Odette Speex: Time Traitors Book 1 (9 page)

Chapter 9

Odell stood in
the attic laboratory arguing with Cara. “Good God, Cara, this isn’t a game! You shouldn’t have followed me here.”

“A game!” she practically screeched, her Irish brogue broadening. “Your wee sister in the clutches of that bloodsucker and you say ’tis no game. What is it then? And what is this place?” She threw her arms wide to encompass the entire attic room.

Frustration gripped his throat, and he ran his hands through his hair. He did nothing right. He couldn’t keep anyone safe. “Listen, Cara, its best you don’t know. Nothing’s what it seems. But Odette and I have a plan—”

“What plan?”

“It’s too complicated to explain right now. But believe me when I say you are in danger just standing in this room. If Drake or the authorities were to come for me now, you would not be immune from their persecution.”

“Why would they come for you Odell? What have you done?”

Before he could answer, the hidden panel burst open and Odette came rushing in. She wore a heavy coat several sizes too big for her. The slippers on her feet were wet through and the fine, sheer material of a negligee peeped out just below the coat hem. She was windblown and out of breath.

Odell grasped her by the shoulders. “Do you have it?”

She lifted her hand. In it, dangling from a gold chain, was the crystal key. He crushed her in a bear hug. “So it worked? The drug worked?”

She looked at him uncomfortably. “Ah… Kinda.”

His face stilled. “Do I want to know?”

Odette looked at him doubtfully, but Cara interrupted, “I want to know. I’ve seen that jewel around Westchester neck. He takes it out at times and twirls it around his finger. It is said never to leave his person. How did you steal it?”

“I didn’t steal it!” Odette answered hotly. “I’ve just restored it to its rightful owner.”

Odell moved off a little way making adjustments to the tiny crystal computer.

“I had a drug to knock him unconscious,” she explained to Cara, “only I spilled half of it down the bathroom sink.”

She heard a faint groan from Odell, and continued defensively, “It was an accident. I was nervous.”

“So how did you get the jewel?” Cara asked impatiently.

Odette blushed. “Well, I couldn’t put the remainder in his drink. It would have been too diluted. And I wasn’t sure he would drink it all. So I…” She cleared her throat. “I put it where I knew he would get enough to knock him out.”

Cara looked at her puzzled and then opened her eyes wide. “You dabbed it somewhere on you! Where?”

“You know. I’m still in the room,” interjected Odell in a stifled voice.

Odette leaned in close to Cara and whispered, “My toes. Drake has a thing for feet.”

They giggled a little wildly but sobered when a whoosh of cool, electrified air crackled around them. In the middle of the room stood the loveliest piece of machinery Odette had ever seen.

It looked like one of the new mechanized bicycles but only in the most superficial sense. Comparing this sleek beauty to the clunky motorized cycles that buzzed noisily around the city did not do it justice. The time machine was all one piece of smooth, shiny metal. The handlebars slid seamlessly into the body that bulged out on one side to allow for a sidecar. There were no wheels. The Temporatus stood on two long, low rectangular pedestals.

“It’s beautiful!” Odette breathed.

Odell beamed with pride and ran his hand possessively over the machine. “It’s made of super-ionized titanium alloy. Light, strong and corrosion resistant. There is nothing else like it in the world.” He pointed to the surface of the metal. “But what allows it to move without friction through the slipstream is the coating I embedded in the frame. It’s a plastic with a silicone surface. Something entirely new—”

“Christ! Odell! What are you talking about? What is this thing?” Cara’s face was pale, her eyes huge and panicked.

Odell walked over and put a steadying hand on her shoulder. “It’s a time machine and Odette and I are going to use it to restore the timeline.”

She blinked at him wide-eyed. “Wha—”

Before he could explain further, the hidden panel burst open for a second time that night to reveal a wounded Joseph Walker. His breathing was ragged, and he practically fell into the room. One hand gripped his shoulder. Blood leaked out from between his fingers.

“The Duchess has been arrested!” he gasped and dropped to his knees.

They ran to him and helped him to one of the armchairs near the fireplace.

