Chapter 28
Eva flung open the doors of Asheford Hall and stormed inside. With the box propped beneath one arm and her chest heavy with rage, she hurried up the grand staircase toward her bedroom.
Heavy boots hurried behind her.
“I have a mind to speak wi’ ye!” Elias shouted.
“And I have a mind to go to London,” she shouted in return.
“Yer not goin’ anywhere ’til we speak.”
“Too bad. I’m not speaking without going anywhere.”
“Yer not makin’ sense.”
Eva stopped at the landing and faced him. “Why didn’t you or Henry write sooner?”
“Because I had mah hands tied with Henry’s dramatics.”
“What dramatics?”
His face reddened. “I am not telling ye more ’til ye tell me who ye are.”
Eva sighed, spun around and continued up the stairs.
“Who are ye, Eva?”
She stopped again. “You better shut your trap right now before the household hears any more of this. I’ll tell you everything you want to know in privacy.”
“Where are ye going?”
“To my bedroom,” she said, sneering.
He grimaced. “And that is yer idea of privacy?”
She rolled her eyes. “For God’s sake, it’s just a room.”
She rounded the corner, rushed down the hall and barged into her room. She set the box onto her bed. The mere thought that the time-travelling device was in it made her head spin.
Elias stepped into the room, shut the door and observed her with a rugged harshness. “I want the truth and dinnae bother lyin’ to me. I’ve got an intuition for these things.”
“The truth,” she choked.
“Aye.”
Her lips contorted. The truth. “I love Henry more than anything in this universe.”
His shoulders went rigid.
“And before I leave this world, I will go through hell and back to save him from his father. I’m sure he’ll hate me for it but, by God, if I were to leave now, I would hate myself even more.”
Confusion creased his brow. “I dinnae understand.”
“What do you know about Asheford Sons?”
“The family company?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a trading empire.”
“Yes, it is,” she said. “And do you know what happens beneath their perfect image of legality?”
His brows lowered. “I’ve heard rumours.”
“Like what?”
“That it’s … that they smuggle black-market goods.” Elias averted his gaze. “But I didnae think Henry was involved.”
“He isn’t,” she quickly said. “At least, that’s what he told me, and I’d like to believe it’s the truth. What else do you know?”
His eyes had the look of a bewildered man. He approached cautiously, cocking his head to study her. “Henry’s been my pal for the better part of two decades. He would never speak of such things with me, hence why I ken so little. Who are ye to have captured his trust so easily?”
She wrapped her arms around her body, then quickly dropped them to her side. No. She refused to hide or pretend any longer. She also had the suspicion that Elias would not let her off the hook so easily and it wasn’t like she could make up a story to explain why they had lied to him. Dammit.Here you go again, throwing your blind trust at another stranger. She raised her chin and looked into his hard emerald eyes.
“Elias,” she said.
There was a pause as she struggled to continue.
“The truth, Eva,” Elias growled.
“I come from the future,” she stated with as much conviction as a dead fish.
His face slackened. “The future.”
“One hundred and thirty-seven years, to be exact,” she said slowly, eyeing the flicker of uncertainty across his face. “And it’s a long story…” She paused and licked her lips. “But Henry knew about it and took me in like a stray dog.”
“Hell, yer both madder than a couple o’ hatters,” Elias muttered.
“I know it’s hard to believe, trust me … I was in your shoes a month and a half ago. I refused to believe that I had time-travelled to 1881—”
“Time-travelled,” Elias said, dramatically rolling the r. “I do not consider myself a superstitious Scot like the rest of my kinsmen, but I’d be daft to see the subject of time travel as anything other than the devil’s pretend magic.”
“I get it, really I do, but I ask that you hear me out,” she said, feeling her confidence dwindling to nothing. “That box you delivered contains a device that can take a human to the future or the past. It belongs to Henry’s family. It was a treasure … of sorts. That’s another long story, which we don’t have time for now, but the point is, that device is my ticket home.”
His face had gone white.
“Still don’t believe me?” She reached for Henry’s letter and handed it to Elias. “Read what Henry wrote. I guess since you’re directly implicated, you have a right to know.”
As he read, she paced. Henry was in trouble. Why else would he stay in London and dramatically brush her off, going as far as to tell her to consider Elias’s marriage proposal? Nothing made sense.
Elias cleared his throat. “And if ye were to use the device now, ye would vanish before my eyes?”
“I guess,” she muttered.
