A Husband in Time

by Maggie Shayne

  “And if I’m right? If I’ve changed the course of things, and my esteemed colleagues didn’t find the cure after all? If we return to your time, only to find that the miracle drug known as tryptonine doesn’t even exist?”

  Jane blinked as moisture filled her eyes at the very possibility of losing her son. Then her gaze turned inward and she gnawed her lower lip. “Bausch and Waterson find the cure because they believe your son died, and that you, their good friend, a brilliant scientist, lost your mind with grief. That’s what drives them.”

  He turned to stare through pooling tears at Benjamin. “He’s slipped into a coma now. It won’t be much longer before those very things occur.”

  “You have to make them believe it’s already occurred.”

  He swung his head around sharply.

  “It’s the only way, Zach. You have to convince them all that Benjamin is…is gone. Let them see your grief. And then disappear, never to be seen or heard from again. Everything has to happen exactly as it’s supposed to, exactly as it’s recorded as having happened in those books I read about you. Don’t you see?”

  He nodded slowly. “You’re right. It…it might just work.”

  “You won’t be able to come back here, Zach. Not ever again. You’ll be abandoning your work. Your life, your friends. And…and Claudia.”

  His brows came together fast as he searched her face in confusion. And then he recalled that she’d somehow come to the conclusion that selfish, grasping Claudia was the love of his life. She must think him a shallow fool. “Do you think I’d trade my son’s life for my own happiness? Even if I really did care for—”

  “We’re going to have to be very careful,” she said quickly, and he had no doubt that the interruption was deliberate. “Plan every single step.” She sent a worried look to Benjamin’s still form, and to Cody, who’d returned to the bed and was whispering to the comatose child, stroking his head. “And we’re going to have to hurry.”

  Jane stepped into the hallway and pulled Benjamin’s bedroom door closed behind her, just as Mrs. Haversham and the doctor came bustling toward the room. She heard Zach turn the lock behind her. She’d already hustled Cody into Zach’s workroom, down the hall. No one knew he was in there, waiting.

  Ben was worsening by the minute, and they had no time to lose.

  Lifting her chin, drawing a deep breath, she met first one pair of eyes and then the other.

  “Benjamin…has passed,” she told them.

  Mrs. Haversham bit her lip, crossed herself. “He’s no longer suffering,” she said softly. “At peace now, sweet lamb.”

  “And Zach?” Dr. Baker asked.

  Jane lowered her eyes and shook her head. “Not good, Doctor. He’s locked himself in with the boy, says he won’t let anyone take him.”

  “Oh, my!” the plump housekeeper gasped.

  “I think,” Jane added, feeling guilty as hell, but knowing she did what she did to save the child’s life. “If we just give him some time alone, to come to grips…”

  “Yes, I agree.” Doc Baker nodded hard as he spoke. “Let’s go downstairs. Leave him be with his boy for a while.”

  Jane cleared her throat. “Where is Claudia? I think she ought to know.”

  Mrs. Haversham sniffed. “That one left before anyone was astir this morning. I saw her for just a moment, and she would only say she was off on a cruise to the Continent and to give everyone her goodbyes. Some handsome fellow in a fancy carriage picked her up at the door.”

  Jane blinked in shock. Had Claudia found herself a bigger fish to sink her hook into? “But she knew…” It was beyond Jane’s realm of understanding how a woman could set off on a trip while her own flesh and blood lay sick and dying. But, obviously, Claudia’s interests had been in the boy’s father, not in her own son. Zach might spend the rest of his life pining away for her, never realizing what a narrow escape he’d had.

  She linked arms with the doctor and led them both down the stairs, knowing Zach needed a bit more time to accomplish what needed to be done. No one else was left upstairs. Just Zach, Benjamin and Cody. Jane’s job was distraction. So she brewed some tea, and made plenty of noise. And an hour later, when the groundskeeper returned with Eli Waterson and Wilhelm Bausch, whom he’d fetched at Dr. Baker’s suggestion, everyone insisted it was time to go back upstairs. Eli and Wilhelm would be able to talk some sense into Zachariah, they all concurred. Jane hoped to God everything was ready.

