Nothing But Time (38 page)

St. John’s Wood

London, England

“
David
, open up!”
Kate pounded on the door of
David
’s house on Clifton Hill.  Her fist thudded dully ag
ainst the solid oak of the door
but Kate carried on
,
ignoring the pain. 
David
was in there;
there were lights sho
wing on the upper floor. 
He has
to be there
, she thought desperately, hoping she wasn’t too late.

A thump
ing came from within marking the descent of someone down the stairs and a moment later the door swung open and
David
stuck his head out in disbelief.  “Kate, what are you doing here?  I thought you said you didn’t want to go back.”

“
David
, thank God you’re not gone yet!”

“Gone, but I’ve
…”

“No time for talk,
David
,” she rushed on
as she went inside
.  “I need your help.  Lord Harrowby has appendicitis and it
’
s bad.  He needs a
doctor, a real doctor to fix it and there isn’t one around here who can save him.”

“What do you want me to do, Kate?”
David
asked with a puzzled frown
, taking one last curious look at the elegant carriage waiting in front of his house before closing the door
.  “I’m no
t a medical
doctor.”

“I know that.
”
Kate took a deep breath to calm the fear rolling in her gut.  Her next words emerged in a much calmer tone.  “I want you to take both of us back with you so that Harrowby can get to an emergency room.”

“You can’t just take a man
from this time
into the future like that, Kate.”

“You can send him back after he’s better.”

David
raised a brow.  “What about your
– what did you call it? – that
Prime D
irective?  I would think this would be a greater violation of that policy than anything I’ve done since my arrival.  If it is his time to
die
, who are we to change that?”

“His time?  It’s not his time!” 
The tears Kate had been holding back finally began to fall.  “
He’ll die if we don’t take him to a hospital, David. 
I can’t let that happen.  I can’t.  We need to give him a chance.  Please.”

“This
Lord Harrowby is the man
you’ve fallen in love with
, isn’t he
?”
David
asked in surprise
as the truth hit him
.  “I guess I rather thought it might have been another servant in the house, I never thought…  Well, you do aim high, don’t you?”

“
David
, please,” she begged
,
grabbing his arm
.  “Please, I’ll stay there if you do this for him.  I’ll go home with you.”

David
looked at her for a long moment
,
considering the desperation and
beseeching
in her eyes. 
He’d never seen, much less imagined
,
that
Kate could be reduced to such a state.  He’d rather thought she’d always be one to be cool in the face of a crisis. 
Nevertheless,
here she was hanging on his arm, crying and blubbering in a most unflattering fashion. 
Even if he had been disinclined to fulfill her request – which he wasn’t necessarily – such a
frantic demonstration
would have done him in.
  “Very well,” he relented.  “Let me gather what we’ll need.”

“Oh thank you!”  Kate fell apart then, tears streaming down her cheeks as she reached out and hugged him fiercely.  “Thank you!”

“Don’t thank me yet,” he replied, turning back into the house and up the stairs where he kept the
time
machine.  “
Despite my simulations, I might send us back years away from where we left
.”

“As long as there is a hospital there, it will be fine,” she assured him
as she chased after him
, before ano
ther thought came to mind.  “Where
is there a good hospital near Oxford?”

“It would
be
better if there were another option,”
David
paused
,
considering her thoughtfully.
  “It would be better to stay here in London
since transporting the
metal plates
for
any distance
would be difficult and
might garner unwanted attention
. 
Let’s see then,
St. Bart’s Hospital exists now, but I rather doubt drop
ping you in front of it
is the best idea.  They
don’t even have
an
Accident and Emergency
department
in our time
.  It would be better if you could take him near where there will be a hospital, yes?  The area around
St. Thomas’
s
Hospital is too populated, too enclosed…”

“And too far,” Kate finished for him. 
“
We need somewhere closer.”

“Somewhere more open,” he insisted.  “It wouldn’t do to have you walk right into a wall o
n the other side.  We need somewhere
that
won’t change
in the next
one hundred and thirty-six
years.”

“A
field then… or a
park,” Kate jumped on the idea
with a snap of her fingers
.  “What hospital is near a park?”

“
Correction, we need a hospital with Accident and Emergency near a park. 
University College Hospital
is close
by
Regent’s Park but that
park
is too public
and appearing there could be catastrophic.
St. Mary’s is north of Hyde Park
but we’d have the same problem there if the park were crowded
,”
David
went on voicing the options
.  “Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has an A and E and it
is
not exceptionally far from Hyde Park
but again
...”

“
But it isn’t far from
Belgrave
Square
either
,” Kate said sitting upright
.
  “
How about Belgrave Garden
? 
It’s small
and
private
.  It should
n’t
get a lot of daily foot traffic
and the viewing mound in the center of the garden has been restored to the original design.”

