by Gloria Gay
Kate hoped he would resolve his problem and be back soon. There were highwaymen and footpads swarming the roads. Why couldn’t he send someone in his stead? He was her only link to the scary past and she was loath to see him go, even for a few days.
“But first, Miss Shallot,” Lanquest added, cutting across her worries for his safety, “let us have tea with my aunt. She is anxious to further her acquaintance with you so that she may be of help to you.”
He led her to the drawing room where his aunt, Lady Donney, was awaiting them by the tea tray.
The old lady smiled sweetly at Kate and said in a gentle voice, “I hope you will be happy during the time you spend with us, my dear.”
“Thank you so much for your warm welcome, my lady,” said Kate, “I can never hope to thank you adequately for your hospitality.”
“My nephew has opened his home to you, Miss Shallot, and that is good enough for me. He has explained your circumstances and I am honored that he has asked for my help. I shall do everything in my power to make your stay with us a happy one. He has pressed on me the importance of keeping the real circumstances of how you arrived here secret. You can count on my complete confidence.”
“Lanquest,” she said, turning to him, “you mentioned to Miss Shallot of our plan to introduce her as the niece of a lady from the Colonies that I made during my stay in Paris last year?”
“Yes, Aunt, I did mention it to Miss Shallot and she agrees with us,”
“I would add some details, in case you are asked, Lady Donney,” said Kate. “I have an aunt, Mrs. Morling, who is very dear to me. She made a journey to Europe last year, and spent most of that time in Paris, visiting the Louvre and the art museums. Perhaps you could mention Mrs. Morling as the lady whose acquaintance you made. I’m certain that she would agree to be a stand-in, for she and I are very close and she would want to help in any way she could if she knew of my predicament. Although she is my aunt, she is only a few years older than me.”
“Very well, Miss Shallot, I shall say we welcomed you, Mrs. Morling’s niece, with open arms. What is her full name, in case I am asked?”
“Mrs. Edgar Morling. Her given name is Martha.”
“It is good that you resolve this before Augusta and her daughters arrive, Aunt,” said Lanquest, sitting back on his chair.
“Yes,” his aunt agreed readily. “You will soon meet Augusta, Miss Shallot, and I cannot guarantee that it will be easy on you, so it is good that we resolve how you and I met, for Augusta, or Lady Bunright, is of a highly inquisitive nature and you must prepare in advance for a barrage of questions she will send your way the moment she sets eyes on you. And I am afraid she is not of a pleasing disposition, so I can safely predict she will be rude towards you. Please try to ignore her rudeness, for she is good at baiting.
Kate sighed audibly and glanced at Lanquest.
“Aunt Amy is right in her assessment, Miss Shallot. I’m afraid Lady Bunright skipped her governess’s lessons in deportment. We are correct in warning you that she will be rude toward you so you must try to ignore everything she says when she addresses you.”
“I will leave you with my aunt,” he added, placing his cup on a table nearby, “for I have much work waiting for me before I leave on my journey tomorrow.”
“Aunt,” he said to Lady Donney, “you will prepare Miss Shallot so that she will be better able to withstand Augusta’s bad manners?”
“I will, nephew,” said Amy, smiling broadly. “Rest assured that by the time I finish apprising Miss Shallot of what awaits her with Augusta, she will be well prepared to withstand the rudeness and inquisitiveness that she will be showered with.”
“Good,” said Lanquest, kissing his aunt’s cheek with affection and taking Kate’s hand in his, he pressed his lips softly to it and gave Kate his devastating smile that Kate felt clear down to her toes.
For the next hour or so, Kate related to Amy her Aunt Martha’s age and appearance, her likes and dislikes, and her love of travel, which since she had been widowed and was childless, she had indulged in with as much frequency as possible, taking care not to travel during her nieces’ birthdays, for they took the place of the children she never had. Martha Morling always traveled with tour groups for the structure and safety they represented. She often mentioned to Kate that she made wonderful friendships during her travels and had a wide acquaintance with whom she corresponded.
“Thank you, my dear, for coming to my aid in our little masquerade,” said Amy. “I’m afraid I’m not good at invention. You have made this a lot easier for me. Mrs. Morling it will be, then—Martha Morling.
“For a few minutes, Kate expanded on what she loved about her Aunt Martha, her eyes becoming teary at the thought that she might never get to see her family again.
After they were done with Kate’s Aunt Martha, so that Amy felt comfortable in her knowledge of her, she assured Kate that Augusta would be sure to ask endless questions on how Amy and Kate’s aunt met, to the point, she said with a broad smile, that would make Kate want to scream.
“She and her daughters will be arriving soon, my dear,” Amy said, sending a shiver of apprehension through Kate, “for she has wheedled a promise of a ball to be held at Arcadia in honor of Herlinda and Sally.
“Our neighbors in the surrounding estates will be invited.
“Augusta wanted a ball for each of the girls but Lanquest was firm in that he would bear the cost of only one. It is enough that he will provide the girls with a new wardrobe for their season in London and he has already provided them with adequate dowries.
