Chapter 14
An invisible force pushed Emmeline into the grass. She shook her hair off her face and gazed up at the ruins of the castle, bathed in the midday sun. Next to her, Theo suffered a similar landing and spit out a blade of grass as he got his bearings.
“Well, that was something.” She burst into a laugh.
Her entire body was buzzing; pleasantly so, as if in expectation of something great—or from leftover adrenaline from the trip.
Her powers—they worked! She’d done it again!
It would’ve been great if she went to Maria to bring her back, but she couldn’t regret their destination, either.
Lady Scarlet was real. How unbelievable was that?
“It happened.” Theo stared at the ruins. “It truly happened.”
“Of course it did.” She wiped the grass off her hands. “I told you.”
Theo rose to his feet and offered her a hand to hoist her up. “Wh—how—where were we?”
“When were we,” she corrected. “Come, I’ll tell you on the way back.” She patted her hips. “My purse is gone. I must’ve left it …” Somewhere in the castle—but which version of it?
“We can retrieve it another time,” Theo said. “I don’t think we should provoke our luck again today.”
“It’s Louisa’s purse. I only borrowed it.” But he was right. What if her powers had a cool down and she wouldn’t be able to make another passage if they got in trouble? “Fine. I’ll make it up to her somehow.”
They headed back towards the estate, wading side by side through the grass.
“So, would you mind explaining what happened in a slightly less enigmatic manner?” Theo said.
“I have the ability to create passages to different time periods. Apparently.” She tore a blade of grass and started picking at the fluff. “We went to a time before the castle burned down—which would’ve been a few decades ago, as Daniel told me.”
Theo grimaced at the mention, then cleared his expression. “You mean we were in the seventies, eighties?”
“Probably.”
“The cotillion,” he whispered, more to himself. “But what was that about Lady Scarlet and the man who challenged us for a pendant?”
“That’s a whole other story. Literally.” She skipped ahead so she could look at him while they walked. “You know the book I brought you, Dark and Stormy? The duke lent me another by the same author, in which the heroine—Lady Scarlet—has the power to blink into different eras. Exactly like me.”
“But it’s a fictional book?”
“I don’t think all of it is fictional. What we experienced back there was real.”
“But how do we know it was real and not a shared hallucination from inhaling something within the ruins?”
Because I’ve done it before. And this is definitely not a hallucination. “Trust me, okay? And listen.”
He weighed his head. “Go on.”
“Obviously, her real name is not Lady Scarlet, but she was a real person, and somehow the author knew her and wrote a book about her. Lady Scarlet was trying to find a lost treasure, something she called Starry Night, and this man called de Villiers—not his true name, either—was also after it.”
“Have you finished the book yet?”
“Yes. De Villiers never found Starry Night. Lady Scarlet hid it in a box in the castle on the night it burned down.”
Theo narrowed his eyes. “Was that why you were investigating the ruins so intensively?”
She bit her lip. “I thought I’d try! If one thing was true—Lady Scarlet’s abilities—then why wouldn’t the treasure also exist?”
“But we cannot know which part of it is fiction and which isn’t.”
“Unfortunately. But a larger part of the story might be truer than we think.” Oh, this was so exciting! She couldn’t wait to get back home and examine the book again. She’d scour it for any hidden meaning, double-check every word for any hint it might contain. Theo could help if he wanted, too.
“But de Villiers …” Theo shook his head. “That man, he didn’t know what Starry Night was when you mentioned it. He only said he was after a pendant.”
“Then perhaps it is a pendant. It would make sense. It would be small enough for Lady Scarlet to hide it in a jewelry box.”
“Why did they both want it so much?”
“Treasures are usually valuable, aren’t they? Lady Scarlet said the material was special. That it had captured space itself, whatever that means.”
“Perhaps they thought it came from there.”
“What do you mean?”
“As in, a meteorite. It’s a rather new theory—that the rocks we sometimes discover, in craters and such, are not from Earth, but from space.”
“I know that,” she said. “Although I’ve never seen one. Would they look different?”
“It’s hard to say. I’ve never seen one, either. I assume they wouldn’t make for particularly spectacular jewelry, though. At least not what people usually consider spectacular.”
“I wouldn’t mind it,” she said, and he smiled. “And when I wouldn’t be wearing it, I’d have it on display, so I can tell the visitors about my wonderful space ro—” She stopped.
Theo made a few more steps before he realized she wasn’t catching up.
“The duke!” She sprung back into motion and circled him, jumping up and down. “It’s the duke, Theo, it’s him!”
