No Recourse

by Mari Carr

  Marriage had never been a possibility for her. Her experiences with the institution had soured her toward the whole idea. She refused to give any man the power to hurt her. Not after the way she’d witnessed Marian’s abuse at the hands of her father or the beatings—physical and verbal—suffered by the women at the clinic. She’d decided at a very young age she would never marry, which made Jack’s offer all the more appealing. Her time here was limited. They both knew that. Jack said he wanted to court her, woo her, seduce her, not marry her. He had omitted that statement from his declaration, which made his offer even more attractive to her.

  “I’m surprised at you,” Erin said, interrupting her musings again.

  “Why?”

  “You haven’t even asked where we’re going. Did you lose that insatiable sense of curiosity with the trip through time?”

  Hayley grinned. “Where are we going?”

  “To see Lady Linley.”

  Hayley’s stomach lurched. Lady Linley. The one person who held the secret to her return home.

  “Oh.”

  Erin took her hands in hers. “Oh? That’s all? Just oh?”

  “What did you expect?”

  “Enthusiasm, excitement. I thought you were desperate to go back.”

  “I am.” Problem was Hayley had been so consumed with her thoughts of Jack these past few days, she’d put the mystery of the tree out of her mind. What if Lady Linley did know how to send her home? What if she could step through the portal and be safe and sound in 2008 by tonight? Would she go? The thought jarred Hayley. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to leave. At least…not right away. Jack’s face floated through her mind. She could never leave without saying goodbye to him. The thought of that goodbye caused a pain in her chest that cut like a dagger.

  If Lady Linley held the key to her return, Hayley would merely hold it in her pocket and use it later. She wouldn’t…couldn’t leave until she’d seen Jack again.

  A knock on the door interrupted her musings. Alex popped his head in. “Going riding?”

  Erin nodded. “We’re going to visit Lady Linley.”

  A strange look crossed Alex’s face. “Oh, I see. I wanted to let you know it’s quite chilly out. You may want to wear a coat. I didn’t realize you would be riding so far or I would have made plans to accompany you. I’ve scheduled a meeting with several tenants this morning.”

  “We’ll be fine, Alex,” Erin reassured him.

  “Even so, perhaps, you would indulge me by allowing Ben to escort you?”

  Erin smiled at her husband’s concern. “That would be fine.” Erin crossed the room to give him a kiss on the cheek. “However, he’ll have to wait outside during our visit. Can you think of an excuse for him to remain outdoors while we speak to Lady Linley privately?”

  Alex nodded before excusing himself. “I’ll go talk to him.”

  “Are you sure you have time to make this trip?” Hayley asked.

  The past few days had been filled with plans for the house party and ball. Alex’s aunt Sarah and cousin Katie had returned from London the day before. Hayley had liked the women immediately and was thrilled to see how much Erin looked up to Aunt Sarah. Having grown up without a mother, it appeared Erin had found the perfect one in Sarah. Katie, a bubbly and beautiful sixteen-year-old, had infused the Grange with her laughter and energy.

  “I have time.” Erin scrutinized her face. Hayley fought to keep it impassive. “Really, Hayley. If you’d rather not go, we don’t have to. I just had the impression you were anxious to return.”

  “I am. It just seems a shame to rush right back. I mean, we don’t even know if this Lady Linley can help me. Besides, I was kind of looking forward to the house party.”

  Hayley had helped Erin organize the games, decorations, music and food. At night, Alex and Ben took turns teaching her how to dance, so she would be prepared for the ball. The lessons were great fun, but she couldn’t help wishing it were Jack who was spinning her around the room.

  Grabbing Julia’s cape, Hayley descended the staircase behind Erin to find a smiling Ben waiting for them.

  “Good morning, Miss Garland, Lady Dorset. I hope you don’t mind being stuck with poor old me for company this fine morning. I must say I’m a bit distressed to learn you won’t be resuming your daily exercise today, Hayley. I’m interested in seeing this so-called running you do. The servants seem mighty disappointed you’ve ceased. They found it quite entertaining.”

