Hide in Time

by Anna Faversham

  ~

  The long case clock in the hall, the one she knew so well, seemed to tick louder than ever before. How many ticks and tocks were there in a day, she wondered, as she slumped on the sofa next to her mobile. She felt guilty, she ought to be doing something, she’d only been up for a few hours but still she curled up and slept, like a dormouse hiding from the world.

  The phone rang and startled Laura who nearly fell off the sofa in her attempt to race to the hall. Where was Jeeves?

  She seized the phone. “ Hello,” she announced breathlessly in a voice she hardly recognized as her own. A second’s silence. “ Hello,” she repeated.

  “Laura, it’s Matt.”

  “Matt?” she said incredulously.

  “An exhausted Matt, but it is me, I promise you.”

  “Oh glory!”

  “Far from that, I’m afraid.”

  “Where are you?”

  “At the front door. I haven’t got a key.” He rang the bell.

  Jeeves, who’d moved in a stately manner towards the hall, now rushed to the front door and flung it open. Matt, clutching a mobile phone to his ear, nonchalantly walked in, handed Jeeves a small leather case, gave him a warm smile, and continued to talk to Laura in the hall. “I love you, Laura.”

  Laura took in his form, clad in clothes she did not recognize. “You’re alive?”

  “I believe so. Bit of a long swim though.”

  Only Matt could make an escape from tumultuous seas sound like a mishap on a boating lake. “I love you too, Matt. I love you so very much.”

  Matt was still standing near the front door and taking only an occasional step towards the rooted Laura. “That’s the first time you’ve said that. It’s made this chilling experience worthwhile. Will you marry me, Laura?”

  Laura’s voice was cool and clear. “Yes, yes, yes!”

  Matt roared laughing.

  “I’ve said something wrong, haven’t I, Matt? I can tell by your laugh.”

  “No, Laura, that’s the best answer you could have given.” He raced across the hall, throwing his mobile in the air, caught by a still shocked but ever attentive Jeeves. He snatched Laura’s phone, threw that to Jeeves too, picked Laura up as if she were a mannequin, and twirled round and round like a flourish at the end of Strictly Come Dancing.

  ~

  It was dawn before they noticed how tired they were. Matt had made light of his exhausting, freezing swim to the life raft dropped from the helicopter. “They carry two and the crew thought they’d drop one in the flow of the current, just in case… Great guys; deserve medals.” He’d told her the media made it more dramatic than it really was. “Just got a bit wet, that’s all.”

  Laura had so many concerns: whys, whats, whens and wheres. He listened – oh how he listened, those dark eyes followed every movement of her lips and the flash of her eyes, taking in what she said, how she said it – no other man listened like he did.

  “Prepare for journalists at the gates tomorrow, Laura,” he warned.

  Laura still had more questions: she wondered if he was something of a pirate, was he supposed to disrupt whaling, hadn’t it always been…? Then Jeeves’ words haunted her, ‘stripping out whole species’. No, there's a limit. There comes a time when good men have to… oh, what was that quotation? Something about evil flourishing if good men don't… No wonder he hadn’t wanted to come to her Pirates’ Party. She stilled her mind. He was now talking about the future, their future. She just wanted to hear his voice; it was husky, warm and inviting. She drew herself closer; her Matt was as exciting and luscious as his Wild Honey ancestor.

  He pulled her to her feet, slipped his hand around her waist and steered her up the stairs. They stopped at her room and she noticed the nameplate on the door had been changed from ‘Guest Room’ to ‘Laura’s Room’. Identical in style to all the others, it had obviously been made some time ago. “Five years ago, to be precise,” he said as he took her in his arms. Oh how she loved him.

  Hide in Time ~ Anna Faversham

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  A few days later Laura draped her legs over Matt as they sat together on the sofa in the drawing room. A tiny, furry bundle purred on her lap. “I still can’t think of a name for him, Matt.”

  “Well you have plenty of time. Make a list of possibilities.”