“We shall have to bear their company only for a week or two, since the girls are excited to reunite with their friends in London and to start their season. I hope they find husbands, my dear, or Lanquest will again have to bear the cost of another season. This is Herlinda’s second and Sally’s first.”
“Rest assured that Augusta will extract a large amount to furnish them with a lavish wardrobe, for she is very free with my nephew’s funds.”
Kate listened to all that Amy told her, absorbing everything and taking note of each warning or advice Amy gave her.
When their tea ended, Amy expressed a desire to retire to her rooms in order to see to her correspondence. She appeared a bit tired from having talked so much and Kate kissed her warmly when she got up to go back to her suite. Her maid waited nearby to help her up the stairs.
Kate thanked her again, taking care to not use as many contractions in her speech as she was used to, for she had noticed that as she spoke Aunt Amy squinted her eyes as she struggled to understand her, so Kate tried to modify her speech with her. Lanquest, on the other hand, did not seem to have any problem with Kate’s manner of speaking.
CHAPTER 9
The second week of Kate’s stay at Arcadia rolled around. Kate had spent a restless night worrying about Lanquest and wishing him to be back to the safety of his estate. She was glad, however, that he did not risk travelling by night. She was afraid for him, even though he had assured her he had made the same journey many times.
She saw the era she had landed in as very dangerous compared to everyday life in her own time. True, there were many places in the world and even in the United States that were just as dangerous as she now felt in the past, yet in her own time she knew which places to avoid to be safe. She was not familiar with the past and therefore was afraid more often.
The streets of London teemed with beggars and children dressed in filthy rags. The children went about in packs, as this was the only way for them to survive. Yet even the few coins they could collect each day were controlled by vicious criminals who exacted their evil punishment on those who did not turn in to them their catch of the day.
She could never willingly live in this age, where a woman had precious little more control over her life than a child did. And once a girl married the little freedom she enjoyed under her father’s strict rule was turned over to her husband, who then became the absolute ruler of her person an
d dowry.
How women’s life had evolved from this dependency was due mostly to women who had braved opposition that had come about first with the written word. The few meaningful work choices available to women evolved from education. Throughout women’s struggle the vast majority of men opposed them every step of the way. But there were a few forward-looking men who joined their cause and this had made a great difference. Women’s charity work that had brought relief to countless orphans and young pregnant women had unintended benefits to the women who fought for them, for it expanded their horizons into areas other than charity work and education.
***
After her breakfast of coffee, scrambled eggs and ham as well as a wonderful crispy roll, Kate, still lost in her thoughts, decided to stroll around the extensive gardens. The morning was beautiful and promised to stay that way.
She needed to disperse her worrisome thoughts, so, leaving the maids to do her room, she headed to the back.
As she walked along the flagstone paths between flower beds in bloom, she sighed with contentment. What a beautiful place this was. She turned back to look at magnificent Arcadia. How well the place fit its owner!
Birds twittered at Kate’s approach and the sun of early spring felt warm on her skin. For once the clouds had dispersed away from the sun, they freed the sky to create a wonderful rare golden morning.
She continued her walk along the gardens and stopped now and then to gaze at flower beds where workers were busy at various chores. They seemed startled when she spoke to them and Kate remembered that service employees in this time in the past were not treated as equals, as they were in her time.
She breathed deeply at the scent of upturned earth as the workers dug in with their picks and long quaint shovels or cut grass with their scythes. Some of them looked up as she walked by and tipped their caps to her.
At least, of all that could have happened to her in her transfer away from her time, she was in a sheltered setting with a wonderful man who would do all he could to help her return to her time. She had nothing but admiration for Lanquest as she remembered how open-minded he had been to her disclosures.
It had helped so much that he had been an avid admirer of the great artist, Leonardo Da Vinci, during his student years and had continued his interest beyond school. She shuddered to think how she would have fared had Lanquest been anyone other than who he was.
On examining her actions in light of the jolt she had received on being sent whirling into the past, she realized how foolish she had been and how reckless. She tried to examine her actions as objectively as she could.
But in her defense, she thought, time travel had never been mentioned in her mother’s journal. Had that been the case, perhaps she would have hesitated before trying to repeat her mother’s experience without a thought to consequences that might be dangerous and even irrevocable.
Although she and Stacy had always been enthralled by their mother’s story, a part of Kate had always been a bit skeptical about it. She had always been a realist: she believed all magicians used tricks in their so-called “magic,” no matter how real they appeared to be, so she wanted confirmation that the ‘magic’ that had happened to her mother had actually happened.
She had not been led by vanity to be young—just curiosity. And now that it had happened she felt alien in her youthful body and could not trust Lanquest’s attraction toward her, for he was admiring someone she was not, an imposter in the body of the girl she had been at nineteen. She hoped such feelings would ease for they were very uncomfortable to live with.
