Chapter 34

CHAPTER 34

As the guards dragged her down the corridor, Anna screamed and kicked. But after their treatment on the journey to the tower and three days in a cell, she was growing weaker by the day. And she was getting sick. She hoped they all caught whatever it was and died.

Why were they moving her to another cell? The door opened and she found herself pushed into a room unlike anything she had seen so far. The chamber was richly appointed with plush carpets on the floor, tapestries on the wall, and a roaring fire in the hearth. And there was nice furniture and no mice waiting for crumbs. At least that she could see. Anna groaned in pleasure as she stood in front of the fire, warming herself.

“Much better than where you were, yes?”

She turned to see the man responsible for her current circumstances.

“I’d like to go back to my cell now, please.”

He curled his lip. “You will bathe and eat a proper meal.”

Lord Denby opened the door, calling into the hall, “Come. Help her bathe and dress. Wash what she is wearing. ”

He pointed to a platter on the table. “Eat. Drink. When I return, we will have speech together.”

Anna had no idea what he was up to, but she needed to keep her strength up. When the opportunity arose, she would try to escape. Get help for John. He was so weak that she knew he was dying. Hope was all she had left. Hope the messages were sent to his brothers and soon they would show up. Hope was the only thing keeping her going.

“Eat, mistress. When the bath is ready, we will let you know.”

She sat down at the table and inhaled the hot food. Was it good? Anna didn’t know. All she knew was she was hungry, and down it went. There was even a cloth napkin to wipe her mouth. As she sipped at the wine, she noticed something glinting under papers on the table.

Sliding the papers to the side, she stared, unbelieving. The locket. She looked around the room to see if anyone was there. One of the women was busy heating water and wasn’t paying any attention. She slid the locket over and looked at it.

It looked new. But it had been almost three months since she’d seen the original, so she couldn’t be sure it was the same one. The locket was empty. Where was the portrait? The front of the piece was missing the indent she remembered. Maybe it had gotten banged up over the years? After all, it’d been almost seven hundred years. She ran her finger across the surface and turned the locket over. She frowned.

Still. It didn’t hurt to try. Anna grasped it tight in her palm and closed her eyes, whispering, “Take me home. I want to go where I am needed.”

“Mistress? Your bath is ready.”

It hadn’t worked. She dropped the locket, guiltily sliding it back under the papers. Anna stood still as they undressed her and helped her into the tub. The water was blissfully hot and there was a sliver of some type of lavender-scented soap. She started to wash herself but the women took over. It was an odd sensation to have someone else bathe you. Scrubbing every part of you. Every part.

When they washed her hair, scrubbing her scalp, she almost fell asleep. Though it felt odd not to feel a long coil of hair down her back, the heaviness when her hair was wet. Now it was light. She wasn’t used to short hair. The women helped her out of the tub, and she stood in front of the fire as they rubbed her dry with soft cloths.

The women were quick and efficient as they dressed her. The dress was a pretty green, though it had a bit of an odor to it. She sniffed. It wasn’t too bad. As they sat her down and combed her hair, one of the women clucked her tongue.

“Who did this to you, mistress?”

She couldn’t look at the woman. The kindness in her voice was enough to make her start crying. Instead she bit the inside of her cheek, afraid that Denby was somewhere nearby, listening. No way did she want to sound weak.

“The guards did it when I was captured.”

“Bunch of brutes.”

The other woman nodded. “Heard the bandit killed six of them. Good for him.”

Anna sat on the stool staring into the fire as the women finished cleaning up, coming and going. She paid them little attention, too busy trying to recall exactly what the original locket looked like. It definitely had something on the front, where this one did not. And the inscription. It said, All our years together.

Could that be right? She couldn’t be sure, since the inscription on the other one was worn off but…after she and Charlotte talked, Anna was convinced the locket had been meant for her. If it was supposed to be hers, what did the words mean? Was it that she had been here many years before the locket was given to her? Or was it a different locket?

She was growing drowsy sitting by the fire when the door opened .

“Praying for an outlaw?”

She opened her eyes and stood up.

“John will die a traitor’s death or of his illness, it matters not. The king listens to me. I am an important man. My sire wanted to behead him and be done with it, but I argued for having him drawn and quartered and hanged, as a bandit should be.”

He walked over to her. The fire crackled, making her jump. She moved three steps back. There was something about him that made her uneasy. The look on his face made her wish to be invisible.

“I will let you watch from this room when your lover is killed.”

“You’re disgusting.”

Denby grabbed hold of her face in his palms and tilted it to the light.

“What does he see in you? You are so plain. My Letitia was known across the kingdom for her beauty. You are too ugly for one as important and rich as me to bed. Mayhap I’ll have you scrub my floors. The bandit’s woman on her hands and knees in my home. I would like that very much.”

Yuck. What a creep. The thought of him putting his hands on her was enough to make her gag. The man sauntered over to the desk and rooted through the papers. Anna held her breath. He came back with the locket in his hand and a small bundle wrapped in cloth.

“This arrived today. Word travels fast around London. The jeweler sent it here.”

He handed her the locket.

“I paid for it, as I was curious to see what trinket he wanted you to have. But this…”

He handed her the bundle. It was light in her hands. She unwrapped it and gasped. Goosebumps broke out all over her skin. She bit her cheek hard until she tasted blood. When he turned his head, she stuck her finger in her mouth and touched the blood to the locket. Anna held both items in her hands, closed her eyes, and wished. She was still wishing when she heard his voice. She opened her eyes to see she was still in the past. Her shoulders slumped.

“The bastard never gave my beautiful Letitia jewelry.” He made a face. “You are plain and require adornment.”

She looked at the locket again. There was something different about it. But it had to be the same locket. There was no way there could be two. So she was truly trapped in the past. Her father would never know what happened to her. It was a small thing to be happy he had Alzheimer’s, for at least he wouldn’t miss her. But she was so worried about where he would end up without the money to help pay for his care.

And she still had to deal with the fact she was in the past and sentenced to die. Had she traveled through time just to end up dead?

Something wet landed on the portrait of John. He looked so handsome. It was snatched out of her hand.

“Give it back. He would want me to have it.”

Denby sneered at her and ripped the portrait in half. It gratified her to see it was difficult for him to rip the canvas. Then he threw the pieces in the fire.

The man tossed the locket to her. “You can keep the trinket.”

She snatched it and held it close.

“Guards.”

Anna looked down to see only one piece landed in the fire. She dropped to the floor, reaching out, snatching the other half. Before he noticed, she jammed it in the locket and snapped it closed. It was the half she had seen in her own time. This was the locket she had found in the future. Which meant she couldn’t get home. She was trapped here for as long as she might have left.