“When?” demanded Odell, pulling off Joseph’s jacket and examining the wound. “You’ve been shot.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Joseph grimaced as Odette knelt and placed a folded handkerchief to his bloody shoulder. “It’s just a flesh wound, but it hurts like hell.”

He leaned back breathing through gritted teeth. “It happened about an hour ago. She came here, to the theater, after the gala. Miss Delphie and Mr. Atwood went over the pledges for support. Then I picked her up and took her home.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Inquisition Storm Troopers kicked in the door. The Duke tried to stop them. They just pushed him out of the way. Like he was a bloody nobody!”

“An hour ago.” Odette looked at her brother. “That would be about the time I left Drake.”

“You’re sure he was out.”

“Like a light. There’s no way I could’ve gotten the key otherwise.”

“Then it was planned before. He knew we were up to something. There must’ve been standing orders to arrest us after the gala.”

Odette stood abruptly. “But why not me? He must know we’re after the Temporatus. Why even risk being with me?”

“He can’t help himself,” Cara answered. “He loves you.”

Odette stiffened and her expression turned stony. The answer to her question was suddenly clear in her mind. “No. He doesn’t love anyone. I’m just the entertainment. He fully expected to find me next to him in the morning. He wanted to see my face when I got the news that my brother and patroness had been arrested. The cake…” She smiled grimly. “No, he doesn’t forgive. He wanted to teach me a lesson. It never once crossed his mind that I was a threat to him.”

“A good thing it didn’t,” Odell responded tersely and crossed the room to a large wardrobe. “We can’t expect her to hold out against the Inquisition. They’ll find this place.” He reached in the wardrobe and pulled out a large rucksack. “How much time do you think we have, Joseph?”

“Not much,” he answered. “They saw me running from the stable. That’s when I was shot.”

As if on cue, a blast of sirens cut through the night. The occupants of the attic heard the rumble of steam-powered coaches speeding down the street. Soon the Storm Troopers would enter the theater. It wouldn’t take long for them to find their hideout.

“A change of plans,” Odell said calmly and swung the rucksack into the sidecar of the Temporatus. He reached over and took Cara by the arms. “Cara, no questions, just listen. When this machine leaves here it will go back to eighteenth-century London. If the plot to change history is thwarted, this reality will cease to exist the instant the Temporatus disappears from this room. However, if the plot is successful, the Storm Troopers will burst through that panel and arrest whoever is in this room.”

Cara closed her eyes and nodded.

“The Temporatus can take only two people. You have to go with Odette and help her. Even if your efforts fail, you may be safe in the past. Here, is only certain death.”

Odette stood pale and shaky. “Odell, I can’t do this without you.”

“Yes, you can. I know you. You’re brave and resourceful.” He walked with her to the Temporatus. “In there.” He indicated the sidecar with the rucksack. “Is all the information I could gather. Some notes on how I thought we should proceed and the money. I’ve set the Temporatus to deposit you right where you’ll be able to find help. It’s an inn. The man there—”

They heard the splinter of wood and glass as the Storm Troopers forced their way into the theater. Odell got no further as Odette threw her arms around her brother and held him tight. “I love you.”

He put her a little away from him. His hands rested on her shoulders. “You’ll be arriving several months before Drake and I get there. When you see me…” He struggled with his breathing. “I’ll be a different man. It may take some convincing—”

The sound of boots pounding up the stairs stopped his words. He pushed her onto the Temporatus. “Go! Now!”

She settled quickly onto the seat, and Cara scrambled ungracefully into the sidecar.

Odell stepped back next to the armchair where Joseph slumped. He pressed a button on the crystalline key and the Temporatus whirled to life. Odette felt the surge of power beneath her, and the light brightened around them. She was holding onto the handlebars and felt Cara’s hand clutch convulsively at her coat.

The whining sound pierced her eardrums, and the light grew until it nearly blinded her. Odette saw booted feet shatter the wooden panel. The next instant they would be gone. She looked at Odell.

“I love you too.” The never-before-made declaration was said in Odell’s usual calm, rational voice.

The very last thing Odette saw was her brother drop the crystal key to the floor and crush it beneath his heel.

