He had read countless magazines and watched hours of that incomprehensible television yet he knew nothing about how any of it was possible. How had the world achieved such miraculous advancements? Who had invented them? How did they work? There were so many questions in his mind that Brand had come to almost welcome the darkness the painkillers forced upon him, as if they could take him away from this place.
Yet, surely, the worst was still to come.
His mind was already bursting with new information and he hadn’t even left this one building yet. A whole new world waited to confront him. “What would you think is outside of those doors that would astonish a person the most?” Brand asked the question as lightly as he could, trying to get some sense of what awaited him.
“In London?” Ashna laughed, not understanding the seriousness of his question. “The noise.”
She was right, of course. The moment they exited the hospital, it seemed as if sound rushed toward them from every direction. The shouts of people, the hum of machinery. Screeches, squeals and blasts that Brand could not derive the source of. It was even more startling than the temperature. It had surprised him to learn it was January, the middle of the winter. The wind ate through the summer apparel of his time period, though thankfully he had the jacket Kate had thought to bring along to keep away the worst of the chill.
Ashna pushed him out under the covered drive of the hospital and Brand saw that Kate was there waiting for him. His heart leaped in gladness before he managed to quash it.
He hadn’t seen her since the previous day when she’d come to visit. Unlike that first day when her shoulder had been bared, Kate had been more modestly dressed in a sweater and long wool jacket. She wore trousers again – denims, Ashna had called them when asked. He hadn’t been sure what to think of that but, with her hair hanging loosely about her shoulders, she had looked so incredibly lovely and familiar that he’d wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms.
But she’d looked different as well. Alien, emphasizing the changes that had taken place in his life. The few words he’d allowed himself had been brisk and lordly as he embraced his anger over what he had considered a rash decision on her part. He regretted now the aloofness of his manner.
“There’s your girlfriend waiting for you,” Ashna told him unnecessarily as she pushed him along. “I don’t know what you’re so mad at her about but I think you should give her a break. Look how worried she looks.”
She did, Brand realized. Her eyes were wide with trepidation as she awaited him. Her hands were stuffed deeply into the pockets of her coat and she was chewing her lip nervously. He hadn’t meant to cause her such anxiety. Granted, he was still angry, however that antagonism was mixed with a healthy dose of apprehension for what was to come. Though he hated to admit it, much of that ire was now directed, not at Kate, but at himself. Anger at the horror he felt for what awaited him. Fear of the unknown. It was destroying his pride and manhood.
He, the Earl of Harrowby, who had never feared anything in his whole life, brought down by a terror of what was waiting for him beyond the hospital walls.
He had turned it all on Kate, much to his regret.
He tried to offer her a smile of apology and reassurance but Kate turned away before she’d seen it as she opened the door of the vehicle behind her. Brand stared at it with a deep swallow. A car, he’d learned it was called. It looked innocuous enough. A squat conveyance painted in a bright, cheerful blue not terribly unlike those he had seen in one of the publications the nurses had given him to occupy his time. It raised many questions to see one of the cars in person but they were not questions he was prepared to ask with Kate watching him so.
Brand could also see that the interior was finely done and, as Ashna helped him inside, could feel the softness of the upholstery beneath his hands. She handed him a woven strap that Brand only stared at blankly before the nurse took it and reached across him to connect it on the other side of the seat.
“You’d think you had been hit in the head with the way you act sometimes,” Ashna said with a chuckle as she pushed the wheelchair aside. “Goodbye, Mr. Ryder. It’s been a joy having you. You’re a very interesting man.”
“Thank you, Ashna,” he replied politely. “I’ve enjoyed your company as well.”
The nurse shut the door giving him a wave that Brand returned as Kate climbed in the opposite door and settled into her seat. Pulling the same strapping across her own shoulder, she locked it into place with an audible click. “Making friends already, I see,” she muttered.
Whatever Brand might have said in response to her bitter words was lost when the car suddenly roared to life and surged forward. He braced himself with one hand on the front console and the other against the side of the car to maintain his position in his seat, suddenly ascertaining the purpose of the strap across his shoulder. Surely, if one were to move at such speeds, strapping oneself to the seat was an excellent idea.
Brand hung on tightly as Kate moved her vehicle through the others on the road like a fine jockey making his way to the front of the pack. The ride was terrifying yet invigorating. Far more agreeable than what he saw through the windows of the vehicle as they sped along.
The world of 2012 was a chaotic mess compared to what he had once known. The sheer noise of it all seemed to trouble him more than anything. As they moved through town, his head had been jerked left then right again as one sound after the next caught his attention, often startling him. The speed at which her world moved was also something Brand had trouble accepting and it wasn’t simply her car that went too fast. Everything here moved quickly, something Kate apparently didn’t realize.
Kate glanced up at Brand’s closed, dark countenance. He was still angry. After days of reflection, Kate felt she could understand it; that loss of the life he had known, this transference into a place where he had no control, no connection. That anger might fade in time if not for the fact it had been magnified by David’s continued refusal to return Brand to his own time.