  Ben had become a good friend in a short time and she was rather fond of his teasing. He’d become obsessed with the idea of a woman running for exercise and had constantly nagged to see her in action. However, she wouldn’t start running again until Jack returned to escort her. Their morning runs had become a private, special thing she was only willing to share with him.

  “Shall we go, ladies?” Ben opened the front door.

  Hayley walked toward the carriage with a heavy heart. Fear had taken root and she struggled to understand it. Was she afraid Lady Linley wouldn’t be able to offer her a way to return home? Or afraid she would?

  As they stood at the doorway of the tiny house, Hayley fought back waves of nausea. If Lady Linley couldn’t offer her an answer about the mystery of her arrival and the secret behind returning, she really would be stuck here for the rest of the year. Hell, there wasn’t even a guarantee the tree would open then.

  The door opened and Hayley was surprised to see an attractively dressed, kind-faced elderly woman. Given the townspeople’s descriptions, she’d expected a hag-like crone.

  “Lady Dorset,” Lady Linley exclaimed, joy lighting her face. “What a pleasure to see you again.”

  Erin grinned. “Oh no, none of that, Lady Linley. You know better.”

  “Erin.” The older woman reached for Erin, pulling her into a warm hug. “I’ve missed you, my dear.”

  Erin returned the embrace.

  “You’ve brought another caller with you,” Lady Linley said.

  “Two, actually,” Erin confessed “This is my good friend Hayley Garland. Lord Sinclair accompanied us as well, but we’ve asked him to remain with the carriage so that we may speak in private.”

  Lady Linley’s gaze flashed back to Erin’s face. Hayley obviously wasn’t the only one to notice the slight tremor in Erin’s voice. What on earth was going on? Erin was never scared or nervous.

  “Please come in.” Lady Linley led them into a small, but well kept home. Hayley was slightly surprised by the fine quality of the furnishings. It was clear the woman had some money and marvelous taste. Hayley wondered why she lived alone. It was an uncommon occurrence in this day.

  Once they were all settled, Lady Linley looked at Erin expectantly. “So, Erin, what brings you here?”

  “Hayley and I have been friends for many years, since we were ten, actually, and I thought she should meet you.”

  Lady Linley rose unexpectedly and crossed the room, kneeling at Hayley’s feet. The sudden movement and close proximity caught Hayley unaware. “So the tree chose you as well.”

  Hayley was shocked by the woman’s words. She’d been prepared to recite her well-rehearsed cover story about the ancient legend. “You know about the tree?”

  Lady Linley looked over at Erin, confusion in her face. “Of course I know about it, surely Erin—”

  Erin interrupted her words. “I didn’t tell her.”

  “Tell me what?” Hayley asked.

  “I’m afraid I lied to you, Hayley,” Erin said softly. “When I said the tree only opened once a year. When I said I didn’t understand how the magic worked.”

  Erin looked utterly miserable, but Hayley found it difficult to be sympathetic. “You know how it works?”

  Erin nodded.

  Hayley’s temper sparked. “And I could be home now? Right this minute, I could be at the Grange with Tori, setting her mind at ease?”

  Erin shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but maybe.”

  Hayley rose, stunned and furious. “Maybe? W
hy, Erin? Why in the hell didn’t you tell me this weeks ago?”

  “Miss Garland,” Lady Linley said calmly. Hayley glanced at the woman. In her anger, she’d forgotten she was there. “I believe it’s important you sit down and let your friend and I explain more fully. Nothing will be accomplished until you put your anger away.”

  Hayley struggled to take a deep breath, tried to fight the fury clawing at her chest, begging to be let loose so she could yell and scream and rant and rave at her so-called best friend. “I can’t believe you did this to me.”

  “She didn’t do anything to you. Now sit down.” Lady Linley’s words were spoken gently, but firmly. Hayley, still trapped in the past with no answers, had little choice but to do as the woman commanded. As she sat, she purposely turned her face away from Erin.

  “Fine. Let’s hear it.”

