Nothing But Time (39 page)

“Goodbye, Susan,” Kate said firmly giving
the woman a brief but affectionate
hug before pushing her away.  “Please go.”

“I don’t know.
”
Susan hesitated.

“He’ll be fine.  I promise you.”

“Very well.
”
Susan turned slowly and walked a few paces before turning back.  “Nathan loves you, you know.”

“I love him, too.  He’s a good boy, but he’ll be fine now.  Both of you will be fine together,” Kate assured her.  With a nod, Susan turned away.  Once Kate was sure that she didn’t intend to turn back, she dove through the trees after the men. 

“Now look who’s holding up the show,” David looked up from
setting the siphon in the center of the viewing mound.  “I need you to help me carry the plates and set them up.”

David waved her over to the nearby wagon and, pulling on one end of the
first
metal plate indicated that she should take the other. 

“This is heavy!”

“It is an inch-th
ick plate of steel,” he reminded her roughly, though both were panting by the time they were able to stand it up in one of the braces David had already spaced out on the ground.  It took longer to get the second one in place and Kate’s arms were on fire by the time they stood it up.

But no pain was greater than that Brand was in.  He’d even stopped watching them in favor of
merely
curling himself into a ball
on the ground
against the torment.  David connected the cables to the plates and told Kate to bring Brand between them.  Kate nearly had to drag Brand into position before she dropped down next to him.
  He was
n’t
doing well and Kate began to panic.  “Let’s get this party started
.
”

“What party?
What are we doing out here?” Brand ground out
,
fighting back the pain.

“Hold on, I must attach
a tether to the siphon to make sure it comes along just in case the cables don’t
snap as they did last time
.
”
  That done, David sat cross-legged next to them and pulled the laptop and new monitor into his lap.

“What is going on?”

“Please, Brand, just trust me.
 
It’ll be all right. 
Just…” Kate swal
lowed deeply.
“Just close your eyes and I promise I will explain it all to you shortly.”

Another wave of piercing
agony
assailed Harrowby then and he had no choice but to comply.  “Hurry,
David
!” h
e heard her call desperately.

“Just entering the co
ordinates now.  Here we go then.
”
The man’s
response
was calm
but then the wind began to pick up
,
whipping Kate’s hair against
Harrowby’s
cheek as she hugg
ed
him
close to her.  “Just a moment and you should feel the pull.  Just don’t fight it.”

The pull
?
Harrowby thought. 
What pul
l?
  He opened his eyes to look around but his vision must have blurred because he could make nothing out.  It seemed as if the
world was
a
haze
but Kate didn’t seem to notice as she clung to him whispering
over and over again
that everything would be okay.

“Here we go,” Fergusson shouted
,
throwing his arms around them both
just as a
loud pop burst like an explosion in Harrowby’s ears and then there was silence.

An even more acute n
ausea
assailed Harrowby and
combined with his physical pain
.  H
e couldn’t stop the moan that escaped him
.  H
e rolled to his side clut
ching the ground beneath him, doing his best not to cast up his accounts right there.
 
Where only his side had
pained him before, now
his whole body burned.  Muscles, bones.  Everything. 
Fergusson and Kate both fell away from him but Harrowby could not recall himself enough to voice the questions in
his mind. 
Siphon
? 
Tether
?  Harrowby gritted his teeth as both pain and nausea washed over him once more
.  T
he warm
summer’s
night air
felt
suddenly co
ld and the chilly bite
he inhaled soothed
some of
the queasiness away.  Encouraged, he breathed in deeply once more.

At his side, he could hear Kate moaning as well
.  She sounded as ill as he felt and he wanted to go to her aid but the pain in his side renewed itself.  Hearing his gasp, Kate gripped his hand tightly and
she ground out fiercely, “
No! 
No
time for this, Brand
, we’ve got to move.”  She pushed herself to her feet and, cracking his lids against the bright light, Brand saw her sway on her feet for a moment before she reached d
own to pull him to his
.  “Come on, Brand.  Let’s move it!
 
David
, give me a hand!
”

Harrowby stumbled to his feet
under her urging,
slinging his arm back over
Fergusson
’s
shoulder
and then Kate’s once
again as she supported him.  They turned back the way they
’d
co
me, but Brand felt as if
he
must already be dying as Kate predicted.  Gone was the gloom of night.  The sun was shining brightly overhead
, the lush foliage of the trees
was as
barren as a winter’s landscape.  He looked about in confusion and then
a bird, larger than any he had ever seen, flew overhead emitting a roar unlike any he’d ever heard. 

And he was so cold.  The heat of
summer
had given way to the frost of winter. 
A cold day in hell, indeed. 
A bitter wind caught his light lawn shirt, plastering i
t tightly against his body as his
skin
tigh
ten
ed
with gooseflesh.

