by Diana Steele
“Will you at least wish me good luck?” she asks Dorian hopefully. The color of her eyes is perfectly enhanced by the soft blue gown she is wearing for the occasion. Combined with feminine lace edging at the neckline and sleeves her smile completes the perfect storm for Dorian. His stony face brakes and he pulls her to him. He hugs her tightly and kisses her lightly.
“I’m sorry for the way I acted last night. I should have listened to you and recognize that you did what needed to be done for the sake of our mission. Finding the machine Lucas is using to control the town is of the utmost importance. It must be located by any means necessary. I cannot ever take back the awful thing I called you last night, but I hope that you will be able to forgive me.”
“Already forgiven, Dorian, but let’s just talk to each other next time shall we? I think we can work things out if we do it together.”
“I agree. Good luck this afternoon. I trust you implicitly. I will be here when you come home,” He says as an odd looking contraption with wheels, comes rumbling down the street. Not odd because of the wheels of course, but because there are no horses pulling it, it appears to be propelling itself down the street and is being driven by one of Lucas’s men. Dorian stands there with his mouth agape. Faith has seen things like it before in her books of the early 1900’s but never in real life and she did not realize they existed this early. She makes a mental note to research this new revelation. Her obsession with new technology quite rivals Dorian’s own obsession with it.
“I am here to collect the Lady Faith Blackburn,” he says after exiting the vehicle and opening the passenger side door.
“That would be me,” Faith says hesitantly. “You want me to get into that thing?”
“Why yes, it’s perfectly safe. Mr. Snakewood thought you would appreciate its unique design. You should not keep him waiting madam.” With that, he helps her into the vehicle and whisks her off to the Manor. At the Manor, Faith is greeted by a menacing looking butler and shown to the parlor.
“Will Mr. Snakewood be joining me soon,” she asks as she turns to address the butler, but he is gone and she is alone. She sits there a while in the parlor and has time to memorize every detail of the room and recall the entryway and stairs. It really is a beautiful home. The fireplace is surrounded by an elegant mantle and molding. The walls of the parlor are a soft blue that evoke calm and serenity. She always wondered what it would be like to live in a home like this one. She thinks that if it were hers she would open it up to everyone so that everyone could enjoy the beauty and stay whenever they liked. That would be the best way to honor the love and sweat that went in to building and designing it. When she gets home she will draw everything out for Dorian so they have a complete floor plan of the house. This is the recon mission for the true objective of finding the hiding place of the machine rumored to be controlling the people of the city of Durango. Thinking on it she realizes that everyone seemed to be acting normal at the party which makes her believe that the reach of the machine must only go so far and doesn’t include the outlying homes & businesses.
“Good afternoon, my lady,” Lucas says as he finally enters the room with a flourishing bow. Faith smiles to herself at his gesture.
“Good afternoon, dear sir.”
“I hope I did not keep you waiting long and that you found the accommodations comfortable.”
“Oh no, not at all. Your home is lovely. I particularly enjoy this room.”
“I am so glad to hear it. Shall we go out to the garden for luncheon? It is a beautiful day outside that will be made more beautiful with your presence I am sure.” Faith places her hand in his and he leads them outside to where a table has already been set. He is correct in his assessment of the day. A perfect blend of a sun and warmth the blooming flowers are waving slowly in the light breeze. Faith takes a deep breath of the fresh mountain air and wonders how she could ever think about leaving this place.
Faith has a good vantage point to see the rest of the house from the table they are seated at and uses that to her advantage to get an idea of how the rest of the house is set up. Dorian has never been inside of it so it is up to her to accurately draw up the floor plan. She takes note that there are two out buildings that could house the machine.
“What are those two buildings for?”
“Oh just storage and the like, but if you are curious still I can show them to you after we finish our meal.” He thinks he has a chance at winning her over and possibly making her Missus Lucas Snakewood so he is happy to oblige her in whatever she asks. There turns out to be nothing of note in the two out buildings except for chickens in one.Faith is disappointed but knew it wouldn’t be that easy to discover the location. She can see that there are at least 3 floors in the main house. In an effort to impress Faith and sell himself a little, Lucas walks Faith through the first floor and mentions briefly that there are four bedrooms on the second floor plus the maid’s quarters. He says nothing about the third floor she observed from the garden. This gives Faith the basic tour omitting the third floor this gives Faith the impression that he's hiding something there.
“What is on the third floor?” Faith asks politely, wondering if he will show the same eagerness to please as he did out in the garden.
“Oh just storage of old things left behind by the last occupants. It is quite dreary and sad up there. No one goes up there much.” Deflected expertly Faith can’t find a way to get him to let her up there so she lets it go and continues to catalog the rooms of the house. The downstairs includes the parlor, the dining room, the kitchen, and the formal living room. She is struck by the sheer enormity of it and all of the space that has been allocated to one person. She remembers though where she is and that Lucas most likely forced out the previous occupants, a family perhaps, and is all but squatting here.
