Page 85 of The Uprising
‘I will take some of the credit then, even though I haven’t a clue what I did.’
‘Do you realise this is the first time we’ve witnessed an object travel through time? I must tell Eddie that our plan worked,’ she said.
‘It’s fascinating; although it didn’t strictly travel through time. It just remained where it was, didn’t it?’ asked George.
‘Yes, that’s true; but if you hadn’t smuggled it into Willow Manor it wouldn’t have been there. Brilliant idea to store it in the Lovers’ Fountain, by the way.’
‘That is a brilliant idea. If only I had thought of it,’ he said.
Cara’s heart contracted—she could feel his frustration even though he tried to make light of the situation. How she had wished their time travel would stop so they could live a normal life, but now she saw how it was affecting him, she was having second thoughts. Eddie had told her that Victoriana George was stuck and frustrated about not being able to return to present day. Poor George wasn’t having a good time of it in any of the timelines.
‘Ready for coffee?’
‘Ooh, yes. You make the best coffee,’ she said as he filled the two china cups and added a splash of oat milk to hers, with a flourish.
She breathed in the rich aroma, savoured the smooth flavour of the coffee beans, and after a moment, she said, ‘You’ll never guess who I met at Willow Manor.’
‘Um—the American investor?’
‘Nope, not even close.’
‘Not more guessing games. Go on, just tell me.’
‘There was a gardener tending the rose garden when I arrived at the fountain.’
‘Right, and?’
‘You won’t believe who it was.’
‘I’m intrigued. Come on, spill the beans.’
‘Okay...it was Swifty.’
‘Noooooo,’ he said, his eyes shone like swirls of rich, rippled chocolate. ‘How did you know? Did he look like himself?’
‘Well, that’s just it. At first, he didn’t, but once he introduced himself, I realised he reminded me of a mature version of young Swifty.’
‘How extraordinary...so, our lad’s either reincarnated as a descendent of Swifty, or he is time travelling like us.’
‘He’s the head gardener, by the sounds of it, but he’s not a lad; I’d guess he’s well into his thirties. He lives in the grounds and said he’ll be happy to continue in his role if we buy the estate. And there’s more.’
‘Go on...’
‘He has a greyhound called Cornelius! That’s why he was at the hotel when we stayed there.’
George continued to stare at Cara as he digested her revelations. ‘Well that can’t be a mere coincidence. I thought he must have been some kind of spirit dog.’
‘Me too, something like that anyway—I thought he was an apparition, but he’s real and he licked my hand and he even knew me. Swifty remarked on how strange it was.’
‘Well, well. That’s incredible; so, we also have a time travelling greyhound on our team,’ he said smiling into her eyes.
George pulled her into his arms and hugged her.
‘It was so weird. I don’t think Swifty recognised me, but he was excited to hear we’re related to the original Cavendish family, and he talked about the house burning down and some kind of tragedy in the eighteenth century. I didn’t have a chance to get into it as much as I would have liked because I was anxious to look for the key before anyone else noticed me wandering uninvited around the grounds.’
‘I didn’t even ask. How did you manage to get in?’
‘I just pretended I was a guest and walked in as if I belonged there.’
