Timeless (24 page)

“I said,” she repeated slowly, “You had two
messages, one from Ramona…”

“Yes, I heard that part. What’s the other
one?” I interrupted, trying to keep my voice level, though I felt
frantic inside, desperate to know if I’d heard her correctly.

“The second message was…let me see…” She
consulted her pad while I stood there, feeling as though my life
hung in the balance.

“Yes, it was two days ago, I believe. You
have a message from someone named Damien. Do you know him?”

It couldn’t be. No. I would have felt
something. He would have appeared before me in the chapel or
forest, right? I hoped this wasn’t someone’s idea of a horrible,
sick joke. I mentally went through the list of people I’d mentioned
his name to. Ramona. Annie. Ben. Anyone they told. Likely Zack.
Would Ben have told Angela? It sounded like some prank she’d pull.
But what if it wasn’t a joke? What if I’d actually brought him
through time?

“What did he say?” I asked in a voice barely
above a whisper.

“Speak up, Emily, I’m not so young as I used
to be.”

“Oh, right, sorry, Aunt Jo. I said, what did
he say?” I asked a little more loudly.

“Something about getting the next flight to
Florida. He’ll come by tomorrow night. I guess that would be
tonight. I hope we haven’t missed him.”

I closed my eyes, swaying slightly as the
light began to recede.

Aunt Jo moved quickly for a woman in her
seventies. She ran up the stairs and put her arms on my shoulders,
supporting me before I collapsed.

I must have revived immediately after that,
the Duchess licking my face.

“You need some rest. If this Damien person
comes, I’ll just tell him you’re tired and need your rest. He can
always come back tomorrow,” she finished, concern in her voice.

“No!” I screamed, startling Aunt Jo and the
Duchess, who scampered away in a dander.

“No,” I repeated more calmly. “I’ll see
him.”

I jumped up with amazing energy, surprising
Aunt Jo, who still sat on the stairs watching my strange behavior.
I ran up the stairs two at a time to the bathroom, my heart racing.
I combed my hair, frantically wishing I had time to straighten the
curls or at least get them going in the right direction. I looked
at my watch. It was six o’clock. Surely he wouldn’t have already
come by. Six was still afternoon, right? Or did six officially
begin the evening? Maybe it depended on the time of the year. Had I
missed him? My thoughts spun around erratically.

I’d left my bags on the steps where they’d
fallen, so I had to go back, throwing out the contents right there
as I pulled out toothbrush and toothpaste. My hands shook, and Aunt
Jo and the Duchess just stared at me, wondering what demon
possessed me to scurry around so.

This could not be happening. I felt
hysterical again, but I fought the urge to sit down and cry in
sheer relief. This was too important, and I was vain enough not to
want a bloated face when I saw him. Some women cried daintily. Not
me. When I cried, it was a disgusting mess for everyone concerned.
My eyes got red and swollen, my nose ran, and my cheeks became beet
red. I had to take great heaving breaths. Overall, it was not a
pretty sight.

I splashed water in my face, glad the gash
had healed and the scratches had nearly faded, and looked through
the medicine cabinet for lip gloss. Usually, I wore little or no
makeup, and I wished I had mascara for my nonexistent eyelashes.
Where was that bag Ramona gave me? I couldn’t find it anywhere. I’d
have to raid Aunt Jo’s drawer below the sink, which revealed
precious little else—some blush, which I definitely didn’t need
with my flushed cheeks, a little foundation in a color totally
wrong for my pale face, and half a container of loose powder. I’d
have to settle for the powder and lip gloss. If I hadn’t been so
frantic, I would have laughed. I needed Ramona in more ways than
one.

While I applied the powder, which triggered
my allergies and made me sneeze, I started combing through my hair
furiously, almost taking it out by the roots. Calm down, I told
myself. You accomplish nothing by pulling out your hair. Somewhat
satisfied with the mediocre results of my efforts, I turned my
attention to what I’d wear.

I raced out of the bathroom and into my
bedroom, opening the armoire and tossing pants and shirts aside as
I searched for something suitable to wear.