  “Then you could draw the name out of a hat, Matt.” Laura laughed at her rhyme. If she hadn’t been so in love, she might have winced.

  Matt was smiling at her. “You describe so many things in feline terms, I thought you should have one.”

  It was true, and Xandra used to do that too. She leaned over and put the kitten in the basket by the sofa, “I think I’ll call him ‘Wellington’.”

  Matt studied her face. “Wellington?”

  Laura thought of Adam in the coffee-house in London and said, “We have so much to thank both Adam and Xandra for.”

  Matt sat rigid. “You still have a lot to tell me, don’t you, Laura?”

  Laura held up her hand and gazed at her engagement ring. There was plenty of time to tell the tale of the man in the coffee-house. Nathan someone, who seemed to know more than anyone else did.

  Unaware that her thoughts were not of her ring, Matt said, “It fits you so well, it’s as if it were made for you.”

  “It was,” said Laura instinctively. Matt pointed out the fact that it had been in the family for many generations. “Yes, the gold is wearing thin now,” responded Laura, “not like it used to be.” She knew he enjoyed sparring with her.

  “Alexandra was the first to wear it,” he teased.

  “She was not!” Laura thought for a moment before saying, “I suppose it would be asking too much to have your family history rewritten?”

  “History rewritten? Think of the investigations, Laura; I don’t think you’d like being scrutinized.” Her expression told him that was unthinkable. “I can have the band renewed if you like?”

  Laura knew sacrilege when she heard it. “Certainly not! Parson Raffles consecrated this ring. Adam…”

  She hesitated just long enough to lose the thread to Matt. “To paraphrase a clever man’s saying, a girl with a future must avoid a man from the past.” There was the merest hint of command in Matt’s eyes.

  Laura liked it. The moment flashed through her mind when she had stood before Adam as he dismounted from Esky. She had resolved that this man, in whom she had invested all her hopes for the future, must become her past. Matt was right. She focused on his eyes which still held hers.

  “Albert Einstein once said something about the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious and it’s the source of all true art and science.” Matt watched her as she ran her finger over the diamonds in her ring then added, “Have you ever thought of proving him right by writing your life story, Mrs Soon-to-be-Redfern?”

  Laura outwardly ignored the question though it gestated in her mind until it became, “Matt, how did you become Redfern and not Leigh-Fox? When did the surname change?”

  “Adam and Alexandra Leigh-Fox had only one child, a daughter, Araminta. She had no further live children. The daughter grew up to marry Jonathan Redfern. Their children became Leigh-Fox-Redferns. Triple-barrelled is a barrel too far, don’t you agree? So Leigh-Fox became incorporated as middle names in the next generations. Ok with that?”

  Another reminder of Adam would be forever with her. “Mrs Matthew Leigh-Fox Redfern,” she whispered.

  Matt stroked her legs while Laura pondered on such reminders now being a comfort, like keepsakes. Her mind hopped to Xandra. “She lost the others because she was Rhesus A negative, Matt.”

  “How can you know…?”

  “I found out Xandra's blood group when she was injured and needed to go to hospital. You still find it difficult to grasp, don’t you?”

  Matt stroked her legs more slowly as he thought before saying, “There’s no doubt about it – this Xandra/Alexandra connection is not an easy thing to admit to gra
sping. I’d be scorned by my professional colleagues.”

  “Well, it just goes to show how little they know!”

  Matt laughed.

  “By the way, I’m Rhesus A negative too, Matt.”

  “That’s not a problem these days, Laura.”

  “I know. I’ve researched it on the Internet. But that, I think, is why Xandra, I mean Alexandra, had only one surviving child. And because your name was Redfern, it was not until I visited your house that I realized, from the portrait of Adam hanging here still, that you must be a descendant of the Leigh-Fox family. Furthermore, on seeing his face next to yours, the likeness I’d thought was coincidental was too strong to deny.”

  “You’ve kept so many secrets, Laura.”

  “I had to, Matt. Every time I mentioned what your Mr Einstein calls ‘the mysterious’ it was not viewed as the source of art or science, it was dismissed as ‘batty.’”

