Hide in Time (37 page)

He pulled her to her feet, slipped his
hand around her waist and steered her up the stairs. They stopped at
her room and she noticed the nameplate on the door had been changed
from ‘Guest Room’ to ‘Laura’s Room’.
Identical in style to all the others, it had obviously been made some
time ago. “Five years ago, to be precise,” he said as he
took her in his arms. Oh how she loved him.

Hide in Time ~ Anna Faversham

A few days later Laura draped her legs
over Matt as they sat together on the sofa in the drawing room. A
tiny, furry bundle purred on her lap. “I still can’t
think of a name for him, Matt.”

“Well you have plenty of time.
Make a list of possibilities.”

“Then you could draw the name out
of a hat, Matt.” Laura laughed at her rhyme. If she hadn’t
been so in love, she might have winced.

Matt was smiling at her. “You
describe so many things in feline terms, I thought you should have
one.”

It was true, and Xandra used to do that
too. She leaned over and put the kitten in the basket by the sofa, “I
think I’ll call him ‘Wellington’.”

Matt studied her face. “Wellington?”

Laura thought of Adam in the
coffee-house in London and said, “We have so much to thank both Adam and Xandra for.”

Matt sat rigid. “You still have a
lot to tell me, don’t you, Laura?”

Laura held up her hand and gazed at her
engagement ring. There was plenty of time to tell the tale of the man
in the coffee-house. Nathan someone, who seemed to know more than
anyone else did.

Unaware that her thoughts were not of
her ring, Matt said, “It fits you so well, it’s as if it
were made for you.”

“It was,” said Laura
instinctively. Matt pointed out the fact that it had been in the
family for many generations. “Yes, the gold is wearing thin
now,” responded Laura, “not like it used to be.”
She knew he enjoyed sparring with her.

“Alexandra was the first to wear
it,” he teased.

“She was not!” Laura
thought for a moment before saying, “I suppose it would be
asking too much to have your family history rewritten?”

“History rewritten? Think of the
investigations, Laura; I don’t think you’d like being
scrutinized.” Her expression told him that was unthinkable. “I
can have the band renewed if you like?”

Laura knew sacrilege when she heard it.
“Certainly not! Parson Raffles consecrated this ring. Adam…”

She hesitated just long enough to lose
the thread to Matt. “To paraphrase a clever man’s saying,
a girl with a future must avoid a man from the past.” There was
the merest hint of command in Matt’s eyes.

Laura liked it. The moment flashed
through her mind when she had stood before Adam as he dismounted from
Esky. She had resolved that this man, in whom she had invested all
her hopes for the future, must become her past. Matt was right. She
focused on his eyes which still held hers.

“Albert Einstein once said
something about the most beautiful thing we can experience is the
mysterious and it’s the source of all true art and science.”
Matt watched her as she ran her finger over the diamonds in her ring
then added, “Have you ever thought of proving him right by
writing your life story, Mrs Soon-to-be-Redfern?”

Laura outwardly ignored the question
though it gestated in her mind until it became, “Matt, how did
you become Redfern and not Leigh-Fox? When did the surname change?”

“Adam and Alexandra Leigh-Fox had
only one child, a daughter, Araminta. She had no further live
children. The daughter grew up to marry Jonathan Redfern. Their
children became Leigh-Fox-Redferns. Triple-barrelled is a barrel too
far, don’t you agree? So Leigh-Fox became incorporated as
middle names in the next generations. Ok with that?”

Another reminder of Adam would be
forever with her. “Mrs Matthew Leigh-Fox Redfern,” she
whispered.

Matt stroked her legs while Laura
pondered on such reminders now being a comfort, like keepsakes. Her
mind hopped to Xandra. “She lost the others because she was
Rhesus A negative, Matt.”

“How can you know…?”

“I found out Xandra's blood group when she was injured and needed to go to hospital. You still find it difficult to
grasp, don’t you?”

Matt stroked her legs more slowly as he
thought before saying, “There’s no doubt about it –
this Xandra/Alexandra connection is not an easy thing to admit to
grasping. I’d be scorned by my professional colleagues.”

“Well, it just goes to show how
little they know!”