Chapter 10

Not Quite London, Late March 1757

Busy hostlers, their
coat collars turned up against the freezing wind, were taking the large, horse-drawn traveling coaches from the street toward the warm glow of the Whistling Pig and its stables. If any of them had turned to look down the darkened street behind, they might have seen something amazing. That is if they could have credited it as real and not shaken it off as a trick of light occasioned by icy eyelashes and cold tears.

There was a soft shimmering glow out of which took shape what looked like a statue of a figure seated on a very strange mount indeed. Then the glow dimmed into darkness and as one figure dismounted, another seemed to spring up beside it. And the mount, just disappeared.

“Where did it go?” cried Cara, holding the rucksack she had just detached from an apparently no longer existent Temporatus.

“It’s still there,” said Odette, her voice shaking as her body shook with the cold. She had once been told that a great coat over a thin dress was never sufficient for warmth in freezing weather. To be clothed in several layers was the only way, no matter how un-chic the effect. She was living the truth of that bit of advice.

“What?’

“Odell set it to park in another dimension.”

“Another what?”

“Another dimension. It’s not here physically so no one can bump into it. Odell said this was better than trying to find places to hide it, because you never knew when there would be people around and that sort of thing sticks out. Actually we traveled the timeline in that other dimension, and the machine could have just put us here without leaving it, but we’re traveling with luggage.” She indicated the rucksack. “And that made it awkward. Odell said it was a glitch he hadn’t quite worked out.”

“I don’t understand any of that,” said Cara in a thin plaintive voice. “I think I’m going mad.”

“Well, I know I’m freezing. Look up the street where the lights are. I think that’s a coaching inn.”

“A coaching inn! I haven’t seen one of those since I was a wee lass.”

“Odell said something about there being someone who would help us at an inn. He said he would put us close to it.”

It was up the street a ways, a blaze of light and activity. But it was close enough. No matter how tightly she tried to hold the coat closed at her neck, the cold fingers of the wind found their way down the inevitable little gaps. How she longed for a warm scarf. And boots! The cold filtered up through thin slippers under the coat. And the flimsy fabric of the negligee practically served as a conductor spreading the freezing air to her entire body.

As they walked toward the inn, the wind whipped up and started blowing sleet. Cara groaned. Odette looked at her friend and noticed that she too appeared bedraggled and miserable lugging that rucksack with stiff hands. The rucksack! Odette stopped her before they stepped into the circle of light and bustle that was the inn’s courtyard.

“Cara, can you hide the rucksack under your coat?”

“Why?”

“Odell said there was gold in it.”

“This is an inn.”

“Yes, and we are two women traveling alone. I remember reading that highway men and thieves lurked around coaching inns like this to scout out the wealthiest travelers to rob. We don’t need to give the impression of being worth the trouble.”

Odette had expected curious looks from the travelers and staff, but she hadn’t anticipated the almost immediate appearance of two bulky figures blocking The Whistling Pig’s doorway before they had even quite reached it. One was a man in a greatcoat and knee breeches, a tricorn hat, with a swelling belly, a belligerent expression and, most alarmingly, holding a wicked looking wooden truncheon. He stood at the bottom of the stoop. Above him stood a woman of almost the same size glaring at them with the same level of belligerence.

“You two draggletails clear off,” she shouted in a rough, ugly tone. “This is a respectable establishment. We don’t want the likes of you dirtying the place.”

“We’re not… whatever you said,” replied Odette, her shaking starting to come more from anger than the cold. “We lost our mount—”

“Enough of the fairytales. No respectable woman would be out and about this time of night. And that one,” she said loudly, smirking and pointing at Cara, “looks to be in a family way. I said clear off and do it now, or I’ll set Bill on you.”

“You foul old woman,” growled Cara, her Irish up. She started toward the couple on the steps, and Odette noticed that the hidden rucksack did indeed make her look “in a family way.” The man lifted the truncheon. Odette pulled her back before he could take a swing. They both beat a hasty retreat out of the courtyard away from the promise of warmth and food and, according to Odell, help. Cara was still cursing at the large woman.

One of the hostlers looked up with a grinning leer. “You darlings just wait by the post there and when we’re done, we’ll bring something to warm you up.” Cara took a kick at him. “But not her,” he added. “I hear that when a slag is breeding she gets mean.” Odette had to pull a furious Cara out into the dark street.

