Leaving Lavender: A Time Travel Romance (Lavender, Texas Series Book 3)

by Barbara Bartholomew

  Moss hadn’t wanted his nieces to know how bad things were. He’d asked Zan to take them to the California coast where Betsy could see her old home and to a couple of other virtually intact sites, then hurry home with them so they could be sent back to Lavender.

  Of course Zan had his own plans, plans that so far Betsy was able to block.

  This was too important to allow one inexperienced twenty-one-year-old to stand in the way. Instinctively he glanced at Eddie’s slim, elegant face dominated by those huge eyes, surrounded by a length of dark red hair. Was it his imagination or did she look at him differently now.

  Did she, like Betsy, no longer trust him?

  Chapter Twelve

  Eddie felt as though she’d ridden a million miles by the time they pulled into a good-sized town where Zan checked himself and his two sisters into a luxurious hotel. He and Einstein had a room to themselves while Betsy and Eddie shared another.

  Food was delivered to their room by the time Betsy emerged from her shower. So far Eddie hadn’t managed to accomplish much more than to collapse on her bed, too overwhelmed by fatigue and the extraordinary events she’d just lived through to even think clearly.

  The idea of food didn’t appeal to her, though she’d eaten little that day. All she wanted to do was sleep, but as Betsy, in a light blue dressing gown, her curls still wet from the shower, sat down at the little table and began to lift covers from the dishes, she caught the scent of something that smelled delicious and managed to struggle to her feet and go over to plop into the chair opposite her sister.

  After a meal of steak, baked potato, salad and rolls she was too stuffed to even taste the dark colored cake that she supposed was made of chocolate, which she didn’t much like anyway. Betsy had no such reservations, but ate her own dessert and half of Eddie’s before relaxing, replete, in her comfortable chair. “I feel better,” she announced.

  It was the most Eddie could manage to lift her glass and sip at the sparkling drink within. It tickled the back of her throat, but tasted good. After she’d finished the glass, she felt more cheerful, but even more exhausted than ever. She managed, barely, to get up from her chair and back to her bed. Still not having bathed or even brushed her teeth, she was instantly asleep. From somewhere in the distance, she heard Betsy’s voice saying, “We’ve got to talk, Eddie.”

  She couldn’t even manage to remind her sister that she was now Ema, not Eddie.

  In the middle of the night, however, she awakened suddenly, aware that something had disturbed her deep sleep, but not knowing what it was.

  Betsy lay sound asleep in the other bed, her golden curls tumbled. Whatever had awakened Eddie hadn’t bothered her at all.

  Maybe because it was only a dream that had already fled her memory. Still, considering everything that happened yesterday, she couldn’t afford to go back to sleep.

  She felt grimy and unkempt in the clothes she’d worn all day yesterday and then gone to sleep in, but mentally she was rested and alert. Eddie felt sure that something other than a dream had wakened her.

  Betsy had a right to many doubts about what Zan had told them. And she was obligated to do her best to protect Lavender and all the people they loved back there.

  But Eddie had as much trust in her own instincts as she did her sister’s. While Betsy wanted to love everyone, especially handsome young men, Eddie was slow to accept what others told her. Something inside her let her know when something was amiss.

  And in spite of the fact that Zan could be blunt, awkward and even decidedly weird, she respected both his intelligence and his judgment. He was no man to try to persuade through smooth words and smoother flattery. He told you out and out the truth as he saw it whether you liked it or not.

  And Zan said they were in danger. In fact, he admitted to having brought them into danger just because the risk for others was so great.

  He was betting three lives that he was right. She didn’t figure he would risk that without being absolutely convinced of what he needed to do.

  Four lives. She grinned. Einstein’s life would also count with him. After all, he’d known the dog much longer than he’d been acquainted with her and Betsy.

  Even as she thought things through, Eddie, having slipped off the shoes she’d gone to bed wearing, padded quietly about in the darkness of the hotel room.

  All seemed to be quiet around them and the only light visible was a mere crack around the edge of the drapes that seemed naturally enough to come from the lighted parking area outside.

  Carefully, moving the drapery aside only enough so that she could see out without being observed, she looked out into the parking lot. The hotel must be busy tonight as most of the parking spaces were occupied. She searched until she saw their nondescript brown vehicle, parked below, then stiffened when she saw that a shadowed figure prowled around the auto.

  “Betsy,” she called in a low voice. “Come on. Someone’s sneaking around our car.”

  Still barefoot, she hurriedly went from the room, leaving the door open behind her for Betsy to follow. In the hallway, she bumped into a tall figure in the half-darkness, than felt a hand close over her mouth. “It’s me, Zan,” a voice whispered.

  It’d be a wonder if she could ever breathe again. “Thomas,” she corrected angrily. “And you ‘bout scared me to death.”

  “Someone’s out fooling with the car,” he whispered, releasing her but still hovering close.

  “I know. I was just about to see what was going on.”

  “By yourself.” He sounded horrified. “Without a weapon.”

  “Well, I don’t go around packing a gun and Kathy’s right behind me.”

  She looked around. Where was Betsy?