For a long moment, they stared at one another. She took in the emotions on his face while he studied her in a new light.
“Yer truly from the future?”
She nodded.
He slumped against the door and brought a hand to his forehead.
Was he … was he going to faint?
“Elias?”
“Och,” he muttered. “Ma heid’s mince now.”
“Maybe you should sit.” She gestured to the bed.
He fell to the floor, grumbling to himself. “Ma heid’s mince! I need more proof than words, lass! I cannae allow myself to believe such nonsense.”
“You need more proof?” Eva set her hands on her hips. “Right, well, I wish I could show you my belongings because they would render you mute with shock, but they’re locked away in Henry’s trunk.”
Evolution.Talk to him about the theory of evolution.
It was a crazy idea, but if she could persuade him through his life’s mission, maybe he would believe her. She kneeled before him.
“Do you remember when I told you that one day everything will make sense?” she said.
He glanced up at her. A clarity shone in his eyes.
Bingo.
There was a pause. “How could I forget?” he said hoarsely.
“That was my discreet way of saying that the theory of evolution will one day be considered a general fact of life.” She couldn’t help but smile. “Elias, everything you’re doing in the field has a purpose, so much so, that it will literally change the world.”
A redness touched his cheeks.
She watched him struggle, grasping for the right words.
“I wanted to tell you this, but it was all too risky, especially after I nearly blew my cover with the doctor in the village—”
“When ye spoke about germ theory.”
“Yes,” she said quickly. “Yes, germ theory. I thought it was a concept already accepted in society, but I guess I was a few years off with that one.”
“It’s all true? Microscopic organisms, bacteria, natural selection … all of it will be proven true?”
“Yes,” she said.
His eyes widened, then a grin exploded across his face. He reeled onto his knees and held her shoulders. “Good God Almighty, ye’ve given me a great gift, Eva!” A laugh burst from his lips. “Ye’ve given me the newfound confidence to stick it to the auld bastards in the scientific community!”
She couldn’t help but smile. “As long as you don’t go around saying that a woman from the future gave you those ideas.”
“Och, and be labelled a screwball? I would never risk it,” he said, narrowing his eyes at her. “But I knew something was odd about ye the moment I laid eyes on yer bahookie in that carriage. No decent lady would be cursing about like a wee sailor, let alone foolishly decline a gentleman’s help when bleeding out their heid,” he said. His smile slipped. “How come ye were travelling alone that day?”
She sighed heavily. “Another long story.”
He sat back on his heels. “Ye seem to have many of those.”
“Story of my life,” she snorted. “Maybe one day I’ll explain, but for now, I think we should talk about Henry. I think he’s in danger from his father.”
“Aye.” Elias stood and offered his hand. “That bastard has had his claws in Henry since the day Rhys died.”
Eva accepted his hand. “Who’s Rhys?”
“You mean to say he’s never told ye?”
“He only spoke about his mother and grandfather.”
“Rhys was his older brother.”
Eva fell silent. She had no idea there was an older brother. Neither Henry nor Lottie had spoken about him. “What … what happened to him?”
“It isn’t a nice story, lass. Rhys was murdered alongside Albert five years ago,” Elias muttered. “Their carriage exploded. To make matters worse, the carriage was intended for Henry and Albert, but due to a change of plans, Rhys decided to accompany Albert instead. Och, it’s been a guilt that Henry has lived with ever since.”
Guilt.
She remembered Lottie’s words to Henry the first day they met at Bondieux House. I refuse to continue watching you harm yourself with the guilt of it all.
A fresh wave of regret smacked her across the face. Over the last week and a half, she had been so focused on her stupid, sad and angry feelings that she hadn’t once considered why Henry may be acting alone in the shadows. It was high time she stopped being so selfish.
***
If Eva had thought the situation dire before, it was a hundredfold now. On top of everything else, foul play could be added to the Asheford story. Someone wanted Albert and his grandsons dead.
Through deductive reasoning and her knowledge of the history of the time-travelling device, Eva assumed that Edwin would have most probable cause to murder Albert, but to kill his own sons? How could a father do something so diabolical? This revelation helped her understand how Henry had been manipulated by fear. Everything within her screamed to help him.
“We will catch the train to London tomorrow,” Eva declared as she focused on the roaring fire within the parlour’s fireplace.
“Yer all welcome to stay at my house there,” Elias said.
“That is where my brother currently resides?” Lottie asked.
“Aye, it is.”
