by Mari Carr
“What is it?” he asked.
“It’s different,” she said. “Oh crap. This is all wrong. I really am in a parallel universe.”
“I beg your pardon?” Jack asked at her bewildered rambling.
“Nothing.” Squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath, she resumed her journey toward the front door, uncertain what she would find behind it. She stumbled slightly as she took in the rough, unadorned planks that led to the front door. Tori’s mother employed a full-time gardener who had installed ornate flower boxes on both sides of the steps creating a grand entrance to the home. The boxes had been filled with lovely summer flowers in shades of red, orange, and yellow yesterday. There were no flowers now.
Jack remained close by her side. He probably sensed her confusion and suspected she would bolt before they made it to the door. She felt a bit like laughing because getting the hell out of Dodge was definitely her primary thought at the moment. Problem was she didn’t know where to run. Lightly resting her hand on his arm, he gave her a tight smile. “Shall we go in?”
Giles, the ever-present, excruciatingly diligent butler, had the front door open before Jack could knock.
“A butler?” Hayley murmured.
Jack was certain only he had heard her question, but he had more pressing matters on his mind. Glancing behind the butler, he felt mildly reassured the Grange was as calm and peaceful as ever. No one appeared dismayed over the disappearance of Erin or her visiting friend. In fact, Giles appeared not to recognize Hayley. Obviously, she hadn’t been at the Grange yesterday as she’d said. The thought of her carrying her blatant lie so far infuriated him.
“Giles.” His hold on her arm tightened. “Could you please inform the lord and lady of the house we wish to speak to them? Immediately.”
Giles paused briefly at the uncharacteristic fury in Jack’s tone. The old man’s eyebrows rose as he took in the unkempt woman beside him. He could see the butler studying her disheveled appearance and masculine clothing, as well as his own battered face, before gesturing toward the dining room. “Lord and Lady Dorset are breaking their fast, sir. If you and your lady friend would be so kind as to wait in the morning room, I will inform them of your arrival. We were not expecting you until this afternoon, Captain Campbell.”
Expelling the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding, he grasped Hayley’s hand and pulled her toward the dining room. Erin hadn’t been kidnapped, Hayley hadn’t been here yesterday, and he was about to prove it.
“Breakfast? Wonderful.” He brushed by Giles. “We’re starving.”
Pausing briefly at the closed dining room door, Jack debated if there was time to come up with an acceptable excuse for kidnapping Erin’s friend and holding her against her will just in case Hayley was telling the truth. Grimacing, he remembered the scratches on his face and the black eye. Looking over at a wide-eyed, perplexed Hayley, he could see the bruise on her cheek was darker than the night before.
One glance over his shoulder at Giles convinced him that even if they retreated from the house now, the butler would announce his visit and battered state just the same. No recourse, he thought as he pushed the door open. The McCormicks looked up with surprise as he and Hayley entered the room.
Crash!
Glass shattered across the floor as Lady Erin McCormick, Marchioness of Dorset, dropped her teacup. Alex stood quickly, alarmed at the look on his wife’s face, but Erin’s eyes never strayed from Hayley.
“Happy Birthday, Erin.” Hayley’s voice cracked on the words.
“Hayley?” Erin stood slowly, visibly shaken. At her mention of the name, Alex turned his head sharply toward the red-haired woman standing beside him.
“Hayley?” Alex repeated. “Your Hayley?”
The silence in the room was broken in an instant, as with matching screams of delight, Erin and Hayley ran across the room, straight into each other’s arms. Hugging and laughing, neither woman seemed capable of speech, the sheer force of their embrace the only thing keeping them upright.
Alex looked questioningly at him, but Erin’s obvious delight at seeing her friend made Jack’s blood run cold. Had Alex kidnapped Erin? Hayley said Erin had been missing for a year and from the looks of this reunion, it had obviously been a long time since the two women had seen each other.
