Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
“Tove?” Marie called out after she set her mask on the vanity in her bedchamber. “I’ve made my decision. I want to go back to my other life.” She waited for a moment, but the lady didn’t appear to her. “Tove?” she called out in a louder voice.
The door of her bedchamber opened, and Miss Parson entered the room, out of breath.
“Forgive me for the delay. I had to bring these up.” She gestured to the clean blankets in her arms then took a long, deep breath.
“There’s supposed to be a sharp chill in the air tonight, and I wanted to make sure you were warm. ”
Marie’s face warmed. Miss Parson hadn’t heard her calling out for Tove, had she?
Miss Parson placed the blankets on the settee at the end of the bed before turning to face her. “You’ve made your decision then? So soon? And just after this evening’s ball?”
Marie stared at her in shock. Miss Parson didn’t look anything like Tove. But she was speaking to her as if she’d both heard Marie’s decision and understood what it meant. “Are you Tove?” she finally asked when the shock began to wear off.
“Yes,” Miss Parson answered. “I know I led you to believe I wasn’t, but I had to record the progress of the experiment. If you knew my true identity, it could have skewed the results. Everything had to be as authentic as possible.”
Marie blinked a couple more times as she studied the lady in front of her. So much of what Tove told her didn’t make any sense. But then, when had most of it ever made sense?
“I shocked you,” the lady went on. “None of the specifics matter. All that does is your decision. I need to record it. If you’ll allow me a moment…
” She took a small round object out of the pocket of her apron.
She tapped something into it then focused on Marie.
“All right. I’m ready.” She held it up so that it faced her.
Marie didn’t know what she was supposed to see. The object appeared black with only the three blinking red letters REC in the center.
Tove said, “I’ll need your name, the time and date, and your decision. All of this is necessary so that I can properly record the event. If I don’t do it right, this experiment won’t count toward my promotion at work.”
If this was all it took to get her back to her other life, then Marie was more than happy to do it. She cleared her throat and straightened her back. Since Tove pointed to the small round thing, she guessed that looking at it would help Tove.
“My name is Miss Marie Kiefer. At least that is the name I have in the life I wish to go back to.” She glanced at Tove.
When the lady nodded, Marie figured that she didn’t need to refer to herself as the Duke of Carlisle’s daughter.
Relaxing, she continued, “It is October 31, 1824. The time is…” She checked the clock on her vanity.
“The time is 11:35. That is, it’s 11:35 at night.
” She didn’t know if the detail about morning or night mattered but figured it didn’t hurt to add it.
Judging by the expression on Tove’s face, she saw that it had been a good choice.
“I want to go back to my other life, the one I had before this experiment. I want to be Lord Covenshire’s daughter again and have everything as it was in that life. ”
Marie’s gaze returned to Tove. She didn’t think the lady had given her any other instructions, but just in case, she waited.
Tove offered a quick nod and tapped the object. She tapped it again then spoke into it. “I am submitting this recording in conjunction with my written application for the position of Senior Overseer at Sector-7A1Q TMR. Regards, Junior Overseer Tove Sagan.”
Then she tapped on the object a few more times. Marie thought she heard a whooshing sound, followed by a high-pitched chime before the lady placed the object back in her pocket. Tove smiled at her.
“That experiment went better than I expected. You didn’t just change your perception about Edward, but you changed your perception in other ways as well.
” To Marie’s surprise, Tove was still playing the role of her lady’s maid since she led her over to the vanity and started to remove her hairpins.
“For what it’s worth, I think you made the right decision.
I also think you’re going to live a very happy and fulfilling life. ”
“Can’t you take me to my other life now?” Marie asked.
“No. I have to do that while you’re unconscious. Time travel is too jarring for someone in this time period. It’ll be like it was before. You’ll go to sleep and wake up to the other life.”
Marie hesitated to respond but finally ventured, “Will I remember this life?”
“Yes. That’s how you’ll know you made the right decision. There’s no point in sending you back if you aren’t certain you’re with the right gentleman.”
Yes, Marie supposed Tove made a good point in that regard. Even so… “Are you worried I’ll mention this to someone? I haven’t so far. I’ve been mindful to keep this experience a secret. What if I unintentionally slip in the future?”
“If you do, no one will believe you. They’ll think you had a strange dream. That’s what happens when others who’ve been through our experiments slip.”
