Page 74 of Time for You
“The timing?”
Lydia nodded crisply. “The spacing of the veils—if the calculations are correct, you’ll be arriving a year later than you were last there.”
That sank in, a cold cube of ice in his stomach.Only a year—she couldn’t have moved on in a year, could she?
Lydia must have noticed his fear. “What’s wrong?”
Henry made himself shrug. “There’s many things that could go wrong in a year, that’s all.”
“You’re afraid she’ll have moved on.” She took off her spectacles, her expression unfamiliarly gentle. “If she loves you, a year won’t have been long enough. Believe me on that. Finding love like that again doesn’t come easy.”
Henry knew Lydia was speaking from experience, but broaching that subject was beyond him at the moment. He swallowed hard, tracing a line with a series of numbers on it from Chicago to Paris. “And if she has?”
“Then in two years, you come back through the veil to Paris. Twenty-four months exactly after your arrival.”
It would be a cold two years, living in the future without Daphne, but he couldn’t imagine having a chance to see her again and not taking it. “Then that’s my plan.” He looked up, meeting her direct gaze. “Thank you,” he said softly.
Her eyes glistened, and her response came out in a whisper. “Of course.”
“There are sandwiches in your bag, along with some bannocks,” Lydia said, as usual hiding her emotions under business. “Shep can—”
“Shepard doesn’t need to do anything else,” Henry said soothingly. “It’s barely half a day’s journey to Manchester.”
“Half a day to Manchester, and then across the ocean over a hundred-some years into the future,” she corrected.
Henry could have argued, but instead he turned to Maggie, who was waiting impatiently to say goodbye. He opened his mouth, but as usual, his sister beat him to it. “Don’t you dare tell me anything about running the business as your final thoughts to me. I don’t need any help.”
“I was going to say as much.” He grinned. “I was never well suited to it, but you—you’re brilliant at it, and I’d never dream of pretending I knew better.”
“Good,” Maggie huffed, but she pulled him into a hug. “I hate that you’re leaving, but I do love you, you know.”
“I know,” he agreed.
Anne’s turn was next, although Henry had been up most of the night before, walking her through what the gang had taught him about using the medicines they’d sent and warning about the “space-time paradox” it might cause if word of them or the textbook were to get out. “I have something for you,” he said.
Anne looked at his hands eagerly. “Where? What is it?”
“It’s not so much a gift as it is an opportunity. I spoke to the medical college, and they have agreed to accept you for the Michaelmas term.”
“But that’s—”
“Starting in one week, yes. So you had better get prepared. I set the money aside in a trust, but you should be warned: Some of the professors do not want women there, or they charge more for teaching you. But if you make it through, there’s no reason you can’t work as a fully qualified doctor.”
Anne threw her arms around him in glee. “Thank you,” she said, sniffing back tears.
“Thank me by becoming the best damn doctor in all of Scotland,” he replied. If Anne started weeping, he might not be able to bring himself to leave.
“I have something for you, too,” Anne said, and thrust a folded piece of paper into his hands.
He frowned down at it, taking in the hand-drawn map with tiny stars scattered across Europe. “What is this?”
“Mama and I worked it out. It’s all possible rips in the time veil for the next fifty years, for each of us. As close as we could get, anyway. It might not work, but at least this way there’s a chance we’ll see each other again.”
Henry swallowed over the lump in his throat and hugged his sister one last time. Lydia was waiting behind Anne, while George checked his watch to make sure they were still on time. Their scheduled train would get them to Manchester with plenty of time to make it to the time veil, but that didn’t mean they could dawdle.
He gave his mother a tight hug. “I love you, Ma,” he whispered.
She let out a soft, choking sob. “I love you, too. And I want you to know—I understand.”
