Trapped in Time Read online

  “That’s true—that’s exactly what she said,” the dark-haired woman said and the auburn-haired woman they had called “Kat” was nodding as well.

  “I believe now, that she was incorrect in that theory,” Sylvan said thoughtfully. “I think that the PORTAL actually acts as a kind of conduit between worlds and that if one of the rare individuals who has doubles in every universe is looking through the window, it is more likely to show their double than not—and much more likely to draw them into that world if a sudden vacuum is created.”

  “Which is what happened when your Caroline was struck by lightning,” Olivia said. “It wasn’t our Caroline’s fault that she just happened to tune into your world at the exact moment your Caroline was killed. It just…happened.”

  “I see,” Richard said dully. “It just happened.”

  “I swear this is the truth.” Sylvan looked him in the eyes and spoke in a low, earnest voice. “As you said, blood cannot lie to blood.”

  “All right.” Richard took a deep breath, staring hard at the metal floor beneath his feet. “I can accept that she was not to blame for my Caroline’s death…” (It still felt so wrong to say those words!) “And I accept the fact that she was transferred into her place just as my own Caroline was transferred into your world.” He looked up and frowned. “But why has she been deceiving me for the past three days?”

  At this, Sylvan looked distinctly uncomfortable.

  “Surely you can see how she couldn’t risk telling you the truth about herself and her circumstances,” he protested. “In your time and world she would have been declared mad for telling such an insane-sounding story and committed to an asylum of some kind.”

  “That is not what I meant and you damn well know it!” Richard roared, suddenly so angry he could hardly see straight. “I can understand her need to take over my Caroline’s life in order to avoid suspicion but why did she have to toy with my heart into the bargain?”

  “Richard—” Sylvan began but he was in no mood to listen. He ran both hands through his hair, feeling halfway mad.

  “Why did she allow me to think that she loved me—that she was finally beginning to care for me and desire me the way I have longed for her for so many years?” he demanded. “What kind of cruel female can conduct such practices—not only hiding the death of my beloved from me but assuming her identity and swearing that she loves me, only to dash my hopes in the sight of God and everyone I know, solely for her own amusement?”

  “No, no, no!” Olivia exclaimed. “That’s not what happened!”

  “You’ve got it all wrong, doll,” Kat said. “Caroline—our Caroline—really loves you.”

  “She must,” the dark-haired woman said. “We’ve been watching the two of you together and there’s no faking that kind of feeling.”

  Richard rounded on her. “You have been spying on me?”

  “Sophia is simply saying that we kept an eye on you—on Caroline mainly,” Sylvan said, coming to put an arm around the dark-haired woman’s shoulders. “We have been trying desperately to bring her home but apparently the window will only bring someone back through to another world at the exact location they were deposited in the first place.”

  “But in the meantime, we’ve been watching Caroline and how she acted towards you,” Olivia said. “It was clear to us that she was falling in love with you—hard and fast. She was even willing to stay with you in your own world and timeline, even though women are treated like dirt there.”

  “I beg your pardon,” Richard said, frowning. “I have never mistreated a woman in my life!”

  “Not you personally—but you must admit that the balance of power is strongly in the males’ favor in your time,” Sylvan said. “Women in your time have a very limited range of life-options and they are unable to vote or hold office.”

  “You can be a governess, a house maid, or the crazy wife who gets locked in the attic—not great choices,” Kat mused, which made no sense to Richard. But he had to acknowledge the truth of Sylvan’s words.

  “Well, I suppose that the fairer sex is limited in my world.” He nodded thoughtfully. “And I further suppose that it is not exactly fair that women have so few paths to advancement open to them. Still,” he added, frowning at all of them. “You should not have been watching my interactions with a woman I believed to be my wife.”

  “Oh, don’t worry—we turned the window off during the, uh, intimate bits,” Kat assured him, which hardly made Richard feel better. He had said so much to the other Caroline—had bared his soul to her—and now he found he had been talking to a stranger all this time and other strangers had been listening in. It was insufferable!

  “I still can scarcely believe this,” he muttered, shaking his head. “And I cannot forgive the way this other Caroline of yours has treated me—she has abused me most abominably! When I stood there, waiting for her to proclaim her love for me as she had promised, and instead she repudiated me—”

  “But she didn’t mean to do that,” Sophie said earnestly. “She was drugged!”

  “Oh my God, that’s right—he doesn’t know!” Kat exclaimed.

  “Know what?” Richard demanded.

  “About the phrenologist who came to the house while you were out seeing your patient,” Olivia chimed in. “A Doctor Lovings. He said he was also a chemist and he gave Caroline a dose of some kind of medicine that makes her say whatever that awful mother tells her to say!”

  “That’s why she couldn’t say that she loved you during the annulment ceremony,” Kat said. “And she had to say she wanted to leave you instead.”

  “I’m sure she didn’t mean it,” Sophia told him earnestly. “She loves you—we could see it in her eyes—how hard it was for her, having to say that to you when she really wanted to say the exact opposite.”

  “I have not known Dr. Lambert long, but I do not believe she is the type of person to string you along, as they say on Earth—which is our version of your planet, Terra,” Sylvan added.

  “She even told us how difficult it was for her to make any romantic attachments,” Olivia told him. “She asked us not to try and set her up on any dates. I got the impression she was married to her work. But the minute she looked into your eyes—”

  “Stop!” Richard held up a hand. This was all too much to take in at once. “Stop,” he said again. “It matters little how your Caroline truly felt about me or not—she is gone from my life and I am trapped here with the knowledge that my own Caroline is…is…dead.” He forced himself to say the word, though it was like coughing up a jagged shard of pottery.

  “I’m afraid it does matter—a great deal,” Sylvan said quietly. “You see, our Caroline—Dr. Lambert—is in a dire situation right now. Even as we speak she is being forced to marry Lord Harkens.”

  “Oh, that’s right—he doesn’t know that either!” Kat exclaimed.

  “Know what?” Richard glared at her.

  “Right before the annulment ceremony, Lord Harkens met Caroline and her mother—well, your Caroline’s mother—at the park,” Kat explained. “And the two of them had cooked up a plan that the same judge who presided over your annulment would marry Caroline and Harkens so he could take her home with him and…” She made a face. “Well, you know what happens on the wedding night.”

  “Not only that, but the next day she’s going back to Doctor Lovings’ clinic and they’re going to put her into an electric bathtub,” Olivia said. “I know you guys are just discovering electricity down there in your world, but trust me—adding water to it is a bad idea.”

  Despite his resentment of the way the other Caroline had made a fool of him, Richard could not help feeling moved by her plight. To be stuck in such a situation, drugged and unable to defend herself from Harkens in any way—it was a horror show to say the least.

  “This is a regrettable turn of events,” he admitted. “But why try to convince me of your Caroline’s love for me or the danger she is in? I am trapped here, in your world, as surel