Trapped in Time

by Denise Daye

  “But how is that possible?! She was perfectly fine the last time I saw her!” Emma shook her head in disbelief.

  Skip scratched his head. “These sorts of things can happen out of nowhere. I am sure yer know that better than I do.”

  He was right, anything could have been the cause, especially in a time with such low medical standards. Emma thought of John. He must have been going through pure hell right now. Couldn’t life just cut him a break? Emma grabbed a bag and rushed into the bathroom. Skip and Lily followed her.

  “You said yer would not do anything foolish,” Skip protested.

  Emma grabbed a bottle of penicillin and put it in the bag. “I said I would try.”

  Lily blocked her way out. “Skip is right. If William finds out about you rushing to John Evergreen in the middle of the night, who knows what he would do to all of us. Evergreens included.”

  Emma gently pushed her out of the way. “You know that I can’t just let Lady Evergreen die,” Emma said and began getting changed into the pink dress she had worn earlier. Skip turned around to give her some privacy.

  “At least wait until the morning. Maybe Lord Blackwell will allow you to go.” Lily sounded concerned, and rightfully so. William was capable of anything.

  “I can’t. At her age, every hour counts. She might be dead in the morning. If I leave now, I could make it back before the servants get up. William might never find out,” Emma said, determined.

  Lily put on her shoes.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I am coming with you.”

  “No, Lily. You can’t. If William should find out, he won’t unleash his anger on both of us if only I go.”

  “You shouldn’t be wasting time arguing with me then. If we leave now, we can and be back before dawn. I cannot let you go alone, and you know that. It is not safe for a lady alone in the dark. Even if that lady is Emma Washington.”

  Emma knew Lily too well. She wouldn’t give in. She looked over to Skip, who was already climbing out the window.

  “Let me guess, you are coming as well?”

  “Of course.”

  Emma let out a long, audible breath before she followed Skip down his self-made, foldable, very unstable ladder. She felt bad for dragging them into this, but at the same time, it made her truly happy that she had two friends who cared for her so deeply and had her back no matter what. No, they weren’t friends. They were family.

  Chapter 13

  E mma’s heart started pounding wildly against her chest the moment the carriage pulled up in front of the Evergreen estate. It was dark and quiet out, and she could barely see the entrance door. Emma hadn’t thought that she would ever be able to step foot into this home again. It didn’t have marble floors and extravagant golden decor in every room like all of William’s residences, but Emma had a feeling of belonging here. Besides, it was still a stunning castle.

  Skip had gotten the carriage from a merchant who was willing to be discreet about the late-night ride for a few extra coins. Emma stepped out of it and turned around to look at Lily and Skip.

  “We shall wait for you here,” Lily whispered.

  Emma understood why they were giving her privacy. The conversation with John might turn ugly, so it would be better if she could have it under only four eyes, not eight.

  The door opened before Emma could knock. Penley was staring into her face with a mixture of curiosity and disbelief.

  “Mrs. Washington?”

  He walked her into the entrance hall.

  “Penley, would you be so kind as to give this to Lord Evergreen or Agnes, please?” Emma asked, grabbing the little bottle of penicillin out of her purse.

  “That will not be necessary, Penley, she can hand it to me herself,” said the voice Emma had craved to hear for so many months.

  John was standing at the top of the stairs looking down at her. Penley waited for a few seconds to see if John had any other requests before he returned to sit down on a chair in the entrance hall.

  Emma just stood there, looking at John. He looked so tired, as though he hadn’t slept in months. His hair was falling loosely into his face, and his white shirt was unbuttoned halfway down his chest, exposing some of his scars.

  “I have to admit, I did not think I would ever see you again, Mrs. Washington—or is it Lady Blackwell yet?” he said in a cool tone, watching Emma as she walked up the first step of the stairway leading to the bedrooms on the first floor.

  “John, I…” Emma lost her words. What was she supposed to say? It all looked terrible. He’d saved her from the side of the road, taken her into his home, welcomed her into his family. Then he had given her his loving heart, something he had never given a woman before. And what had Emma done in return? She had run away in the middle of the night, resurfacing months later engaged to his worst enemy, Lord Blackwell. She wouldn’t be surprised if he threw her out without letting her say one more word.

  No, she had to give him the medication for his mother before he could do that. It was the very least she could do for the man she loved with all her heart.

  Emma gathered all her courage and walked up the stairs. She stopped right in front of him and held up the bottle of penicillin.

  “Give two tablespoons of this to your mother every four hours for ten days,” Emma said, avoiding eye contact with John.

  Much to her surprise, he took it without asking what it was.

  “Ah, the miracle cure, I assume? Is that what they call it? So, you are the one curing all those prostitutes?”

  Emma stared at him, completely shocked.

  “I heard about this wonder cure from one of my fallen veterans, a regular at the brothels. I was looking everywhere to get ahold of one of these bottles, but not a single prostitute would talk to me. I am quite impressed with their loyalty.”

