Trapped in Time: A Kindred Tales PLUS Novel: Brides of the Kindred Read online

  “That’s terrible!” Caroline exclaimed. “They had her committed just because she was upset that her father died and she didn’t obey her brother?”

  “Well, that’s the long and short of it, I expect,” Mary Ann said. “Goodness, Miss Caroline—your hair! When I think how long I spent straightening it this morning and now it’s just as curly as the devil’s own tail!”

  “Leave it, please.” Caroline put up a hand to stop her from brushing. “I don’t mind it curly.”

  “But it’s not the fashion to have curly hair just now!” Mary Ann protested. “The very most you can get away with is a bit of a wave. And I must put it up properly for you—I can’t imagine how you contrived to lose all your hairpins but you can’t just let it hang down!”

  “Please,” Caroline said. “I…I have a terrible headache. Can’t we worry about my hair later?”

  “Oh of course—poor lamb.” Mary Ann tsked again. “Anyway, I expect Master Richard is waiting to examine you. I was just trying to make you look your best, as you always seem to want when you’re around him.”

  “Thank you for your thoughtfulness but he’ll just have to see me as I am right now,” Caroline said firmly.

  “Well, as you wish.” Mary Ann sighed and put the hair brush back on the dresser. “I’ll be back to check on you later. I’ll have cook make you a nice broth and a hot pot of tea.”

  “That sounds perfect,” Caroline said gratefully. “Thank you so much, Mary Ann.”

  The lady’s maid gave her an odd look.

  “Well, you’re welcome of course, Miss. Though you know you need not thank me—I’m only doing my job.”

  Caroline felt her stomach twist. Was her doppelganger not in the habit of thanking the servants? Remembering the haughty way the other woman had spoken to Richard, she thought that was entirely likely. She needed to do a better job playing the part of the other Caroline if she was going to avoid the mad house while she was here.

  I certainly don’t want to spend the rest of my life taking freezing ice baths and getting electro-shock therapy because someone labeled me “hysterical,” she thought grimly. I have to do better—and I certainly can’t tell anyone the truth about who I am or where I came from. They’ll think I’m mad for sure and lock me up.

  “I’ll see you later, Mary Ann,” she said, trying for a more formal tone. “In the meantime, you can send Master Richard in.”

  “Of course, my lady.” Mary Ann seemed satisfied with this. She dropped a little half-curtsey and left the room. She shut the door behind her but then Caroline heard her talking in low tones—presumably to Richard. She couldn’t hear everything that was said but the phrases, “…speaking strangely,” and “…lost her memory,” came through the wooden panel of the door clearly enough.

  Caroline frowned. Was Mary Ann trying to start malicious gossip about her? From watching her BBC shows she knew that servants excelled at that kind of thing. Or did the lady’s maid honestly trust Richard and was trying to appraise him of the situation, the way a seasoned nurse would inform a doctor of new symptoms in a patient they shared?

  Either way, it wasn’t good for people to think something was off about her. But she didn’t see how she could continue in this world without pretending that she had at least some memory loss. There was simply no way to navigate the other Caroline’s life otherwise—not believably, anyway.

  And what about the other Caroline? Had she really been struck by lightning? Or was she trying to deal with Caroline’s life the way Caroline was trying to deal with hers?

  Caroline doubted very much whether she’d be able to fool anyone who knew the real her aboard the Mother Ship even for a minute—if she was even trying. She had seemed like a spoiled brat who expected people to wait on her, which was very unlike Caroline herself. And there was no way she could know how to operate PORTAL or understand the complex equations behind its technology. Probably just seeing the advanced tech would freak her out.

  If she’s alive, she’s probably thinking she’s gone crazy right about now, Caroline thought. What other explanation would make sense to her, coming from this level of technology to the advancements of the Mother Ship?

  There was a lot to speculate about but just then the door opened again and Richard strode into the room. Taking a deep breath, Caroline turned to confront her “husband.”

  She only hoped she could get through this exam without making him think she’d gone mad.

  Chapter Five

  Richard took a deep breath as he strode into his wife’s room—a place he had not been welcome since their Joining night. A night on which absolutely nothing had happened.

  Caroline was still as much a virgin now as she had been on that long ago night, two years ago. She had informed him then, haughtily but with fear in her lovely brown eyes, that she did not intend to allow him his “husbandly dues” at that time or ever and that he might as well leave her room at once.

  Though the misguided and misogynistic laws of this world dictated that once married or joined, a husband had complete rights to his wife’s body and could do with her as he pleased, Richard was a Kindred and had no taste for rape. He had told her as much and left for his own rooms, across the hall.

  It had been a disappointing outcome, but he had told himself that there was time. The law allowed for a two year claiming period and he and Caroline were meant by the Goddess for each other. He was certain of it for he had dreamed of her for months before calling her. Indeed, he dreamed of her still. Though she denied it, he was certain she must have been dreaming of him too—they were Dream Sharing and there was no clearer sign that a male and female should be together.

  But to his gradual dismay, he found that Caroline intended to hold strong against him. She barely let him kiss her hand and never offered him any other kind of intimacy. Though he had once believed he could bring her around to loving him as he so desperately loved her, their marriage was nothing but a sham.

  A sham which would soon be over since their two year claiming period was almost up. At that time, Caroline could choose to stay with him…or to divorce him and find another man, more suited to her taste.

  Richard had no illusions whatever of which her choice would be.

  He wanted to hate her as he walked into the room—for their failed relationship, for the way she taunted and teased him and refused to even give him even a chance to make her love him. But when he saw her sitting up in the bed with her best peignoir, the same one she had worn on their Joining night, with her hair down around her shoulders like a child, he couldn’t bring himself to give in to the bitter emotion.

  Why in the Seven Hells did she have to look so beautiful, damn it? The newly built-up fire cast a rosy glow on her lovely face and her hair shone like red-gold, spread across her shoulders in its natural curls.

  For a moment, he remembered the terrible vision he’d had—Caroline lying on her back, her face blackened and burned, her tongue protruding and her eyes…

  No! He pushed the image violently away. He would not dwell on such a gruesome thought. Surely it had been only a dream—a terror that his mind had showed him when he feared the worst. For here was his wife, lovely as ever and quite composed, sitting up in her bed and waiting for him to examine her just as though she were any other patient he might come to see.

  Or maybe not quite so composed as she might be. He noticed that her slim white fingers were twisted tightly in the coverlet and her lush mouth was set in a tense line. Did she fear him? Fear letting him examine her? For the Goddess’s sake, he had never given her cause for such emotion! Had he not always been gentle with her? Hadn’t he always respected her boundaries and never once forced unwelcome attentions on her?

  Well, other than pressing her to Join with you in the first place, whispered a little voice in his head. You should have listened to her then, when she professed that she did not love you and was certain she never could. You might have saved the both of you two years of agony and grief.

  But