Chapter 10
Over the next week, as Emmeline began planning, cautious optimism replaced her worries. She didn’t know what this time passage she’d created was, but if she was able to do it twice, she could do it again. And once she had it under control, she only needed to figure out where to find Maria Grey.
It was a fascinating, if strange story, probably not as popular as Mrs. Stormcliffe’s other works, which explained why Emmeline hadn’t seen it before.
And yes, perhaps she was getting inspiration from the wrong source.
She’d read novels featuring time travel before, and they were always so bizarre, featuring either complicated machinery or some hand-waving method.
This one, though, felt comforting, familiar.
If only Lady Scarlet could tell Emmeline how to travel with precision.
It wasn’t as if she was going to invent a time machine. Her father was the engineer, not her.
And not that Father would ever invent a time machine, either.
For Lady Scarlet, it was easy. She only needed to think of the time and place she wished to be. But when Emmeline thought of Maria and opening a passage to her, nothing happened. She did get a headache, eventually—but it was a regular one, a result of hours of straining herself.
Perhaps this was the one time a fictional book couldn’t teach her a lesson.
Aside from her failed attempts—or precisely because of them—it was essential to have a contingency plan for when she’d inevitably be found out. She’d need somewhere to go, most likely alone, considering Leon—Theo—didn’t know her anymore.
And the only option she could think of was family.
So she penned a letter to the current Viscount Haverston and headed to the town to post it. The man at the post office weighed it in his hands, glancing at her with a raised eyebrow. “It’s a hefty one, miss. That will triple the price.”
“What do you mean?” It didn’t seem heavy to her at all; just a paper enclosed in an envelope of her own making, since she didn’t find any in the house.
“Triple paper sheet, and it going to London, then to Bath …” The man glanced at a chart lying on the counter. “That would be three shillings.”
How much was a shilling?
“I’m only warning you in case the recipient can’t afford the payment.”
“So I don’t need to pay?” One would think a postal system in the past would’ve been less complicated.
“Well, no.” The man narrowed his eyes. “All I’m saying is, the receiver could reject the letter—”
“Yes, I understand.” Darn it. The viscount might be suspicious of mail coming from a random stranger. What if he rejected it because it was too expensive? “Can I pay instead? But I don’t have three shillings—”
The man sighed. “Miss, if you can’t pay, why are you offering to?”
“Would you take this?” She pulled out the silver locket hanging around her neck.
“This is not a pawnshop.”
“Please. I need to send this letter.” She gave him the kindest smile she could muster, but judging by his lowered brows, she was starting to get on his nerves.
“Miss Grey?” she heard from the side.
Theo? Her smile grew wider as he approached.
“Do you need help?” Theo’s eyes stopped on the necklace. “You have my locket.”
Emmeline gaped. “This is yours?”
“Yes. I thought I’d lost it on the—well, you know—”
On the beach. Where she got it, in her era. Wait, no. She’d grabbed it during the headache. Was that the first time she’d time traveled? And later, she’d returned to the same beach … to Theo. Did the locket draw her to its rightful owner?
“Would you two mind? There are other customers,” the man ground out.
Emmeline pulled Theo to the side. “I’m sorry. I had no idea. Here.” She pressed the locket into his palm. “God, I almost sold it!”
“I don’t think he was anywhere near taking that offer.”
Him saying it with such a straight face somehow made it even funnier, and Emmeline laughed.
“Looks like I’m not even capable of sending a letter,” she said.
“If you’re worried about payment, why don’t you have the duke frank it? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
“Frank it,” she repeated slowly.
“It makes it free to send?” His eyebrow lifted.
“Right! Yes, how could I have forgotten. I’ll do that, thank you.
” Time to get off the topic of her limited postal knowledge.
“And you! I didn’t know you were walking around already.
” He hadn’t come to see her. She tried to swallow the bitter feeling of annoyance.
He didn’t remember her, and he didn’t owe her anything.
“I am.” They walked out onto the main street, bustling in the early morning hour.
“How are you?”
“Well, thank you.” He turned to her. “And I do have to thank you. You saved my life.” He glanced around. “And you kept my secret.”
“I would’ve done it for anyone.” Well, her brothers were maybe slightly lower on the list. “But then, you’re pretty good at deception, yourself.” She winked at him.
His eyes widened, and he swallowed.
“Your accent?” she clarified. “Not a trace of French.”
