Connor could feel by Lydia’s stiff movements that she did not want to be led by him. He guessed that she wanted to stay focused for both of them in case he did not know what to do. He understood he was in her world and she had rescued him, but he decided he no longer needed her help. He was capable of things she could not imagine, and he wanted her to know it.
As they continued turning in rhythmic procession across the floor, Connor saw Lydia close her eyes. He hoped she would let the full, melodic sound of the music sooth her anxious thoughts. Her hand loosened its grip and he was leading. She was letting him. He was confident she would not regret it.
As Mandy let the last notes ring out, Lydia opened her eyes and looked at Connor. He stopped moving but kept their hands in place for a moment longer than the other dancers. He could not read her expression. Before he could form a thought, a man burst through the crowd at the door. “Lydia! Lydia Colburn! Come quick!” the man shouted.
Lydia turned and dashed through the parting crowd to the man at the door. He was panting as he explained some horrific incident. Lydia followed him to his wagon and climbed aboard. Connor rushed to follow. As he passed John and Levi he said, “I’m going with her.”
“No!” Levi declared as he stuck his hand into Connor’s chest. “You are not!”
Connor knew Levi was asking for a fight and—no matter how good it would feel to release some of his tension—Connor preferred taking a punch from Levi to upsetting Lydia by fighting with her petulant brother. John stepped between them. Levi removed his hand from Connor’s chest and stomped away.
As the musicians began to play another song, John inclined his head toward Connor. “I left something on the bed in the guestroom. I thought it might help in your efforts. Isabella will need me to take her home soon. Perhaps this would be a good time for you to leave.”
Connor nodded to John and left the barn. He passed the tables outside without making eye contact with anyone and walked through the Fosters’ yard to the road. The gravel crunched under his feet as he stepped onto the road and began the mile walk back to the Colburn property.
The night air was cool and felt good after being in the stuffy barn with all the villagers. Connor slid his hands into his pockets and breathed in the scent of the gray leaf trees. It mixed with the ocean breeze and had an intoxicating effect he hoped he would never get used to.
As he left the road and walked onto the Colburn property, Connor saw a wagon in front of Lydia’s cottage. Light sifted through her gauzy curtains. She was in her office with the patient. He wanted to check on her, but she would probably not appreciate the interruption. Putting aside his desire, he reminded himself Lydia was a professional no matter how rudimentary their society seemed to him.
Connor opened the back door of the main house and walked into the kitchen. The house was dark and empty; it felt weird to be there alone. He lit the oil lantern on the kitchen table and left it there for John and Isabella. He walked through the living room, around the staircase and down the darkened hallway to the guestroom. The moonlight that came through the sash window was faint but sufficient for Connor to see a bundle on the bed. Whatever John had left him was wrapped in felt and tied with a leather cord. Connor untied the cord and unfurled the felt cover to find an ancient mariner’s telescope. Its three brass sections were nestled on a collapsed wooden tripod. He realized it must have come from the ship that brought the founders to the Land. Overwhelmed by John’s gracious gesture, Connor knelt by the bed and assembled the telescope.
* * *
After midnight, Lydia allowed her patient to go home. Though it only took a few stitches to close up the two wounded fingers the patient had accidentally sliced to the bone with a butcher’s knife, Lydia was not sure how much blood had been lost. The way the patient’s husband told it, their entire kitchen was splattered red by time he got her to settle down. The patient insisted half of that blood belonged to the chicken she slaughtered for their dinner.
Lydia kicked off her shoes and was relieved finally to be alone in her cottage. She made the last of her notes in her medical record for the incident and set her pen back in its silver holder. As she began to put out her lamp, Lydia remembered the pile of bloodied rags on the tray beside the patient cot. She had forgotten to take them to the fire pit. Doctor Ashton had taught her that what little they knew about blood assured them anything it touched must be destroyed or sanitized. She gathered the rags into a paper bag, pulled her shoes back on her feet, and wrapped her shawl around her shoulders. Then she found a match and stepped outside.
The clear night sky allowed the gibbous moon to light her path, but it was still too dark for her comfort as she walked into the shadow cast by the Colburn house. Lydia thought of seeing Frank earlier in the evening, and it made her nervous to walk alone in the dark. It was not far to walk and the chore had to be done, so she focused her vision into the distance and hurried her pace.
Lydia turned the corner at the side of her cottage and headed for the fire pit behind the barn. As she stepped around a bush, she was suddenly trapped, her whole body seized by someone. She sucked in a breath to scream, but he put his hand over her mouth. Lydia was immobilized by fear. She widened her eyes and tried to focus.
“Shhh! Shh! Don’t scream! Doc, it’s me,” he whispered. “It’s Connor. Please don’t scream. You’re okay.”
She caught her breath as she recognized the distinct voice. He still had his hand over her mouth. Lydia’s heart raced violently inside her chest.
“Please, don’t scream. Are you going to scream?”
Lydia shook her head, and he slowly removed his hand from her mouth. She inhaled a deep breath and spun on her heel. “What has gotten into you?” she demanded.
“Shh! Would you keep your voice down, please!”
