She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t want to do it, August.”
Huffing in frustration, I ran a hand through my hair. “You have to.”
Shaking her head, she folded her arms. “I do not. You and Charlotte are more than capable of taking care of Gabriel on your own. If you don’t, I think we’ll be fine anyway.”
My eyes almost bugged out of my head. “What? Are you now advocating we allow him to go free?”
“Does it matter if we don’t?” She moved to the bed, sitting down. “We are here. Anything he does isn’t going to affect us in the future. We were already planning on staying, and the war is all but over.”
“Olivia.” Sitting beside her, I frowned, trying to discern why she would come all this way and suddenly want to stop over one misstep in the plan. “You must realize we have to stop him. Letting Gabriel run free would be an abomination.”
“Why?” she pressed. “You’ve insisted this whole time that we must stop him, but I’ve told you all of your reasons are null and void now. You are obviously remembered. We are together. Your portrait is intact. I don—”
“It is a loop, Olivia!” Growling, I stood, unable to hold it in any longer. “Do you not see? Everything we have done does come back around. Without specific actions being taken, we rob ourselves of comforts in your time, if not more. It is still possible for us to not meet, for everything to be changed. You saw yourself, how my portrait was replaced. It happened slowly, before our very eyes! Time knows, and Gabriel is trying to distract it!
“I must fix it, keep it on the course, do whatever I can to ensure my future remains as it should, if not because I love you more than any of the other possibilities, but for my own sanity.”
Breathing heavily, I stared at her, laying myself bare for judgment, exhausted in my attempts to make her see on her own. “Understand me when I say you very well could be right. Things could be set in stone for us as travelers. But I am not willing to risk it all on a guess that it will work out. I must make it all true. Nothing else will calm me.”
Blinking in surprise, she snapped her mouth shut, taking in the words slowly. Finally, with a decisive nod and frown, she took my hand and kissed it. “Very well. I will go with you to Redoubt Ten.”
Nervousness vibrated within every cell of my being as I stood behind Redoubt Ten, watching the soldiers stationed there. It had been a long day for them, constantly under fire from the American parallel. Exhaustion seemed to seep from every individual, their faces covered in dirt and blood, hands tired from repetitive loading and firing of their own weapons. Beyond them, to the left, the river and Point of Rocks waited, Charlotte and Olivia hiding among the few trees remaining along the shoreline.
Unbeknownst to the men I’d hidden among, the Americans would soon be joining them. In less than an hour, they would move soundlessly through the grass, muskets unloaded and bayonets at the ready. The moonless night would hide them from watchful eyes until it was too late. Axes would chop apart the wooden defenses, men would climb over the spikes buried in the hill, and within a matter of minutes it would all be over. The Americans would take the redoubt, as well as Redoubt Nine and the Fusilier’s Redoubt. Three days from now, Cornwallis would surrender, and the war would be over.
Shifting uncomfortably, I moved down the line, keeping my head down and trying to make it look like I was doing something important. While Charlotte, Olivia, and myself had all gained access by dressing as Redcoats, it was decided I would be the only one to stay with the men and lure Gabriel to the precipice where we could push him into the loop.
When the French fire began to attack the Fusilier’s Redoubt, a commotion broke out among the seventy or so men around me.
“They’re preparing to assault the town!” someone yelled, fear in his voice.
Panicked, they ran like ants trying to save their hill, loading guns and peering through the darkness at what was happening beyond their scope of sight. Flashes from cannons and grenades momentarily lit the skies, shouts echoing across the fields and ditches, caught in the wooden barriers that separated us from our attackers.
Hurrying to the left side, I slunk toward the front of the redoubt, with only moments to find Gabriel and get out. Hamilton would send someone around the back to cut off escape. The window for success was as small as the one the time loop would offer.
Time moved twice as fast as usual, my heart racing as I settled in, passing artillery to the cannon teams, keeping my eyes at the top of the dirt mound, waiting for the attack to begin.
“Halt, or you will be fired upon!” The sentry’s voice rang out above the noise, drawing the panicked attention of those all around me.
A gun fired next, and the air was suddenly filled with the shouts of hundreds, flowing toward us like a wave.
“Protect the redoubt!” one of the British commanders screamed as he lifted his gun, rising above the top of the mound to fire on the incoming rebels.
Rising from my spot, I used the cover of chaos to shed my red coat, knowing it would do me no good to wear it now. Colonials were hacking through the barriers, standing on each other’s shoulders to climb over the parapet and into the redoubt. Bayonets stabbed and sliced, men crying out as they were robbed of life.
“Rush on boys! The fort’s ours!”
Turning at the shout, I glared at Gabriel Scott as he appeared on the top of the earthworks, valiantly stabbing his bayonet into the man before him. His face was twisted with glee, and he turned around to wave to the others, helping them up through the artillery ridden holes and splinters.
My breath caught, and I threw myself upward, grabbing him around the ankles and sending him tumbling to the ground with me. The action caught him off guard enough that I recovered first, smashing my fist into his face and grabbing him under the arms as he went unconscious.
Tripping, attempting to avoid being caught by those running around the back, I pulled Gabriel into the trees, huffing as we neared the Point of Rocks.
