by Monica Burns
“Because the bitch tried to betray me until she had an…accidental fall.”
“I’d advise you not to insult my wife again, Reardon. As for her fall, I can assume it explains why she returned with a head injury?”
“The real countess is dead, Guildford. I was forced to bury the woman alive.”
The cruel satisfaction in Reardon’s voice made Nicholas stiffen with horror. He glanced at Victoria and flinched at the white sheen of her cheeks. He turned his gaze back to his enemy.
“And it’s obvious Victoria clawed her way out of the grave,” he said quietly as deep inside he processed the possibility that Victoria had been telling the truth all along. It didn’t make a bit of sense, but all he knew was that she was here with him, and he wasn’t about to let anyone harm her.
“I think it’s more likely that you replaced the countess with an imposter. How else can you explain this woman’s presence here?” Reardon nodded his head in Victoria’s direction. “The pleasurable part of this puzzle is that I’ll enjoy seeing her die, because I think this woman means far more to you than the countess ever did.”
“You’re beginning to bore me, Reardon.” Despite the icy fear stiffening his muscles, Nicholas slowly put his hands behind his back in an effort to present the appearance of someone at ease. “We sent for the magistrate before we left. The man will be arriving shortly, so why don’t you just give up the game. Things will go much easier for you if you do so.”
“Quite resourceful aren’t you, Guildford.” Reardon expelled a bitter laugh. “It will do you little good. I’ll be long gone by then, but not until I’ve had the pleasure of seeing you hold your dying wife in your arms. I hope it’s as painful to watch her die as it was when I learned my brother was dead.”
“For God’s sake, Reardon, it was an accident,” Sebastian said in a tight voice. “Nicholas almost died trying to save your brother.”
“The mill was unsafe, and Guildford knew it,” Reardon snarled as he glared at Nicholas. “Didn’t you my lord. You’d ordered changes made earlier that day.”
“I had no idea things were unsafe, Reardon. My father didn’t care about the safety of his workers, I do.” Nicholas said quietly. “I made the changes to prevent the loss of life.”
“And yet you didn’t shut the mill down, did you?”
“If you think that hasn’t crossed my mind many times then you’re wrong,” Nicholas said quietly. “I tried to save him, Reardon. There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not reminded of my failure.”
“Spare me your aristocratic platitudes, Guildford. You’re no better than the rest of your kind who live off the backs of the working man.”
Reardon’s face twisted into a mask of hatred as he leveled his pistols at Victoria. Horrified, Nicholas took a step toward her when Edmund released a cry of rage and knocked Nicholas aside as he streaked past him. With incredible speed, Reardon adjusted his aim, firing his weapon at Edmund point blank. Instinct taking over, Nicholas leapt toward his pistol on the table. His lunge caused Reardon to whirl in his direction.
“Nicholas. No,” Victoria screamed.
The sound of the pistol going off echoed loudly in his ears as Victoria flung herself against him and knocked him to the ground. Reardon released a roar of outrage as another shot rang out and the man’s cry died away. Nicholas sat up and pulled Victoria with him. She was white as a sheet, and there was a look of shock on her face. Her fingers were digging into his shoulders as she clung tightly to him.
“Are you hurt?” she whispered. He shook his head and his hands holding her face, he glared down at her.
“What the hell were you thinking,” he muttered fiercely as he kissed her forehead. “You could have been killed.”
“Edmund?” she rasped as she pressed her face into his shoulder.
Nicholas looked at his brother and saw Sebastian helping Edmund to his feet. His brother’s shoulder was bloody on the side, and he immediately knew it was a scratch.
“He’s fine. He’s the hero of the hour,” he reassured her with a smile as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close in an attempt to help ease her trembling. The moment his hand touched her back, she cried out sharply. His gut twisted viciously, and his mouth went dry with fear, as he realized his hand was wet. He lifted it upward to see it covered with blood. Victoria’s blood.
“Sweet Jesus,” he rasped. “Sebastian I need that doctor now.”