“Right.” He let out a relieved exhale that wasn’t quite a laugh. “I …”
An older woman, standing by a cart loaded with metal pints and canvas bags, waved at Theo.
“I have to go,” he said. “I came here with the other servants, since they had their own errands to run.”
“Oh. Okay.” She stood there, hands clasped in front.
“You’re not alone, are you?”
“Well, I …” She made a vague motion to the road. “I walked. Didn’t feel like ordering a carriage just for me.”
His look was not dissimilar to the postal office worker’s earlier.
God, she really didn’t know how to live in this time.
“Do you think I could come back with you?”
“If you so wish,” he drawled. “But it is a cart.”
“That’s fine.” She headed toward it; Theo caught up.
Several my lady-s and curtsies fell as she approached the cart. She remembered a face or two from her first day here, but how did all the servants know her?
A younger male servant hopped off the front bench.
“No, please, don’t give up your seating for me,” she said. “I’ll ride in the back.”
“But, my lady—”
“It’s fine.” She lifted the hem of her dress and sat on the back of the cart, legs dangling off. “See, works perfectly.”
After a bit more fussing from the servants, Theo sat next to her, and the cart lurched forward.
Either some straw or a splinter stung her backside, and Emmeline wiggled, then ignored it when that didn’t help.
It was a warm summer day without a cloud in the sky—not something she could say about much of her previous vacation here—and riding on the back of a cart, heading through the vibrant countryside, felt like a little adventure.
“Why didn’t you ride a horse?” Theo asked.
“I’m not very good at it.” Bicycles, she could do, but horses? Mother had wanted her to try—riding was such a fancy pastime, after all—but Emmeline could never quite get into it.
A yet another notch in Mother’s “Emmeline’s Disappointments” board.
“If you’d ever like to practice, I can help,” Theo said. “I asked to do some work on the estate, and they had an opening in the stables.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. You don’t need to work just because I told them”—she checked the others for eavesdropping—“that you were my servant.”
“I wouldn’t want to sit idle. Besides, it’s not a burden. I like working with horses. Uncle always allowed me to care for them back at the farm. He said they were the calmest with me.” He looked off into the distance, a bit of melancholy shadowing his eyes.
Since the other servants were still fully occupied with their own chatter, she dared to ask, “You lived on a farm back in France?”
“With my aunt and uncle, yes.”
“You must be eager to get back to them.” She wished she could help, chase that forlorn look off his face, but she didn’t even have the means to send a single letter.
“I would’ve liked to.”
“So, you can’t?”
He knitted his eyebrows. “My situation doesn’t allow me.”
He was all about those elusive answers, wasn’t he? Did that mean he didn’t have the funds for it, or something else? She tried to go by guessing the former. “I’ll see if I can get some money from the family. They paid for my clothes, so surely they’re not too stingy.”
“No,” he said, with a lot more fervor than she’d expected. “I wouldn’t want to be in their debt.”
“Technically, the debt would be mine.”
“Miss Grey, you don’t need to do it. Definitely not for me.” He clenched his jaw. “I’ll sort out my own problems.”
Emmeline slumped her shoulders. She had to keep reminding herself she shared no history with this version of Leon. He was just a man from this time who looked exactly like her friend from the other time.
“How are you enjoying your visit here?” he asked after a few minutes of silence as the cart swung down the country road.
For a moment, with her thoughts still lingering on the memories of Leon, she thought he somehow knew of her time travel.
But no—he only meant Miss Grey’s visit to the ducal family.
“It’s been nice. I’ve always wanted to have a friend like Louisa, and the duke has been very kind to me, letting me borrow all the books from his library … ”
“You don’t miss your family?”
She snorted. “No.” Here, she was free. And once she figured out her abilities, honed them to the same precision Lady Scarlet did, she could return home without a minute gone. Her family would never know she’d been missing. Never find out about the adventure she’s had.
But even if she could do it right now, she wasn’t ready to leave her Neverland yet. And because of Maria, she couldn’t, anyway.
She playfully nudged Theo’s shoulder. “So, that locket. Did someone special give it to you? A girl you fancy? A fiancée?” She squished a twinge of jealousy rising at the thought—he’s not Leon, remember.
“My mother.”
“That’s lovely. Like a birthday present?”
“No. She …” He scrunched his nose. “Uncle gave it to me later. She died giving birth to me.”
Oh, no. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”