truth.” Sylvan looked him in the eyes and spoke in a low, earnest voice. “As you said, blood cannot lie to blood.”
“All right.” Richard took a deep breath, staring hard at the metal floor beneath his feet. “I can accept that she was not to blame for my Caroline’s death…” (It still felt so wrong to say those words!) “And I accept the fact that she was transferred into her place just as my own Caroline was transferred into your world.” He looked up and frowned. “But why has she been deceiving me for the past three days?”
At this, Sylvan looked distinctly uncomfortable.
“Surely you can see how she couldn’t risk telling you the truth about herself and her circumstances,” he protested. “In your time and world she would have been declared mad for telling such an insane-sounding story and committed to an asylum of some kind.”
“That is not what I meant and you damn well know it!” Richard roared, suddenly so angry he could hardly see straight. “I can understand her need to take over my Caroline’s life in order to avoid suspicion but why did she have to toy with my heart into the bargain?”
“Richard—” Sylvan began but he was in no mood to listen. He ran both hands through his hair, feeling halfway mad.
“Why did she allow me to think that she loved me—that she was finally beginning to care for me and desire me the way I have longed for her for so many years?” he demanded. “What kind of cruel female can conduct such practices—not only hiding the death of my beloved from me but assuming her identity and swearing that she loves me, only to dash my hopes in the sight of God and everyone I know, solely for her own amusement?”
“No, no, no!” Olivia exclaimed. “That’s not what happened!”
“You’ve got it all wrong, doll,” Kat said. “Caroline—our Caroline—really loves you.”
“She must,” the dark-haired woman said. “We’ve been watching the two of you together and there’s no faking that kind of feeling.”
Richard rounded on her. “You have been spying on me?”
“Sophia is simply saying that we kept an eye on you—on Caroline mainly,” Sylvan said, coming to put an arm around the dark-haired woman’s shoulders. “We have been trying desperately to bring her home but apparently the window will only bring someone back through to another world at the exact location they were deposited in the first place.”
“But in the meantime, we’ve been watching Caroline and how she acted towards you,” Olivia said. “It was clear to us that she was falling in love with you—hard and fast. She was even willing to stay with you in your own world and timeline, even though women are treated like dirt there.”
“I beg your pardon,” Richard said, frowning. “I have never mistreated a woman in my life!”
“Not you personally—but you must admit that the balance of power is strongly in the males’ favor in your time,” Sylvan said. “Women in your time have a very limited range of life-options and they are unable to vote or hold office.”
“You can be a governess, a house maid, or the crazy wife who gets locked in the attic—not great choices,” Kat mused, which made no sense to Richard. But he had to acknowledge the truth of Sylvan’s words.
“Well, I suppose that the fairer sex is limited in my world.” He nodded thoughtfully. “And I further suppose that it is not exactly fair that women have so few paths to advancement open to them. Still,” he added, frowning at all of them. “You should not have been watching my interactions with a woman I believed to be my wife.”
“Oh, don’t worry—we turned the window off during the, uh, intimate bits,” Kat assured him, which hardly made Richard feel better. He had said so much to the other Caroline—had bared his soul to her—and now he found he had been talking to a stranger all this time and other strangers had been listening in. It was insufferable!
“I still can scarcely believe this,” he muttered, shaking his head. “And I cannot forgive the way this other Caroline of yours has treated me—she has abused me most abominably! When I stood there, waiting for her to proclaim her love for me as she had promised, and instead she repudiated me—”
“But she didn’t mean to do that,” Sophie said earnestly. “She was drugged!”
“Oh my God, that’s right—he doesn’t know!” Kat exclaimed.
“Know what?” Richard demanded.
“About the phrenologist who came to the house while you were out seeing your patient,” Olivia chimed in. “A Doctor Lovings. He said he was also a chemist and he gave Caroline a dose of some kind of medicine that makes her say whatever that awful mother tells her to say!”
“That’s why she couldn’t say that she loved you during the annulment ceremony,” Kat said. “And she had to say she wanted to leave you instead.”
“I’m sure she didn’t mean it,” Sophia told him earnestly. “She loves you—we could see it in her eyes—how hard it was for her, having to say that to you when she really wanted to say the exact opposite.”
“I have not known Dr. Lambert long, but I do not believe she is the type of person to string you along, as they say on Earth—which is our version of your planet, Terra,” Sylvan added.
“She even told us how difficult it was for her to make any romantic attachments,” Olivia told him. “She asked us not to try and set her up on any dates. I got the impression she was married to her work. But the minute she looked into your eyes—”
“Stop!” Richard held up a hand. This was all too much to take in at once. “Stop,” he said again. “It matters little how your Caroline truly felt about me or not—she is gone from my life and I am trapped here with the knowledge that my own Caroline is…is…dead.” He forced himself to say the word, though it was like coughing up a jagged shard of pottery.