  Doc rapped gently on the bedroom door. “Zachariah. It’s Aaron Baker. It’s time to open the door, Zach.”

  There was, of course, no answer.

  “I have your friends here with me, Zachariah. Eli and Wilhelm. They’d like to talk to you.”

  “Yes, Zach, please, let us in,” Eli called.

  Doc tried the doorknob and found it unlocked, as planned. He twisted it, pushed it open, stepped inside…and then froze in place. Mrs. Haversham gasped. The bed stood empty, covers thrown back, sheets crinkled and barren. A breeze stirred the curtains in the open bedroom window. The doctor rushed forward to push them aside, and they all saw the rope that hung over the sill.

  “By God!” Doc shouted. He leaned out the window, scanning the horizon, but of course he saw no sign of Zach.

  “Land sakes, he’s taken Benjamin away!” Mrs. Haversham cried.

  “Look,” Jane said. “There’s a note.”

  Eli Waterson spied the paper on the bed, snatched it up and read it, shaking his head as he did. “Poor Zachariah. Lord, he’s gone out of his mind with grief. Says he’s taking the boy into the wilderness, where no one can come for him.”

  “Lord have mercy, Zachariah’s lost his mind,” Mrs. Haversham breathed, and she sank onto the bed, hugging herself.

  “I’ve seen it before,” said Wilhelm Bausch. “But never in a man as intelligent as Bolton.”

  “Gentlemen, shouldn’t we be forming a search party? Surely we can find Zach and Benjamin…bring them home…?”

  “Yes, yes, of course,” Dr. Baker said. “I’ll see to that. I’ll go right now.”

  “Perhaps you ought to give Mrs. Haversham a…er…a sleeping powder or something,” Jane suggested, leaning forward and speaking low. “She’s very distraught.”

  The doctor nodded. “Where is your boy, ma’am? Is he accounted for?”

  “Still sleeping. I didn’t want to wake him with this awful news, but now I suppose I’ll have to. And…well, I’ll stay with Mrs. Haversham until she falls asleep, of course, but then I’d like to take my son home. He’s going to be terribly upset by all of this.”

  “That’s probably for the best,” Doc said. He crossed to the bed and took Mrs. Haversham’s arm. “Come with me, dear woman.” Jane drew a breath, crossed her fingers and whispered a prayer. This just might work.

  Please, God, let it work.

  “We’ll come along, Dr. Baker,” Bausch said, stomping into the hallway and down the stairs. “If we find him, we might be able to pull Zachariah out of this. The sooner we begin the search, the better.”

  Zach cradled Benjamin, wrapped in a blanket and all but lifeless. So small, so thin. The illness had ravaged his body until there was little left between his skin and his bones. His drawn face lay still and quiet. Pale as a wraith, except for the purplish wells that housed his eyes. Cody sat nearby, steadfast and quiet. But Zach knew full well it was all the child could do to contain his tears. He was trying, valiantly, to behave the way he thought a man should behave. And doing a sight better at it at the ripe old age of ten than Zach was doing at thirty-five.

  There was a tap at the workroom door that brought Zach’s head up sharply. He sat still, silent, and held one hand up to tell Cody to do the same. He needn’t have. The boy knew the plan as well as he did. After a brief pause, there were two more knocks on the door. Zach nodded at Cody, and the boy crossed the room to unlock it.

  Jane came inside, looking slightly ill. Lying about the death of an innocent child, he supposed, wasn’t likely to have agree
d with her. She was nothing if not honest. Brutally so, at times.

  And strong, he mused as she stepped quietly inside, closing the door behind her. Strong, when he so needed strength. He’d never have expected to find a wellspring of it embodied in one petite female. Looks, he decided, could certainly be deceiving.

  “It’s done,” she said softly.

  “We’re alone in the house?”

  “Doc’s gone into town to form a search party. Bausch and Waterson are with him. I made him give Mrs. Haversham a sedative before he left, and she’s sound asleep now.”

  “Good. Let’s get on with this, then, before someone else shows up.” He stood, cradling Ben in his arms, and they all walked into the hallway, and down it, to Benjamin’s room. Jane kept one arm around Cody, and closed the door after they entered.