“
I thought there were tennis courts in the park?”

“There are but the mound is right next to them,” Kate told him.

David agreed
with a nod
.  “
Given the location, y
ou should have no troubles hailing a cab once we’re there. 
Luckily, the plates are still sitting in the back of the wagon since I put them there back in June, so that won’t be an issue. 
Run off then and prepare your earl. 
I’ll meet you there then as soon as I load the
siphon
.
”

Returning to Belgrave Square, Kate
burst
into Brand’s chamber only to find him and Susan parting company with an older, distinguished man
in a dark suit
.
The man closed up his case and stood, offering his hand first to Susan and then to Brand offering words that Kate couldn’t hear before he turned to go.

Kate watched him leave before asking, “Was that another doctor?”

“No, that was my solicitor,” Brand said
hesitantly
.  “I was updating my will.”

“Updating your…” Kate’s jaw sagged in understanding before she snapped it shut
shaking her head in denial
.  “Oh
,
hell no!  We aren’t going there yet!  I didn’t stay here to watch you die, Brandon Ryder.  You are going to live.”

“Kate,” he began in a low, reasonable tone she’d only heard from him once before.
  “I’ve never seen you in such a state.  You’re being nonsensical.   Calm down.”

“
Calm down?  You see this?  This is the face of desperation, Brand,
” she
said, waving a hand in front of her face
before she marched toward his dressing room and threw open the door, muttering to herself as she went.  “Nonsensical?  I feel nonsensical.  Panicked.  There are a million things I’m feeling and calm isn’t one of them.”  That was an understatement.  The closer she had gotten to returning to Belgrave Square, the more she feared that she would be too late.  It was a feeling she never wanted to experience again. 
Kate pulled cl
othes
from Brand’s closet and threw
them toward the bed.  “Time to get
dressed
.  We have places to go!”

“Kate, darling, I’m an extremely sick man,” he reminded her softly from the bed.

“Well, you’re going to be an extremely dead man if we don’t get moving,” she told him
bluntly,
as she returned to his bedside carrying a jacket. 
“And like I already said, this girl ain’t playing that game!”  She just needed to hang on to that strength of purpose, Kate knew.  The moment she lost her resolve, she was sure to fall apart as she had done at David’s. 

“Kate, what are you about?” Susan asked, rising from her chair at her brother’s bedside to come to her side. 

“I’m going to save his life, Susan.”

“I’ll be fine, Kate,” Brand
argued.  “In a couple
of
days…”

“In a couple days
,
you’ll be too dead to argue about it,” she told him flatly.  “You have appendicitis, Brand.  It’s a severe inflammation of a very useless piece of your body.  If it bursts,
you will
die. 
Painfully. 
It needs to be removed and your doctor doesn’t know how to do it, so I’m going to take you to someone who can.”

She might have flabbergasted Brand into silence but Susan reached out and gripped her hand tightly. 
“And you know of someone who can do this?”

“I know where to find someone who can,” Kate replied confidently.  “But we need to hurry, Brand.  There is no time to lose.”

“Kate, I hardly think…”

That
desperate ferocity left her
,
as she feared
it might then,
and the energy seeped out of Kate as she dropped down
on the side of the bed
.
Kate
stared down at him, tears threatening to fall
as the urgency burst inside of her.  She grasped his hand between hers, thinking of doctors and wills and death and a life where this man’s radiance no longer shone.  A bleak world. 
One she wasn’t prepared to live in. 
“Brand, I – I love you.  I love you so much.  I gave up my future – literally – to stay here with you and I’m not going to be stuck here alone without you.  Trust me, please.  Let me save your life.”

A thousand thoughts chased each other through Harrowby’s mind, curiosity, disbelief…awe.  Those words of love
– the first he’d heard from her since th
e ones
he considered nothing more than drunken rambling – r
esounded in him, clenched his heart in their fist and squeezed tightly.  It had all happened so fast between them, but he knew her words were true because that truth, that love was met in equal measure inside him.  He loved Kate, despite of who she was, a mutt or whatever she called herself, or perhaps because of it.

He loved her humor, her intelligence, her caring spirit.

He simply loved her.

Harrowby looked up into her bright green eyes,
seeing the unshed tears,
reading the desperation.  The urgency.  He knew he couldn’t give up on the chance to s
pend a lifetime with her where
ver it might lead.  Kate
asked only that he trust her.  How could he not?
  He would lay the world at her feet if he had the power. 
“Where are we going?”