  Zan didn’t wait to hear more. He went down the stairs and out in the parking lot and she followed him. As they hurried toward the brown car, now brightly lit by the hotel’s safety lights, she heard a whizzing noise and then felt her companion gave a faint grunt.

  The sound was unlike any shot from a gun she’d ever heard, but as Zan slumped to the ground, she flattened herself over his fallen body, yelling fiercely to draw attention. The intruder took off even as two men came running from the front of the building toward them.

  She launched herself at the first one to arrive, becoming a wild, scratching wildcat. The other one pulled her free and held her in place, still kicking and screaming. “It’s okay, girl. We’re security. We’re here to help.”

  She went limp. “He’s hurt.” Even in her distress, Eddie didn’t forget their cover story. “My brother’s hurt.”

  They bent over Zan, who was beginning to moan. “Just a knockout shot, Miss,” one of the guards reassured him. “He’ll be fine.”

  To Eddie’s relief, Zan managed to sit up. Like her, he was ready to fight until she reassured him that the men were hotel employees.

  “Someone was trying to break into our auto,” Zan muttered. Two other men came from inside the hotel, one of whom she recognized as the manager who had checked them in.

  “Mr. Martin,” the manager said. “Miss Martin.” He seemed to be waiting for an explanation.

  Zan didn’t feel like talking and Eddie knew the better part of wisdom on her part was to keep silent. The security guards went over to the brown car. “These things are built like tanks. There’s scratch marks, but nobody managed to get in.”

  “We’ll investigate thoroughly, Mr. Martin,” the manager assured them, “but whatever made the two of you come out here yourselves? Leave these security matters to the professionals, Mr. Martin.”

  This made Eddie so mad she felt like fighting and scratching again. “What kind of place lets thing like this happen?”

  The manager stared at her with a bemused air. “Violence is a part of life for all of us these days.”

  Eddie felt like saying it wasn’t like this in Lavender. The constables would have put a quick end to anybody trying to break into . . . well, somebody’s buggy.

  The guards helped a still gr
oggy Zan inside and offered to call for medical help, which he refused. “A little sleep and I’ll be all right,” he insisted, so they left him to Eddie’s care and retreated downstairs, saying they’d look for the vandal. Cynically, Eddie guessed they were just going back to sleep.

  Heart pounding, Eddie knew that right now she had to take charge. She didn’t like the idea that someone was prowling around their auto. The door to the room she shared with Betsy was still open and she found she could breathe a little easier when she found her sister still peacefully sleeping.

  She pushed Zan down on her own bed and ordered him to sleep, then shook Betsy unceremoniously awake. “We’re leaving,” she said. “Somebody tried to break into our car and we’re getting out of here as soon as we can get ready.”

  Betsy sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She nodded at the unconscious Zan, “What happened to him?”

  “Somebody shot him.” She put on shoes, than began to shove the few belongings she’d unpacked into her bag. “Get dressed and get your things together. We need to hurry.”

  Betsy still sat there, staring at Zan’s prone form. “He’s not dead?”

  “Of course not. Just knocked out. Get going.”

  She grabbed her own bag, hung it from her left arm, waited only long enough for Betsy to pull on some clothes and get her bag, then directed her sister into helping pull the half-awake Zan from bed, propping him between them. She called Einstein to follow, though that was hardly necessary since he was unwilling to get more than a foot away from Zan.

  He was enough bigger that even between the two of them, they wouldn’t have been able to get him moving if he hadn’t been able to basically support himself and amble forward, protesting under his breath.

  It was still dark, the hall was thankfully empty. They started toward the stairs, but Zan muttered “elevator,” and Eddie decided he was right. They were liable to let him tumble down the stairs so they went to the elevator and, though she’d only read about such contraptions, she pushed the button and waited for the conveyance to arrive. They walked him on board, than walked him out again on the main floor.

  They went past the startled manager at his desk. “We’re leaving,” Eddie called to him.

  “Can’t say as I blame you,” he called back and Eddie felt quite sure he was glad to see them go.

  They lurched along to the car, almost letting Zan fall several times. She was counting on the auto responding to Zan’s presence as it was programmed and was at first disappointed when none of the doors opened. Then she remembered. This was a more primitive model. He’d had to physically push the lever that opened the door.

  She tried to open it herself and then Betsy tried. No luck.

  She gave Zan a hard shake. “Open the door,” she commanded.

  Fumbling, only half awake, he managed to get his hand on the handle, twisted it slightly and it opened easily. With great relief she allowed him to slump into the front seat while Betsy and Einstein got in the back.

  Once they were settled and a hotel security guard opened the gate for them, she managed to get Zan to say the few words necessary to start the engine and get the car rolling, though he immediately sank back into unconsciousness.

  It was only when they had left the city behind and were moving along a highway in open country that he opened his eyes again and said, “Good! We didn’t blow up.”

  She stared at him.

  “Afraid that guy last night planted a bomb on the auto. Guess we got to him before he had the chance, he explained drowsily, than fell asleep again.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  A shot from a zing gun, thought rarely fatal, was nothing to take lightly. When Eddie started shaking him awake again, Zan mumbled a protest before he finally took in the fact that she was serious and not likely to give up until he was fully conscious. With a tremendous effort, he forced himself awake and even managed to sit up and look through the window glass to the world outside.