Lucas has been pumping Faith all the while about herself during their visit. Where she's from and how she came to Durango. She is careful in her answers and tries to stick to the cover story Dorian prepared for her. To her surprise Lucas doesn't try anything fresh during the whole engagement and is the perfect gentleman. She thought after last night they would be frolicking in one of the bedrooms by now. Part of her is relieved but another part is somewhat disappointed. As she leaves, Faith wonders if maybe she misread him last night. Little does she know that Lucas has a scheme of his own, she will soon find out just what he is capable of.
Chapter 4
Dorian is waiting anxiously for her on the porch when she walks back from the Manor. She turned down Lucas’s offer for the use of the car in favor of walking to gather her thoughts. Dorian can hardly contain himself when he sees her and immediately launches into a line of questioning about everything she was able to find out.
“Were you able to figure out where he is keeping the machine?”
“No, but I have a pretty good guess that it is somewhere on the third floor. From the back of the house it looks like there are only two rooms up there and maybe only one. I couldn’t tell for sure.”
“Do you think the house is heavily guarded if we wanted to take a closer look uninvited?”
“Yes,” she replies, “very heavily guarded. That should confirm that the machine is in fact onsite. I also think that the machine’s effects only reach so far which is why you are never affected out here and neither are the Moore’s.”
“That is a very astute observation. I hadn’t thought of that before. Do you think Lucas suspects anything? Did you give anything away while you were there?” Dorian asks the last in a bit of a breathless rush. Clearly he has been anxious about it all afternoon.
“No I don’t believe so,” she says. She has a moment of doubt when she thinks about all of the questions he was asking about her but she doesn't say anything to Dorian about it. There isn’t anything they can do about it now if he does suspect something, so it’s better not to worry him about it in her opinion.
“That’s reassuring. Would you like to see what I have been working on while you were g
one?”
“I would love to but do you think I should to change first?”
“No, I want to enjoy looking at you just the way you are,” he says somewhat shyly. Dorian had apparently been hard at work in the workshop while Faith was flirting with Lucas. The workroom is in shambles as it appears he had to do some “re-organizing” to find the things he needed.
“I thought I would work on the next phase of our plan. I know we weren’t sure what we were going to do about disposing of Lucas entirely, but I had an idea based on some of the things you have told me about your time. I have figured out a way to send people to a specific time.” He lets this sink in for a moment. The realization dawns on Faith’s face and Dorian knows she is considering her options.
“So this means that I could actually go home to my own time if I wanted to? You would let me do that?”
“Yes you could go back to 2081 in fact to the very moment and place that I took you from. When the time comes I will support you in any decision you make.”
“How can you send me back to the same place and be certain of it?”
“I was able to adjust the input controls to target a date and time with longitude and latitude.”
“Wow. That’s truly remarkable. How does this apply to Lucas though? He is from this time.”
“Exactly. We will brand Lucas with “C” for criminal like you told me they do then. We will send him to the future and he will be immediately picked up as soon as he appears in 2081 because he will be unclean and have unknown biomarkers.” It is a brilliant plan really, Lucas will be gone permanently from their lives and will no longer be ruining anyone else’s life. To add to that they won’t even have to kill him to do it. The whole thing sounds very appealing.
“How are we going to get him here though?”
“Well that I believe will be up to you, I’m sure that we can lure him here with promises of you. I would go into any trap for that.” She has been watching his bulge in his pants getting bigger and bigger since she got back from Lucas's. Watching him get excited just turned her on more. Dorian was trying to keep his composure even though he wanted to lift her onto his work bench and claim her for his own. He was not about to share this treasure with anyone. With this last statement his bulge becomes glaringly obvious to both of them. Faith’s next actions speak clearly of what she has planned for the rest of the afternoon. She raises herself on to his work bench and pulls him into her.
“I want you to take me, right here, among everything that makes you truly happy.” And he does quickly and brusquely. Faith responds to his roughness by raking her nails over his back. This only encourages him and soon they both finish together.
“I am truly sorry for what I said to you last night.”
“It is in the past Dorian and I know you didn’t mean it. Can we move past it?”
“If you think we can then yes, I will let it go and promise to give you the respect and trust you deserve in the future.” They go in for dinner holding hands.
Before dinner is over there is a knock at the door. Faith rises to answer it but Dorian motions for her to stay seated. They are not expecting anyone at this hour and he is worried about who might be there. Dorian goes to the door, opens it and two of Lucas's henchmen come in.
“Dorian Blackburn you are under arrest under suspicion of crimes against a lady’s person,” the big one says as he roughly grabs Dorian and starts to drag him out of the house.
“What is the meaning of this,” Dorian demands. “I have done no such thing. Faith get back in the house and stay there.” He calls to Faith as he watches her start to come after the man holding him. The weasel looking guard grabs her and pins her arms behind her back. He roughly throws her onto the floor after she bites him while trying to get away. The two men successfully get Dorian out the door, down the front steps and into the waiting wagon. They take-off before Faith can regain herself. Faith goes to the doorway after a few moments and find that they have already gone. Unsure of what to do next she decides to go to the Moore’s to seek help.
