by Annie Seaton
There was no way he was going to jeopardise what was about to happen. His future depended on it.
Past, present, and future all ran together as David put everything he had into the last song. The final chord crashed down and when he dropped his guitar and bowed to the crowd, they screamed and whistled. A flurry of movement at the front caught his attention. Two first aid workers leaned over someone lying on the ground and as the crowd stepped back to give them room, he saw Alice’s bright-red dress spread out on the ground around her as the men worked on her.
“Shit.”
As he turned and ran for the stairs at the back of the pyramid stage, a small man in a suit with a thin black mustache held his hand out to David.
“Davy Morgan? I’m Mick Rothman and I’d like to talk to you.”
“Bear? Slim?” He called to the two band members who were unplugging their equipment before the next band came onto the stage. “Come and talk to Mr. Rothman here. I’ll be back up as soon as I can.”
The agent frowned as David ignored his outstretched hand and he ran down the stairs as quickly as he could. Pushing through the crowd, he ignored the girls whose hands slipped off his sweaty, bare chest as they grabbed at him. When he reached the first aid men on the ground next to Alice, he dropped to his knees next to her.
“Alice? What’s wrong?” She lay on her back with her eyes closed. Her face was pale and covered with a sheen of perspiration, and her hands were grasped tightly in front of her chest.
“We’ve called for the ambulance. We think she’s taken something and had a reaction. Blood pressure is through the roof. Do you know who she is?” The younger of the two men looked at him and his eyes widened as he recognised David.
Before he could answer, Alice’s eyes fluttered open. “Davy? Is that you? Don’t leave me. Come with me?” Her voice was weak and she struggled to catch her breath. “Please? I’m scared. Don’t let them take me away from here.”
David reached out and took her hand between his. “Of course I won’t leave you. I’ll look after you, don’t worry, Alice.”
The flashing red lights of the ambulance reflected on the side of the stage. David looked up and groaned. Not only was he going to be late getting back to Megan, but he was missing out on the meeting with the agent, Mick Rothman.
But he wouldn’t leave Alice. There were too many things that could go wrong if he let her go to the hospital by herself.
Too many explanations that may be needed.
God, Alice, please don’t die on me.
“I’ll be back in a minute.” He looked across at the paramedics who were placing an oxygen mask over Alice’s mouth and nose. “Please wait for me.”
Pushing through the milling crowd who were waiting for the next band to come on stage, he tore around the front of the stage and up the stairs, holding onto the flimsy hand rail as he took them two at a time. Mick Rothman frowned as he spoke to Bear and Slim. When David pushed past him and picked his T-shirt up from the floor, the agent smiled.
“Ah, at last.” He stood back and waited for David to join the group.
“Sorry guys. They’re taking Alice to hospital and I have to go in the ambulance. Whatever you think, just take the deal and I’ll agree with whatever you decide.” He held Bear’s gaze with his. “As long as you take the deal tonight. Okay?”
The burly drummer slapped him on the back as he headed back towards the stairs. “That’s cool, Davy. Look after the old lady. Give her a kiss from me.”
“Keep an eye on my guitar, please guys?” David pointed to his black Fender on the floor where he’d put it before he’d run to see if Alice was alright. Already it was getting lost amongst the equipment as the next band set up for their performance.
“Sure thing.” Slim strolled over and picked it up as David headed back down the stairs.
Alice was already in the back of the ambulance covered with a white blanket. When David climbed in the back and sat beside her, she reached out and gripped his hand.
“Thank you, David. I’m a bit scared. They’re taking me into Taunton hospital.” Her eyes were wide and her hair had fallen from her braid over her face. “I’ve never been anywhere but Glastonbury. “Now I mean.”
“I know what you mean.” David squeezed her hand as he glanced across at the ambulance driver. “Neither have I. We’ll do it together.”
He spoke confidently to keep Alice calm, but inside his thoughts were churning. He had no idea what would happen if they ventured too far away from the time slip and coming up with an ID for Alice was going to problematic. If they looked up her records, they’d find that she should only be about thirty years old.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Megan summoned up the courage to walk along the road into the village in the mid-afternoon. She gave the fields a very wide berth and was relieved when the bell on the shop door chimed as she pushed it open. Crazy Jules greeted her with a smile and Megan let out the breath she’d been holding.
“So how’s your water, then, dear?”
“Fine, thank you.” She grinned at the woman, who was wearing brightly patterned tights beneath a lime-green apron today. “Solstice fixed it just as you said it would.”
Not to mention the sexy rock star who fixed my pump. But she’d go along with the woman’s story.
Picking up a basket, Megan wandered around the dim store, collecting the ingredients for a meal to have ready for David late tonight. Tomatoes, dried herbs, some bacon, and a jar of cream, as well as a packet of pasta, all went into the small plastic crate. She’d venture into the little cellar and raid Alice’s wine stash, too.
She daydreamed as she poked about the store.
A pretty tablecloth and some flowers from the garden.
“Do you have any candles?” She placed the basket on the counter and began to unload her purchases.