  “First of all, you have to understand we only understand a tiny portion of how the tree is able to transport people from one time to another and the information we’ve gathered up until now has only been based on my experiences and Erin’s. Your friend was correct when she said she didn’t know if you could return. We’ve deduced that the tree seems to grant wishes of the heart.”

  Hayley struggled not to scoff at the absurd comment. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It seems to understand the deepest desires of a person’s heart. Oh, and its magic works mainly during the Solstice.”

  Erin smiled and shrugged. “My birthday is June twenty-first, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Lucky me.”

  “So you were right. The tree only opens once a year.”

  “No,” Lady Linley answered quickly. “There is another time of the year when the magic works as well. When I traveled the second time, it was in December. The Winter Solstice.”

  Hayley shook her head. “You traveled twice?”

  Lady Linley returned to her chair. “I was born in this area in the year 1763. The year I turned eighteen I was at a house party at the Grange with my family. I’d gone to rest under the oak one afternoon. My heart was filled with dismay over the fact I’d had a rather unsuccessful season in London. I must confess, Miss Garland, I believe people can be born in the wrong time. It’s a cruel twist of fate, but one I find to be true.”

  Erin grinned, but Hayley didn’t find anything funny in Lady Linley’s words. She hadn’t been born in the wrong time, just to the wrong father.

  “I was terribly depressed and lonely and I’m ashamed to say, feeling quite sorry for myself. I wished I could find a man who would truly love me and then…the tree opened.”

  Hayley frowned. “It just opened?”

  Lady Linley shivered and it was then Hayley realized the tree had taken the woman from her home with the same violence with which it had gripped her.

  “You’ve felt the tree’s power. It was the same for me,” the elderly woman replied softly.

  Hayley nodded. “Where did it take you?”

  “1911. And like in Erin’s experience, there was a young man there who pulled me from the tree’s brutal hold.”

  Hayley recalled Jack being there to save her, but she said nothing as Lady Linley continued her tale.

  “This young man and I were both immediately struck by the wonder of what had happened. George was a handsome, kind-hearted gentleman. He protected and sheltered me as we tried desperately to discover a way to return me to my own time. Regardless of our attempts to learn more, we were unsuccessful.”

  “But you did return,” Hayley tried to put the pieces of the woman’s story together in some way that would help her.

  “Years later.”

  “Years?” Hayley asked weakly.

  “I stopped trying to return, Miss Garland, because I fell madly in love with George. We married and were quite happy for several years.”

  “What happened?”

  “The Great War, or as Erin has informed me, the war people in your time refer to as World War I. George enlisted to fight and was killed in battle. It was mid-December when I received word. I was distraught, devastated. I returned to the tree, cursed it for its cruelty and—”

  “It brought you back,” Hayley whispered.

  The elderly woman nodded sadly. “Without George, there was nothing tying me to that time, so the tree granted my heart’s deepest desire. To return home to my family. To cry out my grief on my mother’s shoulder.”

  “But you’d been gone for so long. How did you explain?” Hayley couldn’t imagine anyone who hadn’t seen the magic believing such a far-fetched tale.

  “I told a half-truth,” Lady Linley replied sadly. “I was truly blessed with loving parents, so I said that I’d run away with a man I’d fallen in love with and that he died in a carriage accident. They took me back, but I’ve been shunned from polite society ever since. I’ve never minded. I had five wonderful years with the most marvelous man. I wouldn’t trade those days for a lifetime of fancy balls and house parties.”

  Hayley tried to determine how Lady Linley’s words would help her. The most useful information was that the tree opened twice a year. At the worst, she could return home in December. “So I have to wait until mid-December?”

  “Honestly, my child,” Lady Linley began, “I don’t know. It is only my belief that the magic of the tree is most powerful at the Solstice. Erin believes the true magic relies primarily on the heart and time of year has little to do with it. Have you returned to the tree since your arrival?”

  “Yes,” Hayley replied. “Nothing happened.”

  “Is there anything tying you to this time? Anything in your heart that would keep you here?” Lady Linley asked.