He thought back to the previous year when Alex needed to find a bride—fast. Erin appeared out of nowhere and the two had wed only a couple weeks later. Had Alex somehow coerced Erin into the marriage? No matter how he tried, he couldn’t reconcile his mind to the fact that they were anything less than completely in love. Nothing Hayley said made any sense. How could she claim to have been staying at the Grange and not see Erin?
Finally, the women separated, both speaking at the same time in fast, excited voices.
“We thought you were dead,” Hayley said.
“I couldn’t get back to you,” Erin replied.
“Tori will be thrilled.”
“Is Tori here too? I’ve missed you both so much,” Erin replied, apparently looking for this Tori chit.
“I don’t know where she is right now.” Hayley glanced around the room as well, her gaze uneasy.
“How is she?” Erin asked, tears in her eyes.
“Tori? The same. Romance-crazy librarian.”
“The tree—was it the tree?” Erin grasped Hayley’s hands in hers.
“Lightning struck it. Did you see anything?”
“Is it still broken, split?” Erin asked. “Was Tori with you when it opened?”
“No—to both questions. How did you know about that?”
Startled by Erin’s mention of the tree, Jack began to ask his own question, but Alex interrupted the women’s reunion. “Erin.”
The marchioness, still smiling, looked at her husband. “Oh, Alex. I’m sorry. Forgot about you.” Only she and Alex laughed as Hayley turned toward the handsome man standing next to her best friend with a scowl.
Jack realized that as far as his fiery redhead was concerned, the man standing before her was Erin’s kidnapper. Her back stiffened and she looked as if she might do serious damage to his friend, until Erin went to him and put her arm through his. Erin looked happy and in love just as she always did with Alex. Jack watched Hayley’s mind attempt to process that fact.
She looked at Erin more closely. “Dear God, Erin, what are you wearing?”
Erin blushed. Jack thought she looked quite normal in a high neck dress with long sleeves.
“You look like someone from an episode of Little House on the Prairie in that get-up. What gives with all the old-fashioned outfits?” Hayley gestured to him and Alex.
Looking down at her simple, long morning dress, Erin stumbled slightly. “I-I can explain.”
“We can explain.” Alex grasped Erin’s hand in his.
Jack crossed the room to stand next to Hayley. Glancing at her, he saw the tension in her lovely face and the anger in her dark eyes. Obviously, she still suspected his friend of foul play.
“Alex,” Jack felt his own frustration break free. “What the hell is going on here?”
The McCormick’s looked at each other uncomfortably. Taking a deep breath, Erin looked from Hayley to him. “You don’t know?”
“Parallel universe? Aliens?” Hayley asked with an uncomfortable laugh, repeating one of the same odd phrases she’d used outside.
Hayley gestured to the room. “This is Fernwood Grange, isn’t it? But it looks so strange.”
“The tree,” Alex said. “It is…well…I suppose you could say—” He paused and then mumbled something incoherent that sounded a bit like “Ah hell.”
“Alex,” Erin admonished lightly. “The tree is a doorway.”
Hayley continued to stare at Erin. “A doorway?”
“A magical doorway.”
At Erin’s words, Jack let out a hard, harsh laugh.
Erin glanced at him sharply. “It’s true. Hayley, what year is it?”
Jack looked at Eri
n in utter bewilderment. “What kind of question is that?”
His words, however, were overshadowed by Hayley’s answer. “2008.”
“What did you say?” he shouted, turning to Hayley.
“You know, you don’t have to yell all the time. We’re standing right here and can hear you perfectly well.” At Hayley’s admonition, Alex chuckled lightly.
Jack glared at his friend before pinning Hayley with his stare again. “My dear little firebrand, what year did you say it was?”
She offered him a cold, forced smile as she spoke through gritted teeth. “I said 2008, you great big ass.”
Stunned, he looked at her as if she were insane and then turned his attention to the McCormicks, who were holding hands and looking grim.
“What the hell is going on here? She’s out of her mind!”
Hayley whirled on him. “I’m out of my mind?”
