Toil and Trouble (26 page)

“I prefer not to, my brother has forbidden his name to be mentioned in this house.” Her wide eyes met mine, belying the fact that she did want to discuss the subject of the charming vampire.

“Christine, I will not tell another soul, I promise.” I even crossed my heart but didn’t hope to die. I’d come close enough already.

She seemed to be considering it, cocking her head as if deep in thought. Then a huge smile overtook her face. “Oh, Jolie, Sinjin Sinclair is…the most handsome and irresistible man I have ever met.” Well, I could concur with her on that one. Sinjin definitely was handsome and the irresistible part? Check. Her smile vanished as her lip began trembling. “I have so desperately attempted to forget him, to stay angry with him.”

“Why would you be angry with him?”

She glanced away, shutting her eyes tightly against her tears. “My brother says he courted me merely to spite Mr. Balfour.” Her German accent was thicker now, as if the purging of her emotions encouraged her natural state.

“Why would he do that? You’re beautiful, Christine, and you have a lovely personality.”

“You are very kind.” She sighed. “As I understand, Mr. Balfour and Mr. Sinclair had known each other previous to Mr. Sinclair’s and my introduction. I believe they had a business deal that went sour and my brother believes Mr. Sinclair was retaliating when he sought me out. Retaliating in order to upset Mr. Balfour.”

Hmm, Sinjin and Rand in business together? That didn’t seem to ring true. I mean, it wasn’t that farfetched but what business could Rand and Sinjin possibly have in common? No, that must have been a cover up. The truth of the matter had to be more closely aligned with the Underworld, and if so, of course Christine wouldn’t be aware of any of that…right? Did Christine even realize Sinjin was a vampire? Over six hundred years old, in 1878 Sinjin would be well into his blood diet. “So, did you allow Sin…er, Mr. Sinclair to court you?”

She nodded and nervously picked at her coverlet before returning her glassy green eyes to mine. “Yes, I was foolish, Jolie. And I cannot blame my foolishness on youth. This occurred in September, merely three months ago. And I also cannot wipe the images of Mr. Sinclair from my mind, try as I might.”

I offered her an understanding smile. I knew all about trying to forget about disappointing men and unluckily for me, I had two to commiserate over. As if one wasn’t enough. “Okay, so let’s go back to Mr. Sinclair for a minute, how did you meet him?”

She bit her lip, as if trying to arrange her tempestuous thoughts into some sort of fluidity. “Yes, I should have started from the beginning.” She sighed, long and deep. “Mr. Balfour, my brother and I were at the Furvish’s for a harvest festival. Mr. Sinclair happened to be attending the celebration as well. As fate would have it, we were introduced and Mr. Sinclair entertained me with tales of his travels abroad. During the course of the evening, he danced with me three times! Can you imagine?” A flush lit her face.

“Wow, three times,” I said, not knowing what else to say. It didn’t sound like much of a milestone to me but what did I know about Victorians and harvest festivals? Not much, apparently.

Christine’s eyes took on a faraway glaze, as if she were reliving the events as she told them. “That very evening when I retired, I heard the sounds of pebbles on my window and found Mr. Sinclair outside.” She smiled nostalgically. The poor girl was absolutely head over heels in love with Sinjin. And if the Sinjin of 1878 was anything like the Sinjin I’d come to know, I didn’t imagine being in love with him would be a good thing, whether in 1878 or the twenty first century.

“Go on,” I said, smiling encouragingly.

“I know I should not have, Jolie, but I sneaked downstairs to meet him.” Her lip started trembling again and I gripped her hand, as if to say I was there for her and she could get through this. She nodded and wiped her eyes. “He told me of his undying love for me. How we should always be together.”

Yep, good ol’ Sinjin, the rake. I’d have to give him a ration of crap for this one, that is if I ever got home again. The thought of home deflated my entire being so I pushed it to the back of my mind. I’d get home. Somehow. “So, I imagine this courtship continued?” I prodded.

“Yes, Mr. Sinclair swore me to secrecy, that I would not inform my brother nor Mr. Balfour. And, like a silly fool, I never uttered a word.” She glanced away, biting her lip again as if doing so would keep her tears at bay.