“To take to the festival?” Jules turned around to a shelf behind the counter and picked up a small torch. “Safety wardens won’t let you light candles there. Here’s a torch for you, luv.”
“Thanks, but not for the festival. For a romantic dinner.”
God, where did that come from? She was usually a private person and here she was blabbing out her intentions.
Like an adolescent who had a crush on a rock star.
A cold feeling began in the pit of her stomach and she stopped unloading the goods while one hand gripped the handle of the basket. How often had David picked up a fan and spent time with her after a performance? She’d read about performers who used sex to come down from the music high.
Did he just take advantage of me? It had been like one of her teenage dreams come to life.
“You alright, luv?” Jules was looking at her curiously and she lifted her eyes slowly to the older woman’s face. Her gaze was kind and Megan nodded.
“Yes, thanks, I’m fine.”
And I will be. She’d been a willing participant in the whole episode and she just had to take him on trust.
But maybe she’d give the candles a miss. He’d probably run a mile if he thought she was trying to be romantic.
##
Megan stepped back and looked at the table setting. In the end, all she’d done was put a couple of place mats down and placed a jar of yellow roses in the centre of the table. The aromatic sauce was bubbling on the stove and her stomach grumbled. Hunger was gnawing at her but she’d wait for David. It was almost midnight and he should be back soon. In a way, she regretted not going back with him to see the performance, but based on the last two trips through the time slip, she would probably have slept through the entire performance anyway.
A bottle of red wine sat decanting on the table and she walked over to the window above the sink. In the distance, blue light bathed the spire on Glastonbury Tor. There was so much to see here and she intended to do as much sightseeing as she could before she went back home to Sydney.
Home.
It was hard to focus on her life before the past two days. There were only a
couple of days left of the festival. She really should go to the festival she’d come to attend. Then she would focus on going home and sorting out her appeal.
Maybe David could come with me?
Shaking her head, she determined to do some work towards her thesis. Her research since she’d arrived was nonexistent. She must get herself out of this thrall she seemed to be caught in. Guilt rippled through her as she thought about how she’d ended the call to Tony and Kathy. Her brother-in-law had only been trying to help her and she’d cut him off. In the morning, she’d call and apologise, and explain why she couldn’t come home.
But how to explain what had happened to her?
I don’t really care about my job and my life at home because I’ve fallen in love with the rock star of my teenage dreams? Not to mention the time travel that had gotten her into that situation.
God. They’d lock me up. Then she replayed the words she’d just admitted to herself.
Fallen in love. Where the hell did that come from?
A noise outside caught her attention and Megan’s heart accelerated as she hurried over to the door with a smile. She opened the door and looked out into the dark, but there was no one there. The scuffling continued but it must have been a small animal in the garden.
Disappointment overcame the impatience filling her chest. She wished he’d hurry up. The anticipation was becoming unbearable. Lowering the flame on the old gas stove, she gave the sauce a stir and filled another pan with water ready to cook the pasta as soon as he came in.
After pouring a glass of wine, she went outside and sat on the back porch to wait. Even though it was midsummer, the night was cool and the stars glistened in the clear sky. In the distance, the soft music of the current festival drifted across the fields, broken only by the occasional low moo of a cow.
Sipping her wine, she waited…and waited…and waited.
##
By 3:00 a.m. and two glasses of wine, the table on the porch was wet where the dew had begun to settle. Anger had replaced Megan’s disappointment. Picking up the glass, she pushed open the kitchen door and went inside. She turned the stove off and tipped the water out of the pasta pot, tapping the pot loudly on the old stone sink to vent some of her disappointment.
God. How gullible am I?
David had obviously found someone else to take care of his needs. What was the saying?
Any port in a storm?
Too restless to sleep, she turned on her laptop and pulled up her files, curious to read the old articles about the festival and David, now that she could see him from a different perspective. First she pulled up the newspaper headline she had seen in the village store.
Her chest closed and tears welled in her eyes as she read about the death of the band’s publicist in 1970. As much as she’d known about his past from her reading over the years, it was the first time that had been mentioned. That piece of information had been omitted from his biography.
Oh, no, the poor guy. No wonder he’d been so gruff when she’d first met him. She scrolled through the rest of the files that the librarian had scanned and e-mailed to her.
Her breath caught as she gasped. An article from ‘It’s Here and Now’ had the sensational headline Davy Loves the Ladies. Below the headline was a photo of David and a woman in a tight clinch on the stage. Her head whirled and she closed her eyes.
It was her. Someone had taken a photo of them when David pulled her into his arms after the concert. A feeling of unreality tore at her and she struggled to catch her breath. It was only a photo of the back of her, but she knew it was her because she had been there.
David. Where are you?
Megan scrolled through the rest of the article, and the warmth disappeared as she read the words and the sad truth settled in her stomach like a stone.
Davy Morgan rushed to the hospital to be by the side of his new woman the very night after he was pictured in the arms of the mysterious auburn-haired beauty. He loves to love ’em and leave ’em, does our Davy.
