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  Darci started to leave, but she stopped and smiled at the child. “When you grow up, you’re going to look just like me, and you’re going to marry a man named Adam who loves you very much. You’ll have three adorable children and a very happy life. But, Diana?”

  “Yes?”

  “Make sure he stays out of the tunnels.”

  “What tunnels?”

  “You’ll find them someday. All in all, it might be best if he stays away from Fontinbloom Nokes. Can you remember that name?”

  “I think so,” she said. “Will I see you again?”

  “I don’t think so, but, yes, maybe someday I’ll meet you in Camwell when I’m there with Jack. If I do, I want you to remember that two people need to die.”

  The child stepped back from Darci, clutching her doll tightly to her chest. “Die?”

  “Yes,” Darci said, smiling, “but it’s all right. Remember all that I’ve told you. Can you do that?”

  “Yes,” the child said. “I will remember this always.”

  “Good, now I must go. Have a happy life, Diana.” With that, Darci stepped back through the circle and into the room.

  For a while she leaned against the paneling and willed her heart to calm down. Had she done the right thing?

  The enormity of what she’d just done frightened her. She had just changed history! But then, as Jack pointed out, maybe she’d changed history for the better.

  Turning, she started back to the circle, but on impulse she looked at the folder of papers. It was back now, so that meant that Tom had lived to put Simone’s papers in the box. Holding her breath, Darci opened the folder, flipped through the photocopies, read one, then closed it, smiling.

  “Yes!” she said as she danced around the room.

  Simone had enclosed a birth announcement for the third child of Adam and Diana Drayton. There was nothing about Adam having died in the tunnels.

  Suddenly, she wanted to talk to Jack. She started to go into the bedroom to call him, but she had no idea where he’d been taken. Turning back, she went to the circle. “Show me where Jack is now,” she said. Instantly, she saw a bed in a pretty room that could be identified as a hospital room only because of the machines in the corner.

  Jack was lying on the bed, one arm behind his head, and staring up at the ceiling. Darci stepped halfway through the circle.

  “Holy—” Jack began when he saw her—or saw half of her. She was standing beside his bed, but her left arm and leg weren’t there. “You did it without me, didn’t you?”

  “Please don’t be angry. I promise I’ll share everything with you when you get out of here.”

  “If I ever leave, that is. Where’s the rest of you?”

  “In the room in your father’s bedroom.”

  “And to think that not long ago I didn’t believe in such things as you.”

  “Things?” she asked, her voice rising.

  “Don’t try that on me. You know what I mean.”

  “I want to know what you mean by saying that you might never leave here. I’ll go back and get the Touch of God.”

  “No!” he said before she could disappear, then he lowered his voice. “You know how you said that you felt that I needed to come here?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were right. I met Lavender.”

  “You what?”

  “She’s my father’s private physician. My old man has great taste, doesn’t he?”

  “That’s wonderful,” Darci said. “Truly wonderful.”

  He was still looking at her half-in, half-out stance. “What happens if you leave that…that whatever-it-is…fully?”

  “I don’t know. I’m afraid that it’ll close up and I’ll not be able to get back.”

  “Try it here. If it disappears, you’ll be in this century and all that will happen is that you’ll have to hear me tell you in detail about how wonderful Lavey is, although her name here is Lillian.”

  “Pretty awful punishment,” Darci said seriously.

  Jack made a lightning fast movement, grabbed her arm, and pulled her out of the circle.

  “What have you done?” Darci stared in horror as the circle disappeared. “Now I’ll have to find a car and drive all the way back to your father’s house. I’ll—Someone’s coming.”

  “Think they’ll be able to see you?” Jack asked.

  In the next minute, the door opened and in walked Dr. Shepard. Darci, standing to the side of the door, knew right away that the woman was Lavender. Same spirit; same aura. She’d changed a bit over the hundred-plus years since her Victorian life, but basically she was the same.

  “Feeling better?” the doctor asked Jack.

  “Not much,” he answered, lying back on the bed as though in great agony.

  “Sorry to hear that.” She marked something on his chart, then walked behind him to fluff his pillows. When she saw Darci, she jumped. “How did you get in here? There’s a guard outside. I’ll have his hide for this, and Mr. Hallbrooke will fire him.”

  “No,” Jack said, putting his hand on her arm. Darci saw the sparks in the touch from across the room. “It’s all right. Please don’t tell my father. Darci’s so small that she slipped past the man when he blinked.”

  Darci concentrated and tried to make the woman believe him. She wanted to so it was easy to persuade her. She wanted to do whatever Jack wanted, Darci thought. But right now, Darci wanted to see if she could get back to the circle. She had other things she wanted to do in history. Concentrating, she sent the thought to the doctor that she had to leave the room immediately. Abruptly, the doctor left.

  “Why’d you do that?” Jack asked. “I wanted her to get to know you.”

  “The real me or the made-up me?”

  “I want her to hear every detail of a lie that you and I make up.” He was grinning. “It’s her, isn’t it?”

  “Oh yes, and she’s as mad about you now as she was then. Jack?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What do you remember about Adam Drayton?”

  “He was a great guy, with a pretty little wife who looks a lot like you. Don’t you remember them?”

  “Yes, I do, but I was wondering if you did. How did he die?”

  “I have no idea. Simone sent us the clipping about their third child, but nothing else about the man. What are you up to? You aren’t going to change them, are you? I remember that you liked Drayton a bit too much.”

  “Maybe I did,” Darci said, looking at the wall where she’d come in. She saw no sign of the circle that had brought her there. “Open!” she said, never expecting to see anything, but the circle opened immediately.

  “Think I could go with you?” Jack asked, his eyes longing for adventure.

  Darci could tell that he wasn’t nearly as ill as he was pretending to be. “I don’t know. Come here,” she commanded the circle and it moved closer to them. “Truly wonderful, isn’t it?”

  “I haven’t decided yet. If I can use it, I’ll love it, if not, I’m going to give you a lecture on how dangerous that thing could be.”

  Darci laughed. “Try it and see what happens.”

  Looking as though he was about to stick his hand into a fire, Jack reached out toward the circle. When his hand disappeared, he drew back quickly.

  “Exactly what I did,” she said. “Now try your face.”

  “Why not? Now that I know Dad can buy me a new one, I feel safe.” Jack put his face through the circle for a second, then drew back. “How do I see things? All I see now is the hidden room.”

  “Tell it what you want to see.”

  “Lavender,” he said quickly. “Show me Lavender on the day we met.” He put his face through, then withdrew it. “Nothing. You try it.”

  Darci asked to see Lavender on the day she met Jack and when she looked, that’s what she saw. “Looks like it’s only me who has the power and the control,” Darci said cheerfully.

  “That’s not fair. I’ve been in on this from the beginning. I’ve—Where