  Zach didn’t waste any time. He laid Benjamin carefully on his bed. Then he took the little black box from his pocket, pointed it toward the room’s center. “Are you ready?”

  Jane nodded firmly. “The question is, are you? You’re giving up an awful lot, Zach.”

  He scowled at her and flicked the button. Immediately the pinprick of light appeared in the room’s center. Zach turned the dial slowly, and the light grew bigger and brighter. Silvery mists swirled like a tempest inside, then gradually cleared until the sphere shone like a mirror, reflecting the room back at them…from a hundred years into the future.

  “You’re going to be sick again, Zach.”

  “But my son will be well,” he said. He tucked the device firmly into his pocket, then gathered Benjamin into his arms again. “Jane?” Shifting Benjamin to one side, he reached for Jane’s hand with his free one.

  She took it, pulling Cody tight to her other side.

  Zach stepped through the glimmering doorway, and the impact this time was more like being hit by a truck than a post.

  Thirteen

  As she pulled herself to her feet, Jane battled dizziness and terrible nausea. She gripped the foot of Cody’s bed to keep from falling to her knees again, then paused and blinked at it. Cody’s bed. And beside it was Cody’s desk, and his computer, and his stack of books.

  She turned quickly, and saw her son, picking himself up off the floor and looking a little stunned. And then her gaze found Zach, lying still, his arms wrapped tightly around Benjamin, who wasn’t stirring a bit. Staggering a little, she went to them, knelt beside their embracing forms.

  “Zach? Zach, are you all right?”

  His eyes blinked open when she touched his face. His lips moved, but no words came out. Very gently, she eased his arms from around his son, and gathered Benjamin into her own. She heard his slow, labored breathing as she carried him to Cody’s bed and carefully laid him down.

  “He oughta be in a hospital, Mom.”

  She nodded, turning to Cody. “You’re right, as usual, kiddo. How about you? Are you okay?”

  “That time traveling packs one heck of a wallop, but yeah, I’m okay.” He frowned up at her, seeming older than he had any right to. “You don’t look so good, though.”

  She waved a dismissive hand at him. “What about your sore throat?”

  Cody tilted his head, ran his fingertips over his Adam’s apple. “That’s odd.”

  “What, honey?” Jane would have sworn every cell in her body froze as she awaited his answer.

  “It’s gone.”

  “Gone,” she whispered, closing her eyes. She nearly went limp with relief, hoping, praying, that this meant what she thought it did. She touched Cody’s forehead, laid her palm on his cheek, but he didn’t seem feverish now, though he had only seconds ago. Please, she thought, please let it be okay.

  “Mom, we’d better hurry. You want me to call an ambulance?”

  “What? Oh, yes, I guess you’d better.”

  Cody raced from the room, and she heard his feet pounding down the stairs to the only telephone in the house. Jane bent over Benjamin, stroked his hair away from his face. “You hold on a bit longer, little one. We’re going to take care of you. I promise.”

  “Jane?”

  She turned at the strained sound of Zach’s voice. He’d pulled himself into a sitting position, one palm pressed to his forehead, eyes squeezed tight. She went to him, knelt beside him. “It’s all right, Zach. We made it back, and there’s an ambulance on the way.”

  He lifted his head, searched her eyes. “Benjamin?”

  “He’s hanging in there.”

  He brought one hand up to cup her face, stared into her eyes. “And you, Jane? What about you?”

  My heart’s breaking, you idiot.

  “I’m fine.”

  But she wasn’t. All along, she’d resisted her feelings for Zach, because she’d known he’d leave her in the end, to return to his own time, a century in the past. Now he was here to stay. But his heart remained back there, with a woman who wasn’t even worthy of a passing glance from a man like him. She’d been foolish, but there was no help for it. She’d gone and let herself fall in love with the jerk.

  “Then…” His thumb brushed across her cheek, “Why are there tears in your eyes?”

  She tried to blink the alleged tears away. “When the ambulance arrives, Zach, you ought to let them take you to the hospital, too.”

  “I’ll go, Jane, but not as a patient. I need to be with my son.”

