Trapped in Time Read online

  “See what you have done to me!” the ghost wailed. “You will pay for your sins, Albert—pay many times over!”

  “No!” Harkens gasped, dropping the knife with a clatter. “No, please!”

  “Let her go!” The ghostly voice had gone from a whisper to a shout, booming through the sitting room like rolling thunder. It was so loud that Caroline forgot she was naked and clapped both hands over her ears instead of trying to cover herself. “LET THEM BOTH GO!”

  “Yes, yes—I’ll let them go. I’ll let them go!” Harkens moaned. “Jock, drop your pistol!” he commanded the mechanical butler.

  At once, the pistol fell with a thump upon the carpeted floor and Caroline saw that Richard was beckoning urgently to her.

  “Come on! Hurry!” he exclaimed.

  Caroline edged around the horrified Viscount, who was still staring at the ghostly image coming from the disk in Richard’s palm. A disk which he placed carefully on the back of the couch just as she reached him.

  “Die—you will die!” the ghost of his late wife moaned. “The crows will pick your bones and then you will be reborn, only to die again…”

  Caroline didn’t hear the rest of what it was saying because Richard had her by the wrist and was dragging her out of the room. They ran as fast as they could go, leaving Harkens to shake and tremble before the visage of his latest victim as they made their escape.

  Chapter Thirty

  The minute they were safe downstairs, Caroline threw her arms around his neck.

  “Oh Richard—I never should have doubted you! I should have known you’d come for me!”

  For a moment he hugged her back, holding her tightly to his chest. Caroline clung to him, her heart beating like a drum as she breathed him in—filling her senses with his warm, spicy scent. Home and safety and love—he smelled like all those things and she never wanted to let him go.

  “Oh, Richard,” she whispered again. “I’m so glad to see you! I thought we’d never be together again. And what in the world was that ghost thing you had in your hand?”

  “It was a three-dimensional image—what your colleagues call a hologram, I believe. Your friend Olivia made it for me.” His voice sounded surprisingly cool and collected and for the first time she noticed he was no longer hugging her back. What was going on?

  “Olivia?” Caroline pulled back, looking up into his face.

  His face was a stern mask, his blue eyes icy as he regarded her.

  “Yes, Olivia. I met her as well as Sylvan, Sophia, and Kat—who also informed me as to your true identity.” Reaching up, he detached her arms from around his neck and pushed her firmly away. “You are not my Caroline, Dr. Lambert.”

  “Oh…” Caroline felt as though a cold fist had reached inside her body and twisted her heart. “Oh Richard,” she whispered. “Please…you have to understand…”

  “I understand everything,” he said coldly. “I understand how you assumed my beloved’s identity and used subterfuge to play upon my heart, making me think my most cherished desires were coming true when in fact, it was only you, toying with me for your own advantage and amusement.”

  “It’s not like that!” Caroline cried. “I swear it’s not! Please, you have to listen to me, Richard. I never—”

  “I am not obligated to listen to any more of your lies ever again,” he growled fiercely. “I am only here to get you because no one from your own world is able to pass through the window your PORTAL machine created. Now, if you will kindly come with me, I will convey you back to your own universe so that I need never lay eyes on you again. Here—you are indecent.”

  As Caroline’s shoulders drooped, he took off his frock coat with quick, jerky movements and draped it around her. It reminded her of the way he had given her his coat when she had first appeared in his world, only a few days ago. But this time he knew exactly who she was…

  And he hated her for it.

  As he led her out of Thrashings, Caroline felt like crying. How awful that Richard despised her now! What could she do or say to change his mind? How could she explain that she hadn’t been pretending to care for him for her own benefit—that she really did love him? How—

  She gave a muffled sound of pain as the sharp gravel dug into her bare feet. “Ouch!”

  Turning, Richard surveyed her with a look of irritation. Understanding raced over his face and, without a word, he swung her into his arms.

  “Oh!” Caroline gasped. She couldn’t help thinking of the last time he had carried her—back at the spare room at Mother Griffith’s when he was carrying her to the bed to taste her. But this time the look in his pale blue eyes was cold and distant. It was clear he was only carrying her because she was a woman in need—he had no wish to be close to her, no desire to hold her.

  Suddenly, she was angry, though she knew she had no right to be.

  “Put me down!” she demanded. “If you hate me so much, just let me walk and hurt my feet. What do you care?”

  “I am a gentleman, Madam,” he growled formally. “Despite the deception you worked on me, I cannot allow you to cut your soles to ribbons. I have promised to deliver you safe and sound to your home world and it is a promise I intend to keep.”

  “What about when you promised to love me?” Caroline asked. Angry tears were burning her eyes but she tried not to let them fall.

  His blue eyes flashed. “It was another woman I was speaking to, as you well know. You, Dr. Lambert, are an imposter. I would ask that you not remind me of the foolish words I spoke when I thought you were another.”

  “I’m not—” Caroline began. But just then, he deposited her roughly in the carriage and then climbed in after her and slammed the door shut.

  “Drive,” he shouted, banging on the side of the carriage. “Back to the park where I first hired you!”

  The carriage started with a lurching jolt which threw Caroline, who was sitting across from him, directly into his lap.

  She thought he would push her away. But with a muffled curse, Richard curled one arm protectively around her and held her steady on the seat beside him.

  “Let me go!” she exclaimed, trying to get away from him. “If you hate me so much, let me sit on the other side of the carriage!”

  “I think not.” He pulled her closer to his side, despite her thrashing. “I cannot risk you injuring yourself, as you seem so prone to do.”

  “But—”

  “Hush and be still. We will be there soon enough.”

  Miserably, Caroline subsided. She wished she could find the words to explain to him how things had gotten so out of hand—how her lies had grown too large to be excused. And how there was truth mixed with the falsehood—how she truly did love him, even if at the moment she felt she hated him too.

  But no words came. She felt almost like she had earlier, when the awful medicine Doctor Lovings had given her was still in her system. She couldn’t speak—couldn’t explain herself to the angry Kindred beside her.

  She could only bow her head and let the hot, regretful tears run down her cheeks, trying to cry as silently as she could.

  * * * * *

  Richard knew that she was weeping and that he was the cause of her grief and misery but he told himself he didn’t care. She had fooled him and played upon his emotions once already—he would not allow her to do it again.

  Still, he couldn’t help the protective feeling that rose in his chest at the sound of her tears and the feeling of her soft body trembling against his. He had to check an impulse to draw her even closer and comfort her, to wipe away her tears and kiss her wet cheeks and tell her that everything would be all right.

  You only feel like that because she looks so much like your own Caroline, he told himself sternly. But she is not yours—never forget that, Richard! She fooled you once—do not allow it to happen again.

  So he held himself stiff and stern, ignoring the woman beside him, telling himself he would be shut of her soon and good riddance.

  Just then, he