A Time of Shadows (Out of Time #8) (30 page)

She looked over to Charlotte. “It’s okay, honey.”

Elizabeth turned back and handed the man the watch. He examined it quickly. They’d considered swapping out one of the other watches, but this one was unique. It had a cloisonné map of the world where the usual embossing was. Without knowing whether the Shadow Council knew about it or not, they couldn’t take that risk.

The man held up the watch. “We’re good,” he said and started back toward his men.

Elizabeth started toward Charlotte. But before she’d even taken a step, the man holding Charlotte looked back to his boss and then nodded. Then he did the one thing Simon had prayed he wouldn’t. He let go.

And Charlotte fell.

S
IMON
YELLED
OUT
TO
Charlotte. He heard Elizabeth cry out and Charlotte scream. His heart in his throat, he started running forward, but the man who’d dropped her pulled out a gun and pointed it at Elizabeth.

“No!” Simon cried.

Elizabeth turned away in a futile effort to shield herself and a gunshot rang out, echoing across the ravine. Simon froze in shock. Elizabeth didn’t fall, but the man did.

He fell backward against the railing, his gun falling from his lifeless fingers. Jack, Simon realized. He was here. Thank God he was.

More shots rang out then, some from the far side of the bridge and some from behind him. Elizabeth ignored it all and ran to where Charlotte had been.

Just as quickly as they’d started the gunshots stopped. Simon ran to the edge of the bridge and looked over. It had to be more than twenty feet to the water below. And God only knew how deep it was or what lay beneath the surface. He scanned for her but couldn’t see anything but rocks and river.
 

“Charlotte!”

He turned to see Elizabeth starting to climb onto the railing. A bullet ricocheted off the rusted iron truss next to her and she had to duck down.

There was still one man, using his car as a shield and he fired again at Elizabeth. He was too well hidden and Jack couldn’t hit him from his vantage point.
 

Then the loud boom from a shotgun cracked the air. After that, there was silence. Until Renaud walked out from around the end of the car.

“Allez!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Elizabeth climbed up onto the railing and jumped.

Simon’s heart fell with her, but he turned and ran back toward his end of the bridge. He plunged into the woods. Branches scratched his face but he didn’t care. He slipped and slid down the loose earth to the rocky shore below. He climbed over slippery rocks, moving down river, knowing the current was carrying them. He had to get ahead of them. He ran and for a long painful moment, he couldn’t see anything. Just the black water.

He waded out a few steps into the cold, rushing water and then he saw her—Elizabeth. She bobbed to the surface upstream. He called out to her, but she went under again.
 

He waded further out into the water, knowing it would carry her to him. He would catch her, catch both of them before the river carried them away. Or he would die trying.
 

 
Just ahead of him, Elizabeth came back up, and she had Charlotte in her arms. He stood against the battering of the current. Elizabeth held Charlotte tightly to her chest with one arm and reached out to him with her free hand. He took one more step out, his foot nearly losing its purchase on the slick rocks. But he caught her outstretched hand, and pulled with all his strength. Somehow, he managed to get them out of the fastest current and move them toward the shore.

Jack appeared out of the woods and waded in to help.

Elizabeth passed Charlotte to Simon. He scooped her up into his arms and waded to the shore. As he emerged from the water her head flopped back, arms swinging lifelessly.

Dear God in Heaven.

No, he thought.
No
.
 

Everything else disappeared except the girl in his arms. Carefully, he laid her down on the shore. He put his ear next to her nose and mouth. Nothing. He listened to her chest. But there were no sounds. No breath. No heartbeat.

He was sure his heart stopped too then. His worst fear was coming to pass. Old Nan’s prophecy, the one he’d denied, the one he’d dreaded, was unfolding before his eyes.
 

“But we haven’t lost a child,” Elizabeth said.

“Perhaps it has not yet come to pass.”

“Are you saying we’ll have a child and then…?”

“It is your burden.”

His burden. Simon had carried the fear of it with him every moment since then and now it was here. Charlotte,
his
Charlotte was slipping away from him just as Nan said she would.