“Nicholas?” Her voice was lethargic, and he heard shouts outside the priory as Sebastian raced out of the room. She shuddered. “What’s happening?”
“You’ve been shot, my love, but the doctor’s coming. You’re going to be just fine.”
He could hear the frantic note in his voice and winced as she shook her head no. From across the room, he heard Edmund sobbing Victoria’s name. Desperately he tried to staunch the flow of blood spreading across her back. She looked up at him, and he quickly kissed away the tear sliding across her cheek.
“Don’t cry, sweet witch. I know it hurts, but the doctor will be here soon,” he said as he brushed her hair back off her face.
“There’s not much time,” she whispered.
“No.” Nicholas shook his head fiercely. “The doctor’s coming. I want you to fight, damn it. Don’t you let go, Victoria.”
“Reardon’s book. In fireplace. Edmund knows where it is.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the damn book. Don’t you dare give up, Victoria Brentwood Thornhill, Countess of Guildford.” The fierce command made a small smile tip the corners of her mouth.
“Bossy as always,” she rasped and the breath she drew in rattled in her chest making his heart begin to race with fear.
“Stop talking and save your strength.”
“I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to stay. I don’t belong here.”
“Of course you belong here.”
“Take care of…Andrew for me. I know you’ll be…a good father to him.”
“And you’ll continue to be a wonderful mother,” he said in a voice tight with fear. “I’m not going to lose you, Victoria. I need you. Andrew and Edmund need you.”
Desperation pounded its way through him as he cradled her against his chest. Her breathing became shallow and she lifted her hand to his face.
“Andrew…my gift to you. Tell him…how much I…love him. Keep journal…about him. Place in…fireplace.”
“Enough.” Nicholas bit out, desperate to keep her with him, and refusing to accept the truth. “You’ll see Andrew grow up, my love. The doctor is on his way.”
“Third rose…down…left side. My… necklace… put… in… secret place. I’ll…find…Andrew’s journal in my time.”
“God damn it, Victoria. Save your strength.” Nicholas choked out. Where the hell was the doctor? He was going to lose her if the man didn’t show up.
“I…love…you, Nicholas. No…regrets…find me…my time.”
“Victoria. Look at me.” Nicholas commanded with frantic desperation. “Stay with me.”
“So cold….peaceful.”
“God damn it, Victoria. Fight, damn you. Come back to me.” As Victoria went limp in his arms, an agonized howl poured out of him over and over again.
Chapter 38
Present Day
Frantic for one last look at Nicholas’ face, Victoria struggled to focus her eyes on him. She tried to reach up to touch his mouth before the fog pulled him from her. As she stood frozen in the silk cloud of light, she heard his grief-stricken cry echoing all around her in the mist. Desperate to ease his suffering, Victoria tried to run toward Nicholas’ heart wrenching howl.
With each step she took, his cry of grief grew softer and softer. Furious that she couldn’t reach him, she opened her mouth and screamed. Her cries of anguish echoed like thunder in the fog as tears streamed down her face. She wanted to go back. Nicholas needed her. No, she needed him. Andrew. What would he do without her? Slowly the white mist disappeared replaced by the sensation of crisp sheets beneath her fi
ngertips. A gentle beep sounded nearby. She choked back a muted cry of grief as she opened her eyes. She’d returned to her own time period.
Sunlight brightened the closed blinds in her room, and she threw a brief glance toward the clock on the wall. Her eyes blurred with tears. Why hadn’t God just let her die? What purpose did it serve returning her to this place? Oh Nicholas, I don’t want to go on living without you.
Half-crazed with sorrow, Victoria sat up in bed. The motion sent a wave of dizziness over her, but it disappeared after a moment. Nicholas. Andrew. Edmund. They were gone. They’d been dead for decades. It had been a dream. No, it had been real. Nicholas had been real. Their love had been real. Tears welled up in her throat as she closed her eyes.
