The Dreamer (17 page)

His eyes scanned my face intensely, a fire and energy in him that made his lean muscles tense and straining as they held me and I knew I could not escape him if I tried. His power was terrific, his arms like steel bands restraining me. At last his searching gaze came to rest on my lips. I felt myself tremble under his strength, draining me of the urge to assert myself or even to have a will of my own. My heart began to race and I knew fear in that submission, and that excited me, too. I was powerless to move or look away, and his grip loosened as he felt my surrender. Soon he held me captive with only his fingers. His lips slowly curled.

He leaned forward, his other hand rising to rest on the back of my neck, and he began to pull me close, his face drawing near. So close.

Suddenly I found myself stiffening. I put my hands against his chest and pushed against him. I turned my head as his lips descended and they touched only my cheek.

Surprise showed on his face. “
Chérie
! You don’t love me?”

I laughed and broke away from him and sat back in my chair. “Your Grace, you lovely, lovely Duke of Norcross. Love? You can’t be serious!”

The duke turned white and became very, very still. He sucked in his breath. “What did you say?” he said quietly.

“Love is so fanciful, so illogical. It’s all emotion. No reason at all. I have great plans for my future. I’ve accomplished things others only dream of. I have a duty to the world, to knowledge itself, to pursue this to its bitter end. It’s what I’m designed for. Love, like fairy tales, are for children and don’t come into account. That tripe would interfere with my ambition. They would only delay me from my life’s goal. Besides, we hardly know each other. I thought you had more sense than that. The captain never ….”

I looked up at him and fell silent. He still stood there unmoving, so still, so dangerously quiet, I could feel a change in the atmosphere, as though a cold blanket had been placed over the room.

“Yes? The captain?” he queried when I didn’t continue.

I moistened my dry lips and laughed lightly. “Oh, you know, he never confronted me with these issues.” When the duke didn’t respond, I continued nervously, “I’ve never really experienced anything like this before, and I’m not saying things right. I didn’t really mean that the way it sounded. I was just startled, that’s all. I really am very honored that you ….”

“Forgive me,” he spoke stiffly.

“Forgive
me
,” I returned.

We did speak after that, discussing the voyage and the anticipated challenges, but the duke never fully recovered his trademark composure, and the remainder of the night was stilted and quiet. He excused himself earlier than normal, and I was left alone, my hands in tight fists in my lap.

*** *** ***

The next day, I did not seek out the duke as I normally did. I stayed strictly in my cabin, not bothering to go to breakfast. And when I couldn’t stand the stifled, stuffy atmosphere of my cabin any longer, I ventured out on deck for a brief breath of fresh air.

Almost immediately, Charles appeared and approached me, and warily, I watched him draw near.

He stood next to me, and with a great deal of politeness, he inquired how I was, his hand joining mine as it rested on the railing. I instinctively drew it away.

Wordlessly he reached out and captured my hand, not allowing me to elude him. “This shall not do,
petite
,” he chided, squeezing my hand.

“Charles, about yesterday … I’m sorry, I ….”

“Hush. No need to explain.” His blue eyes were very understanding and a little sad. “It is not the first time a man has been rejected by a woman, nor the last. I cannot make it more than it is.”

“But I didn’t mean to hurt you. Nothing like that had happened to me before, and I was so confused. I spent the rest of the night regretting every word I said. I was so silly.”

“What do you mean, child?”

I spoke slowly, keeping my gaze on our clasped hands. “I mean that love is
not
pure fantasy. It can’t be, not the way it is so universally understood, crossing times and cultures and barriers as it does. My hypothesis was wrong. I was overreaching. Love is real and it is necessary. It’s just ….”

“Yes? It’s just?”

I looked at him now. “It isn’t for me. I am designed for bigger things. You don’t know how frustrating it is to have accomplished all I’ve accomplished and not be able to tell a single soul about it. To have to hide it when it’s so earth changing, so jaw dropping, so
big.
”

He smiled softly. “You are unlike any other woman I’ve ever known. Strong and independent, intelligent and confident, who shows me things I have never known before.” His grip tightened. “Tell me who you are. Tell me
something
. I must know.”

I hesitated, feeling sudden exhilaration at the idea of telling
someone
the truth whether they believed me or not. Throwing caution to the wind I said, “I am a professor, a researcher. I had a dream, a dream that captivated me and crowded out all else.”

“A dream, child?” he repeated, a little confused. “What dream?”

“A dream of falling. I dedicated my life to going back in time, and I did. I was born in California, in the country of the United States of America in the year 1986.”

His eyes became sharp. “
Pardon
?”

“Nineteen hundred and eighty-six. That’s when I was born. It is now 1714.”

He gripped the railing and turned to the water, his knuckles white. And then his head dropped to the railing.

I stepped forward in concern. “Charles, I ….”

But just before I touched him, he glared. “You spiteful, little minx!”

“I beg your pardon?”

“If you didn’t want to tell me about yourself,” he said bitterly, “you could have kept your mouth shut. These feminine games don’t appeal to me.”

“But it’s not a game.”

He stepped forward purposefully, and I instinctively shrank from him.