“Jack, calm down.” Erin crossed the room to stand next to them. “Hayley isn’t crazy. She’s perfectly sane. Alex and I can explain. At least, we can explain as much as we know.”
Alex stepped forward. “Perhaps we should retire to the library. We would be more comfortable there.” Without waiting for a response, he led the way with his arm around Erin. Still thunderstruck, Jack looked at Hayley and then gestured toward the door.
With a haughty tilt of her head, Hayley walked passed him. “You are the only person in this room whose sanity is in question.”
Jack stood in the empty dining room and tried to will himself awake. There was absolutely no way Hayley could be from the future. No way Alex and Erin could believe and accept that fact. Things like time travel simply didn’t happen. Did they?
He sighed heavily and rubbed his aching head.
I definitely should have stayed on the ship.
Chapter 6
The library was a comfortable room clearly decorated to both the lord and lady’s tastes. There were two large picture windows on the north and west side of the house, one of which displayed a beautiful rose garden, the other the front drive of the house. Near the north window was an ornate grand piano, while a large oak desk stood against one wall. Hayley could imagine Erin playing the piano, while her handsome husband worked behind that lovely desk. Erin’s beloved, battered guitar case was propped in a corner and Hayley was strangely pleased by the notion Erin had not suffered its loss. Erin’s guitar, a gift from her beloved father, was an extension of herself and Hayley couldn’t imagine her friend without it.
A cozy fire burned in the room’s large fireplace due to the chill left behind by the previous night’s storm. Grateful for the sudden warmth, Hayley sat on a chaise beside it. Alex chose a comfortable chair across from her. Erin headed for the spot beside her on the chaise, but Jack, who was closer, came and sat next to her. Hayley was amused by his sudden change from intimidator to defender. For better or worse, it appeared she and Jack were now linked by whatever bizarre force had plucked her from her home, her time.
Erin changed direction and walked to the chair next to Alex’s as if it was what she’d intended all along. Still a bit miffed at Jack’s earlier insult, Hayley pointedly ignored his closeness.
“Tea or coffee?” Erin asked when they were all settled.
“Brandy would be nice,” Jack muttered.
“Jack,” Erin said with a soft smile. “It’s still morning.”
“I don’t want anything.” Hayley had the distinct feeling she was skating on thin ice and everyone around her understood exactly how thin, but her. “Erin, why did you want to know what year it is?”
“Hayley, clearly you find it strange to discover me here in Tori’s house. I can see that much in your eyes. I’ve been here the whole year and yet neither of you have seen me and I haven’t seen you.”
“I’ve been in this house the past two days with Tori and we stayed at the Grange through late August last year hoping for some word of you. You weren’t here. Rather, you weren’t there. It’s as simple as that.”
“Nothing is that simple, I’m afraid,” added Alex.
Hayley began to share Jack’s anger. “If nothing is that simple, then why don’t you explain it? Tell to me how you managed to kidnap my best friend, suck her into this black hole in time and hide her for a year. While you’re at it, why don’t you explain why the hell I’m here, too?” Her hands were shaking and Jack reached over to grab one, but she quickly pulled it out of his grasp.
“No!” Hayley yelled at him. “You knew she was here. You’re a part of this.”
“No. He’s not.” Erin’s raised voice betrayed her dismay at the situation. “Enough, Hayley, enough. Jack doesn’t know any more about this than you do. Please, let me explain.”
“Erin, what have they done to you? Why are you dressed like that?” She pointed to the yellow dress Erin was wearing. Seeing her friend in the old-fashioned dress unnerved her more than the strange changes in the house. Erin’s love of tatty jeans was one of the few things she could rely on and the fact that Erin seemed to accept this fate so easily rocked her to the core.
Erin smiled and walked toward her. Kneeling before her, she took both of Hayley’s hands in her grasp. “What I’m going to say will sound strange, but you and Jack may be the only two people who will believe me because you’ve seen it, even if you didn’t realize it at the time.”
“Seen what?”