  The sun was high overhead and they were driving through open plains. Few autos were on the road and houses were few and far between, but this was not, he was grateful to see, war-blasted country.

  “Zan, we don’t know where we are or where we’re headed and nobody can program the auto but you. The darned thing ignores everything we say.” Eddie sounded extremely annoyed while Betsy sat in stony silence in the back seat. Einstein barked happily to see that he was once more awake.

  He tried with limited success to shake the fuzziness from his brain, than peered at the gauges on the dashboard that would mean so little to the two women. “Nearing Amarillo,” he said. “Plenty of fuel.”

  “Amarillo!” Betsy yelled. “After all that driving, we’re back in Texas?”

  “Circled around. Planned to head to north Texas and Lavender,” he reminded her.

  “We need to stop, Zan,” Eddie said firmly.

  He grinned drunkenly at her. “You forgot,” he accused. “You said Zan and not Thomas.”

  She did not look pleased. “I rarely forget. But there’s nobody here but the three of us.”

  “And Einstein,” he reminded her. He held up a hand. “Okay, you want to stop.” He touched the dash with the flat of his hand and ordered. “Pull over.”

  The auto moved slowly to the shoulder and came to a slow stop. Another order and the door opened.

  Eddie sighed with exaggerated patience. “Come on, Einstein.”

  He almost fell asleep again while she walked the dog and the two of them returned to the car.

  “I’ll wet my pants before I go to the bathroom out in the open with cars passing,” Betsy insisted.

  He sent the auto moving ahead. “Not far to Amarillo. We’ll stop there.”

  With little sense of again departing consciousness, he found himself once more being shaken awake. Still too out of it to issue complicated reprogramming, he instead gave voice commands that were, of course, recognized by the auto computer. “Place to eat,” he said, “Place to sleep. Security of prime importance.”

  He went back to sleep, but the next time Eddie didn’t have to shake him awake. The slowing of the auto brought him to consciousness.

  By now he was beginning to feel more aware, though his head felt as though it was splitting and every bone and joint in his body ached. He was able to arrange their rooms in the modest little hotel near the edge of the city.

  Food was another matter. The hotel offered no food service, but a little sandwich place was next door. Reminding Eddie and Betsy that their implanted chips would pay for their purchases, he managed to very briefly walk Einstein and then took the dog to one of the two rooms they’d reserved for the evening.

  He wasn’t quite asleep when the young women returned, carrying bags of hot food. He managed to sit up while they got a bowl of water for the big retriever, fed him three burgers, than laid out their meal.

  “This is delicious,” Eddie said, eating eagerly.

  “I love cheeseburgers,” Betsy agreed. “That and pizza were my favorite foods when I was a little girl.”

  Still seated on the edge of the bed, Zan nibbled at his own food. He didn’t know if everything tasted bad because of the dose of chemicals that had been shot into his body, or because it was really inferior food, but he found it hard to eat.

  He drank a little water and ate about a third of a burger and was ready to sleep again.

  Eddie refused to let him even lie down.

  “We’re all going to have baths and clean up, than we’re heading on again. We can sleep in the auto. It’ll be much safer than staying here.”

  Even though he wasn’t thinking clearly, he knew she was right. Even taking time to clean up and eat was probably a risk.

  Eddie took her bath, than said she’d seen a food store nearby. She would stock up on drinks and groceries so they could travel without frequent stops. This idea alarmed Zan enough that he didn’t bother with his own cleanup, but left Betsy to the tub while he went with Eddie.

  They left Einstein to guard
Betsy while they drove the short block to a food market where they purchased everything from bread and cheese to an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables, bottled water and even wine. For Einstein they got both canned and dry dog food, and then added everything else that looked good and easily kept.

  Eddie was practically squirming in her shoes by the time the supplies were loaded in the auto’s storage area between seats. “We shouldn’t have left them. We should have stayed together.”

  He felt too rotten to bother with reassurance. “It was your idea that we stock up.”

  They drove back to the hotel. Once they were there Eddie led the way at a run in her anxiety to get back to Betsy and the dog.

  Neither of them was there.

  A hurried search revealed no trace of either of them and when Eddie questioned the disinterested young woman behind the desk, she was told that the blonde woman and her dog had left by themselves in a taxi. Neither seemed to be under any sort of coercion. In fact the woman had seemed to be in a particularly good mood, though the dog had to be tugged into the taxi.

  “She left me,” Eddie whispered, finding this almost impossible to believe. Since the first bumpy months of their meeting when they’d been eight and nine she and Betsy had been the best of friends. Betsy wouldn’t leave her in this strange place. “And why would she take Einstein?”

  For the first time in hours, Zan seemed fully himself. He waited until they were alone again to answer, “Perhaps she felt safer with the dog as company.”

  Eddie ignored him and insisted on searching their rooms again, then walked over every accessible inch of the hotel and the surrounding grounds. “You heard the woman say she left,” he reminded her with unaccustomed meekness.