  “At least I’ve spared you from becoming the daughter-in-law of batty old Father Fox.” He chuckled and added, “I’d like to have known him.”

  Laura looked dubious. “He was often infuriating.”

  “I’d have seen him as a challenge.” Then taking a deep breath he said, “I often have patients who ask me the meaning of life. Huh! I thought I’d cracked it. Not a chance, eh?”

  Laura was so pleased to hear him talk like this. It was the last barrier breaking down. Yes, the universe mostly followed scientific rules, but who made the rules? Not the scientists…

  Her thoughts were interrupted by his. “So if Adam had married you, he would still only have had the one child.”

  Laura grinned mischievously. “Parson Raffles would have said ‘God moves in mysterious ways’”.

  “This life story of yours would be classified as fiction, Laura, but you must write it.”

  “Then there’d be two writers in your family. Should I wait to see how my life turns out? I still worry about not ageing properly.”

  “Time steals everyone’s youth, Laura.”

  “So long as we can both grow old at the same rate, I shan’t mind.”

  Matt smiled and removed her pumps, threw them on the floor, and began scratching her invisible toe. “Time is our friend if we use it wisely.”

  Laura considered for a moment before murmuring, “I know I am now in the right place at the right time."

  He squeezed her toes gently and continued, “Let Old Father Time bury memories that aren't useful.”

  Laura laughed at her vision of Old Father Time raking through unwanted memories like an unpaid refuse collector and burying them in the depths of her mind. Twirling her hair, she reflected in silence. She would stop worrying, it was futile against an adversary like Time. She must learn to use Time’s qualities – both good and bad. There would be so much more time when she'd sold the agency. She would miss her clients but there was a new path ahead for her and she could not take both paths.

  “The first of September is only a couple of months away, Matt.”

  “Are you saying that’s too soon, Laura?”

  “No, not at all. I’m just beginning to realize how much there is to do though.”

  “I’ve waited such a long time for you, Laura, I wish it were sooner. We’ll hire a wedding planner. She can do all the work. Would you like me to ask my old school-friend Nat to walk you up the aisle?”

  “Nat?”

  “You’ve not met him yet. Nathan Schildburg. He’s distantly related to the Rothschilds.” Matt, having paused to watch her ponder, resumed his explanation. “The Rothschild family. Maybe you've not heard of them. They’re colossally rich. Their wealth goes back even to your time.”

  Laura's thoughts were going back and fleetingly she registered that Matt had absorbed for sure that she was from another time; it wouldn’t have to be a taboo subject.

  “It is said they made even more money on the outcome of Waterloo than Adam.” Matt turned his talk to his school friend, Nathan Schildburg, but Laura was remembering the coffee-house in Fleet Street and the last time she had seen Adam. He was talking to a Nathan then and she’d not quite caught his surname. She knew it now; of that she was certain, and it wasn't Schildburg.

  Matt gave up and changed the subject. “Where would you like to go on honeymoon? Want to come and see the whales?”

  Laura skipped forward a couple of centuries. “Matt, would you mind if we went to America? I’ve always wanted to go there.”

  Matt looked at her with eyes that read her heart. “To finish the journey you started such a long time ago?”

  Laura felt her stomach turn over. Oh he was so gorgeous. She didn’t need to reply.

  “Cape Cod, perhaps? Many’s the ship that docked thereabouts. Good whale-watching off the coast too.”

  “Why did you choose to champion whales and dolphins, Matt?”

  It was a moment or two before he responded. “The underwater world seemed neglected and time is running out to rescue the situation. Disappointingly, I’m not up to sorting out the surface yet. One step at a time.”

  Oh how she loved him. Perhaps she’d be able to help.

  “I’ll need to sell the agency.”

  “Your agency is such a little gem, it will be snatched up.”

  “Did you know we both take the same newspaper, Matt?”

  “Well, of course. Why are you saying that now?”