Megan snapped the lid of the computer shut, drained her wine, and went to bed.
The next morning, she lay in bed as dawn broke. A languor had taken over her limbs and she stayed in bed as the light on the white walls of the small bedroom turned a rosy pink. Just as when she’d had sex with David on the riverbank. During the couple of hours sleep she’d snatched, her dreams had been full of him, and she was reluctant to leave her bed where she felt so close to him.
Singing to me, touching me…
Promising he’d come back.
She pulled herself out of her dream, reminding herself of what she’d read and how she’d been sucked in. Megan dragged herself out of bed, determined to forget David and go to the festival.
Well, he didn’t come back. It’s time to get on with my research, and get on with real life. Forget this dream existence and go to the festival.
The bloody 2011 festival.
She dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, put on a pair of sneakers, gathered her recorder and notebook, and set off up the road. When she walked past Rose Cottage, she couldn’t help looking for him. She strolled past slowly and peered in. But the door was closed and there was no sign of life.
Surely he’d come back safely? A cold glimmer of fear trickled down her back, but she pushed it back. He’d been coming through the time slip for years. He knew what he was doing.
He’s a big boy, Megan. He’ll be okay.
And there are obviously plenty of other women to worry about him.
Today the village was jam-packed with vehicles and sightseers heading towards the old abbey. Modern vehicles, SUVs, and small cars. Obviously the overflow from the festival had come to the village. Yesterday had been so much quieter but per the program, Megan knew today was the day when all the big-name bands were playing. That explained all the cars and the crowds.
But despite that, she knew there’d be no David Morgan appearing.
Megan made her way through the crowds and along the road to the farm at Pilton. It was so different from when she’d wandered along here in her bare feet only yesterday…or actually it was different than what it looked like in 1971—more than forty years ago.
But now she needed to do what she had come here for and then book the first flight back to Australia. She needed to sort out her job.
Her thesis took priority and the wealth of information she had collected at the 1971 festival yesterday needed to be written down out of her head and into her notes before she forgot it.
Megan stayed at the festival for two hours before she headed back through the village, disillusioned. The 2011 festival didn’t have the vibe of the one she’d been to yesterday. Slick and commercial, it was full of advertising billboards, parking attendants, and security men checking every bag that was carried through the gate. The crowds were quiet and boring, and the music was modern and did not touch her soul.
She refused to admit to herself it was because David wasn’t there. It was simply different music, in a different time.
My expectations were way off base. But at least it was all material for her thesis.
Retrieving the key from the front porch, she put it in the door and glanced across at Rose Cottage wondering if David had come back.
It didn’t matter. She was going home.
Chapter Twenty-Three
They kept Alice in the hospital in Taunton for two days while they ran tests and David almost went stir crazy. Luckily his wallet had been in his jeans pocket and he had enough money on him to get back to Glastonbury. Each day he spent with Alice at the hospital and he pumped her about her relatives in Australia.
He was worried Megan would think he’d let her down. He was sure Megan would be gone when he got back—if he got back. He’d promised her he’d be back that night, and he knew exactly what she’d think. The debauched rock star act he’d put on when he’d met her would help convince her he was unreliable and had just been using her.
Christ, what bad timing.
>
But there was no way he was letting her go.
“My niece, Joanna, lives in Sydney and I left the cottage to her.” Alice was looking better this morning and her cheeks were back to their pink rosy hue. “She had a couple of small children before I stumbled on the time slip and lost touch, so I guess the friend your lady talked about must be my great niece.”
“But do you know her surname? It wouldn’t be McLaren would it?” David persisted. He was determined to get every scrap of information he could—just in case he needed it to find Megan.
“Yes, it is.” Alice tugged on the old fashioned strap hanging in front of her and pulled herself up higher on the pillow. “She’s a bit of a radical like I was in my own time. She kept her own name after she married. I think her children took her name as well, because she divorced soon after she moved to Australia.”
The door opened and the doctor came in carrying a clipboard. “Good news, Miss McLaren. You’re right to go home. All your tests are clear and we can discharge you. It was only a bit of over excitement that caused you to faint. You are in remarkably good health for a woman your age.”
Alice winked at David and had her feet on the floor slipping on her shoes before the doctor had finished speaking. “Wonderful. Just get me my red dress out of the cupboard there, David, and we’ll be on our way.”
After she disappeared down the hallway to the bathroom, the doctor turned to David. “Do you have far to travel?”
David cleared his throat and looked away. “Ah. Yes you could say that.”
##
Getting Alice back to the village of Glastonbury was problematic and it was late afternoon before they stepped off the bus from Taunton. The bus stop was at the end of the lane leading to the cottages.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” David hated the thought of leaving Alice and going back through the time slip and not knowing what would happen to her.
“You heard the doctor. Just a bit of overexcitement.” She shoved him gently towards the door after he saw her into Violet Cottage. “Now you get back to your time and find that young lady of yours. Don’t you go worrying about me.”