“Oh, I wish you’d let me have a crack at that Boiler Hag and that smirking ape!”

“I don’t think it would have turned out well for us. And I think we’d better get moving before any of those men decide to come out and “warm us up.” Suddenly a wave of despair hit her and she groaned, “Odell said there would be someone who could help at that inn and we can’t even—”

She felt Cara tap her shoulder. “What is it,” she said, looking up. Cara was pointing down the street to the spot where they had landed. Directly behind that spot there swung, in the gentle glow of a lamp, a sign. It said, “The Ferrous Swan.”

“It’s an inn,” said Cara. “And we were put down right in front of it.”

“Oh,” said Odette.

After slogging back down the road, they stood trembling with cold, fatigue, and a certain amount of unease before the heavy oak door of The Ferrous Swan.

“Well, go ahead, knock,” said Cara.

Odette raised her fist and did just that. They waited. No one came. Then she saw on the darkened door what looked to be a bell pull. She pulled it and was gratified to hear the sound of a raucous bell echoing from inside. She pulled it again and again with a deepening sensation of fear and frustration. She was about to give up when the door swung open.

Light and warmth poured out on them like a blessing. And in the middle of it stood a creature that looked for all the world like an angel. He was tall, fair, holding a lantern, and wearing a robe. But the angelic effect was ruined when he frowned deeply at the sight of them.

“What do you two want?” The tone was gentler than the large woman’s at The Whistling Pig, but it contained all the same distasteful assumptions.

“Please, we are in desperate circumstances. My brother said we could find help here.” Cara gasped at her words and Odette knew she was taking a chance, but she would do or say anything to keep that door open.

“Your brother?” He swung the lantern close and scrutinized her face. He sighed resignedly and asked, “What is his name?”

At that point, Odette hoped like hell that her brother had chosen to use his real name. “Odell Speex. I’m his sister Odette and this is our friend, Miss Cara Mills.”

He sighed again, but before he could speak a voice sounded behind him.

“Gabriel, what are you doing holding the door open like that? I could feel the draught all the way into the kitchen.” It was an older woman with a round pleasant face and button-bright blue eyes. She stopped speaking as soon as she saw Cara and Odette. Her sympathetic gaze took in their condition immediately without, Odette noticed, any distaste at all.

“Gabriel,” she said. “Have you been making these poor lassies stand outside in the cold all this time? They’re freezing, poor things.” She surged forward like a gentle hurricane, gathered them up and hustled them into a very comfortable, brightly-polished, wood-paneled common room. With a bar, and tables and chairs set before a banked fire that still produced a very effective amount of warmth.

She got them settled in the chairs before the fire murmuring, “Poor, poor dears.” She chaffed their hands and pulled off their shoes. When she tried to take Odette’s greatcoat, Odette pulled it closer. But the woman did get a glimpse at what was underneath.

“Oh,” she said, her eyebrows raised. “Well, my dear, we’ll get you something else. My daughter Barbara has some things that might fit you in a pinch. She then took Cara’s coat revealing the rucksack. She blinked and laughed. “My lord, you do know that it made you look as if—”

“I was in a family way. Yes. I know,” said Cara with a weary smile.

“My name is Josephine Wright. I own this inn. This is my son, Gabriel. And I have a few words to say to him.”

She turned to face him with her hands on her hips. “You were going to send them away, weren’t you?”

He frowned even deeper at the accusation. “Yes… no… she’s Odell Speex’ sister.”

“Well, of course she is. She resembles him. You were going to send them away. Tell the truth.”

“Mother.” He tried to sound stern but failed. Instead he sighed and looked at her wearily. “It’s not good for you to be known as someone who takes in disreputable strangers. I was trying to protect your good name.”

“In this town my name is good enough to withstand most anything.”

“Mother—”

“Go get your sister. She is in the Norvell’s rooms helping with that colicky baby. Drove Mrs. Norvell mad all day. And her husband going to the iron springs tomorrow early, with no rest. I sent Barbara up with a decoction of valerian and peppermint, watered down of course. Can’t take any chances with a baby. Now go.”

