So she invited David over for dinner one night just to give Brand someone else to talk to.
It wasn’t the best decision she had ever made. But it wasn’t the worst either.
Brand started off the evening by asking David how the time machine worked. A big mistake in Kate’s mind though Brand had probably been curious. That resulted in a long lecture on the definition of zero-point energy and how it could be drawn from the universe on a sub-quantum level. Finally, they were able to change the subject to sculling and Kate and Brand’s interest in joining a local club. With that, the conversation flowed more freely.
Kate gathered information on the local rowing clubs so that Brand, and perhaps she, too, could join as soon as Brand was physically able to row without herniating his incisions. In the meantime, they settled for taking short walks in the evenings for exercise.
With little else to do in the winter months, the short walks became longer strolls around the Oxford campus as Brand was able. They went to the library and the bookstore. Other than that, Kate didn’t know what else to do to broaden Brand’s 2012 horizons. Naturally, Brand thanked her kindly for her efforts but explained that he had rarely found comfort in the company of others merely for the sake of doing so. Even so, Kate couldn’t help but remember Brand’s camaraderie with Nicholas Weller. Even if she hadn’t liked the man, Brand did have a history of friendships even if he denied them.
By the second week, they fell into a routine that Kate thought comfortable for them both. During her off hours, they shopped for new clothing and went to the market – a place Brand seemed to enjoy. With his expanding interests in food, she taught him some basic cooking skills and introduced him to the Food Network. For dinner, they explored some of the more exotic international cuisine found around town.
She thought perhaps Brand was appreciating being introduced into her time in small steps, that he was becoming familiar if not comfortable with the differences between their times.
That is, until she arrived home from work one day just in time to see him throwing the remote control angrily across the room with a shout of frustration.
After that, Kate watched him more closely, noting the furrow growing between his brows and the shortness of his temper. She knew he was frustrated by his progress and thought to help by taking him into London the next weekend so that they could explore the city and the new amusements it had to offer. But Brand looked beyond the Eye, London’s huge Ferris Wheel, to Big Ben. Looked past the new construction of the Shard to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Though he insisted, Kate knew it had been a mistake to drive him through Belgrave Square and out through Henley to Ramble House. She should have known the sight of his former homes would bring discontent.
Even she felt a certain disquiet viewing the city. London now versus the London of the past was overwhelming. It might have reminded Brand of what he had lost but for the first time, Kate truly considered it as well. Beyond the advancements of the future, Brand had lost status, rank and wealth. He had never done without in his entire life and, while Kate wasn’t poor, her lifestyle was no match for one where he was waited on hand and foot, his every whim met.
Instead, Kate had tried to get him to help in the kitchen, to wash the dishes. What a fool she was for not seeing how something so basic would only amplify the differences between his old life and the new one she had forced on him. She wished she could talk to him about what he was feeling but somehow she just couldn’t summon the words.
Physically at least, Brand recovered nicely from his surgery, although he was still tender. Kate had taken him to the doctor two days ago for a check-up where the doctor told Brand that he might resume sexual relations. They made love that night and in those moments, more vividly than in any others, Kate could feel his desperation in the way he plunged almost violently into her, the way his fingers dug into her. As if he could forget the world outside if he only lost himself in her more deeply. They spent the entire weekend making love until, at last, Brand held her tenderly in his arms, whispering his love as gently as he caressed her body.
Kate gave Brand everything she could, determined to focus on his needs and feelings. It was all about him now. Never had there been a point in Kate’s life where her first thoughts in the morning and the last before she fell asleep were for another.
That was love, that was what she learned from Brand. She thought she’d never be able to do enough for him. However, he missed his world and that wasn’t something that she alone could give him.
That was the moment when Kate knew she had to give up her penchant for denial for good. It just wouldn’t serve any longer when there was something greater than her pride at stake. She needed to focus on Brand without looking through rose-colored glasses, and face things as they were.
***
“Hello, then, Kate,” David greeted as he nudged his way into the cafeteria line next to Kate late the next week. “How goes it?”
Kate looked up with a heavy sigh before forcing a smile. “Good. How about you?”
“Not so bad,” he returned hesitantly. “Might I join you? I have something I’d like to talk to you about.”
“Sure,” Kate consented and they made their way to a small table in the corner. As they sat, Kate asked politely, “How is your project coming along?”
David grimaced. “Well enough, I suppose. The way I’m reading it, those funding the research must have never truly believed that anything would come of it. Now that they have a working principle, they don’t seem to know what to do with it and I haven’t even told them of its trans-time capabilities as yet. I think they’re going to shut me down.”
“Are you serious?” Kate asked in astonishment. Even as incredibly wrong as David’s experiment had gone, it was still a stupendous achievement. “That’s so wrong!”
“It is,” he agreed. “The accolades I thought would be mine never will be but even that doesn’t matter any longer.”
Since kudos were all Kate had thought David dreamed of, that came as a surprise. “It doesn’t?”
