Chapter 33
“Leo, get up!” I shake him awake.
I accidentally took more than my few hours allotment. Leo brought me back to the palace after our fun in the gaming hell, but I wasn’t ready to say goodnight, so I snuck him in. It was surprisingly easy, and probably a national security concern. Not my concern, but someone’s.
There are so many secret passageways in the palace that people have used for a variety of reasons through history: to sneak women in, so they don’t have to see their servants, and to do shady political things.
Secret passageways that people wrote about in their diaries, waiting for someone who has made a career of reading such documents.
But I bet they never thought an Indian-American commoner would be the one to use them to sneak in some aristocratic tail.
We took a quick nap before Leo woke me up and went for a more naked round two.
This one slow and drawn out, a contrast to the quick coupling in the gaming hell.
He was supposed to leave after that last time, after a quick cuddle.
Where I was just going to shut my eyes for a minute to enjoy his body against mine.
But we both fell asleep and now it’s morning and there’s a knock at my door. I hope it’s Anne, who has been very chill up to this point. If it’s anyone else, I’m screwed literal hours before I was going to flee anyway.
“Leo! You have to leave. Now!” I shake a bit more vigorously this time. My voice raises, but still stays low enough so everyone doesn’t hear I snuck a boy in past curfew.
“Hmm. Perhaps we should stay for a few moments longer.”
“You don’t have a few moments longer.” I’ve moved on to outright pushing now, and he’s getting closer to the edge of the bed. He’s going to find out that the floor is a lot less comfortable than this bed. And getting there via a fall isn’t going to improve the experience.
Leo finally gets up, not as worried about getting caught in a strange woman’s bedroom. Of course he isn’t. He’ll get a wag of the finger and a congratulatory wink, and the label rake attached a little firmer on his name. Meanwhile, I’ll be completely banished from polite society.
To be entirely fair, I am already planning to self-banish from polite society, but it’s the principle of the matter.
“A peer of the realm always has a few more minutes for pleasure.”
I snort at the joke but keep pushing his chest that is puffed out in fake self-importance. “Whatever. You still have to go.” I’m so flustered by the urgency that I’ve given up worrying about introducing slang into the lexicon a little earlier than it should be.
I just need to find a cottage somewhere where I can be alone so I won’t have to worry about the timeline after I leave.
I can write articles about people of color in the Victorian period just so people can find them later…
and probably still ignore them. Despite it being a firsthand account.
I still haven’t figured out how I’ll pay for this cottage or the food I’ll undoubtedly need, but that’ll be a tomorrow problem.
I do have some money now because of Leo’s gambling adventure. But that can only go so far.
“What…ever?” Leo asks.
I give the final push, which sends Leo over the edge. He lands with a grunt, but he was able to twist and stop the fall with his hands. It’s fine, there’s a rug on the floor and I did warn him about the urgency.
“No time! You get dressed and I’ll distract whoever is at the door.”
“There’s someone at the door?”
“Yes. That’s the source of the knocking that’s currently happening.
That you’re ignoring.” I get up, wrapping myself in a robe, and move to answer the door before whoever it is gets reinforcements.
It’s a good thing I remembered to lock it when we got in, or this morning would have been even more disastrous.
I unlock and crack the door open a little.
“Good morning. Shall I get you ready for the day?” Anne asks, apparently not wanting to talk about the fact that I ditched her yesterday and am acting suspicious today.
“Yeah. Um. Could you please coordinate a bath for me?” There. At least the palace has plumbing so multiple maids don’t have to haul heavy buckets of hot water up the stairs. But it should distract Anne enough that she goes away for a second while I figure out the guest in my room situation.
“Shall I get you clothes to change into?” Anne motions like she’s going to enter the room and I grip the door harder.
“Don’t worry about them. I’ll bring them when I come.”
“If you like.” Anne looks confused that I haven’t budged to let her in.
“Thanks.” She turns to get the bath coordinated. “And thank you for everything you’ve done to help me in the past few days. You’ve made this stay special.” Both in taking care of me and in hiding my more wild moments from Victoria and everyone else.
“Are you leaving soon? Should I pack your things?”
Bless her, I think she’s forgotten I don’t own anything. Well, nothing beyond a costume dress and some notebooks. “No. I just want to tell you that you are amazing at your job.”
“Thank you.”
I nod, and then flinch when I hear Leo drop his shoes from behind me.
“Oh.” Understanding floods her face. Whelp, she knows Leo is here. But will she keep that close to the chest is the real question?
Then she surprises me with a nod and a wink. “I’ll get that bath started for you.”
She might be cool with this, Victorian morality being a hang up of the middle class and aristocrats, but I’m also sure that everyone “below stairs” is going to know about this before the day is out.
There will probably be a working-class version of White’s betting book set up to bet on who it is. Or everyone will know it’s Leo because he’s been calling on me daily. And I’m not exactly subtle with my feelings.
“Thank you.” I shut the door before I reveal anything else.
“Are you ready?” There’s a secret passageway/backstairs for servants at the end of the hall, so we don’t have to get Leo far. We just have to do it quietly, and quickly.