Dazed and confused, he tried to focus on the people brushing briskly past them, most of them talking to themselves as they did so.  A woman ran by them dressed from head to toe in
black
clothing that
clung
like a second skin, but no one paid her any mind at all. 
A
ll around them were people rushing past
and when
they came to the street
,
Kate let out a piercing whistle
and waved her
arm.
 

Noise, so much noise. 

Within moments
, a
baffling
, black contraption
on wheels
came to a halt in front of them and Kate reached out,
open
ing a door from the
smooth
exterior. 

“Get in, Brand,” she said when he dug in his heels.

“What is this?” he
asked as another wave of pain assailed him.  His head swam and
spots appeared before his eyes.  Harrowby
heard both Kate and the man inside the
inexplicable
conveyance
swear viciously before darkness began to swallow him.  He felt them pushing and pulling at him until he was lying on a cushioned seat that felt similar to the one in his carriage. 

“
David
, are you coming?”

“Go, I’ll meet
you later.  I must gather up the siphon
.
  I just hope I don’t get arrested.
”

Sounds receded into the distance until the last
t
hing he heard was, “
Chelsea and Westminster
Hospital.  Hurry!”

Then all was
dark
.

***

With a moan, Brand cracked open his eyes to a blinding light that surrounded him.  He was in a bed, he realized.  The pillows beneath his head and the mattress beneath his body were firm but comfort
able
.  Looking around, there was just an impression of bright, glaring whiteness
around him.  His gaze was unfocused, sending it all into a blur until he came across the sight of Kate sitting beside the bed with her hand firmly gripping his.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty,” she whispered
,
pressing a kiss to his hand.  “How are you feeling?”

Ghastly memories assailed him.  Bright lights, people in masks, a brutal chill that had rattled him to his very bones.
Tensing
for delayed
misery
to wash over him
once again
, Brand was surprised to feel nothing greater than a twinge of discomfort where the horrendous pain had once resided.  “It is gone.”

“Well, don’t get too excited,” Kate
said with a
chuckle.  “That’s just the pain-
killers.  It’ll come back, but not nearly as bad.  The problem is gone.”

“Gone?  Painkillers?” he asked vaguely.

“Drugs to dull the pain,” she
clarified
.

That got Brand’s attention and his eyes popped open.  “Not opium?”

“No, don’t worry,
”
she assured him. “Nothing like that, though I actually couldn’t really tell you what’s in that little cocktail they mixed up for you.”

“I can’t seem to focus very well,” he said then.

“That’s just the drugs, too,” she replied.  “It’ll go away soon, but don’t worry.  You’re fine.   Everything will be fine.”

Harrowby focused on Kate’s beautiful face, seeing her triumphant smile, the love shining in her eyes.  He squeezed her ha
nd before reaching up to
caress her soft cheek.  He was alive, freed of the pain that had consumed him.  Kate turned her head to press a kiss against his palm and Harrowby smiled as he exhaled slowly closing his eyes. “You did it.” 

“Told you I would.” 
Kate’s good cheer sounded so forced then that
Harrowby
tried to focus on her, forcing his way through the cloudy haze that surrounded him.  While the stressful fear of the previous evening was gone fr
om her green eyes, there was a
new glint to them that spoke of nerves and uneasiness. 

“What’s wrong then?  Where are we?”
he asked. 

“We’re at the hospital.  You had an operation, a surgery to remove your appendix which was on the verge of bursting and killing you,” she explained slowly.  “We got here in time and it was completely successful
.  Y
ou’ll be as good as new soon, though you’ll have to take it easy for a
while.”

Brand looked around the room,
absently
noted its sterility, the institutional décor and wasn’t inclined to argue his immediate loc
ation.  “And that thing I saw by
the park, what was it?”

“It was a cab, Brand.”

“Nonsense,” he shook his head.  “It was a beast of a thing.
How did it move?
There were no horses.”

“I know
.
”
Kate swallowed but Brand’s attention wandered downward.

“What are you wearing?” he asked
,
taking in her bared shoulder and arm where the other was covered in a brightly colored silk print.
  “You should cover your… are you wearing trousers?”

“I had clothes to change into while you were
having your operation
,” she rushed to explain.  “I had to tell everyone that we’d come from a costume party, but that’s not important right now.
  There is so much I need to explain to you. 
It’s going to be hard for you to accept but I need you to listen and try to understand, all right?”

“What is it, Kate?”

“Do you remember that night when Dr. Fergusson came to Ramble House and what I said about h
is time machine
?”
 

Brand shook his head.  “
Yes, b
ut that was all in jest
.  You were drunk
.”