Matt laughed.

“By the way, I’m Rhesus A
negative too, Matt.”

“That’s not a problem these
days, Laura.”

“I know. I’ve researched it
on the Internet. But that, I think, is why Xandra, I mean Alexandra,
had only one surviving child. And because your name was Redfern, it
was not until I visited your house that I realized, from the portrait
of Adam hanging here still, that you must be a descendant of the
Leigh-Fox family. Furthermore, on seeing his face next to yours, the
likeness I’d thought was coincidental was too strong to deny.”

“You’ve kept so many
secrets, Laura.”

“I had to, Matt. Every time I
mentioned what your Mr Einstein calls ‘the mysterious’ it
was not viewed as the source of art or science, it was dismissed as
‘batty.’”

“At least I’ve spared you
from becoming the daughter-in-law of batty old Father Fox.” He
chuckled and added, “I’d like to have known him.”

Laura looked dubious. “He was
often infuriating.”

“I’d have seen him as a
challenge.” Then taking a deep breath he said, “I often
have patients who ask me the meaning of life. Huh! I thought I’d
cracked it. Not a chance, eh?”

Laura was so pleased to hear him talk
like this. It was the last barrier breaking down. Yes, the universe
mostly followed scientific rules, but who made the rules? Not the
scientists…

Her thoughts were interrupted by his.
“So if Adam had married you, he would still only have had the
one child.”

Laura grinned mischievously. “Parson
Raffles would have said ‘God moves in mysterious ways’”.

“This life story of yours would
be classified as fiction, Laura, but you must write it.”

“Then there’d be two
writers in your family. Should I wait to see how my life turns out? I
still worry about not ageing properly.”

“Time steals everyone’s
youth, Laura.”

“So long as we can both grow old
at the same rate, I shan’t mind.”

Matt smiled and removed her pumps,
threw them on the floor, and began scratching her invisible toe.
“Time is our friend if we use it wisely.”

Laura considered for a moment before
murmuring, “I know I am now in the right place at the right
time."

He squeezed her toes gently and
continued, “Let Old Father Time bury memories that aren't
useful.”

Laura laughed at her vision of Old
Father Time raking through unwanted memories like an unpaid refuse
collector and burying them in the depths of her mind. Twirling her
hair, she reflected in silence. She would stop worrying, it was
futile against an adversary like Time. She must learn to use Time’s
qualities – both good and bad. There would be so much more time
when she'd sold the agency. She would miss her clients but
there was a new path ahead for her and she could not take both paths.

“The first of September is only a
couple of months away, Matt.”

“Are you saying that’s too
soon, Laura?”

“No, not at all. I’m just
beginning to realize how much there is to do though.”

“I’ve waited such a long
time for you, Laura, I wish it were sooner. We’ll hire a
wedding planner. She can do all the work. Would you like me to ask my
old school-friend Nat to walk you up the aisle?”

“Nat?”

“You’ve not met him yet.
Nathan Schildburg. He’s distantly related to the Rothschilds.”
Matt, having paused to watch her ponder, resumed his explanation.
“The Rothschild family. Maybe you've not heard of them. They’re
colossally rich. Their wealth goes back even to your time.”

Laura's thoughts were going back and
fleetingly she registered that Matt had absorbed for sure that she
was from another time; it wouldn’t have to be a taboo subject.

“It is said they made even more
money on the outcome of Waterloo than Adam.” Matt turned his
talk to his school friend, Nathan Schildburg, but Laura was
remembering the coffee-house in Fleet Street and the last time she
had seen Adam. He was talking to a Nathan then and she’d not
quite caught his surname. She knew it now; of that she was certain, and it wasn't Schildburg.

Matt gave up and changed the subject.
“Where would you like to go on honeymoon? Want to come and see
the whales?”

Laura skipped forward a couple of
centuries. “Matt, would you mind if we went to America? I’ve
always wanted to go there.”

Matt looked at her with eyes that read
her heart. “To finish the journey you started such a long time
ago?”

Laura felt her stomach turn over. Oh he
was so gorgeous. She didn’t need to reply.

“Cape Cod, perhaps? Many’s
the ship that docked thereabouts. Good whale-watching off the coast
too.”