Releasing a relieved breath at his sudden acquiescence, Kate smiled.  “Actually, we’re just going right outside.  Susan, will you help
Brand dress
?
  I have to run and grab something.
”

***

After managing to dress, Harrowby let the pair of women assist him in walking down the hall and stairs. 
He wanted to ask Kate about the large valise she returned with
, however
t
he pain on his right side had him
so
double
d
o
ver at this point that he’d almost stumbled down the stairs on several occasions.
It was a wonder they made it
downstairs
at all.
  As it was, by the time they reached the
front hall
, Harrowby was ready to collapse in the nearest chair, prepared
to
depart this life if only for a chance to escape the pain as well.

Pausing by the
iron railing that surrounded his front stoop
to catch his breath, Harrowby looked
around
,
expecting a carriage
or to see
the something or someone that Kate insisted would save his life.  The street was quiet.  There was nothing and no one awaiting them.  “What is this, Kate?”

“We need to go over to the park,” was all she said.

Harrowby looked across the street at the park that
centered Belgrave Square.  Belgrave Garden was but a small densely wooded park.  Other than graveled pathways and a small pavilion, there was nothing there
. 
Certain
ly nothing
that might possibly provide the assistance Kate seemed so
positive
they would find.

He
knew that Susan’s mind was burning with the same
curiosity
.  He could feel it in the tightness of her shoulders as she and Kate helped him down the steps
and across the street.

With the first crunch of gravel
from the path
beneath his feet, th
e questions again pounded in Harrowby’s
mind, thankfully distracting him for a moment from the pain that had him panting in agony. 
Where were they going?  What was there in
the garden
that might
help him?
  Though he wanted to ask, Harrowby restrained the urge.  He trusted Kate and was determined to let her have her way.
 

Susan, however, had no such reservations.  “What are we doing out here, Kate?”

“Just a minute,” she said as they descended
into the depths of the garden. 
With the twilight of a long summer’s day upon the
m
, the garden was cast in long shadows.  The pathways were indistinct.  “Which way to the viewing mound?” she asked referring to the small hill that r
ose in the center of the garden
.

“That way,” Harrowby nodded
to the left
and
,
stifling a moan, made his feet take on the business of walking.

“David!” Kate suddenly called as they neared the center
of the garden.  “David, are you
there?”

“Over here, Kate.”

Brand heard the masculine voice that answered her call and turned to look suspiciously down at Kate.  “Dr. David Fergusson?” he asked with a frown.   “This is the man you bring to save my life?”

“I need you to trust me, Brand, please.”  Kate gave him a pleading look.  “I know you have tons of questions and I promise
to answer them.
After I know you’re safe.”

“What is going on?” Susan asked again
,
calling Kate’s attention.

“I need you to do something for me, Susan,” Kate took the woman’s hand in hers
and meeting her gaze
.  “I need you to turn around and go back inside with no questions.”

“But I have many,” she argued.

Kate choked on a small laugh.  “I know you do but they are questions I can’t give you the answers to.  Maybe, one day, Brand will but you’ll have to wait to get them from him, okay?”

“You make it sound as if you don’t plan on coming back inside yourself,” Susan said perceptively, her
words cutting through the haze of pain that was engulfing Harrowby’s thoughts.  He tried to focus on Kate’s voice.

“Things change and sometimes we’ve just got to do what we’ve got to do,” Kate said cryptically.  “Please just trust me?  And-and tell Nathan that this was just one of those things like we talked about. 
Tell him
I hope he grows up big and strong.”

“Kate?”

The worry was in both their voices now, but
thankfully,
David emerged from the trees just then, wiping his hands on a rag impatiently.

“Kate, are we going to do this or not?”

Harrowby frowned fiercely when Dr. David Fergusson st
ood
before him, the man who, a
month
ago, h
ad claimed to be Kate’s husband
.  He wasn’t at all what
Harrowby
had expected, though
he was undeniably
a gentleman, possibly even a nobleman
.  He had a look about him that spoke of noble ancestry
,
reflected
in his long face and nose.
 
Fergusson looked him up and down as well, but dispassionately. 
 

“Are you ready?” Kate asked briskly.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Fergusson told her, his eyes turning to Susan.  “Who is this?”

“Mrs. Susan Ralston,” Susan introduced herself politely, her soft voice carrying a wealth of curiosity.

Dr. Fergusson
stepped forward with a little bow, before
holding out a hand to take her
s.  “Dr. David Fergusson, Mrs. Ralston.  A pleasure.”

“Are you serious?  We do
not
have time for this, David.”

“Quite right, then if you’ll just come with me.”  Turning, he led the way around a copse of tr
ees to the mound that centered
the gardens.  

“Geez, David!” Kate snapped.  “A little help?”

A little sneer curled both
Fergusson
’s lip and Harrowby’s
as well
but
,
after a moment’s hesitation, the good doctor offered his assistance and
Brand took it.  He was in
no condition to argue.  The
pain was rolling in waves through his side
like a
sea of agony.
 

Whatever Kate and this Dr. Fergusson hoped to accomplish, Harrowby hoped they did it soon.