“It’s okay, Christine.”

She faced me again. “On our last meeting in the courtyard, Mr. Balfour must have overheard us because he suddenly appeared and a horrid fight erupted between the two, Jolie. And…I never saw my Mr. Sinclair again!” She lost it at that point and collapsed into a teary heap on her bed.

Hmm, a fight between Sinjin and Rand over a girl…it sounded oddly familiar.

So, what was Sinjin planning? To elope with her? That didn’t seem like him. Had he truly been in love with her? Rand apparently didn’t seem to think so. But, what did 1878 Rand know of love? Then it occurred to me that maybe Sinjin merely intended to deflower her to ensure she was damaged goods? If nothing else, that would have destroyed her chances to marry well. Hmm, if Sinjin had done that then he was a bigger asshole than I’d ever imagined.

“Christine,” I started and tilted her chin up, wiping away her stray tears with the pad of my thumb. I wasn’t sure how to ask this question, seeing how completely personal it was. And she’d probably be mortified I was even asking…Crap! I was mortified, myself. “Were you ever intimate with Mr. Sinclair?”

She blushed until she was the color of me after I’ve been in the sun too long. The decision of whether or not to tell me played out on her face like a bad movie. Then she shook her head. “No, thank goodness. Though I believe it was just a matter of time, Jolie. I was so foolish, I would have done anything for him, even given him the prize reserved for my husband.” Hmm, and knowing Sinjin, he would have greedily accepted.

Then she fell onto the bed again with renewed anguish so I held her, crooning in her ear and rocking her back and forth as if she were a colicky infant. My mind raced with thoughts of Sinjin’s involvement with this girl. There had to be more to it than a business arrangement gone wrong. And I intended to find out exactly what had transpired between Rand and Sinjin that ended with Rand abhorring Sinjin for over one hundred years.

* * *

For the remainder of the day, I searched for Mercedes, after deciding she was my most important contact. But, she managed to elude me and I couldn’t prevent the anxiety that was now stampeding through me. I had to get out of 1878 but I had no clue how and anyone who seemed a likely assistant either refused to help or had gone MIA. I paced my room, trying to think of another plan. If I could just get Rand alone again, maybe I could convince him I really was a witch and not a gold-digger. I mean, when I’d tried earlier, it hadn’t exactly gone well but maybe if I tried again—if I performed some of my witchcraft, maybe he might believe me?

Anxiety spiraled up my throat and I had to sit down on my bed and close my eyes, trying to rein in the panic attack that was looming. If only Sinjin were here so I could gaze into the abyss of his beautiful eyes. The thought made my stomach ache as I wondered if I’d ever see my infuriatingly charming vampire again.

Tears flooded my eyes and I didn’t bother wiping them away. Maybe I needed a good cry, a soul cleansing. The panic in my stomach had dissipated just at the remembrance of Sinjin’s eyes but now my focus was on my miserable plight. What if I couldn’t return to my own time? Could I even survive in 1878? What would become of me? If Rand had any say so, I’d be shipped off to the local loony house never to be seen or heard from again.

Now the tears were streaming full force and I let them come, quickly blotting them once I heard a knock on my door.

“Jolie?” It was Mercedes. Thank God.

I leapt off the bed and threw the door open, not caring that my eyes were red and swollen. “I am so happy to see you,” I croaked.

She entered and once I closed the door, approached me, her arms wide, as if to hug me. The offer surprised me momentarily but I needed a shoulder to cry on so I collapsed into her outstretched arms.

“There now,” she crooned in my ear. “We will find a way to send you home.”

I pulled away from her and dried my tears, needing to understand how much she knew and more so,
how
she knew it. “How do you…how did you…what did you mean when you said you were expecting me?”

She sat on my bed, patting the coverlet beside her to indicate I should also sit. I did so as she took a deep breath. “You are Jolie Wilkins and you were in the midst of battle before I found you in the snow. Prior to being thrust into 1878, you were in the process of being stabbed by Gwynn. You had just defeated the vampire, Ryder, and before you could blink, you ended up here, freezing in the snow.”