“Do you believe he will be angry with us for coming to fetch him like a boy?” Lottie said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Eva eyed Lottie cautiously. It was unlike her to be so softly spoken. The sudden news must have made her nervous.
With an encouraging smile, Eva sat by her and took her hand. “Let’s not think about that, okay? We are going there to help him and to help you.”
“But what if he rejects our help?” Lottie stammered.
“He won’t,” Eva said.
“How can you be so sure?” Lottie’s uneasy gaze bounced between Eva and Elias. “My brother is stubborn when it comes to matters of duty. I truly fear that if Father has him in a dutiful vice, nothing will change his mind.”
“Aye, that much is sure.” Elias warmed his hands before the fire. “He told me a few days ago he would go through hell’s fire to ensure the safety of his loved ones. I suppose his sense of duty is directly correlated.”
“Oh, goodness.” Lottie brought a hand to her mouth. “Father must have used me again.”
Eva’s pulse sped up. “Use you? I don’t understand—”
“When I was a child, there were times when our father would threaten to take me away from Asheford Hall if Henry did not do his bidding,” she said in a weak voice. “I did not understand it at the time. I thought Father wanted to spend time with me, but I found out much later that it was a manipulation tactic against Henry.”
“Oh, Lottie.” Eva squeezed her hand. “We can’t know that for sure—”
“No, no, I am quite certain it’s the case…” She stifled a sob and stood. “I should never have been born … Mama would still be alive, and … and … Henry would be happier without needing to protect my innocence all the time.”
“Lottie, wait—”
With a heart-wrenching sob, Lottie hurried out of the room. Her light footsteps echoed down the hall.
Eva buried her face into her palms. “This is awful, Elias,” she groaned.
“Aye.”
“Is there truth to what she says?”
“Aye, there is,” Elias mumbled. “And I was a fool to bring it up.”
“God, we need to help them.”
“To be quite honest with ye, I dinnae ken how,” Elias said. “I have tried many times to help in the past. I’ve asked Henry to accompany me on excursions to the Americas, but he would not leave Lottie out of fear something would go awry.”
“Why not take them both?”
“It isn’t so easily done.”
“I have an idea, but it will be hard to convince Henry to do it.” Eva leaned back into the sofa. “They both need to be away from their father. They are being destroyed by the trauma and who knows what other tricks Edwin has up his sleeve for his children.”
“What’s yer idea?”
“In my world, there’s something called the witness protection program, to which the victims of organized crime can turn in case of threats,” she said. “Usually, the program will take the victims away from their situation, place them in a new location and change their identities. If we were to get them on a ship somewhere, they could start a new life away from all of this. The good thing is that it would be difficult to trace them, so even if Edwin tried to find them, he would most likely not be successful. The bad thing is they would lose their home and—”
“Legacy,” Elias said.
“Yes.”
She grew quiet. She was describing the future. When she was researching the family in the early stages of figuring out her dad’s manuscript, there was no mention of Edwin’s children. Was that a sign that Henry and Lottie had started a new life elsewhere? Did that explain why Asheford Hall had been left to go to ruin? The thought made her head spin.
“Henry may not show it, but he is a proud and traditional man when it comes to matters of lineage. I dinnae think he would consider this unless the situation was dire.”
“Their grandfather and brother are dead due to suspicious circumstances and Henry has to continuously sacrifice himself to protect his sister,” Eva stated plainly. “I’m sorry, but if that is not dire enough of a situation for him to take action, I’d assume he was asking to be involved in the family business.”
“Aye, maybe.” Elias slowly nodded. “Then we leave tomorrow for London and have a go at persuadin’ him.”
“Yes,” Eva agreed. “We should get some rest before the journey.”
“What if we fail?”
“I don’t know.” She swallowed hard. “At least we can say we tried.”
“Will ye … will ye go back to yer time?”
“Truth be told, I haven’t decided yet.”
Henry’s request that she marry Elias and retire to Scotland lay heavy between them. They had yet to speak about this, nor did Eva particularly want to since it was clearly ridiculous, but she knew something must have been said between the two men. She supposed there would be time to discuss that another day.
Eva pushed herself up from the sofa. “I’ll check on Lottie.”
“Of course.”
Eva’s nerves were shot; it took everything not to tremble. She did not want to think about all the bad things that Henry had been subjected to. All the guilt, trauma and pain that came from unimaginable loss, self-sacrifice and manipulation. Her kind-hearted, sensitive Henry Asheford. No wonder you loved so deeply and passionately; you knew it would soon end.