“Quickly!” Charlotte’s hushed and frenzied voice reached me, her hands joining mine as we struggled to pull him to the edge. “Thirty seconds to the opening.”
Olivia appeared in the darkness, grabbing Gabriel’s feet, only to have him kick her backward.
“Let go of me you wretches!” he growled, thrashing about until he broke free.
Throwing myself on top of him, I attempted to keep him wrestled to the ground, freezing as I heard the sound of a gun hammer sliding into place.
Looking up, I stared at Charlotte, her face hard as she glared at her brother. “Get up,” she spit. “This ends now, Gabe. You know it has to.”
Laughing, he shook his head, shoving me off him. “I know nothing of the sort.”
“Round them up!”
Voices from the battle were coming closer, guns firing into the night, the redoubt almost completely taken.
Roaring, Gabriel leaped at Charlotte, robbing her of her gun and smashing it against her face. Screaming, she punched him in the ear as she stumbled backward, the heel of her foot slipping off the edge of the bluff, sending several rocks racing to the river below.
Across the water, I saw the flash like lightning, brighter than normal and stretched across the entire bay, signaling the opening of the loop.
Then, in horror, I watched as Gabriel reached out and shoved Charlotte into it.
Everything slowed down as I pushed up onto my hands and knees. Olivia was shouting, her gun aimed and finger on the trigger, but she was frozen, unable to follow through on firing.
Gabriel swung around, took aim with Charlotte’s gun and fired.
“No!”
The scream was so powerful I tasted blood in the back of my throat as I let it loose. It almost didn’t sound human, like the cry of a wounded animal.
The bullet landed just above her right eye, jerking her head back and sending her crumbling to the ground. All movements of her body ceased, the red of the coat she was wearing darkened by the splatter that had come from her
face.
I almost didn’t feel the hand gripping the collar of my shirt. Nor did I understand that I was being dragged backward, hauled away from my love as she lay dead beneath the trees. Before I could even recognize I was screaming, punching and fighting, I was falling through the air, crashing into the water below and the waiting loop as Gabriel Scott watched from above.
The cold water slapped me back into the moment, my heart aching in my chest, eyes stinging from both the salt and the tears I shed in the murky depths. I could almost feel the timeline sucking me in, my fall speeding my process into the deep.
Charlotte floated nearby, thrashing as if she were in pain, not moving up or down. As I passed by her, she looked at me in shock and surprise, until blood began to leak from her nose and she went still, silently fading into nothing.
Closing my eyes, I waited for the same to happen to me. I could not go through the loop to a time I’d already been. I would be torn apart inside until I faded into nothing as Charlotte had.
But the pain never came. Perhaps it was because I was already suffering through the worst pain imaginable.
Olivia was dead. I’d been right there, and yet I’d not been able to save her. She was lying beneath some tree, abandoned, forsaken in a time that was not her own. They would bury her with the other soldiers, in an unmarked grave, where no one would ever know her or have the chance to be loved by her again.
Opening my eyes, I stared up at the night sky, the only relief I felt brought on by the knowledge that I would soon be with her on the other side. If we could not be together in life, at least we would have an eternity in death.
I frowned. There was something wrong with the sky. It wasn’t dark . . . It shone as if it were bright as day. My body began to float upward, and I could see the sun overhead, as well as the swaying of the trees above the water.
As I broke the surface, I gasped, coughing as the breath returned to my body. Shocked to find that it was indeed day, I frowned, not understanding what was happening. There had been no twitching, no bleeding, no fading. It was almost as if I’d gone through the loop. That wasn’t possible, though; the loop connected hours, rather than years apart. October fourteenth, seventeen eighty-one was the only day the frazzled loop was long enough to see.
“Good morning,” a sweet voice said behind me.
Spinning around as I tread the water, I stared at Olivia with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.
“Fancied an early morning swim?” She laughed, bending down to splash some water on her face, but then paused as she stared at me, confusion on her face. “Where did you get those clothes? And . . . did you shave your face?”
“My God,” I whispered to myself, feeling a rush of relief and fear.
I’d gone through the loop.
Stumbling up the shore, I ran to her, feeling like my heart was going to burst into a million pieces at seeing her alive again. I couldn’t get to her fast enough, slipping in the sand until I finally was able to throw my arms around her and pull her close.
As I buried my face in the crook of her neck, my hands spanning across her back, I did my best not to burst into tears all over her. She must have noticed how I trembled, how my body shook as I refused to let her go.
Her fingers twisted into my wet shirt as she laughed, an airy surprise to the sound. “What’s gotten into you?” she asked curiously. “Is everything alright?”
“Wonderful,” I replied, pulling away some and capturing her lips in mine. “Perfect.” Brushing my thumb over her mouth, I smiled, the moisture in my eyes getting the better of me as I looked at her beautiful face.
“Okay.” She gave me a strange look, but smiled all the same, glancing across the beach, toward the house we’d stayed the night in. “Have you seen Charlotte? She seems to have disappeared on us.”
The question struck me like lightning. Of course she was gone. She’d been caught in a dying loop, unable to go forward where I had been granted passage.
