B008AZB1XW EBOK (24 page)

As abruptly as they had begun, the bombs stopped.

Simon’s weight on top of her was heavy and still. “Simon?”

Tortuous seconds slipped by before he replied, “I’m all right. Are you hurt?”

She shook her head, but realized he couldn’t see her. “I’m okay. Mr. Eldridge? Jack?”

She heard groans across the room and then the sound of a match being lit. She saw Jack’s face in the circle of light from the small flame. He reached down to Evan and helped him sit up. “We’re okay.”

Jack stood and gave Evan a hand up. He held the match out into the darkness. “Cluster bomb. Not good.”

He and Evan joined Elizabeth and Simon in the center of the room. His match burned itself out and they were in the dark again.

“Wait,” Simon said. “Don’t light another just yet. Do you smell that?”

Elizabeth sniffed the air. Smoke.

“No, but I hear it,” Jack said.

He lit another match and they picked their way over the rubble and fallen figures to where the entry to the Chamber of Horrors was. It was a pile of bricks now, taller than a man. He and Simon removed a few bricks and through small holes in the pile of rubble, red fire glowed. Elizabeth could just see two of the wax heads on spikes. Their faces sloughed off, their hair on fire, and the wax skin dripped down, their faces melting. She recoiled from the sight. It brought back memories she’d tried hard to forget. Panic knotted in her stomach. “Why is there so much fire?”

“Incendiaries,” Jack explained. “Also not good.”

“There was another door,” Simon said. “Back by Oliver Cromwell.”

“Who?” Jack said.

“Give me the matches,” Simon said.

“Light these,” Evan said. He held out two candles. “I don’t think King George will mind.”

Simon lit them and they walked back across the room to the door by Cromwell. It wasn’t blocked.

“Thank heaven,” Evan said.

But Simon held up a hand for everyone to wait. He handed Elizabeth the candle and put his free hand against the door. He snatched it back and shook it. “Damn it.”

“Are you burned?” Elizabeth said.

“No,” he said. “But we can’t use that door.”

They searched the perimeter for another exit. Fallen wax figures littered the floor like the dead — arms broken off, faces cracked. There were no other doors. Both exits were blocked. The building was on fire, and they were trapped.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Smoke started to fill the room.

Simon handed Elizabeth his handkerchief. “Cover your mouth.”

“You should use it,” she said, handing it back to him.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Chivalry was great, but she wasn’t about to let him choke while she used a filter. A piece of jagged rock lay on the floor at her feet. She knelt down and used the sharp edge to tear the handkerchief in half and handed Simon half.

“Partners, right?” she said.

Reluctantly he took his half and covered his mouth.

Jack soon did the same with his handkerchief and handed Evan the other piece.

“Come on fire brigade,” Jack whispered under his breath. He looked up nervously, hopefully.

A loud cracking and popping sound came from one side of the room. Instinctively, Elizabeth took a step away from it.

“Move back,” Simon said.

Everyone edged back away from the sound. There was a strange hissing sound and more popping, then a moment of silence. Then, hundreds of pounds of wood and brick mixed with fire fell from the ceiling about twenty feet away. It was like a giant had stuck his foot through the floor above them with a thunderous roar.

The debris crushed Napoleon. An avalanche of fiery embers tumbled down into the room through the hole. The Duke of Wellington shimmered in the heat, caught fire and melted like ice cream in the sun.

Elizabeth squeezed Simon’s hand even more tightly as they all moved as far away from the fire as they could. She really did not like fires. She’d almost died in one on King’s yacht and since then had developed a healthy aversion to burning alive. As more fire poured into the room, a jolt of panic ran through her body like an electric shock. She had the odd feeling that this was how a horse in a barn-fire felt. She tried to catch her breath, to calm herself down, but the feeling of panic grew.

Even more of the ceiling gave way and the hole in the ceiling across the room grew larger and closer. More fire poured into the Grand Hall. The smoke was getting thicker, darker. The heat from the fire felt like a living thing, pushing against them, shoving them against the far wall.

Elizabeth gripped Simon’s arm and felt the leading edge of hysteria in her voice. “Simon?”

He understood. She’d told him about the nightmares. And just as she’d held him what seemed like years ago to comfort him when his nightmares overtook him, he held her now. “We’re not finished yet,” he said.