  That was bad news. Word of the cure seemed to have spread fast and far amongst the prostitutes and veterans. It was only a matter of time before it would lead to Emma if she and Lily continued to help people at this rate. Emma wanted to help these poor souls more than anything, but if things got out of control and led to the discovery of penicillin before 1928, it could change history as she knew it forever.

  Emma looked down at the floor again. She couldn’t bear looking at John’s passionate brown eyes. They were just as beautiful as she remembered, bringing back memories of tender words whispered into her ear. Emma felt that all too familiar tingling in her stomach again.

  “I just came to give you this. I better go.” She turned around, ready to run back to the carriage, but John grabbed her by the wrist and spun her around again to face him.

  “So, this is it? Are you going to leave just like that again? For months, I have been looking for you so I could apologize to you. Chasing every lead I could get. I was up day and night thinking about you, worried something might have happened to you. Hating myself for what I have done to you. And then I read in the newspaper that Mrs. Emma Washington is not only well but also is to marry William Blackwell, the biggest buffoon I have ever come across. And believe me, I have come across a lot of despicable people. Nothing made sense anymore. I told myself that I just never really knew you. That you were not the person I thought you to be. God, I convinced myself of that so bloody well that I started to believe it. And now, here you are. In the middle of the night. Sneaking out on that monster of a fiancé to save my mother, along with half of London’s prostitutes. Just like the selfless person I always knew you were, the Emma I fell in love with—” John stopped talking abruptly, as if he’d said too much.

  Emma looked at him for a moment but wasn’t sure how to read his face. Was he still in love with her? After everything that had happened? Impossible.

  Her eyes fell to her feet in shame. “John, you have done nothing to me. You saved me, showed me love. If anything, I’m the one who needs to beg for forgiveness.”

  John lifted her chin up to force her to look him in the eye. He did it softly, exactly the same way he us
ed to before kissing her. But this time, he looked deep into her eyes, as if he were searching for the truth in them.

  Emma wanted to kiss him more than she had ever wanted to kiss him before. But John was not hers to claim any longer. She tried to pull her arm out of his grip, which resulted in her coat sliding off her arm, exposing her scars from the clothing factory. John tightened his grip and pulled her arm closer to his face, turning it left and right to get a good look at the scars she was trying to hide.

  “Jesus Christ, Emma. What the hell happened? Did Blackwell do this to you? I shall kill him! I swear it!” John shouted angrily.

  “No, he didn’t. I had a few rough months after I left, that’s all.”

  John appeared truly shocked by this new piece of information. He opened his mouth to say something, but the door to his mother’s bedroom swung open, and Agnes came out.

  “John, is something the matter?” Agnes asked, not realizing at first that Emma was with him. When she saw Emma, she yelped, “Dear God, Emma! What are you doing here?” Agnes came closer, holding her hands up to her face.

  This was not good. She was supposed to just drop off the medication without being seen. If William found out about this…

  Emma pulled herself free from John’s grip.

  “I have to go. I’m so, so sorry, John!” She took one last look at his beautiful face before storming down the stairs and out the front door. She hurtled herself into the carriage and shouted at the driver to leave. Fiery tears were running down her face. She loved him, she loved him so much!

  “Emma!” she heard John shouting, running after the carriage.

  She yelled at the driver again, and he commanded the horses to go faster.

  “Emmaaaaaaaa!” she heard him shouting again and again until the carriage pulled her too far away, silencing his voice in the dark night.

  Lily took Emma into her arms, moving her hand slowly up and down Emma’s back. “It will get better…shh…it will get better…” Lily repeated, trying to comfort her.

  But Emma cried aloud as she had never cried before. She had never felt love for anybody like she did for John. Her heart wasn’t broken, it was destroyed beyond repair. Her cries didn’t die down until her body was too weak to shed even one more tear.

  You are a Washington, so you will live your life in misery just like the rest of us. Her father’s words kept running through her head again. She hated him just as much as she hated William. Two abusive men, making sure that the Washington curse would live on and on forever.

  Emma woke up to the rumbling noises of servants moving things in the hallway. She had barely slept more than an hour, and even that one hour hadn’t been peaceful, as she’d had a nightmare about falling into a dark hole.

  Lily jumped out of bed as if she were ready to defend herself from attackers. She waited for a few seconds, then peeked out the door to see what was going on.

  Emma could hear her exchange a few sentences with a servant before closing the door behind herself again. She turned to Emma, looking bewildered. “We are leaving!”

  Now it was Emma’s turn to jump out of bed. “We’re what? To where?”

  Emma rushed over to her dresser to throw on her morning robe. She stormed out to look for William, whom she found reading a newspaper in the breakfast room. He lowered it, as if he knew what was coming his way.

  “Where are we going?” Emma asked in a demanding tone.

  “Ah, good morning to you as well. To Italy.” William’s face disappeared back behind the newspaper, as though nothing was out of the ordinary. Like always, everything about him looked perfect, from his polished shoes to his dark, neatly styled hair.

  “But why?” Emma asked, taking a few steps closer to him.

  William didn’t bother to lower his newspaper again. “Because it pleases me.”