“No,” he whispered. It could not be. He promised that it would not be.
 

He looked down at her pale face, his own heart seizing in his chest.

“Simon,” Elizabeth gasped as she fell to her knees at his side.

“Help me,” he said.

Elizabeth moved over to kneel by Charlotte’s shoulders. She tilted Charlotte’s head back and gave her two breaths. Charlotte’s chest rose slightly with each, but a third didn’t come

Frantically, Simon started chest compressions. He had to remind himself not to push too hard. Her chest was so small, so delicate.

He pushed rapidly thirty times, counting out each. He stopped and listened again. Elizabeth looked at him, her eyes flashing with terror, and he shook his head.
 

 
Elizabeth gave her two more breaths.

“Come on,” Simon urged Charlotte and then started compressions again.

Elizabeth leaned down and stroked Charlotte’s face as she whispered, “I know you can hear me. Come back to us. Come on. Come back to us.”

Simon felt as if his entire body were on fire, every nerve ending cried out.
 

He pushed and pushed until it was time for breaths again. He could barely breathe himself, as Elizabeth gave her two more breaths. But there was no change.

In the background, he heard Jack offer to help, but he ignored it. He ignored everything but her. He would never stop trying.

His heart clenched even tighter and he put his hands on her chest. Suddenly, Charlotte coughed and gagged.
 

“Oh, God,” Elizabeth gasped, and they carefully rolled Charlotte onto her side.

She gagged and retched and Simon laid a trembling hand on her back.
 

“It’s all right,” Elizabeth soothed her. “Get it out.”

Once the gagging stopped, they eased her onto her back. Muddy and hair matted, but alive. She blinked up at them.
 

“Charlotte?” Simon asked, cupping her cheek.
 

Her breath was hard and fast, but slowing. Her eyes were wide with confusion. She swallowed and coughed again, but it was shallow and short.

She looked up at him. And then he heard the most beautiful word in the world.

“Daddy?”

Simon nearly wept with relief.

She looked back at Elizabeth, still clearly confused, but there. Thank God, she was there.

