Revolution in Time (Out of Time #10) Read online

  All they could do now was wait for the Council’s next move. It sounded so simple. But looking at the man before him—there was nothing simple about this.

  Maybe someday Simon would forgive him.

  Jack stepped into the den and put the glass of water he’d gotten ten minutes ago onto the coffee table in front of Simon.

  “I wish there was something I could do,” he said.

  “Get out.”

  The words were soft and rough.

  “I know you—”

  “Get out.”

  “I can’t. I—”

  With more agility than Jack gave him credit for, Simon sprang up and off the sofa. He grabbed Jack by the front of his chest and with three quick strides shoved him up against the wall. Cross’ eyes were red-rimmed and wild.

  “Leave me alone.”

  Jack didn’t fight back. “I can’t.”

  He pulled Jack off the wall and threw him toward the open doorway. “Get out.”

  Jack caught his balance and stood his ground.

  Simon turned away, his back rising and falling as he tried to control his breathing.

  Jack wouldn’t be put off. Couldn’t be. “Do you remember when you asked me to look after Elizabeth if anything ever happened to you?”

  He took a step closer. “Do you think you’re the only one I had that conversation with?”

  Simon looked over his shoulder briefly then turned away again. He walked woodenly back to the same spot on the sofa. He stood there for a moment staring down at it.

  “Stay out of my way.”