  Laura couldn’t quite look him in the eye as she said, “I learnt it was one of the best ways of knowing what people’s backgrounds, education and tastes were. I had so little general knowledge of ‘modern man’, I just found it to be a short cut.” She paused before enlightening further, “A short cut to matching them.”

  “And we are a good match?”

  Matt was not mocking her; she’d know if he were. “Very definitely,” she said with confidence. He might be a top London psychologist but her way had worked very well.

  Laura wiggled her toes and Matt knew it was time to move on to the other foot. “I want to show you something.” Matt eased his way from under her bare legs and pulled up one of the hefty Foxley Diaries. “You were the one who chose the first of September, remember.”

  “September is such a lovely time of year, it just seemed right somehow.” She swivelled around to sit alongside him, enabling her to read the diary on his lap. “When I have more time, I’d love to read the diaries in full. I can’t do what you asked though, Matt.”

  “Translate the shorthand sections?”

  “Yes. Xandra became a treasured friend.” Laura sighed. “From what I can make out, the shorthand sections are her private feelings rather than a record of happenings. That is a snoop too far. We should not put her feelings on show to the public.”

  “You’re right, of course. A Pitman’s shorthand teacher I consulted some years ago said that some of it was Pitman’s but much of it seemed to be an adapted version, so we left it. I couldn’t resist asking you because you’ve witnessed some of what happened, haven’t you, Laura?” Hurriedly he added, before she had a chance to reply, “Besides, it was a way of keeping you near me.”

  Love is patient, love is kind… love never fails – Parson Raffles’ favourite sermon. “I…” She tried to voice her feelings – to say sorry for keeping him waiting so long, but the words wouldn’t come.

  “I’m relieved you’ve been able to check on Xandra – more than once, I know.” Matt gave Laura a look that would stay with her for a very long time.

  How did he know what she’d been doing? How could she answer? She gave what she saw as the only possible response. "We are fortunate that she kept a diary."

  “It was a stroke of genius for you to take that photo of Xandra when you visited. The police were happy with that. I don’t think they’d be happy with my telling them to read the diaries.”

  “They’d think you were batty too!”

  “Psychologists are used to being thought batty.”

  Laura realized there was still much to learn.

  Matt, white-gloved, point
ed to the entry for Friday, September 1st 1815. “You’ve chosen the same day as Adam and Alexandra.”

  “Oh cool,” she said.

  Matt laughed.

  Laura blinked, instinctively put her ring to her lips, and reflected on its implications. There were too many. Even she could not grasp all it represented. Adam was the first man she had loved but Matt was the fulfilment of all her hopes and she had come so close to losing them both. A tear rolled down her cheek.

  Matt looked at his pondering fiancée and drew her closer to him. “You have been vouchsafed a mystery, Laura, and it is doubtful I, or anyone else, will fully comprehend it.”

  She loved it when he used old-fashioned words.

  Hide in Time ~ Anna Faversham

  EPILOGUE

  September 1815

  “Don’t you think you should behave more like a new wife? Stay at home and manage the household?” Adam undid his jacket and sat down in their favourite place in the morning room.

  Alexandra stood arms akimbo in mock outrage. “What – with all the servants we have? And why should I leave you to have all the fun? Anyway, you might have need of me.”

  “I cannot doubt your usefulness, Alexandra. Our last escapade showed me the devastation we can wreak together. Some time soon, you must teach me a little more about this ‘flinging’ of yours.”

  “‘Slinging,’ Adam. It’s called ‘slinging’.” Alexandra looked unsure before adding, “At least, I think so.”

  “Whatever, it’s called, it more than doubles our effectiveness. Yet tomorrow I should go alone.”

  “Why? Who is to be avenged?”

  “The tenants on the Carpenter estate.” Adam was not one to show all his cards at once.

  “Why?” she repeated. “Apart from the one-hundred-and-one obvious reasons.”

  “I’ve heard their rents have been increased twofold to cover the expense of Jack and Charlotte’s hasty marriage celebrations.”