“Oh, what I wouldn’t do for a little lunar eclipse right about now,” Evan said, gripping his watch. Sweat ran down his cheek and the fire reflected off his pale face.

“I was thinking of a nice cold glass of American beer, personally,” Jack said.

“The moon.” An idea tickled the edge of Elizabeth’s mind. In a flash, she realized it had always been there. A bit of knowledge that had nested in the back of her mind. She finally opened the door and let it out.

“The key,” she said. She pulled the chain from around her neck that held the small key Teddy had given her as a gift in 1906.

“What about it?” Simon asked.

“I asked Teddy what this was when he gave it to me. He said it was the moon.”

Simon looked at her in confusion.

“The
moon,
Simon. It’s the watch key.”

Understanding, Simon took the key from her.

“Teddy?” Evan said. “That crazy wonderful little man! Do you think…?”

Jack looked at them as if they’d lost their minds. “Who’s Teddy?”

Was it really possible that Teddy had created a way for them to travel without an eclipse? The moon was the key and the key was the moon. Another part of the ceiling collapsed and there was no time left to wonder.

Simon hurriedly took out his watch. “Everyone hold hands. If this works, we need to be touching each other.”

“What are you talking about?” Jack said. “If what works?”

Elizabeth held out her hand. “You’re about to get that cold beer. I hope.”

Jack clearly had no idea what she was talking about.

“Trust me,” she said.

He nodded and took her hand and grabbed Evan’s hand with his other.

Elizabeth gripped Simon’s arm.

“No matter what happens,” he said.

“As long as we’re together.”

“Right. Here we go.” Simon took a breath and inserted the key into the watch and turned it. Nothing happened. It couldn’t end like this. It couldn’t. Elizabeth’s anxiety reached a fever pitch. She trembled and turned to look at Simon as the fire across the room crawled closer.

And then, Elizabeth felt the familiar tugging sensation deep in her stomach. “Don’t let go!”