Gabriel nodded reluctantly and went out.

After he’d gone, Mrs. Wright patted Odette’s hand and said, “Please forgive my son. He’s caught himself a disease called respectability, at least on my behalf. He thinks I should be received by the rector’s wife at one of her tea parties for the gentry. Well, he might as well give up on that.” Then she smiled. “I’ll tell you truth, if anyone in this family is going to rise in the world it will be my Gabriel. He’s a lawyer, what they call a special pleader which is halfway to being a real barrister. He argued your brother’s case in front of a judge. He did so well. I was that proud of him.”

“Not good enough for Uncle Caswell to offer a barrister’s position in his chambers. That he has reserved for cousin Dean.”

Gabriel had come back trailed by a tall young brunette with rosy cheeks who slapped his shoulder and said, “Cousin Dean will have to lose the stutter. Once Uncle realizes that’s never going to—”

Her mother interrupted, “Barbara, how’s the baby?”

“Oh, little bit’s fine. Sleeping away. Her mother is that relieved.”

“We have some unexpected visitors. This is Miss Odette Speex, Odell’s sister and their friend… ah…”

“Miss Cara Mills,” Gabriel said.

“Since we’re all full up, Barbara, I thought you might let them have your room for the night, and you can trundle with me. Also, I think they need nightclothes and Miss Speex a bit more than that. Unless…” Mrs. Wright threw a glance of inquiry toward the rucksack.

“No,” said Odette, “there’s just some notebooks and money in there. We… we can pay…”

“My dear, we’ll discuss all that in the morning when you’re rested.”

Barbara Wright led Cara and Odette up three flights of steps to a small, cozy room with a bed that would just about accommodate two slender women. She kept up a cheerful line of chat as she rummaged through a big cedar chest and pulled out fresh bed linens and two flannel night gowns.

She only stopped when Odette took off the greatcoat and revealed the negligee beneath. Her eyes widened and she whistled. Finally she said, “That’s the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.”

Odette blushed as she slipped out of the sheer silk and into the flannel. “I prefer this one,” she said. Then in an effort to change the subject to almost anything else, she said, “The Ferrous Swan, that’s an unusual name isn’t it?”

Barbara laughed. “You know an inn can be named any old silly thing like The Whistling Pig down the road.”

“Yes. But why two inns so near each other? Surely there’s competition.”

“Oh no, we cater to a different clientele entirely. The Pig’s a coaching inn for travelers overnight that don’t stay longer than the next morning’s coach. It’s hustle and bustle all times of the day or night. My father built The Swan to accommodate visitors who come to Hampstead for the iron springs, sick people with their families and the elderly. They don’t want all that noise and rush. And we let out suites of rooms big enough for families to stay a while in comfort. We have the best food and the best ale, even the locals come here for that.”

“The iron springs?” said Cara.

“You’ve never heard of the famous Hampstead iron springs?”

“No.”

“Doctors all over England send their patients here to take the waters. That’s why father named this The Ferrous Swan. He liked the name The Swan, but there were too many of the same. Ma suggested The Iron Swan in honor of the springs, but Pa thought that sounded ugly till his brother, who’s an apothecary, suggested using the Latin for iron which is ferrous. And he liked the sound of that.” She giggled. “Funny thing though most of the locals and our clientele call it The Fairest Swan instead. It causes no end of confusion. Drove poor Pa to distraction.”

“So,” said Odette, “this is Hampstead.” She tried to make it a statement rather than a question. She didn’t want to appear too ignorant since she had said Odell sent them here on purpose.

“Oh yes,” replied Barbara. “You’ll like it. Your brother did. He was a sweet boy. Just a bit odd.”

Odette and Cara exchanged smiles on hearing Odell described as odd and sweet to boot.

Cara asked the next question, “And how far is London from here?”

“Oh, just a few miles. Gabriel swears that it won’t be long before London swallows us up. But I’ll believe that when I see it.”

As soon as the friendly young woman let them alone, Odette sat on one side of the bed and dug into the rucksack. There were some gold coins and, in a large bundle, Bank of London notes of all dominations and none dated later than 1756. She couldn’t begin to know how he had obtained such riches, perhaps antiques dealers.