The Duchess and Aunt Jo stood by the door,
looking at the disarray around the room. In my haste, I realized
that I hadn’t bothered to rub the Duchess on my way in, and she
looked offended.

Sorry, Duchess, I thought. She meowed loudly,
still annoyed with me.

“I take it that this is the guy,” Aunt Jo
said, surveying my frantic activity.

I smiled, not pausing to look up at her.

I nodded, hopping on one foot as I tried
pulling off my jeans, shirt, socks, and shoes all at once.

The Duchess slipped by me and started wading
through the pile of clothes on the floor, finding the ivory dress
at the bottom of the pile and pulling it out with her teeth. She
was remarkably resourceful.

I quickly put the dress over my head and
checked my appearance in the mirror. My breath caught. Even though
the dress wasn’t as long or elaborate as the one I’d been wearing
when I last saw Damien, it was pretty close.

“You look nice. I hope he’s worth it,” Aunt
Jo remarked, shaking her head.

“He is,” I said, kissing her cheek as I ran
past her.

I skipped down the stairs and went out to sit
on the front steps to wait. My dress felt hot and heavy for the
weather, and I hoped I wouldn’t break out into eczema, which
sometimes happened in the summer. But I didn’t care. I wanted to be
ready for him when he came.

I didn’t have long to wait. The black Audi
pulled up in front of the house, and he got out. He had the darkest
hair of anyone I’d ever seen, and his face matched the one in my
dreams. He stared at me intently, his dark eyes never wavering from
my face. He had the most beautiful face—even more stunning than the
one I’d imagined.And he looked larger than I’d remembered too, the
rolled-up sleeves revealing the strong arms I remembered.

I began to shake uncontrollably, feeling
dizzy, hot, and faint all at once. I leaned on the rail to steady
myself as I rose to meet him. Though I stood two steps above him,
he still towered over me.

“Emmeline,” he said.

My heart stopped. His voice sounded like
music from a distant country. It was exactly the same as I’d
remembered and yet an entirely new experience.

I couldn’t speak. I could only stare at him.
He smiled, reaching out to caress my cheek, and everything faded to
black. I’d never fainted twice in ten minutes before, but I did
then.

Sometime later, I awoke in his arms, the arms
I remembered from long ago. I looked into his face, still not
comprehending that he was really there.

Aunt Jo came in, a glass of water in her
hand.

“Is she awake?” she asked, looking
alarmed.

“I think so,” he said, and I marveled again
at the perfection of his voice. This was so much better than all
the dreams I’d had of him. Was I delirious or just hallucinating? I
didn’t much care. No moment in my life could compare to this, and
if I’d finally gone insane, it would be fine by me. I’d reached
nirvana, and I needed nothing else for the rest of my life.

“Emily?” Aunt Jo said loudly, bringing me
back to reality.

“Emmeline?” Damien said, nearly causing me to
faint for a third time.

Aunt Jo had been right. He sounded as though
he came from a different country, but none I’d ever visited.

“Emily, can you hear me?” Aunt Jo asked,
kneeling beside me. I was reclining in Damien’s arms on the couch
in the living room.

I shook my head to clear it.

“I’m still just tired, I guess,” I said, not
understanding my reaction.

“She needs rest,” Aunt Jo said pointedly to
Damien, who immediately took the hint.

“Of course. Emmeline, I’ll come back
tomorrow,” he said reluctantly, intense regret filling his
voice.

“No!” I screamed, clutching his arm.

I’d only just gotten him; I wasn’t letting
him out of my sight. I turned to Aunt Jo.

“I’ll be fine, Aunt Jo, I promise. I’d just
like a few minutes alone with Damien,” I said a little more
calmly.

Aunt Jo muttered something under her breath
about teenagers and turned to go, shaking her head.

“I will protect her,” he said, casting a look
that must have caught her unawares. She immediately softened
towards him, smiling a radiantly youthful smile I’d never seen
before. I caught a brief glimpse of the beautiful young woman she
had been, her long hair cascading in folds, her bright eyes
perpetually sparkling. I imagined that any woman still breathing
would find Damien charming, but he had also seemed to make her
young again.

