“You were only dreaming, Marian.”
“It was more than dreaming. And it was more than just a realistic vision.” Marian held up Dad’s list of time-space continuum speculations. “It had to have been a movement through the quantum energy field just as Dad indicated.”
“We both know Dad was never the same after Mom died.” The statement was Ellen’s kind way of saying Dad was crazy.
How could Marian disagree? Not after the years of commiserating about Dad’s fanatical research. In fact, Marian had been the one to complain the most. And now, after planting so many seeds of doubt, Marian wasn’t surprised Ellen couldn’t accept anything.
Ellen had shown her numerous online research articles with stories of recovered coma patients who also claimed to experience strange, very real dreams. At Ellen’s insistence that Marian’s coma stories were no different, Marian hadn’t been able to stop doubt from creeping in.
Ellen couldn’t be right, could she? Had her comatose dreams been so realistic that she was unable to separate out fact from fiction?
If Will hadn’t been real, how could her love for him go so deep? And if he hadn’t been real, why couldn’t she stop from sensing him in every part of the manor? Although the house was vastly different, there were times when she could feel his presence strongly—like now, in the closet.
She’d already tried testing the ampulla for residue, hoping she could somehow go into the past and communicate with Will, to at least say good-bye.
But after Ellen had injected the holy water into the IV, she’d rinsed out the flask with antiseptic and had done the same with the other two original ampullae that Marian had left in Harrison’s safe. Every trace of holy water was gone.
It didn’t matter. She probably wouldn’t have woken from her coma in the past to talk to Will anyway.
Swallowing the despair that kept lodging in her throat, Marian knelt and brushed a hand over the closet floor. Thick dust bunnies caught in her fingers. She had to stop focusing on the past and start living in the present, especially because she had work to do in finding more of the water for Ellen. “We could pull back the floorboards and do a little digging underneath. We might find evidence of the antechamber.”
Harrison knocked on the wall, testing the thickness of it. “Are you sure such a room would be here? It seems to me if the entryway room had once been the great hall, then it would have extended beyond the parameters that are currently here.”
Marian sidled past Harrison back out of the closet. The domed ceiling with its stained glass circles was tall enough to accommodate a great hall. She only had to imagine rafters across the open space to visualize the way it had once been, whitewashed walls instead of the carved oak paneling, unpolished wooden floors instead of glossy white tiles.
Had she only pictured the great hall in a coma-induced hallucination or had she really been there?
“I believe you. I absolutely do.” Harrison powered his wheelchair out into the hallway next to her. “But I fear we may tear everything apart to find an old cellar that has long been cleared of anything of value. Besides, if you already searched it and only found two ampullae, then what leads you to believe more may be there?”
She was relieved Harrison wasn’t trying to downplay the coma the same way Ellen was. In fact, he continued to pore over several volumes on the physics of time—volumes that had been among the books Ellen had boxed up from their dad’s library. He’d only grown more convinced that with the right vibration and wavelength, subatomic particles could shift in such a way to cause a body to overlap itself in two eras.
“You’re right.” Her shoulders sagged. “Why would anyone place more there?” Will certainly wouldn’t. Why would he have any reason to?
Harrison studied her, his eyes filled with both concern and compassion. “It’s hard to get your thoughts in order, love. I can’t even begin to imagine the adjustment of jumping from one era to another.”
She smoothed her straightened hair, brushing away remnants of dust and static. In the snug jean shorts and silky pink tank top, she felt strangely bare and immodest after the days of being clothed from head to toe in layers of garments. She’d adjusted to the past much more quickly than she’d believed possible. Hopefully, she’d get used to being back in the present just as fast.
She continued taking her vitals every day, monitoring her condition, waiting for the first twinge that something was wrong. Her body in 1381 wouldn’t last much longer—not without food and water. She wanted to remain hopeful—like Harrison—that all would be well for her present body. But they really had no way of knowing.
“Thank you for understanding,” she said. “You’ve been a good friend through all of this. I’m glad I have someone I can trust.”
Harrison rested the flashlight on his lap and tilted his head at her, his eyes wide and imploring behind his spectacles. “Marian, if you trust me, then why won’t you tell me more about the engraving you made on the piece of clay that was with the ampulla. Is it the location of the original spring?”
Wasn’t the piece of clay proof she hadn’t just dreamed everything? What about the time she’d brought back a posy?
“If we want to help Ellen,” Harrison continued, “we should have a go at a place that will give us a more certain outcome than we’ll get with excavating here at Chesterfield Park.”
He was right. She was wasting time by chasing down another ampulla rather than going straight to the source. Even though Ellen wasn’t showing any symptoms of VHL at the moment, that didn’t mean the tumors and problems had disappeared.
Ellen had already purchased her return tickets to Haiti and was planning to leave tomorrow. After being gone from the orphanage for close to three weeks, she was anxious to get back to her children and work, especially now that she believed Marian was fully recovered. She’d given Marian permission to do with Dad’s townhouse as she saw fit, assuming Marian would sell it and add to the profits of their enormous inheritance.
Marian, on the other hand, wasn’t ready to let Ellen leave, not until she found a way to give her a dose of the holy water. She was also worried for Ellen’s safety. They were all still in too much danger.
Marian’s one phone call with Jasper two days ago had only heightened her awareness that anyone anywhere could be plotting against them. At first Jasper acted happy to hear from her and asked when he could see her again. But when she confronted him about the phone call she’d overheard during her coma, he denied everything at first before growing silent and cold. A day later, he turned in his resignation at Mercer, confirming her suspicions that he was working for someone else.
What would Lionel or other companies do if they discovered she had knowledge of the location of an old wellspring? She suspected they’d stop at nothing to wrench that information from her—including hurting those she loved as a way to gain her cooperation.
“So?” Harrison peered up at her. “This is a massive deal, I know. But the source is what Arthur went after. And it’s what we need to be after too.”
She rubbed at a growing ache in her temples and wished she had as much certainty as Harrison that going to the source was the right thing to do.
“The sooner I know, the sooner I can instigate plans. Depending on the location, I may have loads of work ahead—arranging meetings with city council members, cutting through red tape, freeing assets to fund the project, and only heaven knows what else.”