Chapter 5
As the wagon arrives at the Manor it doesn’t surprise him that Lucas is behind this, but isn’t sure why he would go to the trouble. Lucas’s guards roughly take him to a building in the back garden. Having been taken within the limits of the machine’s reach, Dorian doesn’t have the will to fight back. The frequencies pulsing from the machine cause him to be a duller, slower version of himself. His perception of the room around him is off and sounds aren’t as clear, but his comprehension isn’t impaired. The dimly lit shed is a fitting place for an interrogation.
“Where did she come from Dorian?” Dorian doesn’t answer.
“Who is she to you? Is she really your cousin or is she your secret pet that you have been keeping locked up all these years in your dusty workshop?” Dorian still doesn’t answer but he can’t keep the anger from his face and Lucas knows that he has struck a chord.
“Ah so she is your kept pet? I always wanted one of those. Maybe instead of my wife she will be my pet. What do you think of that?” By this point Dorian is struggling against his bonds in an effort to pummel Lucas. Lucas just stands there laughing at his feeble attempts.
“I will leave you to mull that over. I’m sure with your imagination you will be able to come up with your own mental pictures of what I will do to her when she is mine.” Lucas walks out of the shed without looking back laughing the whole way into the house. There is a guard outside his door and Dorian knows that it will be hopeless trying to escape. He tries to settle himself to get some sleep.
Meanwhile Faith has gone to the Moore’s house to get help. When she gets there she finds that William has gone away for a few nights so it is up to Constance and Faith to free Dorian before something awful happens to him.
“Do you have a plan of what we are going to do when we get there?” Constance asks Faith.
“No, not really,” she admits painfully. “We will just have to make it up as we go along.” They set off together to save Dorian. As they walk Faith begins to formulate a semblance of a plan.
“I think that Dorian is being held in one of the outbuildings, one of them is full of chickens so he must be in the other one. Constance you will be the distraction is the distraction in case anyone comes to investigate.”
“Do you think this will work,” Constance asks as they near the back of the Manor.
“Yes, I do and hopefully without too much fuss.” Faith immediately heads toward to shed where she thinks Dorian is being kept. Luckily for her the guard has fallen fast asleep at his post. She sneaks in past him as quiet as she can and wakes up Dorian who is slumped over. He wakes up disoriented and almost gives them away , but Faith silences him with a kiss and quickly undoes his binding. Moving quickly and silently using the cover of darkness, they make it back to the house without incident. Once out of range of the machine, Dorian returns to his normal self. They encourage Constance to stay the night to make sure that she is safe. Upstairs Dorian and Faith are trying to find their footing together.
“Are you hurt at all,” Faith asks Dorian.
“No, just a little sore. I haven’t been that far into town, I almost forgot what the effects of the machine felt like. I don’t ever want to feel that way again. We are going to have to do something about it and soon.”
“We will. I know we will, the right circumstance will happen and everything will come together.”
“Faith?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t ever want to be apart from you again. I want to make sure that you are safe and you know that you are loved deeply. I was afraid I would never see you again and never hold you in my arms again.” Wrapping his arms around her, Dorian holds her as tightly as he can before letting go.
“Now enough of all that, help me undress,” Faith says somewhat playfully.
“This isn’t some haphazard fling Faith, I am well and truly in love with you and intend to show you just how serious I am,” Dorian says helpin
g her undress.
“Come to bed,” he says sternly. Faith obediently comes to bed and molds her naked form to his. Dorian grips her tightly and possessively makes love to her. Their mingling cries of pleasure fade softly into the night and they fall asleep still embracing each other.
In the morning, Dorian, Faith & Constance are just sitting down for breakfast when there is a knock at the door. Without waiting to be invited, he sidesteps Dorian into the house leaving his double escort outside.
“Why Constance, what a pleasant surprise to see you here. You are looking lovely as usual. And Faith you look positively radiant this morning.” Lucas gushes over the women seemingly not noticing their reactions to his appearance, which are anything but gracious.
“Won’t you invite me to sit down a moment? It isn’t every day that the Mayor comes to visit.” Reluctantly the three sit back down at the table.
“What you join us,” Dorian says through gritted teeth.
“Ah splendid, thank you. I was in such a hurry to see you again my dear that I quite forgot to break my fast this morning.” He says addressing Faith.
“Oh that is a shame,” she replies reluctantly. “We are happy to have you this morning.”
“Wonderful, maybe when I am finished you can accompany me on a morning ride and then to my home. The weather is quite lovely today. I would hate to see something awful happen to you and your companions should you decline.”
“I don’t think that is appropriate Mr. Snakewood, a ride yes but that is all that will happen today, I assure you.”