“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 swallowed 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!” he heard her call desperately.
“Just entering the coordinates 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 hugged him close to her. “Just a moment and you should feel the pull. Just don’t fight it.”
The pull? Harrowby thought. What pull? 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 nausea assailed Harrowby and combined with his physical pain. He couldn’t stop the moan that escaped him. He rolled to his side clutching 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. The warm summer’s night air felt suddenly cold 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 down 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 come, 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 it tightly against his body as his skin tightened 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. All 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, opening 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 thing 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 comfortable. 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 hand 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 from 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. You’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 location. “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 his time machine?”
Brand shook his head. “Yes, but that was all in jest. You were drunk.”
“Not that drunk,” she denied. “David used that time machine to send him and me back in time, to your time, just as I said. Last night, I had him bring you here, to the future, back to my time to save your life. I knew that the medical assistance you needed couldn’t be found in your time, so I brought you to mine. I brought you to doctors who could give you the help you needed.”
“That’s preposterous.”
Kate let out a sigh, squeezing his hand between hers. “I know you didn’t believe me, but it was all true. This is where I am from, well this time, anyway. I am from the United States. Everything I told you about my family is true. Everything I told you about my life, my education and my job were all true. Except that it is 2012, not 1876.”
“It’s not possible.”
“I know you don’t want to believe it, Brand. I didn’t either when I was sent back,” Kate went on. “But look around. See the truth with your own eyes. I didn’t want it all to go this way, but denial can only take you so far.”
Harrowby looked around the white room, taking in the unfamiliar material of the walls and floors. The railings of the bed were neither wood nor metal. Huge sheets of glass covered the floor to ceiling windows. It was all very different than any hospital he had ever visited but not catastrophically so. Then outside through those massive windows, he saw something that he could not deny. Towering buildings in the distance that seemed to be made of glass and mirror. Dozens of them.
It was a nightmarish scene with monstrous edifices dark against the gray sky, shadowing the smaller buildings below. A haze hung over the sky that had nothing to do with coal or fog. It was alien yet here and there amongst the wreckage, Harrowby recognized a building or two. A shiver of dread crept through him settling nauseatingly in the pit of his stomach. “What city is that?”
“That’s London, Brand.”
Tearing his gaze away from the sight, Harrowby noticed the tube protruding from his arm and followed its length up to a bag of clear liquid that dangled from a metal stand.
“Take me home,” he commanded hoarsely, pulling at the tubes as alarm descended.
“Don’t do that!” Kate cried jumping up to grab his hands but Brand flung her away. “Okay, I won’t touch you but please leave those alone. You’ll only hurt yourself otherwise.”
“Take me home!” he demanded once more, though he let the matter of the strange tubes lie.
“I can’t, Brand,” was her soft reply. “And David doesn’t believe he should. He doesn’t believe it would be ethical.”
“You took away my life and you want to argue ethics?” he said angrily. A feeling akin to panic was engulfing him and, strangely, the racing of his heartbeat was being matched by a steady beep from nearby. Turning his head the other way, Brand incredulously watched a little green line zigzag its way across a small black area while numbers changed, magically increasing in quantity while a tiny flashing heart kept pace with the audible pinging sound.
“You need to calm down,” Kate insisted, coming to her feet, ignoring the fact that Brand turned his head away from her. “You were going to die, Brand. Can you understand that? I did what I had to do to save your life and I’d do it again if I had to. Whether you should go back or not, I’m not sure. According to David, if you were supposed to die and you went back again, we would be changing history. Changing the future of too many people. I hate to agree with that, but I can see his point. Look at it this way, Brand, you have a new life to lead! A chance to have the life you’ve always wanted, have the career you’ve always wanted to have! You can have that all here… with me, if you like.”
“Go away,” he muttered, raising his hands to cover his face, noticing something clipped over the top of his finger before he plucked it off and tossed it aside.
“Brand, I’m sorry,” she whispered, feeling Brand’s emotional withdrawal from her. “I couldn’t just let you die when you could be saved. I love you.”
“Go away!” he yelled then and Kate stumbled back a couple paces as a woman dressed in an absurd pink outfit bustled into the room. Like Kate she was wearing trousers and for a moment, he was taken aback.
The woman took advantage of his stunned silence to demand, “What’s going on here?” She came around the bed and examined the machinery that was connected to Brand. “You need to calm down, sir,” she told him. “Your heartbeat is way too high.”
“Calm down, sir?” he repeated incredulously, shooting Kate a furious stare. Being addressed in such a fashion was almost as distressing as Kate’s outrageous claims.