  Then he sat down and buried his face in his hands.

  ~~~

  “We’ve got to go back,” Elizabeth said. “We can’t do this to him. I can’t do this to him.”

  Teddy put the tea service down on the coffee table in the parlor. “There was no other way.”

  Elizabeth shook her head and paced back and forth. “There’s always another way.”

  Teddy looked at her through sad eyes. “I tried to think of one. I did. We all did. But there just wasn’t any other way to save you and Charlotte.”

  Her agitation carried her across the room to the window where she could see the light on in the barn. Where the machine was, the machine that could take her back to him. “I have to go back.”

  “You cannot,” Victor said so calmly she wanted to shake him. He was gruff and detached most of the time, but this was too much.

  She turned on him. “You can’t just snatch people. It’s kidnapping.”

  “It is for your own good.”

  She held up one hand and looked down at the carpet. “I swear to God, if you say that one more time—”

  “You should try not to get so agitated,” Teddy said, his voice tinged with worry. “It’s bad for the baby.”

  “I’m gonna get agitated all over this room if you don’t take me back to him.”

  Victor shook his head firmly. “Not possible.”

  “We tried,” Teddy said, pleading with her to understand. “We tried to come up with other plans, some other way, but nothing would work. The Council’s too powerful, too … everywhere. This was our only option. I was lucky to have so much help. Without Travers and Jack and Victor ….”

  Elizabeth realized anger wasn’t helping and sat down next to Teddy to beg. “Please? There has to be something. I can’t do this to him.”

  She thought of Simon alone, thinking she was dead. It was too much to bear. “You don’t understand,” she said.

  Victor’s voice was rough. “But I do.”

  She turned, ready to tell Victor to shut his French face, but when she saw his pained expression, she remembered. He did understand, all too well. Years ago, he’d lost his wife and daughter. He knew exactly what Simon was going through.

  Now, on top of everything else, she felt like a jerk for forgetting. “Victor, I’m … I’m sorry.”

  He waved her sympathy away and walked over to the window. He looked out in silence for a moment.

  “I would have endured anything to save them,” he said and then turned back to face her. “Your husband, if he knew, if he had a choice to suffer as he is in order to save you and your bébé, what would his answer be?”

  The truth was a blow directly to her heart. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought of him. Simon would do anything for them, anything, and do it without hesitation.

  But the thought of him suffering when she was here and safe was almost more than she could stand.

  “Can’t we send word? A hint, something?” she asked, desperate to help him.

  “If the Council were to discover our deception, it would be as good as signing your death warrant and that of your child.”

  Elizabeth covered her mouth with both of her hands and tried to keep it together. This was impossible. How could she do it to him? How could she risk Charlotte?

  She let out a soft sobbing breath and closed her eyes.

  Teddy patted her knee. “He will be all right. Mr. Wells is with him. He promised that he would not leave his side.”

  Elizabeth nodded, trying to believe it would all be all right. Jack wouldn’t let anything happen to Simon, but that wouldn’t alleviate his suffering.

  She rubbed her forehead and stared down at her tea going cold.

  She had to keep it together. And, as she looked at both Victor and Teddy, she knew her anger was misplaced. They’d done the only thing they could.

  She let out a cleansing breath. “So you knew what was going to happen because the ‘you from the future’ knew the Council would try to kill me?”

  Teddy smiled. “Yes. I came back the first time several months before you arrived, arrived the first time. I mean, when you did.”

  Elizabeth frowned in confusion and Victor walked over to join them. “His future self was given an assignment by the Council.”

  “I gave it to myself actually,” Teddy corrected.

  Victor shook his head and rolled his eyes to the sky. “Apparently, the two of them confer frequently.”

  Teddy’s brow knit in anger. “I knew that they were going to kill you. And there was no way to save you without them knowing we’d saved you. So we had to make it look like you’d actually died.”

  She was still having trouble following what had really happened.

  “In a gas explosion?”

  Victor nodded. “I made sure the house we selected had a history of leaks and faulty repairs.”

  “Because you caused them,” she reasoned out loud. There was a reason Victor was one of the Council’s best operatives.

  “I traveled back one year, six months, then again more recently to ensure there would be no question as to the cause of the accident.”

  It was all a lot to take in. And the thought of Simon was a weight in her heart pulling it down, down, down.

  Victor grunted. “The problems, of course, were many. Not the least of which was that they deactivated the watches, so there would be no way to snatch you from the jaws of death.”

  Teddy sat up a little straighter. “So I invented a new one.”

  “A new way to time travel?”

  “It’s derivative, I admit, but it’s on a different frequency and they couldn’t stop it. They can’t even track it.”

  Elizabeth nodded. It was all starting to make some sense. That was how they’d managed to pull her away from the explosion in the nick of time and brought her back here to 1912. Another thought occurred to her and hope poked through her heavy heart.

  “If it can’t be tracked, then we can go get Simon and the two of us can disappear.”

  Victor gave it a considered nod.

  “You could,” he said, “but you would live on the run for the rest of your lives. Never knowing if you might be found. If your girl might be found and killed.”

  The words were blunt and true. If this new Council believed Charlotte would be the end of their power, they would stop at nothing to find her. They would never stop looking.

  “It was an
elaborate plan,” Victor said. “The timing very precise. I was in charge of the explosion and extraction. Wells was in charge of making sure your husband was witness to all.”

  Elizabeth nodded and smiled gratefully before turning to Teddy. “And you reinvented time travel. All for me?”

  He nodded and Elizabeth felt humbled. Furious and terrified and humbled.

  “You were working on this when we were here after the Titanic, weren’t you?”

  “Yes, and several months before.”

  “The meeting with Bohr, the accelerator, those were all a ruse?”

  “Oh, no. That was real. Except for the uranium. That was just to keep you from snooping.”

  “The accelerator was, is, quite real. I needed more power than the coils could give me. Mr. Bohr was quite helpful.”

  He smiled, very proud of himself. “The machine is quite remarkable. And we are going to need it to be if we are to stop the Council from changing time and rewriting history. Despite you and your daughter’s importance, there are even greater things at stake.”

  They’d told her briefly about Hawkins’ and the Council’s plan for the British Empire to rule the world.

  “But we still don’t know exactly what they plan on doing, do we?” she asked.

  “Not yet. Travers is supposedly working on that,” Victor said, although it was clear he had little confidence in the man’s abilities.

  “And Simon?”

  “I am afraid he must remain in the dark until the Council is convinced of your death and sets the rest of their plan into motion.”

  Elizabeth’s heart hurt for her husband. At least she had some answers; he had nothing but lies. He was living his worst nightmare.

  A tight throat made it difficult for her to speak, but she swallowed down her emotions as best she could. “How long will that be?”

  He shrugged. “We must wait and see.”

  Chapter Ten

  IT HAD BEEN THREE days. Three excruciating days and a lifetime of them lay ahead. Simon stared down at the lunch Jack made for him. He’d taken two bites and felt sick to his stomach. How could he eat when she was gone? How could he be at all?

  His whole body hurt. His chest felt like it was caving in on itself. The occasional sharp pain brought with it hope he was having a heart attack that would end his suffering. His heart was too broken to do even that.

  He felt madness tickling at the dark edges of his mind, and he begged it to come. But he remained painfully sane and aware. And alone.

  Wells had been his shadow, always there, always lingering, like the pain. And he could do nothing about either.

  He reached for the bottle of Scotch and took another gulp and finished it off. Wells at least had the sense to leave that. It was all he had and even it couldn’t numb him sufficiently. He stood on unsure legs and nearly tripped over the empty bottle of Glenlivet he’d finished last night. It spun across the rug and disappeared under a chair. Then he heard it roll on the hardwood until it stopped and the room was silent again.

  There was more in the pantry. Not that it would help. Nothing would help.

  ~~~

  Elizabeth put a finger in her book and closed it. It was no use. She’d read the last paragraph three times and each time her mind wandered to Simon. Three days had passed since Victor rescued her, and each day was an exercise in frustration and guilt.

  It was nearly impossible to sit and do what amounted to nothing when she knew Simon was swimming in misery. And Teddy and Victor were right; there was no way of letting him know she was fine without giving them away.

  She glanced over at Teddy, who sat in a chair opposite her, opposite her in every way. Where she couldn’t hold a single thought, he was driven and focused. While she couldn’t even read more than a page of Huck Finn, Teddy’s nose was currently buried in the catchily titled The British Empire in the Nineteenth Century: Its Progress and Expansion at Home and Abroad; Comprising a Description and History of the British Colonies and Dependencies.

  With a sigh, she put her book aside and walked to the window.

  “Where’s Victor?”

  “On an errand,” Teddy said without looking up.

  “What sort of errand?”