Aunt Jo left, her earlier distemper having
faded, and Damien turned his attention to me again.

“How did you get here?” I asked.

“I drove,” he replied simply.

Drove?

“I can see that,” I said, looking past him
out the window to the car outside.

I’d imagined him well off, but not quite this
well off. I recognized the Versace glasses hanging from one pocket
and the Armani pants. The shoes looked like Italian leather.
Altogether, he was gorgeous and, from what I could see, appeared to
be rich.

“Emmeline, I can’t believe I found you,” he
said, his eyes staring wonderingly at me.

“You can’t believe it? I can’t believe it,” I
replied.

I wanted to drink in his presence with my
eyes. I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.I understood for the
first time the ancient words from the Song of Solomon. I knew what
it meant to belong to another person. We had defeated time and
death.

“Damien,” I whispered, unable to finish any
coherent thought. I put my arms around him. Several moments passed
before either of us could speak.

“You’re safe,” I said, still not quite
believing that my spell had worked.

“I thought she’d killed you,” he began,
sounding as relieved as I felt.

“She did,” I said, laughing. Somehow, my
earlier death didn’t signify.

He visibly started.

“Then how are you here?” he asked, not
comprehending.

“I brought you forward. Surely you must have
noticed. We’re not in the thirteenth century,” I interrupted,
laughing.

He looked at me wonderingly, touching my hair
and face to validate that I was real.

“I thought we’d escaped, that we’d been part
of some enchantment. I awoke and found myself in a different time
and place,” he said slowly.

It was too much to absorb all at once. For
now, it was enough just to be near him, to know that he was safe,
to know that he was mine. I hadn’t failed, after all. I’d saved
him, bringing him to me, nearly eight hundred years into the
future.

“I want to know how you found me,” I
said.“Tell me everything.”

Chapter Twelve

"Voyagers"

Here the impossible union

Of spheres of existence is actual,

Here the past and future

Are conquered, and reconciled

T. S. Eliot, “The Dry Salvages”

Aunt Jo put the kettle on for us and told me
she’d be going out. Tonight was her monthly bridge meeting across
town, and she didn’t want to miss it. She put hot cocoa in two
mugs, her remedy for any emotional trauma, and asked me point blank
if I was okay before leaving.

“I’m fine,” I replied, a goofy grin still on
my face.

“Hmph,” she muttered, letting the screen door
slam on the way out.

The Duchess had a much different response to
Damien than her normal one to strangers. I’d never seen her behave
with anyone the way she did with Damien, including Ben. She’d taken
to Damien immediately, rubbing herself against his legs and jumping
up in his lap. She began licking her paws before settling down,
firmly ensconced in his arms. It seemed he charmed all females,
even feline ones.

“I still can’t believe you’re real,” I
whispered, letting both of my hands glide over his face to memorize
every line. It was perfect, as though sculpted from stone by one of
the Italian Renaissance masters. His face could have been the model
for many of the statues I’d seen in Europe. I wished I’d paid more
attention to them now.

“Start from the time when Lamia took you away
from me,” I began, reluctant to take my hands from him or to utter
the name of the witch who had kept us apart for hundreds of
years.

“It took all of the guards to keep me from
you,” he started, gently stroking my hair as he described events
that took place both hundreds of years ago and only last week. I
must have timed my arrival to the chapel correctly, knowing I was
lucky that we’d had spring break during the window of time I needed
to find him.

“Could you see where they took you?” I
asked.

“Yes, they took my blindfold off after we
left the woods, much good that it did since we went back to the
dungeon, where it was pitch black. We didn’t enter through the
secret passage. Instead, they lowered the drawbridge, taking me by
force through the gate. When we crossed, I tried to distract the
guards and jump into the moat, thinking I’d swim to the other side.
There’s another point of entry into the castle from the moat that
I’d discovered about a year after your father brought me to
Montavere. I knew we couldn’t use it to leave the castle together
because you couldn’t swim, but it would be perfect for the plan I’d
devised. I thought I could double back out when it was safer and
rescue you. I should say, rather, that there used to be an entry
and moat. Both, it seems, are gone now,” he said quietly.