The electric blue light from the watch mingled with red from the fire and the world around them shook itself apart.

~~~

The roaring of the fire and the creaking of the collapsing building were gone in an instant, replaced by the quiet of Sebastian’s study and the soft trilling of a songbird outside the window. Elizabeth felt like her entire body was still vibrating at a high frequency. She shivered to shake off the effect.

“Hoo,” Evan gasped, summing everyone’s feelings. “That was more intense, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Simon said. He put the watch down and turned Elizabeth to face him. “Are you all right?”

She nodded. That was too close for comfort.

Jack stumbled, nearly falling to his knees. He looked pale and squinted with the pain of an instant and crushing headache. “Okay, what just happened?”

Ignoring Jack, Simon leaned down and kissed Elizabeth. She slipped her arms around his shoulders. When they pulled apart she sighed in relief. For a moment there, she really thought they might not make it.

“That’s sweet,” Jack said in a tone that clearly meant he didn’t think so. “Maybe someone could tell me what just happened and where the hell we are?”

“My boy,” Evan said, clapping Jack on the shoulder “You’ve just traveled through time.”

Jack looked at Evan as though the old man had finally lost it and then turned to Elizabeth for a better explanation.

“This might be hard for you to believe,” she said remembering her first experience, how confused and hung over she’d felt.

“Are we dead?”

“No, we’re just—”

Simon poured Jack a drink. “Have you ever read any HG Wells?”

Jack flopped into a chair. “I feel like I went three rounds with Louis. And then had some bad shrimp.” He picked up a nearby wastebasket and hugged it like a teddy bear. Despite that, he managed to drink down the scotch Simon had given him in one burning gulp. He grimaced and then looked up at them. “Okay, so what’s this time travel thing?”

They spent the next half hour explaining time travel to Jack. Like everything else, he took it in stride. Just another adventure.

“So this is the future?”

“To you,” Simon said, “Yes.”

He looked around Sebastian’s study. “Doesn’t look that different.”

Elizabeth laughed. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

“Can I stay? Or do you have to send me back?”

Elizabeth had been so focused on not ending up a pile of ashes she hadn’t thought that far ahead. She didn’t want to send him back into the middle of a war, but the idea of Jack running lose in the future…There was no telling what sort of trouble he’d get himself into. “I don’t know,” she finally said.

“We’ll discuss that when we get back,” Simon said.

“Where are you going?” Jack said, looking mildly alarmed. “You’re not going back there, are you?”

“No,” Simon said. He smiled at Evan. “We have somewhere else to go.”

Relief didn’t begin to explain the expression on Evan’s face.

“Unless you’d rather go alone,” Elizabeth said and took the key out of Simon’s watch and held it out to Evan.

“No, that’s yours.” Evan put the key in her palm and closed her fingers over it. “Hold on tight to it.”

“I could wait for an eclipse,” Evan said. Elizabeth could see the effort it took to offer that possibility.

“I think you’ve waited long enough,” she said. “I know Lillian has.”

Evan’s eyes welled with tears. He blinked them away and stood up straighter. “Yes, she has.”

Simon adjusted his watch and took back the key.

“We should be back in a few seconds, Jack.”

“Seconds?”

“If for some reason, we’re not,” Elizabeth said as she took Evan’s hand. “Try not to destroy the future.”

Jack frowned at that and nodded, taking another swig of Scotch.

“When will we arrive?” Evan said.

“A few months after the earthquake,” Simon said. “The house survived that, but it was destroyed by the fires. We can only hope she stayed and rebuilt.”

“She would. I know she would.”

“Hold tight,” Simon said and the electric blue light snaked up his arm and the world shifted again.

They arrived in the same location Elizabeth had, in Mrs. Eldridge’s garden, but the hedge she’d been so well acquainted with was gone along with the trees and nearly everything else with it. The street corner that had once held some of the most beautiful and luxurious mansions in San Francisco was covered with empty lots and shells of once grand houses. Everything on Nob Hill that had survived the earthquake had been razed by fire. But amongst the ruins, new life was being built. Frames of even grander houses rose out of the barren ground. San Francisco was rising again.

“She did,” Evan said in a soft voice.

Elizabeth followed his gaze. The house wasn’t quite finished, but it was the same, or it would be. They walked to the newly laid path to the front stoop. Evan stopped before the stairs. He let out a long shuddering breath and nodded for them to go ahead.

Simon knocked on the door. A moment later, it swung open and Gerald filled the doorway. He was wearing his usual expression of annoyance. “Yes? What in God’s name? Elizabeth?”

His dour face lit with a broad smile. “It’s good to see you, girl. And you too I guess,” he added with a glance at Simon.

Elizabeth laughed. How she’d missed this dear man. But her reunions could wait. “Is Mrs. Eldridge here?”

“Lillian. We have visitors!”

“Is it the man come about the garden?” Mrs. Eldridge said, as she came to the door. “Oh, hello, dear. Mr. Cross,” she said as if she weren’t surprised in the slightest to see them again.

Elizabeth felt her throat tighten with emotion. She smiled and took Mrs. Eldridge’s hand. “We brought you something.”

She and Simon stepped aside. Evan stood behind them, halfway up the stairs. He took a tentative step.

Mrs. Eldridge’s gaze landed on Evan and her composure faltered. She didn’t believe her eyes or didn’t dare believe them. “Evan?”

Evan took the last few stairs and stood in front of her. “I’m sorry I kept you waiting.”

She reached out and touched his chest, testing to see if he was real. Her hand trembled and he covered it with his own and then kissed it. She gasped and cried with joy and he pulled her to him. They held one another, trembling in each other’s arms. It was the most beautiful thing Elizabeth had ever seen. The tears that had constricted her throat moments earlier flowed freely now. Evan ducked his head and whispered something to Lillian and she cried harder and he held her tighter.

Simon and Elizabeth shared a glance over the couple. It was a promise and affirmation. Elizabeth wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. She caught a glimpse of Gerald. He had tears in his eyes too. Joy and, she suspected, a little sadness.

Evan eased Lillian back and kissed her cheek. He saw Gerald and put out his hand. “Gerald, it’s good to see. Thank you.”

Gerald sniffled in a manly way, cleared his throat and shook Evan’s hand. “Good to have you home, sir.”

Mr. and Mrs. Eldridge started into the house still in each other’s arms. Mrs. Eldridge stopped and turned back. “Thank you. Thank you both so much.”