“No.” He shook his head but then met her gaze steadily for a long while before adding, “I’ve decided to go home, Kate.”
Somehow, Kate knew that David didn’t mean Brighton. David was returning to the past. “Why?”
“In the brief amount of time that I was there, the past became more of a home to me than any I have ever known. I wasn’t planning on returning here at all until you needed my help,” he told her. “Hadn’t you wondered why I was still there? Beyond my personal ambitions, I found satisfaction in my work there, in my life. I miss it all.”
Kate studied David, seeing his sincerity, his hopes stamped clearly on his face. Her mind whirled with the information. What it meant, and not only for Dave.
It tore at her heart to even think it.
It was even harder to say it.
“Take him with you, David.”
“What?”
“You heard me,” Kate insisted, feeling her chest tighten and throat burn with emotion. Her heart was pleading with her to stop but her mind knew that something had to be done. “I want you to take him back and, before you say anything, I understand everything you’ve had to say on the subject. I just don’t care about that anymore. He’s so unhappy, David. I’d thought… I’d hoped maybe he might accept it, accept our time as his future but he hasn’t and I’m not sure he ever will.”
“He hasn’t had enough time…”
“Time isn’t going to change anything,” Kate insisted, taking a deep breath to bully back the tears that threatened. “It wasn’t his choice, it wasn’t what he wanted and, I’m fairly certain that, knowing what he knows now, he might have rather stayed there to begin with. You saw him, David. You know it’s true.”
“You want him to leave?”
“I want him to be happy,” she said feeling tears burning her eyelids. “Of course, I want him here, I do. I love him so much, but I can’t stand to see him like this.”
“I think you’re ma
king another rash decision.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s rash, only that it’s right. When are you going?”
“Our sector is closed tomorrow so I had thought to come first thing in the morning, but I…”
“What time?”
“Early.” He gave in with a sigh of defeat. “I wanted to make sure the building was empty. I thought perhaps five or so.”
“Pick him up about four-thirty then?”
Chapter Forty-Seven
“Kate, what are you doing home so early?” Brand asked when Kate burst into the flat an hour later. “Is everything all right?”
“Yes,” Kate said pulling off her coat and putting on a happy face. “I just had good news for you and had to come and share it with you. I was talking to David this morning and we’ve agreed that he will send you home.”
Brand blinked in astonishment, practically leaping off the sofa in his surprise. “What?”
“David is going back anyway. He’s decided that the life he was meant to live is there. He said he’d found where he truly belonged in the world and I suppose that’s where you belong as well,” she told him.
“Kate, this is wonderful!” The first true smile Kate had seen in weeks split his lips sending a shaft of pleasure through her. His joy was unmistakable; she could feel it radiating out from him. With a laugh, he swooped over to her to gather in his arms. As he swung her about, Kate clung to his shoulders taking delight from his elation though her heart was breaking.
“I’m glad you’re happy, Brand,” Kate said as cheerfully as she could though her voice caught at the end. “All I’ve ever wanted for you is your happiness.”
“And I want yours, Kate. It will be wonderful, you’ll see. We’ll be so happy there…” Brand leaned back to look down at the woman in his arms. Her eyes were shining, not with joy but with tears, as she clung to him. A feeling of dread knifed through his guts. “You’re not coming, are you?”
When she whispered a soft “No”, Brand felt as if his life was dissolving before him. He loved Kate, more than he’d ever thought a man might love a woman. He loved her mind, her spirit. Even after countless hours reading and watching the television, he knew that even in this time, she was unique. She amazed him at every turn, astounded him with the depths of her love. He had known that she would do everything in her power just to see to his happiness, as he would do the same for her.
He’d just never imagined that she would forsake her own happiness for that sake of his. “Why?” he asked, though he knew the answer.
“I don’t belong in your time any more than you belong in mine,” she told him. “I could be happy there for a while, maybe even for years but eventually I would come to hate it. I would hate that I couldn’t do what I love to do there, that I couldn’t truly be me there. Your time would want to pigeonhole me into a role that I wasn’t raised for.”
“Kate.” He tried to argue, but she cut him off, throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her body against his.
Her kiss when her lips met his was desperate and Brand couldn’t help but give her what she needed. There would be time to argue with her later. Instead, he slid his hands over her hips until her caught the sides of her short skirt and gathered it up with his fingers until it was bunched around her waist. Sliding his hands down her bottom, he grasped her legs and lifted her until she wrapped her legs around his waist.
Pushing her up against the wall, Brand let all the passion he felt flow freely as he ripped open her blouse to cup her breasts in his large hands. Tugging down her bra, he bent his head to capture her nipple between his lips while his hands moved to her panties, tearing the fragile string that held the side until the garment fluttered to the floor.
Kate held him tightly as his fingers found her moist core and thrust up inside of her. She cried out, throwing back her head before lowering her lips to his neck, his ear before forcing his mouth up to meet hers. Their tongues dueled urgently, their passions raging beyond control. Reaching between them to untie the laces on his loose flannel trousers, Brand braced her against the wall and drove up into her. Her hoarse cry blended with his own as he withdrew and thrust again and again until she was sobbing for release in his arms.