But she had no way of knowing for certain that it wasn’t all a dream or that she was simply crazy. She choked back a sob as she remembered Nicholas threatening to take her to the asylum. Victoria stiffened. The fireplace in her room at Brentwood Park. She’d asked Nicholas to leave her necklace for her in the hiding place Edmund had shown her. Edmund. Had Reardon killed him as well? She had to go to Brentwood Park to find answers to her questions. Looking down at her hand, she studied the needle inserted into the side of her wrist. Her stomach lurched as she realized she’d have to remove it. Gently she removed the tape holding the IV needle in place then gently pulled the blue tubing with its needle out of her hand. Blood began to stream down her fingers, and she quickly staunched the flow with her sheet.
The intravenous machine screeched an alarm, and she winced at the loud noise. Ignoring the annoying sound, Victoria slid out of bed. Her legs wobbled beneath her, but she steadied herself against the bed until she could move without falling. The door to her room opened, and a young nurse entered at a quick pace.
“Good heavens, you’re awake,” the nurse said in amazement then gently tried to guide Victoria back to bed. “You shouldn’t be out of bed, Miss Ashton.”
Victoria pushed past the nurse to weave her way toward a storage cabinet in the corner of the room. Opening the door, she saw her jeans and blouse hanging up in the closet. The rest of her clothes were neatly stacked on a shelf above the clothes rod, but her purse wasn’t in the cabinet. It didn’t surprise her, but it was definitely frustrating.
“Please, Miss Ashton. You need to be in bed. You’ve been in a coma for almost two weeks. You may have residual side effects from your injury.”
The concern in the nurse’s voice didn’t sway Victoria’s determination to return to Brentwood Park. Victoria shook her head.
“Where are my purse and passport?”
“Your family has them.” Victoria stared at the woman. What the hell was she talking about? She didn’t have any family, and if she did, they wouldn’t be in England.
“Good Lord.” The sound of a familiar voice made Victoria jerk her head in the direction of the door.
“Anna,” she breathed with a mixture of happiness, joy, and fear. “Is it really you?”
As the woman walked toward her, Victoria tried to adjust to the sight of her friend wearing trousers. With the warmhearted smile Victoria remembered well, Anna clasped Victoria’s hands in hers and kissed Victoria’s cheek.
“You’re awake,” she said quietly then looked at the nurse. “She’ll be fine with me. You should probably call Dr. Bertram.”
“And Mr. Barrows?”
“I’ll call him.”
The nurse nodded and left the room leaving Victoria alone with Anna. Her arm around Victoria’s waist, Anna led her to the bed.
“Dr. Bertram?” Victoria whispered.
“Yes, do you remember him?”
“He was my doctor…” She stopped as she realize she was about to have the same problem here that she had in the past. People were going to think she was insane.
“It’s all right, Victoria. You remember me, don’t you?” Anna smiled cheerfully. “Although I suppose the real question is how much of the past do you remember with Nicholas, Andrew, and Edmund?”
“Oh, my God,” Victoria choked out as tears splashed down her cheeks. “It’s true. It wasn’t a dream. He was real.”
“It’s all right, Victoria, it’s going to be all right.”
“I have to go. I have to go to Brentwood Park. I have to see it. I have to know if he left journals for me. It’s the only way I’ll know it’s real.” She grabbed Anna’s hands and squeezed them tightly. The other woman winced. Victoria immediately released her grip and sniffed as her tears stopped. “I’m sorry. I just need to go there. If I don’t they might as well lock me up.”
Grief engulfed her and she buried her face in her hands. Nicholas was dead. She was never going to hear his voice or feel his touch again. She shuddered as a gentle hand touched her shoulder.
“I’ll help you get to Brentwood Park.” Anna’s gentle words made Victoria look up at her.
“You will?” she whispered and in the same way Victoria remembered from the past, Anna shrugged nonchalantly.
“I think I always knew it would come down to this.”
“Come down to what?” Victoria looked at her with a puzzled frown.
“Helping you get to Brentwood Park when you woke up.”
Anna reached for the purse she’d laid on the bed. A second later she pulled out Victoria’s passport and wallet. The twinkle in the woman’s brown eyes made Victoria laugh.