“Why did you choose to champion
whales and dolphins, Matt?”

It was a moment or two before he
responded. “The underwater world seemed neglected and time is
running out to rescue the situation. Disappointingly, I’m not
up to sorting out the surface yet. One step at a time.”

Oh how she loved him. Perhaps she’d
be able to help.

“I’ll need to sell the
agency.”

“Your agency is such a little
gem, it will be snatched up.”

“Did you know we both take the
same newspaper, Matt?”

“Well, of course. Why are you
saying that now?”

Laura couldn’t quite look him in
the eye as she said, “I learnt it was one of the best ways of
knowing what people’s backgrounds, education and tastes were. I
had so little general knowledge of ‘modern man’, I just
found it to be a short cut.” She paused before enlightening
further, “A short cut to matching them.”

“And we are a good match?”

Matt was not mocking her; she’d
know if he were. “Very definitely,” she said with
confidence. He might be a top London psychologist but her way had
worked very well.

Laura wiggled her toes and Matt knew it
was time to move on to the other foot. “I want to show you
something.” Matt eased his way from under her bare legs and
pulled up one of the hefty Foxley Diaries. “You were the one
who chose the first of September, remember.”

“September is such a lovely time
of year, it just seemed right somehow.” She swivelled around to
sit alongside him, enabling her to read the diary on his lap. “When
I have more time, I’d love to read the diaries in full. I can’t
do what you asked though, Matt.”

“Translate the shorthand
sections?”

“Yes. Xandra became a treasured
friend.” Laura sighed. “From what I can make out, the
shorthand sections are her private feelings rather than a record of
happenings. That is a snoop too far. We should not put her feelings
on show to the public.”

“You’re right, of course. A
Pitman’s shorthand teacher I consulted some years ago said that
some of it was Pitman’s but much of it seemed to be an adapted
version, so we left it. I couldn’t resist asking you because
you’ve witnessed some of what happened, haven’t you,
Laura?” Hurriedly he added, before she had a chance to reply,
“Besides, it was a way of keeping you near me.”

Love is patient, love is kind…
love never fails – Parson Raffles’ favourite sermon. “I…”
She tried to voice her feelings – to say sorry for keeping him
waiting so long, but the words wouldn’t come.

“I’m relieved you’ve
been able to check on Xandra – more than once, I know.” Matt gave Laura a look that
would stay with her for a very long time.

How did he know what she’d been
doing? How could she answer? She gave what she saw as the only
possible response. "We are fortunate that she kept a diary."

“It was a stroke of genius for
you to take that photo of Xandra when you visited. The police were
happy with that. I don’t think they’d be happy with my
telling them to read the diaries.”

“They’d think you were
batty too!”

“Psychologists are used to being
thought batty.”

Laura realized there was still much to
learn.

Matt, white-gloved, pointed to the
entry for Friday, September 1st 1815. “You’ve chosen the
same day as Adam and Alexandra.”

“Oh cool,” she said.

Matt laughed.

Laura blinked, instinctively put her
ring to her lips, and reflected on its implications. There were too
many. Even she could not grasp all it represented. Adam was the first
man she had loved but Matt was the fulfilment of all her hopes and
she had come so close to losing them both. A tear rolled down her
cheek.

Matt looked at his pondering fiancée
and drew her closer to him. “You have been vouchsafed a
mystery, Laura, and it is doubtful I, or anyone else, will fully
comprehend it.”

She loved it when he used old-fashioned
words.

Hide in Time ~ Anna Faversham

“Don’t you think you should
behave more like a new wife? Stay at home and manage the household?”
Adam undid his jacket and sat down in their favourite place in the
morning room.

Alexandra stood arms akimbo in mock
outrage. “What – with all the servants we have? And why
should I leave you to have all the fun? Anyway, you might have need
of me.”

“I cannot doubt your usefulness,
Alexandra. Our last escapade showed me the devastation we can wreak
together. Some time soon, you must teach me a little more about this
‘flinging’ of yours.”

“‘Slinging,’ Adam.
It’s called ‘slinging’.” Alexandra looked
unsure before adding, “At least, I think so.”