With one last thrust, she came apart for him, her arms and legs wrapped tightly around him until he, too, found paradise. Stars burst into small flickers behind his eyes. The power of his climax almost sent him to his knees. Forcing himself to remain upright, he cupped one arm under her bottom and the other around her waist before carrying her, still connected to him, into their bedroom.
Though she admonished him about hurting himself, Brand laid her back on the bed, pulling his shirt over his head before crawling onto the bed and levering himself over her. Without giving her a chance to speak, Brand took her lips in a passionate kiss while he relieved her of the remainder of her clothing.
He made love to her through the afternoon and into the evening. He played her body sweetly bringing her to the height of ecstasy again and again as he whispered to her of his love and desire. Surely, she could see that they were meant to be together. Kate had to return with him. The love between them demanded it. If it took all the days until his departure to prove it to her, he would.
***
A knock roused Brand from his sleep and he turned his head to read the hour on the bedside clock. 4:45 a.m.
Wondering who might be visiting so early, Brand rolled over to wake Kate only to find her side of the bed empty and cool. Hearing voices from the next room, Brand drew on a T-shirt and a pair of jeans before going into the living room.
“David’s here to get you, Brand,” Kate said softly.
She’d been crying, he realized as he took in her red eyes and nose. Crying for him because she had known, when he had not, that they hadn’t days yet before them but hours. He knew he should be angry with her for not telling him but all he felt was heartache.
“We should be off,” Fergusson announced, clearing his throat. “Perhaps you’d like to change into your other clothes before we go.”
With some surprise, Brand noticed that Fergusson was wearing a smart, beige linen suit like many summer weight suits he owned himself. In 1876, that was. “Of course,” he murmured numbly and returned to the bedroom to find the clothing and change.
“Here take this.”
Kate looked back at David at those words to see him holding out a small key to her. “What is it?”
“A key to the safe deposit box I set up back then at the Bank of London. I went the other day to make sure it was still available though I had some curious looks given the age of the key. I explained to them that the key had been handed down for generations before we realized what it was to. They seemed to accept that and gave me this newer key. Take it. I will leave information there for you, let you know how everything goes.”
By everything, Kate realized, David meant Brand and her throat seized once more. She choked out, “Thank you, David. I know I don’t deserve this from you.”
“Perhaps not,” David sighed in agreement. “But I’ve come to realize that there is much I have done in my life that will change on my return to the past, but I belong there. It offers me satisfaction that my own work here could not and, while I know I will never be lauded for the magnificence of my mind and achievements, I find it was not what you Americans might call a ‘deal breaker’.”
“I guess not. You’ll… be careful, won’t you?”
David laughed. “Worry not for the fate of the world, for I have determined to follow your Prime Directive as well and, other than making myself a wealthy man through investment, I will not set a footprint upon the world great enough to change the future as we know it.”
Kate gave him a sad smile crossing her arms over her chest and hugging herself.
Reading the gesture correctly, David continued. “I will watch over your earl as best as I can as well. Are you certain you will not return with us?”
Inhaling, Kate widened her eyes in an at
tempt to cool the burn of tears in them. “I cannot, David. You might belong there but I do not. I cannot be a part of Brand’s life in his time, the earl and the maid, and without that there is nothing for a woman with no marketable skills there.”
David shifted, uncomfortable with this more emotional Kate. “You don’t regret it then? Going back?”
“No, I think we both found everything we never knew we wanted there, David,” Kate said. “Good luck, okay? I hope you find yourself an old-fashioned girl someday.”
With a chuckle, David nodded in agreement and bent to give her a peck on the cheek. “I hope so as well. Goodbye, Kate, check the box, won’t you?”
Kate shifted her gaze beyond him to where Brand stood in the bedroom door. He was leaned back against the jamb casually, arms folded across his chest as he watched her.
With his shirt open at the neck and only loosely tucked into his trousers, Brand looked nothing like the pin-neat earl she had known in the past. He looked like her Brand from that first night in the library, rumpled and sensual though he still exuded class and power. Swallowing back the painful lump in her throat. “Please watch over him…” Kate’s words were choked off as the first of her scalding tears overflowed and spilled onto her cheeks.
“I’ll be right outside,” David answered her uncomfortably.
Brand came to her side and took her in his powerful arms, hugging her to him. “Come with me,” he whispered into her hair as he pressed his lips to the top of her head.
Kate trembled in his arms hearing the yearning in his voice. She wanted to so badly but it wasn’t a world that welcomed a woman like Kate and she knew that someday she would resent the boundaries. Brand’s love might be enough to spare her from the disappointment but what if it was not? She couldn’t chance going with him only to hurt him over and over if she couldn’t find contentment there and Brand didn’t deserve a life with yet another bitter woman ruining it for him. Making his life miserable was the one thing she wasn’t prepared to risk. “I cannot.”
Time Travel 02 Nothing but Time Page 33