“Why don’t we get you dressed?” Anna said with a look of urgency. “I’ve a feeling that if we wait for Dr. Bertram, he might want to keep you here for a while.”
“I don’t want that,” Victoria said.
“Okay,” Anna said with her head in the closet. “Here’s underwear. Where do you shop, Victoria’s Secret? I love this bra.”
Victoria laughed at Anna’s words and as the other woman’s head emerged from the closet, she arched her eyebrows.
“What’s so funny?”
“You,” Victoria said with a grin. “You were just like this…”
“In the past?”
“Yes,” Victoria said softly.
“Well since we were friends then that means we’ll be best buddies now. Which is a good thing because I’ve always wanted a…we’ll talk about that later. Can you get dressed without help?”
“I think so, I’m a little wobbly, but I can manage.”
“All right, I need to call my brother and let him know where I’m going.”
“Going?”
“Of course, you need transportation don’t you?”
“Yes,” Victoria said with a sense of relief. Anna grinned at her then left her alone to dress.
Despite the deep pain tightening her chest, she was grateful for Anna’s presence. The woman’s appearance here made her remember the friendship they’d had in the past. But everything made her feel like she was Dorothy having just awoken to discover it had all been nothing more than a dream.
It was why she needed to go to Brentwood Park. She had to know for sure that it hadn’t been a dream. She shrugged into her T-shirt and pulled her jeans on then slipped her feet into her sandals. Gathering her passport and wallet, she moved toward the door. Out in the corridor she heard Anna arguing with someone in hushed tones.
“No, because it’s a lousy idea. How would you feel—” She paused as she listened to the person on the other end of the conversation, before she released an exasperated breath of air. “Seriously, you’re going to pull the because-I’m-the-oldest card on me. Look, I told you where we’re going. You know what to do.”
Suspicion swept through Victoria as she pushed the curtain aside and met Anna’s startled gaze. The guilty look on the other woman’s face made Victoria flinch. Could Anna really be trusted?
“Your brother’s upset?” She studied Anna’s face as the guilty expression on her features became more evident.
“He wanted me to keep you here.” Anna bit her lip. “Do you remember the explosion or where you were before it happened? Who you were with?”
Victoria contemplated the questio
n for a moment. Just like in the past, she couldn’t remember anything about the explosion or several days before the event. Frustrated she shook her head.
“No. I couldn’t in the past either. Every time I tried, I had these terrible headaches and I wound up—”
“In the white mist.” Anna made a small noise of understanding.
“But how do you—” Victoria stared at Anna in puzzlement as the other woman reached for her arm.
“I’ll explain later. In the meantime we need to move. I’m surprised Bertram hasn’t gotten here already. The man is nothing if not punctual.” Pulling Victoria behind her, Anna peeped out into the hall and looked both ways before she turned back to Victoria.
“It looks like there are only a couple nurses at the desk, and yours is the furthest room from the station. I want you to turn left out of the room, through the double doors and stay to the left side of the hall. There’s a structure beam just past the doors that will keep you hidden from the nurses station. Got it?”
“Yes, just stay on the left.”
“Good girl,” Anna said with an encouraging smile. “Okay go. I’ll be right behind you.”
Following the other woman’s directions, Victoria walked the short few feet to the doors then proceeded through them. By the time she reached the square column and was hidden from the nurses’ station she was feeling dizzy. She leaned against the wall, and Anna was at her side in an instant.
“Are you okay? Maybe we should stay here.”
“I’m just dizzy. I guess lying still for more than a week makes it difficult to maintain one’s equilibrium.”
“You haven’t eaten anything in all that time either, that might be part of it,” Anna said as she glanced over her shoulder. “They were actually supposed to give you a feeding tube today. So if you don’t feel well enough to go—”
“No,” Victoria snapped. “I need to go home…at least to see it and prove to myself it was real. That I didn’t imagine it.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure you didn’t imagine it,” Anna said with a look of absolute confidence. “Come on, we can stop and get you a sandwich on the way out of the city.”