Page 92 of The Girl Out of Time
He blinked.
“From almost a hundred years in the future.”
He stopped, shook his head, then caught up with her again. “What?How?”
“The same way I sent us to other periods. One day, I landed here, and the duchess mistook me for Miss Grey. I thought I’d play along until I got my bearings, but it became much too complicated and involved.”
“Why didn’t you go home?”
“I can’t.” A lump formed in her throat. “Now I can’t. Back then, I didn’t want to. I didn’t like the restrictions my parents placed on me. I thought life here would be more exciting.” Their faces, and Tristan and Brendon’s, flashed in her mind, but blurry and shapeless, as if her memory couldn’t quite reach them any more. Her eyes stung. Would they completely disappear one day? Would she no longer remember their eyes and their voices and their laughter?
How could she have been so silly?
“So, where is the real Miss Grey?”
She focused on the present—the last thing she needed was to alienate Theo, as well. At least more than she’d already had. “I accidentally sent her to another time, I think.”
“Emmeline!”
“I know, I know!” She spread her arms. “I’m working on it. That’s why I’m still following Lady Scarlet’s clues. She clearly has better control over this time travel thing than I do. In the past few months, I wasn’t able to travel once.”
They’d arrived at a tall, wrought-iron fence with a gate; the road continued behind it, leading to a small, low bridge. Emmeline shook the gate. “It’s locked.”
“Kensington Gardens are closed for the winter,” Theo said. “Why do you need to go there?”
“The clue. Don’t you remember it?”
“I remember there were multiple, possibly leading to different places in London.”
“I think so, too. This one—where the Queen doth provide; you can run, but you cannot hyde. We’ve both figured out it’s Hyde Park. Run, I think, relates to the Serpentine, whichrunsthrough the park. It was created by Queen Caroline when she had the river dammed. The gate of that dam—in there.” She pointed to the bridge.
Theo tilted his head. “Well done,” he said in clear admiration.
“Thank you.” She wouldn’t tell him it took her a whole month to work it out. “It is a little unfortunate I can’t get in, though.”
They stood there for a few moments; then, Theo sighed in resignation. “Come. I’ll lift you over.”
“Really?”
“Only because if I don’t, I know you’ll find a worse way in.”
She smiled. “You know me.”
He almost smiled back, but curbed it at the last minute. He weaved his fingers together so she could step on his hands, and lifted her over, then climbed in after her. “Have to get you back,” he explained.
This was what she had for now—his reluctant assistance. She’d take it. All ice would thaw eventually.
They headed to the bridge.
“How do you think the clue will look?” he asked.
“All the clues were notes, thus far, so I assume something similar.” She started checking the bridge—the cracks between the stones, around the lamps, every nook and cranny a note could be lodged into. Nothing.
“What about this?” Theo leaned over the side. A small pouch hung off the arch of the bridge, right above the frozen pond.
“That’s it!” She ran to the side of the bridge.
“Where are you going?”
