Page 104 of The Uprising
‘You called me Caroline and I was very sad. I don’t remember more than that,’ she said, rubbing her weary eyes.
‘That’s good; you did well. It’s not necessary for you to remember what happened, only that you will be mine again. Your romance with the lord of the manor has been erased.’
It was all too much for Cara, tears streamed from her eyes and down her face, and loud sobs wracked her body as she bent over, not wanting her nemesis to see he had destroyed her, but unable to control her despair. She had lost George forever.
Ralph reached for her and encircled her in his arms.
‘There, there, my love, it will be wonderful, you’ll see,’ he patted her back.
Her body stiffened; the very touch of him made her nauseous and she feared she would retch again. Cara struggled free and rose swiftly. ‘I’m leaving now. I don’t know what you expected to happen here after your hypnotic curse but I’m not going to just suddenly love you. I don’t even know you.’
The tears dried in her eyes as rage gripped her, and she stood straight-backed and looked him directly in the face. ‘You can hypnotise me all you want, it won’t make me love you,’ she said, and she turned and ran towards the exit of the cave.
‘Caroline, you can run but you cannot hide. We will be together again soon; so, go now my love. Go wherever you wish, for you cannot escape me; you cannot escape us. Take care, and I will see you again soon.’
Cara knew he believed every word.
What if he was right and she had no choice but to be with him?
She fled from the cave, looking back every few seconds to check he wasn’t following her. His awful prediction confirmed he believed she was his even if she got away.
Cara ran through the forest for what seemed like hours until she could run no more; she collapsed on the ground, exhausted and unable to go any further.
She rested a while, and then raised her weary frame from the mossy forest floor and started walking. After some time, she heard a familiar noise as she approached the edge of a clearing.
And there was the horse she had ridden earlier that morning; waiting for her, tethered to a tree near the river in the same spot as before they went into the abbey to rescue George. She patted the horse as he nuzzled lovingly against her hand, and then she mounted quickly. George must have left her horse for her, hoping she would make it back.
She wondered how he had managed to get away; he would have had to ride with Edward or Swifty. It was just like him to think of her rather than take the horse. She prayed they had got him safely back to Willow Manor to tend to his injuries. Cara could stand anything as long as he was all right. She readied herself to leave and as she pressed her heels gently into the horse’s flanks, something caught her eye. Carved in a patch of soil; a few steps to the left, in the bed of the clearing were some letters. She moved closer and read: WM-BTN
Cara smiled at the sight of their code. This proved George was still alive and Ralph’s attempt to rewrite history hadn’t erased him from this timeline. She jumped down to pick up a stick and stabbed the letters until they were no longer legible and had blended into the soil as though they had never existed.
Willow Manor: Burn this note, was George’s secret code to tell her where to find him and remind her to cover their tracks.
Cara guided her horse through the clearing, and out of the forest and joined the road to Willow Manor. They may not be together in the future but at least he was alive today.
Chapter 30
Rose Cottage, York - Present day
George placed a cup of coffee in front of Cara on the table as she sat reading, curled up on the sofa. ‘Have you seen Cornelius?’ he said.
She winked at George as he sat down next to her. ‘Yes. We got you out of the abbey, but then I was kidnapped by that crazy karmic warrior.’ She ran her hand over his cropped hair. ‘Has Willow Manor reappeared?’
‘Not last time I checked. I think we may have lost that piece of our past.’
‘I’m worried about Thomas and May,’ Cara said.
‘I talked to Eddie. He doesn’t think they’re in danger.’ George sipped his coffee and stretched his legs.
‘The karmic warrior let me escape after he hypnotised me; he said it didn’t matter because he’d rewritten the future anyway.’
‘Eddie thinks that Willow Manor disappeared before we realised it had happened because the time sequence isn’t an exact replica across the timelines.’
Cara nodded. ‘Makes sense. Sometimes weeks have gone by when it’s only days, or even hours there, and vice-versa.’
They phoned Eddie. ‘I’ve run through every scenario and everything points to Willow Manor disappearing after Ralph Knight hypnotised you. It could be too late,’ said Edward.
‘Too late for what?’ asked George.
