Trapped in Time Read online

  “What? No!” she gasped out. “No, never! I…I’ve never been with anyone…that way.”

  “Is that right? Well good—then you’re just what I was looking for—a virgin.” He nodded thoughtfully. “Though I had no idea how I was gonna find one in this accursed part of the city.”

  “What? Why?” Caroline asked. What could he possibly want with her? She was desperately afraid she was going to find out.

  “Why, because everyone knows the only way to get rid o’ the pox is to have a virgin,” the man said matter-of-factly. “Stick your staff in poxie and draw it out clean—that’s the plain truth of it. And that’s what I meant to do with you.”

  “No! No, you can’t!” Caroline exclaimed. “Look, whoever told you that lied! Venereal diseases are transmitted by germs—tiny microscopic organisms that pass from one person to the other through intimate contact. You can’t get rid of the pox by giving it to someone else—you’ll still have it unless you take medicine to get rid of it.”

  “What, the quick-silver cure? I ain’t got the time nor money for that, lassie.” The man spat on the dirty ground in contempt. “Besides, I’ve heard it runs some of them who takes it mad. Ain’t got time for that, neither.”

  Quick silver? Does he mean mercury? Caroline wondered. Is that what they’re using to try and cure syphilis and gonorrhea or whatever it is the pox translates to?

  If so, no wonder it didn’t work and drove some people crazy. Mercury poisoning was no joke!

  “Please,” she begged. “Please, just let me go! Look—I have money!” She pulled the last four pound notes out of her purse and held them out to him with a shaking hand. “I’ll give you all of it if you’ll just leave me be!”

  The man laughed and snatched the money from her hand, while keeping the other firmly gripped around her shoulder.

  “Well now—this’ll be the first time a girlie paid me for dipping my carrot ‘stead of the other way around!” he snorted. “Thanks for the money, lassie—now be a good girl and hike up your skirts. It shouldn’t take me too long—although if you’re good and tight I might want to take my time. Gotta be sure I leave a big load in your sweet little cunnie to clean me of the pox.”

  “No…no!” Caroline protested as he pushed her up against the crumbling brick wall and shoved a knee between her legs. “Help!” she screamed, when it was clear he wasn’t going to stop. “Help me—somebody help me, please!”

  “None of that, now,” grunted her assailant. He clapped one grubby paw over her mouth and rammed his elbow against her shoulder, shoving her hard against the cold bricks so that Caroline couldn’t breathe.

  “Mmm-mmph!” she begged, shaking her head frantically and trying to talk even with his hand over her mouth. His skin smelled of sour sweat, as though he hadn’t bathed in months and his breath, when it gusted in her face, was thick with the smell of rotten teeth and whiskey.

  “Hold still now, Lassie,” he muttered to her as he lifted her skirts and crushed the whale-bone hoops against her body painfully. “You’re going to cure me, so you are. No more pox for Big Bill…”

  Caroline felt something slick and wet sliding against her thigh and fought not to gag. If she threw up now, she’d likely choke on it and die since he was blocking her mouth. But she felt as though she would rather die than endure this. She tried to close her legs—tried to kick out—but he was too big, too strong. He was going to do it. He was—

  He was being dragged backwards suddenly with a muffled shout of surprise.

  “What the fucking Hell?” he growled and turned to see whoever it was had dragged him off of his intended target. Caroline looked too and what she saw made her knees weak with relief.

  Richard was standing there in his shirtsleeves, his face as cold as a marble statue’s. But his eyes blazed with a rage so intense they had turned from pale blue to glowing red.

  “By the Goddess,” he growled, his voice low and thick with emotion, “I’ll kill you. How dare you touch my wife?”

  “Your wife?” Big Bill stared at him stupidly. “What’re you on about? This little lassie told me she was a virgin—I was going to use her to cure my pox, so I was.”

  “And did you?” Richard demanded, looking down at the stubby member still sticking out of the other man’s stained trousers. “Did you hurt her? Did you violate her, you bastard?”

  “No!” Caroline gasped shakily. “No, he didn’t. He…he was just about to but you stopped him in time.”

  “Truly?” Richard looked as though he wanted desperately to believe her but was afraid to.

  “Yeah, it’s true,” Big Bill snarled. “You stopped me before I could get what I was after. But don’t worry about that, squire—I allus get what I want.”

  He lowered his head and charged at Richard with a low roar, like an enraged bull.

  Caroline, watching with wide eyes and a pounding heart, expected the big Kindred to punch him right in the face. But Richard surprised her again. Instead of punching her huge assailant or grappling with him, he took a single step to the side and caught the man neatly around the throat. Before Big Bill could say anything, Richard made a swift, savage move and Caroline heard a muffled cracking sound.

  Big Bill’s eyes rolled up in his head and he slumped abruptly to the ground in a boneless heap. Finally, Caroline understood what had happened.

  “His neck,” she whispered, looking up at Richard. “You…you broke his neck!”

  “So I did,” he growled and dusted his hands against his trousers, as though he’d touched something filthy. “And I would have done worse if he’d managed to do what he was trying. Raping bastard.” He spat on the corpse, as though to clear a bad taste from his mouth and then turned to Caroline. “Come—we have to get out of here before more like him show up. This is a rough part of town and you don’t belong here.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Caroline was too shaken to protest or point out that she had only been following him and that was how she’d ended up in this awful part of town. Silently, she allowed Richard to lead her out of the alley. But when he led her back up the steps to Mother Griffith’s and reached for the brass knocker, she finally unfroze.

  “No!” she exclaimed, shaking his hand off her arm and facing him angrily. “No, I won’t go back inside there! Not knowing what it is and what you’ve been doing in there!”

  “Is that right?” His eyes flashed dangerously. “And what is it exactly that you think I’ve been doing?”

  “Getting spanked or hit with a riding crop, as far as I could gather,” Caroline snapped, too angry to be embarrassed. “And probably worse—doing what men usually do at whore houses.”

  “Is that what you think of me? That I would be unfaithful to you?”

  “What else am I supposed to think when I follow you and find you here and the girls inside say you come here all the time?” Caroline demanded. “What else could you possibly be doing?”

  “Not that. Never that.” The big Kindred took her by the shoulders and leaned down, getting eye-to-eye with her. “Listen to me, Caroline—I have never broken my vows to you—nor will I ever. Even as you seek to recommend yourself to that snake, Lord Harkens, I have remained faithful to you.”

  “Why?” The word slipped out before she could stop it, but it was a legitimate question. Why would he remain faithful when the other Caroline had been doing everything in her power to get away from him and find someone else?

  “Gods, I’ve asked myself that question so often! But the answer is always the same.” His face twisted. “It’s because I love you, damn it—even though I don’t want to. Even though you rip my heart out each time you throw yourself at Harkens’ head, I can’t seem to stop loving you.”

  Caroline shook her head, taken aback by his vehemence.

  “I…I don’t understand,” she whispered. “I don’t understand any of this.”

  “No, and you won’t unless you let me explain. Now listen…” Richard took a deep breath as though to calm himself.