“I’m afraid it does matter—a great deal,” Sylvan said quietly. “You see, our Caroline—Dr. Lambert—is in a dire situation right now. Even as we speak she is being forced to marry Lord Harkens.”
“Oh, that’s right—he doesn’t know that either!” Kat exclaimed.
“Know what?” Richard glared at her.
“Right before the annulment ceremony, Lord Harkens met Caroline and her mother—well, your Caroline’s mother—at the park,” Kat explained. “And the two of them had cooked up a plan that the same judge who presided over your annulment would marry Caroline and Harkens so he could take her home with him and…” She made a face. “Well, you know what happens on the wedding night.”
“Not only that, but the next day she’s going back to Doctor Lovings’ clinic and they’re going to put her into an electric bathtub,” Olivia said. “I know you guys are just discovering electricity down there in your world, but trust me—adding water to it is a bad idea.”
Despite his resentment of the way the other Caroline had made a fool of him, Richard could not help feeling moved by her plight. To be stuck in such a situation, drugged and unable to defend herself from Harkens in any way—it was a horror show to say the least.
“This is a regrettable turn of events,” he admitted. “But why try to convince me of your Caroline’s love for me or the danger she is in? I am trapped here, in your world, as surel
y as she is trapped in mine.”
“Not for long,” Sylvan said, frowning. “I believe once I make a few adjustments I can get the PORTAL up and running again. And then you will be Caroline’s only hope.”
“I?” Richard frowned at him. “Whatever do you mean?”
“I mean that I do not believe any of us have doubles in your world,” Sylvan said, motioning to his mate and the other two women. “Either they haven’t been born yet, or they simply don’t exist—so there is no vacuum to suck us into your world so that we could save Caroline from her fate.”
“What are you saying?” Richard demanded. “Out with it, man!”
Sylvan took a deep breath. “I’m saying that you might be the only one who can go back into your world and save her.”
“Why should I save the woman who has made a fool of me—not once but many times over?” Richard demanded angrily.
“Think what you’re saying,” Sylvan said quietly. “You are Kindred, Richard. Unless I am very much mistaken, you feel the same reverence for female life that all our kind do. I know you’re angry at Caroline right now, but surely you don’t wish to let her get raped and killed.”
When he put it in those terms, Richard felt some of his anger melting away. But it was not replaced with any sort of warm, emotion—only cold determination.
“Very well,” he said coolly. “If I am, as you say, Dr. Lambert’s only hope of survival, I can hardly refuse to rescue her from that bastard, Harkens.”
He would not call her Caroline, he told himself. She was not his Caroline—not the woman he had Joined with and loved so passionately. She would be Dr. Lambert to him and that was all.
“Did the Viscount really poison his first wife?” Kat asked, her eyes wide.
Richard nodded shortly. “I believe that he did. And I further believe that she was not the only woman he has killed. He has been married before—once in Italia and again in Ruska—at least according to the rumors I was able to glean. But lacking any substantial proof, I was unable to convince the constabulary to do anything in the way of investigating or arresting him.”
“Oh, Caroline was right—he really is a serial killer!” Sophie exclaimed. “Oh my God—this is terrible!”
“There is no time to lose,” Sylvan agreed. “I’ll begin working on the PORTAL immediately.” He looked sharply at Richard. “With the understanding that you’ll go back to your world and restore Dr. Lambert to us?”
“I will,” Richard agreed. “But only because I must uphold my Kindred honor. I will bring her back to you but I want nothing to do with her after that.”
“Oh, that’s too bad!” Olivia looked sad. “Poor Caroline! She’s going to be heartbroken.”
Richard rounded on her. “Well, Madam,” he said formally. “She is not the only one to find herself in that lamentable condition. And now, if you will explain to me how we are to do this, I would rather focus on the details of the rescue than maudlin sentimentality if you please.”
Sylvan’s brow furrowed as he made some adjustments to the machine.
“It’s going to be tricky,” he murmured. “Considering the fact that clothing and other inanimate objects seem to disintegrate when they go through the window PORTAL creates when they are in contact with living flesh. But I’ve been working on a theory on how to change that…”
“I can make him an outfit with the clothing replicator,” Kat volunteered. “Something that won’t look out of place in his own world.”
“And I can get the tech he needs,” Olivia said. “I’m sure we can find some useful gadgets that will help him get Caroline back.”
“Go—get it done,” Sylvan told them. “You saw the dire straights Dr. Lambert is in—we have no time to lose.”
The two women hurried off, leaving Sophie to look sympathetically at Richard.
“How about if we get you something hot to drink while you wait?” she asked him. “You look like you could use it.”
“I could, in fact.” Richard sighed. “Tell me, are you able to make a decent pot of tea in your world?”
She smiled. “We can certainly try. Come on.”
Chapter Twenty-six
“Now then—isn’t this a cozy little chapel! Such a lovely place to start your new life with your new husband,” the other mother cooed, looking around the small, stone chapel with adoring eyes.
