Time Travel 02 Nothing but Time

by Angeline Fortin

  He needed help, real help. Even if there was someone around who might be able to perform the surgery, Brand’s chances were not the best. He could die from infection, blood loss or pure incompetence. He needed a doctor. A real doctor.

  He needed… Kate’s mind ground to a halt. Yes, that was it!

  She only hoped she wasn’t too late.

  Turning, she ran for the door only to hear Brand’s hoarse, worried shouts behind her.

  “Kate, where are you going?” he asked only to have Susan ask the same question as well.

  “I’ll be back with help,” she said before shooting West a venomous glare. “And don’t you dare touch him before I get back!”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  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 against the solid oak of the door but Kate carried on, ignoring the pain. David was in there; there were lights showing on the upper floor. He has to be there, she thought desperately, hoping she wasn’t too late.

  A thumping 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 not 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 Directive? 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 another 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 dropping 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 on 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 shouldn’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, you 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.”

  Chapter Forty

  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 clothes 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!” S
he 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 the ones he considered nothing more than drunken rambling – resounded 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 spend a lifetime with her wherever 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 the pain on his right side had him so doubled over 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. Certainly 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, the 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 them, 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 rose 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 stood before him, the man who, a month ago, had 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 hers. “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 trees 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.

/>   Chapter Forty-One

  “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-thick 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 wasn’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.