Lydia tried to gain her composure, but her pulse had yet to stabilize. “You scared me half to death!”
“Hey, you scared me just as much as I scared you.”
“I highly doubt that.” Lydia bent to the ground and picked up the paper bag she had dropped in the commotion. “What are you doing stalking about in the middle of the night?”
“Looking at the stars. What are you doing out here?”
“I have to burn bloody rags.” Lydia held up the bag as she marched to the fire pit.
Connor followed her into the moonlight. “Was your patient a bleeder?”
Lydia did not look at Connor, but she could tell he was smiling. Not amused, Lydia hiked through the wet grass across the yard. “I don’t talk about my patients,” she whispered as she turned behind the barn. Connor stayed in the shadow of the barn, but Lydia stepped through the gravel to the fire pit. She struck a match and lit the paper bag before throwing it into the stone basin. Satisfied it was burning, she turned to Connor. “Why are you really out here?”
“I’m looking at the stars.”
Lydia knew the simplicity of his answer was intentional. There was more to it than stargazing. She straightened her shawl and wrapped it around her arms. She was cold and tired, but she could not resist the opportunity to probe. “What are you hoping to find in the stars, Connor?”
“I’m just looking for some answers.”
“Just as you said in the library.” She shook her head in disappointment and started to walk away. Overwhelmed with the urge to become indignant, she stopped and looked at him through the dark. “I know your situation, Connor. I may not know the details of your technology and the abilities it gives you. But it is only because of a lack of information and not a lack of intelligence, I assure you!”
Connor’s half-smile was barely visible in the moonlight, but his eyes shone with delight. “I know you are intelligent, Doc. And you’re right: you could easily learn anything I taught you. Do you really want information?”
“Of course.”
“Fine. Come with me.”
* * *
Connor took Lydia’s arm and led her to the back of the Colburn property where a path directed th
em through the edge of the forest and out to the bluffs. After walking along the path through a patch of forest, they came to the rocky edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. There high above the ocean, Connor had the old telescope set up and pointed into the clear night sky.
Connor motioned to it. “Your dad let me borrow it.”
He watched Lydia’s face as she noticed the telescope. Her jaw dropped, then a smile lit her eyes. “This was my great-grandfather’s telescope. I have not seen it in years. May I?” She leaned to the eyepiece.
“Of course.” Connor waited as she looked through the telescope. She instantly pulled away in surprise. “I’ve tweaked it,” he explained.
Lydia was already looking back through the eyepiece again. “If that means you have made some small adjustments which greatly improved its performance then yes, you have tweaked it.” She continued to gaze through the telescope. “This is incredible, Connor. I don’t know what all I am looking at, but it is spectacular.”
After a moment, Lydia pulled her face away from the telescope but kept her hand on it. “So all these nights I thought you were locked away in your room being unsociable. Is this what you have really been doing all along?”
“I only got the telescope tonight.”
“And what were you up to all the other nights?” She looked back through the telescope again.
The breeze blew up the bluffs from the ocean below and stirred the chill in the air. Connor put his hands in his pockets to keep them warm. “At first I was going out at night to get the lay of the land. I wanted to know where I was, and I wanted to look for a way to return to my people.”
Lydia glanced at Connor. “Did you find a way?” She did not sound like she was sure she wanted the answer.
Connor rocked back on his heels and hoped he was right about her. “Nope. I found my boots, though.”
“So you said.” Lydia pointed at his feet, which were still cramped into the pair of borrowed shoes. “Where are they?”
“In Frank’s cabin.”
Lydia stepped away from the telescope and wrapped her arms in her shawl. She glanced behind them into the forest. “I did not think of him. Just now, I mean. Coming out here with you, I completely forgot about him.”
Connor knew better than to let on, but he was glad to hear her say it. He wanted her to forget about danger when she was with him. “I know where he is, Doc. You are safe with me.” He turned the telescope and pointed it at a cabin further down the bluffs. “Look,” he directed.
Lydia stepped to the telescope and looked. She popped her head up as if trying to see without it and then looked again through the eyepiece. “I had no idea you could see his cabin from up here, or that you could use this to peer into someone’s window. He has no curtain. His lamp is still lit this late at night. Oh, there he is!” She put her hand over her smiling mouth. “I’m not sure we should be doing this. Can he see us?” Lydia asked as she continued to gawk at the man who usually gawked at her.
“No. We’re in the shadows and too far away. I’ve seen him parade around in there wearing my boots. No sign of the other equipment, though.”
“Think no more of the boots.” Lydia continued to stare into Frank’s home as she spoke. “I have arranged for a shoemaker to take your measurements at the market tomorrow.”
“That’s very kind of you. How many gutters will I have to clean out to pay for that?” Connor smiled at her.
Lydia chuckled. “None. I paid for it in stitches this evening.” She pulled away from the telescope. “However, I cannot replace your parachute.” She looked pensive then asked, “Do you need the parachute to leave?”