She had ceased to exist, except for in the minds of the time travelers who knew her beforehand.
The reality of the opportunity I was being faced with clobbered me over the head as I stood there, holding Olivia in my arms, reveling in her perfect, beautiful, alive body.
We had another chance.
Time was allowing us another opportunity to right it, to stop Gabriel and set things back to how they should be. I could save Olivia, end this nightmare, and we could move on from it all as planned. Doing so would require quick action on my part, though, as well as the fixing of what went wrong the first time.
“Something came up,” I answered hurriedly, thinking quickly as I tried to come up with a new plan. “We will have to work without her.”
Olivia opened her mouth to question further, but I silenced her, knowing Smith would appear at any moment.
“We need to go,” I told her, the words urgent. Wrapping her fingers in mine, I pulled her along the beach, heading in the direction of the American lines and away from Yorktown.
“August, what are you—”
“The plan’s changed,” I stated. “You were right. We need to get out of the city. If we try and take Gabriel from this side, we’ll never win. He’ll have too many people around.”
A plan was slowly forming in my mind, blocking out my fears and reservations. All I knew was that I’d been given a second chance to make it right, and I intended to use it to the best of my ability.
“Bancroft!”
Freezing, I filled with dread, recognizing Smith’s voice before I could turn and see it was him. My grip tightened on my love’s hand, panic threatening to overtake me before a calm shield settled around me once more.
Time had thrown us together, only this go around I wasn’t going to allow it to lead to Olivia’s end.
Turning, I saw Smith advancing, his gun pointed toward August and I. Surprised, I carefully raised my hands, not wanting to set him off at all.
“Desertion, treason, and now breaking out of jail?” Smith shook his head, frowning. “You have a lot to answer for, Bancroft.”
“There’s a lot you don’t understand,” I started, my voice shaking as I tried to think of all the ways I could reason with him.
“I don’t care!” Smith shouted.
Fear gripped me as he stepped closer, the tip of the bayonet only feet away. If he were to lunge, he would hit one or both of us. Flinching at the thought, I felt the weight of the gun Charlotte had given me in my pocket.
“For emergencies,” she’d said.
“Olivia, get behind me,” August commanded, his form stepping in front of me.
Carefully, I lowered my arms and slid a hand into my pocket, touching the silver pistol. The thought of using it made me sick. If it came down to saving August, though . . .
Suddenly, to my surprise, August jumped forward, knocking the gun from Smith’s hands and using the butt of it to smash him in the face.
Blood spurted from the soldier’s nose as he cried out, falling to the ground in shock.
Throwing the gun out into the water, August grabbed my hand. “Run!”
Thrown off by the rapid change of events, I followed him up the bluffs, dashing through the city streets, avoiding potholes left from the siege, and finally slipping into our apartment.
Breathing heavily, I put my hands on my knees, trying to slow the racing of my heart. “What was . . . that?” I asked breathlessly. “I thought he was going to shoot us, and you burst into action without even trying to talk him down.”
He shook his head. “Sometimes talking doesn’t do the job.”
The response made me laugh. It wasn’t amusing, but I was so shocked by his quick and out of character reply that I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Here,” he offered, going into the bedroom and bringing back a blanket. “Let’s get out of these wet clothes. We need to get down to the redoubt.”
“Aren’t we going to get some uniforms first?” I asked, wondering if he’d forgotten the whole plan laid o
ut with Charlotte. “And what about Charlotte? Where is she?”
He only shook his head, undoing the tie at the top of his shirt. “She isn’t coming, which is why the plan is different.”
Crossing the room, he kissed me quickly, grinning. “Change into something you can move easily in if you will. We’re going to be doing a lot of running.”
Wiping my forehead, I continued down the line of British soldiers at Redoubt Ten, offering them water as they suffered under the continued fire of the Americans. August was somewhere doing the same, the two of us having volunteered to help as civilians, rather than donning disguises as previously planned. The sun was setting, casting a golden light over the hazy fields, and I knew that soon we would be in full, man to man combat.
I’d been instructed to run for Point of Rocks when the assault began. August would bring Gabriel there, and we would take care of him together. It was still unclear how he intended to do all of that, but I had no desire to disobey his instructions.
Light eventually faded into darkness, and the hammering of new fire began. Dropping my bucket and ladle, I ran for the trees as I’d been instructed, hiding behind the trunk of the one closest to the redoubt so I could watch for August and Gabriel.
I didn’t have to wait long.
“Gabriel Scott!”
August’s voice rang over the din, his form appearing ahead of me, arms folded as he stared down the incoming colonials. Out of the smoke and fog, Gabriel materialized like a lion stalking its prey, a smile curling across his face as he realized who was calling him out.
“Come to end me again, have you?” he asked. “Hope you’ll try something other than hanging this time.”
Flowing through the chaos around them, the two melted into the trees with me, coming to the edge of the bluff and the river below.
“I see you brought Olivia with you this time,” Gabriel continued, talking like we were all old friends. Around his neck, I could see a scar where something had wrung tightly into the skin. He was lucky to be alive at all if August had indeed done that to him.
Abandoning Anarchy (The Lost in Time Duet #2) Page 19