The two men had faced down one another over the issue the day before. Their argument had shaken the walls of the hospital as Brand yelled at David furiously demanding his help. Kate had never seen Brand so angry, never heard him raise his voice so. He hadn’t been able to win the fight. Both men had known that David held all the cards in that particular argument. Brand simply could not complete the task on his own and David stubbornly withheld his assistance.
Brand had demanded Kate reason with David, force the man to send him back but Kate could not though, in truth, she had tried. She’d never imagined – well, never had the time during her quick decision-making – to think about how it would affect Brand in the end. He was already miserable here and she didn’t want that. If he wanted to go back, if it would make him happy again, then that’s what she wanted as well. However, David had refused, again reciting all the reasons he would not. Lectures about destiny and upsetting the balance of the universe.
As a result, Brand hadn’t spoken to her since then and would probably prefer not to be in her company at all but he needed Kate to survive in this time. Kate knew that truth only strengthened his anger.
Brandon Ryder, who had been in charge of so many lives, who had ruled and provided a living to hundreds of people, could not even arrange his own departure from the hospital without her help.
Kate could only imagine how that helplessness ate at Brand, once an Earl and now merely sir. She wanted to help him along, show him the way to live in 2012 so that they might move forward together. However, that was never going to happen if he continued to ignore her. What was going to happen now, she wondered, feeling sorrow tear at her heart. Had she saved Brand’s life only to lose him?
Worry and dread gnawed at her as she guided her little Vauxhall Astra through western London before finally connecting to the M40 motorway that would take them most of the way to Oxford. Once out of the city, the dense traffic thinned and Kate took a deep breath. “So are you going to keep givi
ng me the cold shoulder forever?”
Brand didn’t answer, so Kate continued, “I’ll just say again that I did what I had to do. I know you’re not happy about it but what’s done is done. I know it can be mind-boggling here. I feel the same way sometimes. I mean, really, you should be glad I’m driving on the correct side of the road. I don’t expect you to feel grateful but it’s better than feeling dead. ’Cause that’s what you’d be, you know? I’m just saying. You might not like it, but it is life, Brand.”
Still he was silent and Kate halted her tirade to dare a look at him. Brand was as white as a sheet as he braced himself stiffly against the door of the car. “Oh, geez! Brand, are you okay?”
Brand swallowed with a shake of his head. “Could we just stop for a moment, please?”
Nodding, Kate reduced her speed – which she had considered moderate – until other cars were whizzing by her with horns blaring. Having already passed the interchange where the M40 met the M25, Kate’s mind scrambled ahead thinking of a good place to stop and traveled a few miles farther ahead before exiting at Beaconsfield. Pulling in at a McDonald’s, Kate parked the car, ordered him to stay there while she ran into buy bottled water and some French-fries.
Opening his door, Kate let the brisk winter air flood the car and cracked open the bottle of water before handing it to him. “I’m so sorry, Brand. I didn’t think.”
“It’s so fast,” he told her between sips. “Just when I thought it could not go any faster, it did.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said regretfully.
To her surprise, Brand chuckled with a shake of his head. “Actually, I found the whole thing quite exhilarating.”
“Then why did you look like you were going to pass out?” she asked.
“I’m afraid that in tensing my body to prepare for the turns, I’ve quite aggravated my wound,” he told her.
Kate wanted to slap her forehead for her idiocy. Of course, it pulled on his sutures swinging this way and that. He must be in real agony! Reaching into the car, Kate pulled out the pharmacy bag with his painkillers and shook out a pair for him.
“Here, have a few of these, too. You should eat something with those.” Kate pulled out the fries and held them out to Brand, taking a couple for herself and munching on them. “French-fries, you’ll like them.”
She could see that Brand was hesitant to use his fingers but he took one and ate it, his eyes widening in surprise. “Yummy, huh?” Kate asked.
He nodded and took a few more but his eyes were locked with hers and, sensing that Brand was calmer than he had been in days, Kate said once more, “I am so sorry.” The words encompassed more than just her driving.
“I know you are and I do understand your reasons for your actions,” he said softly, tenderly brushing her hair from her forehead as he had so often before dropping his hand. “Give me time, Kate, to come to grips with all of this. The newness of it, the foreignness… it’s overwhelming.”
“Kind of like you fell into one of your own books?” Kate asked and laughed with Brand as he released a startled chuckle.
“Yes, I suppose it is,” he agreed. “Rest assured my anger at this point is more for myself than it is for you.”
“I’ll try to keep that in mind,” she told him, rubbing her palm up and down his thigh. “I’ll help you if you need it, Brand. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Taking things more slowly might be a good start.”
The words held a double-edged meaning and Kate couldn’t decide what he meant by them. Did he mean travel more slowly or did he want to take them more slowly? Was that his polite way of saying that while he wasn’t mad at her anymore, he didn’t intend to continue their romance? Those were questions Kate was afraid to ask because, deep inside, she felt she already knew the answer. Brand was slipping away from her, withdrawing. She knew it but didn’t have a clue how to stop it.