“How many people do you experiment on?”
“Our organization is big. We have over 100,000 regulating experiments in one form or another. This year, I’d say we oversaw the experiments of half a million people.”
Marie’s eyes grew wide. “That many for 1824?”
“Oh, we don’t just stick with 1824. We go throughout all of human history.
The only thing we can’t do is go into the future from our time.
It’s not that we aren’t interested in doing so.
The law of physics won’t allow for it. I don’t understand the math of it all.
My job is to conduct person-to-person experiments, not run the calculations to make time travel possible.
That’s tedious work, if you ask me.” She began to brush Marie’s hair.
“I enjoy interacting with people. If I get this promotion, I’ll get to do it all the time.
Right now, I’m only allowed to engage with people like you twice a year.
The rest of my time is spent assisting the Senior Overseer of the Division for Romance and Marriage. ”
She gave a wistful smile as she thought of something Marie couldn’t even begin to grasp.
So much of the future was just outside her ability to understand.
All Marie gathered was that this was a large business, and there were different parts to it.
Kind of like a market where she could shop for a variety of things.
If there was a Division for Romance and Marriage, then there must be other divisions as well.
“After I am done getting you ready for bed,” Tove continued, “I will wait for you to go to sleep. When you wake up, it’ll be October 15. It’ll be like you never left.”
“You came to me on October 15. Are you saying that I’ll repeat the day?”
“Yes. Repeating that day is part of the experiment.”
“Will you be my lady’s maid again?”
“No. I’ll find another way to observe you.
And, no, I can’t let you know who I’ll be.
I’ll make an effort to stay out of your sight.
You might see me at some point, but I have another disguise I’ll be wearing.
” Her lips curled up into a smile. “Don’t spend all of your day searching for me. I can’t be found unless I want to be.”
Marie chuckled at the lady’s joke. “How long will you be watching me?”
“Only for that one day. I only watched you on October 15 the first time. I will not interfere with your life once the calendar turns to October 16. It is not our mission to make a nuisance of ourselves. We try to be as quick and efficient as possible. The rest of what I need to know will be in your diaries.”
“I still don’t have a diary.”
Tove winked at her. “You will. You made the choice I suspected you would. You’ll be with Edward. That means you’ll have a diary.” As an afterthought, she added, “In addition to your diaries, we have access to his.”
Marie gasped. “You do?”
Tove put a finger to her lips. “I can’t give anything else away.
Only know that your assuredness about him will change a lot of your diary entries.
Our doubts have a horrible time of getting in our way.
Those doubts won’t haunt you anymore. You’ll finally perceive things the way they truly were with him.
” She stopped Marie before Marie could get another question out. “That is all I’m at liberty to say.”
“All right. I won’t ask anything about Edward or the diaries. May I ask about my real father, Lord Covenshire? Why wasn’t he permitted to be my father in this life?”
“I can answer that one. To be a socialite, you needed a lot of money and important connections. The Duke of Carlisle was the best fit to ensure you had a lot of good suitors.”
“I didn’t care for him.”
She offered Marie an understanding smile. “Yes, I surmised that during the experiment.”
“Did Lord Covenshire exist in this life?”
“Yes, but without you, he had no children. As I recall in my research, Lord and Lady Covenshire were only able to have you, and that was only when they had given up on trying to have a child.”
So, if she hadn’t been his daughter, then he wouldn’t have had any children at all? Marie supposed she should have realized that would be the case since she’d been an only child. And yet, it hadn’t occurred to her that she’d changed his life when she chose to change hers. “I never saw him.”
“He chose to keep himself in the country after his wife’s death in this life.
You gave him comfort after your mother’s death, and with that comfort, he was able to keep up his friendships with the other gentlemen in London.
You see, we don’t just impact one thing when we make a change. We impact other things as well.”
Now Marie was even more relieved to be going back to her other life. She couldn’t imagine her father being all by himself in the country. He must have been so lonely this entire time.
Tove urged her to stand up then undressed her. Once Marie was in bed, Tove tucked the blankets up to her and smiled. “This has been a rewarding experience, Miss Kiefer. I wish you all the happiness in the world.”
“Thank you, Tove, and I hope the same for you.”
Tove placed her hand on Marie’s forehead. Marie thought she felt something cool in the palm of Tove’s hand, but sleep overtook her before she could think anything of it.