As Kate reached the vast orchards of the home farm—smells, sounds and the warmth of the sun gained force and immersed her in a feeling of wellbeing that she would enjoy to its fullest while it lasted. How strange that farm smells, which in her former life she had been unfamiliar with, now gave her a feeling of safety as though within the estate itself she was sheltered from the trouble ahead.
But although she felt safe within the estate she realized with chagrin that it was a false sense of safety.
Not only did she not have the formula for returning to her time but she was also sure she would soon be subjected to scrutiny from Lanquest’s friends, family and neighbors. Kate had already begun to experience such curiosity from the servants, whose interest was ill-disguised.
The servants and farm workers were dependent on Lanquest so they strove to be polite, if not welcoming. Except for Romy who was a delightful young woman and eager to be of help.
Yet she was certain these same servants had friends and family nearby, in the village or in other towns not far from the Hall, and she doubted that her visit at the house would not be known far and wide before too soon. This gave her a shudder of apprehension, however warm the sun felt on her skin.
Her leisurely walk lasted more than two hours, for taking advantage of benches that were scattered along the gardens and orchard walkways, she enjoyed the solitude and the quiet time.
She thought about her dilemma and wondered how on earth she could return to her time in the same manner that she had come to the past. It would have to be with Madame Enlia’s help. There was no other way.
Thirst forced her back to the house and once it was quenched she decided to explore the large library. She chose a book from the tidy glassed shelves and returned to her bedroom suite.
The maids had finished tidying up her room and she went to the long window seat that was the size of a settee. She made herself comfortable, making sure she had only a flat cushion under her head as she lay on it and pondered her mother’s experience with the psychic.
She felt it was within her mother’s experience that she could unravel the secret of returning to her own time. Kate let her body go limp, and tried to ease the stress under which she was now constantly under. She closed her eyes and tried to recall everything she had read in her mother’s journal.
After going over what she had memorized, she came to an important conclusion:
Kate’s experience and her mother’s experience had been different: her mother had been offered a youth potion and Kate had not only been given the youth potion but, also, she had been blasted to the past.
Why? There had to be a reason.
Kate doubted Madame Enlia had sent her to the past by mistake.
She asked Romy for paper and pencil and Romy gave her what she called foolscap and a slim metal tube that contained lead within it.
Kate examined the ‘pencil’ of 1818 with curiosity and then adjusting her fingers to it, began to jot down every little thing she could remember about her experiences with Madame Enlia.
Madame Enlia was exactly as her mother had described Madame Xalia in her journal. It was obvious both twins partook of the youth potion themselves, for they had not aged a day, from the description her mother had written of Madame Xalia.
Lying down with her eyes closed, Kate tried to remember anything Madame Enlia had said to her that her brain might have registered unconsciously, even if she, herself, had not.
She recalled her meeting with the woman and as she wondered if she had missed something of importance, Madame Enlia’s voice came into her memory:
“…a time delay in the portal. You should be careful of where you are at the time…”
Kate sprang up from her lying position on the window seat.
This was very important!
There will be a time delay in the portal. You should be careful of where you are at the time…she repeated in her mind.
This line had not registered properly in Kate’s brain when Madame Enlia said it. Too much had been going on when she said it so that Kate hardly heard her.
Yet it had been of immense importance.
Had Kate given it the importance it merited perhaps she would have declined the offer of the trip to France. Yet she wondered if she would have. As afraid of losing her job as she was, she probably would have gone, anyhow.
Kate wrote these thoughts on the paper. Not listening to those words had cost h
er being catapulted out of her comfortable and safe present and into a dangerous past.
But who listens to every single word when talking to another person? People’s minds wander even when their boss is speaking to them and that’s dangerous, she thought with a wry smile.
How did a wish to have the same strange experience as her mother had get her into this predicament? This was nothing her mother had experienced! Why had Kate been pushed through a time portal?
Her mind was going around and around and giving her a headache.
How she wished she had her hands on her mother’s journal again. Because although she knew it almost by heart, she may have missed something of dire importance.
Could her mother have gone through the time portal and back again and not mention it in her diary?
CHAPTER 10
So engrossed in her thoughts was Kate, that she was startled by a frantic knock at her door. She rushed to open the door to Romy, who appeared distraught.
“What is it Romy? What’s wrong?”
The maid panted and struggled to regain her breath. Kate waited patiently for Romy to settle down in her own way.
“It be family, mum—Lady Bunright! She and Miss Herlinda and Miss Sally have arrived! She means to stay a spell by the looks of it! She brought enough boxes for a year!”
“Umm,” said Kate. From what Amy had told her, Augusta and her daughters were stopping here only for a few days for the ball that was to be held in their honor. The excessive luggage was due to the girls’ London season.
That was the trouble with these huge estates. From the Regency novels she’d read, she knew that relatives just arrived as if the place were a hotel—a free hotel. Even friends were guilty of this.
“I’m sure all that luggage is because they are stopping here on their way to London for the girls’ season. Why are you upset, Romy? Is Lady Bunright unkind toward you?”