Or even if she could.
It was very possible she had already done enough to alienate him beyond redemption.
“Are you ready to go on then?”
“Yes,” he said before adding. “Perhaps you might tell me more about these things as we travel.”
“The French-fries or the cars?” Kate asked trying to summon a smile.
Brand tasted another of the long, thin fries, studying the paper container as he chewed. “Both I suppose.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Oxford, England
January 2012
“So this is my apartment… flat, they call it here,” Kate said uncertainly as she unlocked the door and stepped inside. She looked around at the bright, open-concept space wondering what Brand would think of it. The flat was in a newer complex northwest of the Oxford campus. The buildings that made up the complex surrounded a nicely landscaped courtyard filled with trees and flowers in the springtime. Alone, it wasn’t enough to alienate anyone, even a visitor from another time.
The flat’s interior, however, was a different story. It was a modern space, to say the least. A sleek kitchen with stainless appliances, flat-paneled beech cupboards and black granite countertops dominated a third of the space. The bathroom had a euro-modern vibe that had even astonished Kate when she’d first moved in. She’d done little to downplay the contemporary but instead had embraced it, filling the space with equally modern furnishings. Kate could see the questions in his eyes as he glanced around. In contrast to his opulent homes, it was downright sparse. “It’s not much, I know, in comparison…”
With a grimace, Kate went around the room turning on the lights as she went, aware that Brand lingered in the doorway studying her small living space. “This is the living room, dining room and kitchen,” she pointed around the single open area. “They’re all just kind of… together. I know it’s not…” Kate released a sigh. What could she say? It was a hovel in comparison to his homes. The whole flat could fit neatly in the front hall of Ramble House. After an hour of categorizing all the things she had done to drive Brand away, her home was simply one more item at the bottom of a long list. “The bathroom is through there, just like the one in the hospital. My bedroom is that one and over here is your bedroom. There’s a balcony through that door there. It has a nice view of Oxford.”
Kate led the way to one of the two small bedrooms her flat housed thinking it was a good thing she’d gotten a place with enough room for guests. At the time, she had expected only her parents or sister to visit, but since Brand was only just talking to her as if she weren’t a stranger, she doubted he would appreciate sharing a bed with her.
“I thought tonight I’d make you dinner,” she went on, forcing cheerfulness into her voice. “I picked up some sea bass at the market this morning. Maybe later in the week, we can go shopping and get you some more clothes… if you’re feeling up to it.”
Brand walked slowly around the flat, visibly favoring his side as he went. His entire circumvention took only a few moments. He peeked in first one bedroom and then the other.
“Here’s the remote for the TV.” Kate picked it up, toying with it as she watched him, trying to gauge his reactions. “Why don’t you sit down? The doctor recommended that you rest. Four weeks, I think he said, right?
With a low grunt, Brand grimaced over the hunched posture that, while a far cry from his normally erect stance, was as upright as his incision allowed after an hour’s journey. Holding his side, he shuffled over to the sofa and lowered himself down into it before slowly relaxing back against the soft cushions. It was surprisingly comfortable. In fact, Kate’s entire home had a feeling of unpretentious, domestic comfort. There was nothing of the formality that was a hallmark of his homes in London and in the country.
The furniture was simple, a dark gray sofa made of two separate pieces pushed together flanked by a pair of squared, outrageously bright green chairs. The rug beneath his feet was stripped in grey, green, orange and teal blue and the plethora of pillows on the seating complimented those colors. It was bright and merry just li
ke Kate. Though the bizarre shapes of some of the furniture and lamps were unusual to him, overall he found the space inviting and comforting. Looking out the long windows that flanked one side of the room, he let out a sigh of fatigue and, feeling at ease, leaned back and closed his eyes.
Despite his weariness, he was aware of Kate as she moved through the kitchen area – a kitchen right there in the living space. It was a confounding concept. He could hear her soft footsteps. Doors opened and closed marking her position. She hadn’t said a word since their arrival in Oxford – a town almost unidentifiable from the one of his university days – besides her brief tour of her flat.
Kate was wary of him now, Brand thought as he lay there letting his mind roam freely. Of course, he had given her every reason to be so between his bursts of anger and silence. He was slowly emerging from the shocked withdrawal her revelations had wrought. In truth, only in the past hour had he realized how the changes that so challenged him had wedged their way between them.
He thought the short talk they’d had when they stopped might have set things to rights. However, somewhere during the remainder of their journey – while Brand had slept off the effects of his pain medication – Kate lost the anger that she had brought to the hospital and even the flash of humor she had shown during their rest only to find circumspection upon their arrival.
So much so that she assigned him a bedchamber separate from her own even though she lived alone with no chaperone. Did she think he no longer cared for her? he wondered. Did she think he would no longer want to hold her in his arms? Given the events of the past several days, Brand thought it just might be the case. He should speak with her, find a way to push his trepidation aside to assuage her fears as well.
If only he weren’t so blasted tired.
“Brand?”
Time Travel 02 Nothing but Time Page 30