  Victor appeared in the doorway to the study. “A very interesting one as it turns out.”

  Teddy closed his book and stood excitedly. “Yes?”

  Elizabeth was confused. “What’s going on?”

  Teddy inclined his head toward Victor. “He’s been back. What did you find out?”

  Elizabeth’s heart skipped a beat. “Back? To the future? Did you see Simon?”

  He shook his head. “No, I met briefly with Travers. There is much to report.”

  Elizabeth’s hope of some news evaporated as Victor strode past her.

  He turned back and caught her eye. “I did not see him,” he said again, “but I understand he is … as well as can be expected.”

  Those were hospital words, not good words. “He’s—”

  “I’m sorry,” Victor said. “That is all I know. Wells is doing his job. And so, to my surprise, is Travers and his little team of moles.”

  “Labor,” Teddy said.

  Victor frowned.

  “A group of moles is a called a labor.”

  Victor sighed heavily and nodded. His patience for Teddy’s eccentricities was thin. “Whatever they are, they are doing well. We are closer to knowing their plan.”

  He looked at Teddy and then jabbed a finger onto the cover of his abandoned book. “You were right. The American Revolution is their target.”

  Teddy clasped his hands excitedly. “Do we know where or when? Lexington and Concord? The Continental Congress? Earlier?”

  Victor held up a hand to stop him. “We do not know. Yet. But they have requisitioned uniforms, muskets, currency. They are preparing for a war of their own.”

  Teddy anxiously studied his bookshelves looking for specific volumes. He pulled them down as he spoke. “There are so many possibilities. So many ways they could affect the outcome.”

  “So stopping our revolution stops the decline of the Great British Empire?”

  Victor shrugged. “It is a good start, is it not? With the colonies still under British rule, imagine the power they could wield. The resources alone.”

  Teddy carried a small stack of books toward them. “Not to mention they probably wouldn’t have had to fight the Spanish or the French immediately after.”

  Victor eyed the books thoughtfully. “It would undoubtedly change the course of the French Revolution as well. And who is to say what else.”

  Elizabeth felt focused for the first time since she’d been here. Finally, she had something to focus on other than Simon.

  She picked up one of the books and flipped it open. “So what do we do?”

  “Well, without knowing exactly what they plan to interfere with it’s difficult to say,” Teddy said. “But we can do a little … shopping.”

  “Now, you’re talking my language,” Elizabeth said then frowned. “I think. Shopping how?”

  “We will need our own period-appropriate clothing and currency.”

  “And weapons,” Victor added.

  “Is there a colonial period mall around here somewhere that I don’t know about?”

  Victor smiled and held up the large skeleton key he’d used to travel. “As a matter of fact, there is.”

  “Oh, back in time.”

  “Yes, but not for you,” Victor said, succinctly bursting her bubble.

  “Why not? I bet I can shop circles around both of you with one credit card tied behind my back.”

  Victor arched an eyebrow, reminding her so much of Simon in that moment. “No doubt, but it is safer for you here.”

  Elizabeth started to protest, but Victor continued, “Your time will come. When they initiate their full offensive on history, I have little doubt that all of us will have a role to play.”

  She hated sitting on the sidelines, but he was probably
right. She had to think of the baby. And as though she could hear the conversation and wanted to add her own thoughts, the baby moved.

  Elizabeth gasped at the new sensation. It was the first time she’d felt anything like it.

  “Are you all right?” Victor asked as Teddy came to her side.

  She put her hand on her stomach and waited. There it was again. A grin spread across her face. “I think she moved.”

  Without thinking, she grabbed Teddy’s hand and put it on her stomach under her own.

  He grinned expectantly. They both waited but nothing happened.

  “Sorry,” she said and instantly felt Simon’s absence all the more keenly. Her face must have shown it because both men looked ready to ask if she was all right.

  “I just wish Simon were here.”

  Victor grunted and looked at her with an unreadable expression. It lingered for a long moment before he pulled himself back and turned to Teddy.

  “I shall make a trip this afternoon. Collect a few things.” He started for the door then turned back. “I almost forgot. They gathered the DNA from the scene, but they have not sent it to the lab, yet. I will check again with Travers tomorrow.”

  With one final glance at Elizabeth, he left.

  “DNA?”

  Teddy frowned and busied himself with the stack of books. “It’s a long story.”

  “I’m apparently not going anywhere, so I all I have is time.”

  It took some doing to wrangle the story out of Teddy. And now that she’d heard it, she understood why. She’d been lying awake all night trying to wrap her head around their plan.

  As if faking her death weren’t complicated enough, they also had the task of convincing people she was actually dead. That’s where Simon’s grief came in, of course, but alone, it wouldn’t be enough. The new Powers That Be at the Council would want old-fashioned proof, and that meant DNA evidence. The obvious problem was that because Elizabeth wasn’t exploded in the blast, there would be none to test.

  Elizabeth threw off her covers and got out of bed.

  That’s where it got even more complicated. There was no way to plant the evidence they needed to be found. She was still in one piece, thanks ever so much, and liked being that way.