I just gawked at her, wide eyed. “How can you know that? I mean, your aura is human.”

She smiled, a wise and knowing smile. “I am a witch, as you are a witch, Jolie. And as to my aura, I shield it so as not to expend energy uselessly.” To prove her point, she ran her hands over her head and down to her waist. As if unzipping her aura, it blasted out of her in a rainbow of colors. I gasped as the colors vacillated this way and that, a glow that lit the entire room. Holy freaking crap. She was like the mother of all witches, a mega witch.

“Oh my God,” I said in awe.

Mercedes just laughed and ran her hands back up her waist and head and her aura disappeared as if it had never revealed itself to begin with.

“Unbelievable,” I said, my mouth still hanging open. Trying to shake myself out of my stupor, I focused on her stunning green eyes, a gold ring circling the irises, like cat’s eyes.

“Thank you,” she said proudly. With an aura like that, I would’ve been proud too. I shook my head and tried to focus on the facts before me—that Mercedes was a witch, well, more fittingly, an uber witch. “You must be powerful enough to send me back?” My voice was hopeful.

She lost her smile, her lips twitching slightly as if she wasn’t sure what to say. “Yes and no. My magic is very powerful, yes, though there are laws of nature which I am unable to alter alone.”

“Maybe we could do it together?” I asked desperately. I couldn’t stay here—I just didn’t think I could ever get used to calf’s heads, no cell phones, 1878 Rand or corsets.

Mercedes laughed again and patted my hand. “Do not fret, Jolie, I have a plan where you are concerned. Let us start from the beginning. Do you know how you arrived here?”

I nodded. “Rand’s magic.” As soon as I said the words, I wondered how familiar Mercedes was with Rand. “Wait, you do know Rand is a warlock, right?”

“Yes, though he is barely into his apprenticeship with the fairies.”

So, she knew about the fairies too which meant they existed in 1878 as well. Thank God because I was beginning to feel like a mental patient. “Yeah, so at the moment Gwynn stabbed me, Rand yelled and the next thing I knew, I was here. So, I just figured he sent me.”

She shook her head. “I brought you.”

“How?”

Mercedes was silent for a moment, as if deciding how to explain. “I had been attempting to bring you back multiple times previous to the battle but your subconscious barriers were too high, too strong. Your magic is incredibly powerful, Jolie, though you do not realize it.”

I was trying to grasp what she was saying, trying to understand what she meant but finding it difficult. “So, I like kept you out?” Ergh, I hadn’t meant to sound so…valley girl.

“Yes, I could not break down your inhibitions. But, everything changed once I had a vision of the battle. I knew at the point that Gwynn stabbed you, your barriers would be down long enough for me to pull you back, so I did.”

Then it was Mercedes who’d saved me? That was twice now. If I hadn’t liked her before, I loved her now. But, warm and fuzzies didn’t explain why she’d brought me back. “Why did you relocate me here, to this time?”

Mercedes stood up and sighed deeply, walking to my window as she took in the view. “As with the laws governing nature, there is a path we must take in the present to create an intended outcome in the future.”

“What does that mean?” I demanded. “Why was it so important for you to pull me back to this time?”

She faced me. “Your fate and my own require us both to return to the battle.”

“Your fate?” Why did it suddenly feel like there was more to this story than I’d previously imagined?

“Yes, I am coming with you.”

I stood up, half in shock. “So, that’s why you brought me here? Not to save me but because you…needed me to give you a ride into the future?” I couldn’t think of how else to say what I was feeling and didn’t mean for the words to sound so…dumb.

“I brought you here because providence dictated it. If you and I do not travel back together, I will be murdered in less than a fortnight and will not be able to end this foolish war between the Underworld creatures.”

“Murdered?” I repeated. “Who…who kills you?”

“Lurkers,” she said and there didn’t seem to be any emotion in her voice. It took my frazzled mind a moment or two to fully grasp her response. Lurkers…then I remembered. Lurkers were human half-breeds, caught between vampires and humans. They had been killing the otherworldly little by little for hundreds of years. But, since relocating to England and being so involved with the war with Bella, I’d pushed concerns about Lurkers out of my mind.