“Land ho!” came a shout from above, and both of us jerked to attention. Men came running from every crevice, appearing on deck as if out of nowhere. The duke turned and walked towards the bow of the ship. I followed after him.

“Land? Where be the land? Do ye see her?”

“The treasure! The treasure!”

Shouts echoed around me, but I was nearly deaf to them, straining and craning my neck to get a glimpse of it.

A man pointed in front of me. “Thar she be! I’s seein’ ‘er first! I see ‘er!”

A cacophony of jubilation erupted, and I fought my way to the front of the ship, exuberance and a strange sort of relief coursing through me.

I saw the duke up ahead, his bright, curly head bent to peer through a telescope, and I elbowed towards him.

“Do you see it, Charles? Are we really there?”

Finally I reached him, and I narrowed my eyes against the bright light of the sun. Gazing out to the ocean, I thought I saw a tiny black dot in the distance. Mount Vernon Island. We were finally there. After so much work, so much effort and anguish. All my life I had been working for this single moment. I wondered if this is what climbers of Mt. Everest felt when they finally got a glimpse of the summit.

“Oh, Charles, let me see through the telescope.” I turned to him, and reached my hand out expectantly. But he didn’t hear me. It was too loud, and there were too many voices.

“Isn’t it beautiful? Land. After all this time. It seems like forever since I’ve been ashore. Do you remember? It’s the furthest west island. There’s a cluster. Four. I’ve shown you the markings. The difficulty is over. The map is very clear when you know the symbols. There will be so much, I’m sure.”

Maharahi’s entire fortune. Priceless items that haven’t been seen by human eyes for thousands of years. Oh, what secrets will it contain? Answers to the mystery in which he is shrouded. Why are he and his entire fortune here and not in Egypt? How did writings from the future find their way into the past? How did it happen? Why did it happen?

“We mustn’t forget the sarcophagus. It will be the most important of all. We will watch the men as they load it. Not a piece must be lost. It’s all priceless beyond measure. I will enter first. To catalogue and record it all so that an inventory can be made, and we will be able to keep track. Charles. Let me see it. Give me the telescope.”

Again, I held out my hand to him. But still he did not turn to me. I put my hand on his arm, but he spoke to the man on the other side of him. It was Marshall Looper.

“Charles?” I clutched the material of his jacket and tugged him.

He pulled away from my grasp, never looking at me. The men were surrounding us, crowding in closer and closer, jostling my arms and shoulders, their voices loud and piercing. My heart began to race, though I wasn’t sure why. I knew that once the duke looked down at me, once his eyes were on me, everything would be fine.

I took hold of him once more with both hands, yanking him forcibly. “Your Grace!”

He tried to shrug me off again, focusing on that stupid telescope, looking through it like it was the only thing in the world. It was as though I had ceased to exist. As in a terrible dream, I had faded away and disappeared. I began to claw at him frantically with hands that trembled, crushing the beautiful material of his expensive, immaculate jacket.

Finally he responded. He violently jerked away from me, making me stumble, though I didn’t fall. “Take her down below,” was all he said, putting the telescope back up to his eye, not a single look in my direction.

Suddenly there were hands on me from all sides, calloused, filthy hands, and I couldn’t breathe. The world seemed to whirl all around me, spinning and spinning so that I couldn’t gain my balance. I was pulled away, and I struggled against all those hands, the faces close, the sneers I’d seen from afar before me now. “Charles!” I screamed. “Charles! What are you doing? You said you loved me. You said I was safe. Please!”

Finally, he turned and looked at me. He raised his hand and the men stopped pulling me away. I gulped, my breathing harsh and erratic, and suddenly it was the only sound to be heard. The men were silent and watching their leader, waiting for orders.

“Charles,” I whispered, “I beg you, say something comforting ….”

He approached me, dark, vacant eyes scanning me, appraising me. I hardly recognized him now. As though in the blink of an eye he had become someone new, as though a mask had slipped off his face, revealing someone else all together. His charm and grace had disappeared. His features that had been so captivating and delightful were heartless and arrogant and ruthless now, as though nothing, no supplication or cry for mercy could move or touch them. All these weeks, all these experiences were with a man who did not really exist at all. I trembled as I watched him approach, not knowing what to make of this dark stranger.

He reached out, and I flinched when he touched me. He stroked my hair with his thumb and forefinger, as he would examine the mane of a horse he considered buying. His eyes scanned the length of me. “Don’t touch her until I come down.”

He turned away again, and I was dragged below deck.

Chapter Thirteen

Notes:
Unexpected alteration of circumstances. Researcher notably discons … disconcert …

I am in peril! I am terrified!

I was left alone in the hold, a small iron cage in the bottom level of the ship. The cage was so low that if I reached up, I could brush the bars with my fingertips, and so narrow that, if I lay down, I could do the same thing. I was in complete darkness except for a narrow shaft of light across the room where the ladder stood.

I sat down on the small, soiled pile of hay in the corner, my knees refusing to support me, and my breathing came in short, erratic intervals as I trembled. I pressed my back up against the iron bars and watched the men withdraw, sending me leering looks of anticipation. And when they finally disappeared up the ladder, their thick boots echoing in the distance above, instead of easing, my breathing became even shorter and quicker. So fast and so short, in fact, that I hyperventilated and blacked out.