One of us (Leo), isn’t adequately grasping the severity of the situation. Because he is not being quiet, and he is not being quick. I’m vibrating with nervous energy around him, amazed that he can remain so calm right now.
“I am almost dressed. I was thoroughly used this past evening, and I need time to recover.”
I snort. “There was mutual using.” The new me in the past takes the time to correct people when they’re spouting bullshit.
“Hmm. I do not remember. Maybe we should try again.” Leo grabs me around the waist and pulls me in close, nibbling on my neck, his vest forgotten on the floor. “I promise to pay attention this time.”
“You don’t even have a notebook. How will you take notes to study?” But I’m not trying very hard to get away from his warm embrace. Because my body would go into full-scale revolt if I tried.
“I procured your notebook. I could get another one if that is the only thing between me and heaven.” One arm firmly around me, the other snakes into my robe, loosening as it goes.
“Go get your notebook and we’ll talk.” Regaining some control over my wayward body, I push him away. Not a strong push, and one that he listens to out of courtesy as opposed to the strength of the movement.
I immediately regret it when his arms drop, but I remind myself that the stakes are a lot higher when you get caught with a man in your room in 1895. They’re even higher when you’re already lying about who you are, and where, and when, you come from.
I got my last night; I should be happy with the extra time.
But all I want is more. All my worries about “one more night” not being enough were completely founded.
And there’s nothing I can do about it now.
Except hold those memories close, hoping they keep me warm on the cold nights to come and don’t just make me sadder about what I lost.
The cold nights which will be literally chilly if I can’t get back. They don’t invent a heating system that I can afford for a while yet.
While I’m mourning the loss of something that was never really mine to begin with, Leo finishes getting dressed. He gives me a quick kiss, surprised when I grab him around the neck and deepen it. Surprised, but I get no complaints from him. He wraps his arms around me again, responding to the kiss.
Until we hear a noise in the hallway.
I tear away. “You’ve really got to go this time.” I cross the room to open the door, investigating what the noise was.
I don’t see anyone, so it may have just been the palace trying to tell me the man has to leave. With all the intensity of a special ops human, I motion for Leo to come while keeping a lookout.
“I am going home to change, then I shall come calling again. One more kiss.” Leo kisses me one last time. Not that he knows it’s a last time. Just like he didn’t know last night was a last time.
“No. I have bath time! I’ll see you later.” Never. Well, I may stalk him from geographically or temporally afar. But he won’t see me, if I can find a modicum of self-control.
“I will see you soon,” Leo says. And then one more kiss, because we’re both liars about quantities of kisses.
I watch him escape through the same passage we used to get him up there, standing in my door a few extra moments in case he wants to come back for just one more surprise kiss. But although he turns to give me a jaunty wave, he’s gone without any other fornication.
I hear footsteps down the hall and turn to see Anne coming toward my room. “The bath is ready.”
“Excellent. Thank you. For the bath.” And for the distraction from thoughts about Leo.
After I’m clean and dressed, I’m left alone again for breakfast. Alone with my thoughts, which are half trying to figure out how to leave, and half being sad about Leo.
I’ve already snuck out of the palace a few times, and I don’t have a lot to pack.
My notebooks are in a small bag at my feet, but I couldn’t get back in the dress I came to the past in (Anne said I couldn’t possibly wear an evening dress to breakfast, especially one that was out of fashion, and I decided it would be too suspicious to argue).
I’ll just pay the fee for a lost dress if I ever get back to the future.
As for the dress I’m about to steal, they won’t miss it. With all that wealth. There we go, this dress is a reparation for the Koh-i-Noor. And boy, am I getting the short end of that stick.
I have some money tucked into my corset, and I’m ready to flee at any moment. Probably should have already fled, but it’s scary. To leave the palace, and Leo, to go into the unknown. Alone.
But I should have a good meal first, right? It only makes sense to flee on a full stomach. I can’t think of a plan if I’m thinking about meat pies. It’s just logic.
Now my stomach is filled, maybe even overfilled since I’m eating to procrastinate, and my second plate is clean.
Okay. It’s time to leave.
I reach for my bag but stop before I touch it. But what if it wasn’t? What if I could make it work with Leo here? He’s titled; I’ve got boundless knowledge about the time. Maybe we could make it work.
And I love him. The thought of leaving him is paralyzing me, even if I know it is the right decision.
I’m still sitting, unmoving, when Victoria glides into the room. “Hello. How are you this morning?”
I get up, stumble into a curtsey, and then my butt slams back onto the elaborately upholstered chair. “Good morning, Your Majesty. I’m doing well, thank you. How are you?”
Victoria sits down and a very attentive footman puts a plate in front of her before she’s all the way in her chair.
“Much better now that I’ve decided we’re going back to Osborne today.
London and Buckingham have never been the same since Albert.
” The queen gets a faraway look on her face. Sad and wistful at the same time.
Then my sympathy fades to the background when I realize what she just said. We’re going to Osborne.
Well, that’s going to make it harder to flee.