  She nodded, understanding that perfectly. “What if you have another memory lapse, like last time?”

  “You’ll be with me…won’t you, Jane?” His eyes probed hers so deeply she felt their touch on her very soul.

  “Of course I will.”

  He smiled weakly. “Good. If my memory does fail me again, you’ll be able to handle it. I have no doubt about that.”

  “That’s me,” she whispered. “Solid, dependable Jane.”

  Zach frowned, and tilted his head. “And just what is that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

  Jane said her head felt a little clearer by the time the ambulance—a motorcar painted white, with flashing lights and a screaming noise to it—arrived. So she and Cody followed in her auto. Zach climbed into the back of the noisy machine to ride with his son, all the while answering the questions of the fellow who rode back there with him.

  “Any history of allergies?”

  “Uh…no. But he hasn’t been exposed to much in the way of modern drugs.” The man looked at Zach strangely. “We’ve been living in remote areas, in, uh, India.” He hoped to God there were still remote areas in India.

  “I see. So, is he up-to-date on his immunizations?”

  “Probably not,” Zach confessed, and he winced as a needle with a rubberized tube attached was inserted into his son’s forearm. “What’s that?”

  “Just fluids. We get the IV started now, and it’ll be easier to administer whatever drugs he needs at the hospital.”

  Zach studied the tubing, and the liquid-filled bag attached. Ringers Lactate, it read. “Ingenious.”

  “And what makes you think this is quinaria fever?”

  Zach blinked, hoping he was giving all the right answers. If ever he’d needed Jane by his side, it was now. Then again, it seemed he felt that way whenever he was away from her. He didn’t just need her now, but always. “He was exposed,” he said to the attendant. “There was an outbreak in the village where we were staying.”

  “Damn. I thought that disease was pretty well eradicated by now.”

  “Then…then there is a cure?”

  The younger man looked at Zach as if he were insane. “Man, that must have been one isolated village. There’s been a cure for almost a hundred years now. Don’t know how you could spend a day in Rockwell and not know about it. It’s our town’s one and only claim to fame.”

  He kept on talking while he worked on Benjamin, and Zach listened, bouncing with the rhythm of the speeding vehicle as it raced toward the hospital, to the story of Zachariah Bolton, the brilliant scientist who’d lost his mind with grief a
t the death of his son. And of his two colleagues, who’d joined forces to develop a cure, in honor of their lost friend.

  Zach couldn’t stop the tears of relief that flowed unchecked as he heard the tale, unchanged from the way Jane had told it to him only a few days ago. Unchanged. And the medic only looked at him oddly as he closed his eyes and whispered, “It worked, Jane. We did it.”

  The young man’s hand fell onto Zach’s shoulder. “If he makes it to the hospital, pal, they’ll be able to pull him through. You hang tough, okay?”

  Jane sipped the stale, machine-generated coffee, grimaced and set it on the vinyl table beside the vinyl chair in which she sat. Cody had fallen asleep in the seat beside her. Zach was still pacing. He hadn’t stopped since they’d arrived here, in time to see him being firmly told he had to stay in the waiting room while Benjamin was being treated. He’d argued, naturally. It wasn’t like Zach to give up without a fight. Jane had intervened, though, guiding him to this bustling waiting area, and he’d been pacing ever since. The fear and worry on his face were more than she could stand.

  She got up, took his hand. “Sit down, Zach. You’re exhausted, and dizzy, and all this pacing isn’t going to do Benjamin any good.”

  He stopped walking, but didn’t sit. He just stared down at her, gripping her hand tightly. “What if he doesn’t make it, Jane? What if—?”

  “He’ll make it. He can’t give up now, not after all we’ve gone through. I can’t believe we made it this far only to lose him, Zach. I won’t believe it.”

  “It’s been so long. Two hours now.” Zach turned toward the double doors with the mesh-lined windows. “I have to know what’s happening in there.”

  “Zach—”

  He pulled free of her restraining hand, and headed for the doors. But before he reached them, Dr. Mulligan emerged and held up his hands. Zach came to a wobbly stop, and Jane hurried up beside him. She slid her arm around his waist, since he was none too steady on his feet.