Elizabeth leaned down and pressed her face to Charlotte’s and sobbed.

~~~

It had been nearly three days since “the accident” as they all euphemistically referred to it, and Charlotte was the only one who seemed to have recovered. And maybe Jack too, Elizabeth thought, as the two of them arm wrestled for the last piece of bacon.

Simon watched them with a contented smile, but she knew the truth behind it. This wouldn’t last. Charlotte couldn’t stay.
 

They’d both known that from the moment she’d arrived, but now that the time had nearly come, Elizabeth wasn’t sure how she was going to handle saying goodbye.
 

Jack made a great show of it, but finally lost. With a sigh he picked up the piece of bacon and held it out to Charlotte. “To the victor go the spoils!”

She grinned and was about to take a big bite when she stopped and broke it in half and gave one to Jack.

Simon watched them both devour their pieces. “All right, now wash your hands,” he told Charlotte.

She wiped them on her napkin and then dashed off down the hall.

Only a child could be so resilient, Elizabeth thought. Nearly drowning and a mild concussion had been cured with a watchful eye and several cannoli.

Simon sighed and stood. He glanced at his watch.
 

“It’s time, isn’t it?” Elizabeth asked.

He looked at her with a haunted expression and nodded. Elizabeth’s stomach tightened.

Simon walked over to the living room, and Elizabeth and Jack left the breakfast dishes behind to join him. He unlocked a small box on the mantle and took out the thirteenth watch.
 

Victor had recovered both the watch and Travers after the accident. As he’d secured the area, Victor had heard a banging coming from one of the cars. He’d popped the trunk, ready to fire, but found poor Peter inside. He’d been roughed up pretty badly, but nothing too serious. But, for Travers, as for them, it wasn’t the physical wounds that would take the longest to heal.
 

Travers told them that he’d learned that threatening Charlotte was just the start of the Shadow Council’s plan. Once they had the watch, they were going kill innocent people until he reactivated the watches. He swore he wouldn’t have cooperated no matter what they’d done. But she could tell from the break in his voice that just knowing he had to choose at all cost him.
 

Once Travers recovered enough from his ordeal, there had been a lot of heated debate about what to do with the watch. They’d all finally agreed there was really only one choice.

“You’re sure about this?” Jack asked

Simon stared down at the watch and nodded.

“How do you know it’ll work?”

Simon looked up. “We don’t. Using the watch to go back and change time, to stop the creation of the very watch we’re using to go back in time, is a classic time travel paradox.”

Jack raised his eyebrows, hopelessly lost. Elizabeth knew how he felt. It was one of those things that made sense when she let it just rest in her mind, but when she tried to grab onto it, it always tied her up in knots.

“And you’ll know it worked if…?” Jack said.

“If it doesn’t work,” Simon said, “we’ll return here. Try something else. And if it does….” He looked over at Elizabeth. “None of this will have happened.”

A chill ran up Elizabeth’s spine. It was the right thing to do, but the idea of not even remembering Charlotte was horrifying. It was a dangerous thing, changing time, but they had no choice but to try.

Jack sat on the arm of the sofa. “And if the bad guys in the future were really after the watch and there’s no watch, then Charlotte…”
 

Simon nodded and the knots in Elizabeth’s stomach tightened further.
 

“All clean!” Charlotte said as she came bounding back into the room.

“Good,” Elizabeth said, pulling her into what was supposed to be a quick hug, but Elizabeth just couldn’t let go.

“Elizabeth.”

Trying to hold back her tears Elizabeth eased Charlotte back.

A deep crease appeared between Charlotte’s eyes as she looked up at her. “What is it?”

Elizabeth looked to Simon who handed Jack the watch and sat down on the sofa. He waved Charlotte over and took her hands in his. He looked down at them and cleared his throat.

“It’s time to send you home,” he said.

“It is?” she said excitedly.

“It is.”

They’d debated telling her the truth of what they were going to try to do, but decided it was better this way.

Elizabeth sat down next to Simon and ran her hand down Charlotte’s arm. “We’re going to miss you.”

Her voice caught and Charlotte frowned.
 

“But we’ll see each other again, won’t we?”

Elizabeth forced a smile to her face. “Yes, of course. It will only be a few minutes for you, but a few years for us.”

Charlotte nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah. That’s a long time.”

“It is,” Simon said. “But you’re worth the wait.”

Charlotte grinned.

Elizabeth couldn’t stand it any longer and pulled her into another hug.
 

When she released Charlotte, the tears she’d been holding back fell. Elizabeth hastily wiped them away.

Simon kissed Charlotte’s cheek and gave her one more hug before standing.

“We have a quick little errand to run,” he said. “You stay here with Uncle Jack.”

Whether it was Elizabeth’s tears or her own sense of something coming, Charlotte’s lower lip began to quiver.

Simon touched her cheek. “It will be all right.”

Jack stepped forward and handed Simon the watch as he put a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. “We’ll be fine.”

Simon nodded and held out his hand. Elizabeth took it and Simon slid the key into the watch.

“Whatever happens, Charlotte, we love you.”

And the world broke apart.

~~~

They arrived in the front yard of a newly rebuilt San Francisco estate. It was late and the street lamps burned behind them.
 

“All right?” Simon asked and Elizabeth nodded.

They walked up the front path and up the steps. Simon rang the doorbell.

A few moments later the door creaked open and an old man tottered into view.
 

“Hello, Donald,” Elizabeth said. “We’re here to see Teddy.”

“I
S
THAT
A
NEW
dress?” Simon asked, knowing it was.

She smiled and stood to give him a better view. “It is. Do you like it?”

“Very much,” he said.

He closed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms for a kiss. When they broke apart she smiled up at him and wiped away the lipstick she’d left behind. He grasped her hand and kissed her palm.

She smiled up at him in that way that always made his chest tight.

“Is it too late to call Wells and reschedule?” he asked, not wanting to share her tonight.