“He’s what?” Theo spun around as he followed her.
“He’s got Starry Night. I saw it—it is a pendant—he has it in his study—displayed, just like that—it’s him, he’s—” She covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, God. The duke is de Villiers.”
“No.” He shook his head. “That would be—”
“Ridiculous?”
“Incredulous. He’s the Duke of Redbridge, not some villain!”
True, he had been nothing but kind to her. But villains could be deceiving. And he just happened to own the only copy of the book—when Emmeline had tried to hunt down everything Miranda Stormcliffe had ever written—and he just happened to own a pendant that looked like a night full of stars, and …
“The scar.” She gasped. “He has a scar on his neck. An old one, healed a long time ago. Right here.” She pointed to the spot on her neck. “Where you’d hit him, Theo!”
“Are you saying that today—half an hour ago—I fought the duke?”
“Today, thirty years ago, who knows.” She shrugged.
“I did once hear the maids say …” A little wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. “That the duke fought a duel when he was younger.”
“A duel with you! That has to be it. He connects everything! He must’ve found Starry Night after all.” Her face fell. “Oh, no. What if he killed Lady Scarlet, like he did her lover?”
“Wait, her what?”
“In the end, when the castle burned, they fought and—it’s not important.” She waved her hands. “The Duke is de Villiers! We must investigate this further. We must find out what happened to Lady Scarlet.”
“You’re not asking him, are you?”
She scoffed. “Of course not. He can’t suspect anything. What we need to do …” She twirled in a circle, pursing her lips. “Is get back there. To the night of the fire. That’s where all the answers lie. We need to go back to the ruins, and I have to figure out a way to get us to the right time.”
Theo ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, I’m still catching up with all of this. Can you do that?”
“I’ve no idea when the fire happened, but then, it’s not like I can consciously decide which era I’ll open a passage to, either. I guess I’ll try until I succeed.”
They walked for a bit, with Theo silent, and his head bowed.
“Why do you care so much about this?” he finally asked.
“Because she’s like me. The only one that’s like me.” She didn’t know what it was about Theo—remnants of her friendship with Leon, perhaps—that made her yearn to tell him everything. Who she was, where she was from …
But if she did, she’d also have to tell him what happened to the real Maria Grey, and that she needed Lady Scarlet, not only because she was fascinating, but because she could help Emmeline with her powers.
What if he judged her? She’d made a great big mess and lied about so many things.
Surely, if he knew, he wouldn’t want to be her friend—and partner in crime—anymore.
And she really, really wanted him to be her friend.
“Very well,” he said. “I’m not sure what I can do, but I’ll help.”
“Really?” She let out a happy cry and hugged him. “Thank you, thank you! We shall be magnificent partners, you’ll see.”
They separated. She held his shoulders for a second more, then stepped back. “I’ll come up with a plan. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“As you wish.”
“Just tell me one more thing,” she said as they resumed their walk. “Back then, at the masquerade ball, did you have fun?”
He waited for a bit, then said, with the tiniest hint of a smile, “I did.”
“Good.” Perhaps it didn’t matter if he was like Leon or not. She liked him just the way he was. “Me, too.”
Dinner that night was a calm affair, allowing Emmeline to get lost in thoughts. She still couldn’t help casting several glances the duke’s way, but he only smiled back when he caught her doing it. Of course, he had no reason to suspect her.
Suspect anything.
“They’ve tried growing them here, but even in glasshouses, it wouldn’t work.” Louisa waved a spoon with raspberry jelly. “They’re long and slightly curved, and they say their flesh is delicious.” She gulped down the jelly. “Oh, how I would love to try a banana.”
“Right.” Daniel’s tone indicated he was done with the conversation. He rose to his feet. “If you’ll excuse me, ladies. Father, would you mind if I keep you company in the study?”
“Not at all.” The duke also stood, lightly bowed his head, and the two left the dining room.
“Why can’t we drink whiskey after dinner?” Louisa slouched back in her chair.
“Because ladies don’t do that,” the duchess said.
“I know of that reasoning. I’m only saying it’s a stupid reasoning.”
Emmeline endured a few more minutes of the duchess illuminating them on the things women couldn’t do—and why there were perfectly good reasons for it—until she and Louisa were released and headed up to their rooms.
“At least now you’re here, we can share the load.” Louisa hugged her good night. “Let’s see what I can upset her with tomorrow, huh?”
“Perhaps we should go for mangoes,” Emmeline said.