Caroline had to admit that with its gorgeous stained-g lass windows and rustic wooden altar and pews, the chapel would have been a lovely place for a wedding—if she was getting married to someone she truly loved. Instead, she was basically being sold to a man she despised to feed the other mother’s greed for social status.
“Nnnnnuh!” she said, trying her best to say “No” and failing miserably. Though at least she was now able to make some sounds on her own, without being told by the other mother. Could it be the drug Dr. Lovings had given her was finally beginning to wear off?
If so, it wasn’t wearing off fast enough. Lord Harkens was out by his carriages with the judge, getting the rings. He would be back in a moment and the ceremony would proceed as planned—and Caroline couldn’t say a word to stop it!
“Nnnuuuuhh!” she tried again, looking at the other mother imploringly.
“All right!” the other mother said, giving her an irritated look. “You may speak your mind for a moment—a moment only, mind! But the very second Lord Harkens steps foot in the chapel you must be silent again.”
It was as though her tongue had been glued to the roof of her mouth and now it was finally free.
“Please don’t make me marry him!” Caroline blurted, talking fast. “Please—I feel like there’s something wrong with him! Look what happened to his first wife—you should have seen the before and after pictures—they’re terrible.”
“Oh pish!” The other mother waved her hand, as though swatting at a bothersome fly. “Don’t be so foolish and melodramatic, Caroline!”
“I’m serious,” Caroline insisted. “Didn’t you hear him telling Richard that he’s basically marrying me for revenge because Richard tried to get the police to investigate his first wife’s death? He said he wanted to marry me because I was Richard’s wife and as soon as he does, he can do whatever he wants to me. Doesn’t that sound even a little suspicious to you?”
The other mother sniffed.
“Really, Caroline—it doesn’t matter why he marries you, as long as he marries you in the first place! Only think, my dear, in a few moments you are going to be a Viscountess! Lady Harkens,” she intoned. “My—how grand it sounds!”
“What if he kills me?” Caroline demanded. “How would you like to have a dead Viscountess as a daughter? The late Lady Harkens—that doesn’t sound nearly as grand, does it?”
“Really, Caroline—you’re being silly,” the other mother snapped.
“No, I’m not—I’m serious,” Caroline insisted. “Richard told me he thinks Harkens poisoned his first wife!”
But bringing up the big Kindred’s name was the exact wrong thing to say. The other mother’s face—which had begun to display, at least a little anxiety—snapped shut to a closed and cold expression of complete disbelief.
“So that’s what this is all about—Richard,” she spat. “You just don’t want to marry advantageously because you’ve gotten it into your silly head that you love that dreadful Kindred! Didn’t the way he disappeared so suddenly, before he could even sign the annulment papers, give you an idea of how he really feels about you? Clearly he had already put in a call to his people and they somehow transported him instantly up to their ship. You’ll never see him again, Caroline—so you might as well stop pining for him now.”
Caroline felt another burst of frustration.
“He didn’t get transported instantly to the Mother Ship—he was sucked into a window between universes,” she imagined herself saying. “Now he’s stuck in my world and I’m stuck here, in his. Because I’m not really your daughter—I just look like her. I’m actually from a whole differ
ent universe and if you’ll just take me to the park, maybe I can get back to where I came from!”
But she was positive the other mother would never believe this—her limited world view wouldn’t be able to comprehend such a strange occurrence. Doubtless blurting out her whole, bizarre story would only earn Caroline a faster trip to the electrified bathtub.
Instead, she seized on another detail she hoped could help stop this awful wedding.
“What about the annulment papers?” she asked the other mother. “You said Richard disappeared before he could sign them. So I can’t marry Lord Harkens because I’m still technically Joined to Richard!”
“Oh, I took care of that myself,” the other mother said coolly. “I took the liberty of signing his name in the appropriate place.”
“What?” Caroline exclaimed. “You forged his signature? But that’s not legal!”
“Pish.” The other mother made a shooing gesture, as though forgery was no big deal. “He was just about to sign when the other Kindred took him away. I just finished the job for him—that’s all.”
“But you can’t do that!” Caroline protested. “You can’t—”
But just then the chapel door opened and in walked Lord Harkens followed by Judge Cartwright. At the sight of her soon-to-be-husband, Caroline’s mouth snapped shut and she was forced to be quiet, as per the other mother’s previous instructions. She cursed the drug in her system for the thousandth time as she watched the two men walk up the aisle.
“Well now,” the judge said, smiling benevolently at herself and the other mother. “Everything seems to be in order with the annulment papers and the rings. So now that we’re all legal, let’s get started, shall we?”
Caroline wanted to protest but this time she couldn’t even make a Nnnnn sound. Her tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth and she was helpless to do anything but watch as the other mother led her to stand in front of the rustic wooden altar and Lord Harkens stood at her side.
Trapped in Time Page 24