  Jack? If the tree listened only to your heart, would it find him there? She’d never been in love before, but she was beginning to believe she’d fallen quite madly for Jack Campbell. She glanced over at Erin and was surprised to find complete understanding in her friend’s gaze.

  “I don’t know,” she answered honestly.

  “Well, then,” Lady Linley replied sadly. “Until you can answer that question, I fear you may never be able to return home.”

  Chapter 24

  “Dammit, Ben. It’s no big deal. Let it go!” Hayley yelled, her face flushed.

  Ben pointed a finger at her. “You need a lesson in manners, Miss Garland. That foul language of yours—”

  “What’s going on here?” Alex rushed out of the dining room.

  “Nothing.” Hayley glared daggers at Ben.

  “Not nothing.” Ben looked directly at Alex. “We ran into the Earl of Wilshire upon our return from Lady Linley’s home.”

  “Ben and Erin are making a mountain out of a molehill,” Hayley said. “That arrogant earl is all bluff and hot air. Let’s just forget it.”

  Concerned, Alex looked at Erin. “What happened?”

  “He threatened her,” she answered.

  “Not seriously.” Hayley tried to shrug off the incident as unimportant.

  “Not seriously?” Ben yelled. “The man took one look at her in that cloak and flew into a rage like I’ve never seen.”

  “He’s a hothead,” Hayley yelled back. “Right, Erin? The man is seriously unstable.”

  “What did he say?” Alex suddenly looked worried.

  “I think perhaps we should send word to Jack.” Ben said.

  “He’ll want to know about this,” Erin agreed.

  “No.” Hayley said. “I told you both, we are not sending for Jack. I’m perfectly capable of looking out for myself. The man was just pissed off at being tricked and losing his victim. He was trying to intimidate me and it won’t work.”

  “Be quiet, Hayley!” Alex demanded. “What happened?”

  “He rode up alongside the carriage and asked if he could have a word with Lady Dorset,” Ben replied. “I told him if he wished to call upon her ladyship, he needed to see her at the Grange. I knew you’d want to be present to hear whatever he said.”

  Alex nodded.

  Crossing her a
rms, Hayley turned her head as if bored and sighed loudly.

  Ben continued. “I wasn’t aware of his presence until he approached us, but I got the impression, they’d been following us for a while.”

  “They?” Alex asked.

  “He and that fellow that’s always with him. Riley or Rose or—”

  “Rawlings,” Erin and Hayley responded in unison.

  “The cape.” Erin glanced at Alex. “She was wearing Julia’s cape.”

  Alex nodded. “Weren’t you wearing that the night you lured the earl away from Jack’s ship? The night Simon and Julia escaped?”

  Hayley shrugged.

  “Yes,” Erin answered quietly. “She was.”

  “Now the earl realizes Hayley aided Jack in kidnapping his betrothed, I fear his wrath will know no end,” Ben said.

  Hayley rolled her eyes and refused to acknowledge the truth of his words.

  “Now you’re quiet.” Ben’s anger erupted. “Where was that self-control when we were with the earl?”

  Alex groaned. “What did you say to him, Hayley?”

  “Nothing,” Hayley replied.

  “Nothing!” Ben exploded. “You call that little tirade of yours nothing!”

  Hayley raised her hands in frustration. “The man is a bully. You didn’t see Julia when she first got here. None of you did. He’d beaten her—badly. He needed to be taken down a notch or two.”

  “Oh Hayley,” Erin said softly. “I would say that was a tad bit more than a notch.”

  “Not again,” Alex replied.

  “You need to understand, it’s not your job to defend every woman in the world. The earl—he’s different from the men we’re used to.” Erin stumbled over her words, careful not to say too much in front of Ben. As far as he was concerned, they had come from America, 1818.

  “What did you say?” Alex’s patience was definitely at an end.

  “I—” Hayley started, but she didn’t get far.

  “She taunted him,” Ben interjected. “Told him as long as she was around, she’d make sure he never hurt another woman. Told him he was a bully and a coward and his title did not give him the right to terrorize young women.”