  Emma didn’t have to see his face to know that he was grinning. Emma clenched her fists. She was so angry, it took all of her strength to refrain from ripping that newspaper out of his hands and smacking that grin right off his face with it. Sweet memories arose in her mind, of the time she had swiped another abusive man’s smile right off his face with the very same whip he’d used to beat her. Back then, Emma had been dressed in rags and always one a step away from the poorhouse, but she had been happier there than she ever was in William’s golden cage. She walked over and pushed his newspaper down to reveal his face.

  “I still have work here; I can’t just leave.”

  William straightened his newspaper and folded it neatly. “You will be able to find witches and mad scientists in Rome as well,” he said, flashing her an arrogant smile.

  Emma clenched her fists a little tighter, inhaling sharply through her nose.

  “And besides, it might help with your sleep problems. You seem to be up a lot lately.”

  Emma’s anger turned to worry. Was he referring to last night? Did he know? Emma didn’t know what to say. No, she knew of plenty of things to say to William, but none of them would end well for her. She had to think of John, Lily, and even Skip now, who was losing in cards a lot lately and relied on her to survive.

  William got up. “Splendid. We shall leave around noon.” He was already at the door when he turned around again. “Oh…and refresh yourself. You look terrible. Embarrassing. Not like a Blackwell at all.”

  He closed the door behind himself, leaving Emma with a heart full of hatred. She was constantly on the brink of throwing in the towel, letting him ruin her and the Evergreens, going back to poverty or jail but at least being free of him. But then, would she be free of him? At this point, there was even the chance of him doing far worse to her or John than ruin. If Lily and Skip were right, William was the reason Flinch had been floating in the Thames for months, barely recognizable when they finally found him.

  Lily entered the breakfast room quietly. She looked as if she wanted to take Emma into her arms, but Emma took a step back.

  “That won’t be necessary, Lily. Everything is alright.”

  Lily seemed surprised at how cold Emma had sounded. Emma was surprised too. Was she at a breaking point? Turning into ice to protect her feelings? Would anger and hatred for William soon be the only emotions left in her heart? Emma was okay with that. At least it would cut her a break from the constant sadness that took over when she thought of John. She was a survivor. She wouldn’t shed a single tear over this anymore. From now on, she would simply survive. Emma left the breakfast room to start packing, leaving behind a deeply troubled and worried Lily.

  John was sitting at his mother’s bedside when the door opened, and a servant brought in a letter on a silver tray. He looked at the note for a few seconds before taking it. Was it from Emma? He felt that heavy feeling in his heart again. He’d been up all night, thinking about her whenever he wasn’t holding his mother’s weak hand. What had she been thinking, just showing up like that? If anybody besides Agnes or Penley had seen her, it would have ruined her reputation and ended her engagement to Blackwell in a matter of minutes. But Emma seemed to have been okay with risking that to save his mother. The medicine she brought had lowered his mother’s fever within hours, and in the morning, she’d opened her eyes again, asking for water. It was just as incredible as the prostitutes claimed it to be in those rumors that were spreading through the slums of London like wildfire. How had Emma come to such a cure? What was she not telling him? And she said Blackwell hadn’t hurt her, but was she telling the truth?

  He glanced over to his mother, who slept peacefully. Maybe he should just burn the note and never open it. What if it was a sad goodbye note? Something that told him that she cared for him but that they could never be together? Lady Evergreen opened her eyes for a few seconds but closed them again. John leaned over and kissed her on the forehead.

  “Rest, mother…you need to rest more…”

  He got up and walked over to the fireplace. The flames were dancing wildly, flickering this way and that. He could just let go of the note, feed it to the hung
ry flames, and never have to worry about Emma again. Try to move on. He loved her with all his heart, and she knew that but had chosen another. John’s fingers loosened their grip around the note, and he was just about to set her free forever when he remembered the look in her eyes whenever he kissed her. Those were the eyes of a woman in love, not a woman who never wanted to see him again. And her coming here last night showed that she still cared for him and his family. No, something wasn’t right here. All the evidence was speaking against Emma, and common sense tried to tell him to let it all go, move on. But as foolish as it sounded, there was a voice stronger than common sense and logic combined, the same voice that had urged him to search for her for months despite her goodbye note. That voice came from the heart and told him loud and clear—She needs you.

  Chapter 14

  T he carriage stopped in front of a colossal ship that looked like the child of the Titanic and a wooden pirate ship. The lower part was made out of steel, but it still had sails and wooden masts. A footman opened the door to the carriage that Emma, Lily, and William were in. William’s sister and mother were riding in a different carriage that had already left early in the morning.

  Much to Emma’s surprise, the harbor was even more chaotic than the busy markets she used to get her bread and cheese from when she was a factory girl. People were moving around like ants, boarding the ship and getting off at the same time. Emma was relieved to see that there was no line for first-class passengers. They were boarded at a different ramp and greeted by the captain.

  Servants who looked like sailors came running and started to unload Emma’s trunks from the carriage. At least she didn’t have to stand in line with William. The first-class ramp was empty, so she could go straight to her room and retire for the day. Maybe she could even fake seasickness and not have to spend much time with William at all.