Page 64 of The Runner
‘Oh, goodness. As if trying to keep our situation from Kate isn’t difficult enough already…’
‘We must keep the family history volume from her, or she might read about Olivia and realise her dream was accurate, and who knows where that will lead?’ Cara said.
‘Unless she read the volume already at some point and the memory was in her mind and simply resurfaced with all of our talk of the history of the house?’
‘I believe we may have a sceptic on our hands,’ Cara said, prodding him gently in the arm. ‘You’d think after all we’ve experienced, that you’d be a bit more open to the mystical realms…’
Swifty was in the kitchen on a tea break, visiting his mother, Mrs Lightfoot, and they heard Cornelius barking as a newspaper thudded onto the hard tiles by the back door. George jumped up to retrieve the paper and was back in a flash, leafing through the pages.
‘Here we are. Not an altogether terrible photo of us…,’ he said.
‘Let me see. You are always so photogenic, but I generally look dreadful in these pieces.’ Cara peered at their picture inThe York Press. ‘Ew, just as I feared.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You look gorgeous,’ George said, and then read the article aloud. ‘Willow Manor had been in the Cavendish family since the early Tudor period, until the family’s fortunes declined, and the estate stood derelict for years before being converted into a charming hotel…’
‘Well, at least we’ve made it into the paper, and it’s a big article. That’s good—should get us some more bookings. We’ve had some come in overnight, actually.’
As they walked around the gardens and down to the river later that morning, making the most of the idyllic late summer weather, Cara told George how the vortex had come for her in Georgiana, and she’d had no choice but to leave.
‘I wondered what was going on, but didn’t want to press you. Why do you think that happened suddenly?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve been meaning to call Eddie and see what he makes of it.’
‘Let’s do it now,’ said George, pressing Eddie’s name on his phone. They had the sunny blustery riverbank all to themselves so they could speak freely when Eddie picked up.
‘That sounds like time pushing back. You’ve experienced it in the past in different forms. Remember?’ said Eddie.
‘I remember you explaining that when we try to overwrite a timeline, it can cause all sorts of problems.’
Cara held George’s hand, and he squeezed hers.
‘By time travelling on demand, you are now effectively hacking the system and have taken it to another level, so it doesn’t surprise me that time would push back—hard.’
‘Was it something particular that triggered it?’ Eddie said.
Cara sighed. ‘George is so pig-headed, and it upset me.’
‘Not again. That could have done it,’ Eddie replied. ‘I can’t be certain, as we don’t have enough data yet, but I suspect that when our emotions are heightened, it can push the system to the limit, and then we’re more likely to summon the vortex and travel again. We’ve seen that happen quite a bit in other timelines.’
‘I don’t know that there’s any more I could do, anyway. George has returned to court, and he’s going to ask Charlotte to marry him regardless of his feelings for Caroline. In typical George fashion, he thinks it’s selfish to prioritise his own needs, and doesn’t realise that putting his reputation above his happiness is just his ego running the show.’
‘I am here, you know,’ said George, dryly.
‘What a complete fool,’ said Eddie. ‘Has he learned nothing from Tudorville?’
Cara rolled her eyes. ‘Apparently not, although in fairness he is the new and improved version of himself and is behaving in a not all together surprising way for his time. But I always get the sharp end of the stick. I must have done something incredibly bad in one of my past lives to deserve this karma!’
George kicked a stone from the edge of the riverbank, and it skimmed the water with lightning precision for several seconds before it disappeared.
‘Well, it was a man’s world back then, but for what it’s worth, I am sorry for being so dense, my darling,’ he said.
Cara replied, ‘With me gone, I fear the original timeline will play out just as it was written in the family history book before the text disappeared and hid its secrets from us. If I don’t get back there, I think we’re all headed for disaster.’
Eddie advised her to wait a few days and give her memory a chance to update, and then they would decide whether she should attempt to travel on demand again.
‘I see why you’re worried, but we must not forget that there’s always just as much chance of messing things up by going back at the wrong time,’ he said.
Eddie excused himself and rushed off to take a class.