“I wouldn’t get very far!” Connor laughed. He loved her innocence. He loved the innocent feel of the whole place. During his nights of reconnaissance and his days of conversations, he had learned there was no way for him to leave the Land. He did not want to leave anyway. Enough time had passed that any search for him by the military would have been called off. He also knew alerting anyone to his whereabouts could alert everyone, and that would risk an invasion of the Land. He did not want that to happen.
Connor’s personal mission had changed from escaping from the Land to trying to protect it. He did not know how he could tell Lydia that without telling her from what he needed to protect the Land. He remembered his promise to her father to keep silent about the condition of the world. He took a step closer to her. “I don’t need the parachute, but there were other items that could cause harm to a person if he didn’t know how to use them,” Connor explained. He did not know how much of the ejection seat’s gear had made it to the Land. He thought of what might have been attached to the emergency equipment. He did not care if Frank shot off a flare and it burned his cabin to the ground. He did not care if Frank got a compass or a shiny new knife to play with. He thought of the one device that would have been attached to the parachute—the personal locator beacon—and he wondered if Frank had unknowingly activated it. He needed to get into Frank’s cabin and find it before Frank did. “There was a device attached to the equipment I had when I landed. It is very important I find it.”
“What sort of device?” Lydia asked.
“It’s a beacon.”
“Of light?”
“No. It sends out an electronic signal, which is designed to give rescuers my location.” Connor did not want to worry Lydia with all of the possibilities he had to consider. “I know you are smart and can understand anything I explain. I also know you would try to solve any problem I present, and I want to spare you that burden. Your dad knows the details of the possible dangers, and I won’t do anything he is against.”
Lydia stepped away from the telescope. “I appreciate your gentleness and your desire to spare me the details. I will do my best to leave the speculation and the worry to you and Father. However, my fascination with your work will not allow me to rest.” She pointed to the telescope. “When I look up through this I see the moon and stars and celestial wonders I cannot explain. My people have some knowledge of these things, but I know you have more. Yes, I am concerned more warriors may fall from the sky and they may not all possess your friendly nature. But I am more curious as to what you see when you look through this.” Her voice was soft and settled when she spoke. “I wonder if the night sky appears the same from here as it does from your land. I wonder if you use the stars to navigate your aircraft like sailors do their ships. I wonder if you see other warriors’ flying machines up there. Tell me, Connor, what do you see?”
Connor liked her logical questions. She had figured out far more than he gave her credit for. He glanced up at the stars then looked at Lydia. “I see a sky that looks totally different from the way it does from anywhere else on earth. In fact, I believe there is some type of atmospheric phenomenon over the Land. From here the stars appear to be spread wide, but I know they are not actually positioned where they appeared to be. From here it’s like I’m viewing them with a fish-eye lens. Also, when I look up I should see man-made satellites and aircraft.” He stopped to choose his words carefully. “There is a lot of activity in the sky all over the world, and I see none of that from here. During the daytime many aircraft leave visible contrails in the sky—long streaks of cloud, depending on atmospheric conditions. I haven’t seen a single contrail since I came to the Land, and I doubt it’s due to a lack of air traffic. And the moon is not oval—it is round.”
“What do you think all this means?”
“I think the atmosphere over this location is somehow skewing our vision of the sky. If I’m right, the view from above could also be skewed through the phenomenon. The Land would appear miniscule—possibly undetectable. I believe this may be why the Land can’t be seen by our technology. On an image taken from outer space it appears there is only ocean here.”
“What about ships on the sea? Could they see the Land if they passed by?”
Connor had considered that too. “I’m not sure. I don’t know how far this atmospheric phenomenon extends. If it�
��s shaped like a bubble, then it’s possible that passing vessels would not see the Land. Modern ships navigate with equipment that must frequently adjust readings for magnetic and oceanic currents, so people may have been sailing past the Land for centuries without knowing anything was amiss. From what I read in the founders’ journals in your library, they didn’t see the Land until they ran aground here.”
“That is true,” Lydia confirmed. “The founders had been at sea nearly four months and were desperate for land. They believed God provided this place for them. You said yourself you didn’t know how you came to our shore. Perhaps it is as simple as Providence.”
“Perhaps. I think the people here have an advantage. See, after the time in history when your founders left America, people there developed ways to generate and send electricity into every home. There have been so many inventions since then that our civilization is now based on the constant use of electricity. Every populated area in the world gives off light that can be seen from space. All the electronic gadgets also emit electric signals. We have computers that store and send information, and our world is buzzing with these signals. We have launched equipment into outer space that monitors everything happening on earth—everything except here in your land. There is electronic silence here. This entire chunk of land is completely off grid. As long as your people don’t learn how to generate electricity or produce radio waves or start tinkering with electronics, I think the Land could remain undetected. And… as long as I can get that beacon back from Frank before he activates it.”
Lydia was quiet. Connor turned to the telescope and began to disassemble it. He removed it from its tripod stand and wrapped its sections carefully in the felt cloth just as he had found it. Then he loosened the hinges on the wooden stand and collapsed its legs. He nestled the bundle in the crook of his arm then offered the other arm to Lydia. She slipped her hand beneath his elbow and glanced back in the direction of Frank’s cabin before they walked the path to her family’s property.
The Uncharted Series Omnibus Page 10