“Time travel. The tree. It’s magical. When it splits open, it transports whoever walks through it from our time,” Erin said looking at her, “to theirs.” At this, Erin glanced at Jack and then Alex. “You can’t tell me neither one of you haven’t noticed some glaring differences in each other. Didn’t each of you think the other dressed strangely? Spoke strangely? Hayley, it’s not 2008. It’s 1818. Same bat place, wrong bat time.”
Jack looked as if he was going to argue, but Alex quickly interjected. “It’s true, Jack. Think back to last year when I brought Erin to the house party. I found her beneath the tree. I asked Lord Sipe to help me create a background, an identity for her so that we could explain her presence here.”
“He claimed she was his great-niece from America and he was trying to launch her into English society,” Jack said. “You never said anything about time travel.”
“Time travel? Would you have believed that?” Erin asked with a laugh.
“Face it, Jack, if I had come to you and said Erin is from the future, what would you have said?”
“I’d have said you were headed for Bedlam.” Jack managed to smile, albeit uneasily, at his friend.
“Alex found me. He saw me come through the tree. He offered to help me return, while keeping me safe in this time.”
“But you never returned.” Jack glanced back at Hayley and she sensed he was unnerved by her silence in the face of such disturbing news. Hell, she was disturbed. Perhaps she was going into shock. She suddenly felt very, very cold. She’d suspected what Erin was going to say, but hearing it put into words rattled her more than she cared to admit.
“That’s where it gets a bit more complicated,” Alex began.
“I couldn’t figure out how to return.” Erin paused for a long time, although Hayley could tell she had more to say. “Then when I learned how, I no longer wanted to. The thing is, Hayley,” she began again and Hayley could see her friend measuring her words, “you’re stuck here. For a year.”
At this, the dam burst open. “What?” Hysterical, panicked laughter shook her body. The preposterousness of the situation was simply too strange, too unreal, too funny to stifle the uncontrollable giggles.
“Hayley?” Erin was confused by her unexpected response. “Did you hear what I said? The tree only opens one day a year.”
“Erin,” Alex began, but Erin cut him off with a hard glance.
“If you knew that—” Hayley stopped speaking to take a deep breath while struggling to stifle the pounding of her heart. Her body was numb. “Why weren’t you at the tree when I came through? Why weren’t you there? We could both be h
ome right now.”
“I told you. I didn’t want to go back,” Erin answered simply.
“Why?” Hayley asked. “Why would you stay here?”
At this question, Alex groaned lightly. “For me.”
“You?” Sudden understanding dawned.
Jack shook his head, chuckling. “She gave up her whole life just to stay with you. You always were a lucky son of a—”
“I don’t think this is funny,” Hayley cut off Jack’s comment. “It’s not you who’s been ripped from your home, your friends, your job.”
Humbled by the chastisement, Jack stopped laughing, his eyes clouded with such true concern she wondered what he saw in her face. She hoped it wasn’t the very real fear that was slowly threatening to drown her. Typically she was able to shield her emotions, but this time she couldn’t control her panic.
“I apologize,” he said seriously. “You’re correct. This is not the time for jests.”
Erin crossed the room to the fireplace and gazed into it as if unsure what to do next.
Alex followed her. “Erin,” he repeated softly.
After several long moments, she spoke again. “I’ve created a life here, Hayley. One I want to keep.” Erin glanced at Alex and the love Hayley saw reflected in her friend’s gaze stole her breath. “I don’t want to return.”
Stunned, Hayley looked at the room where they were sitting. Only two nights ago, she’d sat in a chair by this fireplace wondering for the millionth time in a year where Erin was and now Erin was telling her she’d been sitting—happily—in the same room almost two centuries in the past.
This was insanity. She felt as though she were free falling from an airplane without a parachute. What Erin said made no sense, even though she knew without a doubt she was in Fernwood Grange. The lack of electricity and amenities was obvious as she glanced around and if everything Erin said was true, the direness of her situation began to sink in.