“Mr. Ryder!” the woman demanded in a fierce tone and unfamiliar accent, drawing his attention. “Lie still and calm down now before you undo everything we’ve fixed.”
Harrowby stared at the woman wildly, taking in her short stature, black hair, dark skin and hideously pink, sack-like attire. A red dot graced her forehead and there was a metal ring piercing her nose. “Who are you?”
“I’m Ashna. I’ll be your day nurse while you’re here.”
Nurse? She looked rather like an Indian woman Harrowby had once seen years ago in France when he’d done some banking there. That woman, swathed in layers of fabric, had stood meekly by as her husband spoke for them both. However, this woman reeked of competence and impatience. Her black eyes latched on to his with enough intelligence there to capture his interest. There were answers there and Brand needed those more than anything. “Is she right? Did bringing me to… this place save my life? Would I have died if I had not come here?”
“Quicker than lager turns to piss,” she responded bluntly using a turn of phrase that Brand did not recognize, but its meaning was clear. Kate had spoken true, but…
“If I had gone to a hospital with this condition over a hundred years ago, could my life have been saved in a similar fashion?” he asked knowing that the question would seem irrational.
“Well, there’s a question I’ve never heard before,” she said as she adjusted the knobs on the strange apparatus next to the bed.
“An answer, if you please,” Brand commanded gruffly.
“I doubt it, Mr. Ryder,” she said with a shake of her head. “You’re lucky to be alive as it is. Your appendix burst, you understand? Without that whole team working for you, you would have been done for. They didn’t even have time to do the surgery laparoscopically but had to go straight in, old school. Truthfully, I wouldn’t give you reasonable odds of survival in a similar situation even fifty years ago much less a hundred. And, if I understand this all correctly, yes, your girlfriend saved your life by bringing you here. You’re a lucky man.”
“Are you English?” he asked, still trying to comprehend her unusual appearance.
She cocked her head curiously. “After a fashion, I suppose. I’ve lived here long enough to consider myself so.”
“You’re from India, yes?”
“Until I moved here about twenty years ago, yes.” The woman gave him a placid smile as she replaced the white clip on his forefinger.
“Thank you, Ashna.”
“Don’t thank me yet, Mr. Ryder. We’ve got a lot of work to do, you and I.” With a final pat to his hand, the nurse left the room leaving Brand staring at Kate, who was staring back intently.
What had she done to him? “Mr. Ryder,” he repeated in a low, dark voice.
Silence stretched between them until Kate was nearly at the breaking point. “Brand, I…”
“Just leave me, Kate.”
Kate watched helplessly as Brand turned his face away from her to stare out the window, dismissing her completely. She wanted to go to him, beg him to forgive her, explain to him why she had done what she did. Make him understand.
He wouldn’t have it, she knew. Not now.
With a sigh, Kate rose and picked up her purse. “I’ll be back later, Brand.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Londo
n, England
January 2012
“This is ridiculous,” Brand grumbled to Ashna as she pushed him down the hall in a wheelchair. “For the past two days you’ve prodded me to walk about my room, to walk down the hall when, as a sick man, I should have been abed and yet, upon my dismissal from your institution, you insist upon pushing me out in this contraption when you know very well that I can walk.”
“It’s a strange world we live in, Mr. Ryder,” she said with a laugh. “Some things are simply beyond explanation.”
Brand couldn’t help but agree when the nurse pushed a button on the wall and, shortly after, a pair of doors opened before them. He gripped the arms of the chair as she pushed him inside, but when she did nothing more than press another button, Brand relaxed. He had heard of lifts, of course, and knew that some newer buildings had ones available for use by the public. A couple of the department stores in London had them but, as the Earl of Harrowby did not frequent such places, Brand had never had the opportunity to use one before. It was odd to be so quickly transported from one place to another.
Not unlike Dr. Fergusson’s machine.
The doors opened once more, revealing an open space bustling with people.
“Have you ever heard the expression that the world is full of surprises?”
“Hasn’t everyone?” Ashna returned as she pushed him into the crowd and toward large glass doors that were opening and closing of their own volition to allow people to enter and depart the hospital.
The past two days had brought him revelation after revelation, most of it beyond his understanding. Everything from the bathroom facilities to the monitors and machinery Ashna had carted into his room periodically to test his ‘vitals’ astounded and confused him. Brand – he knew he had to start thinking of himself without his title – had spent hours staring out of the large window in his room studying what had become of London. He had walked around the hospital, absorbing the hidden lighting, its technology (a word he had only just learned). He had walked through the hospital’s vast atrium with its endless glass and steel.
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