Children of Time (The After Cilmeri Series Book Four) (14 page)

His desk sat before a bank of twenty screens, showing all portions of the spa, including the pool, elevator, hallways, lobby, and waiting room where I’d sat with Goronwy. Thankfully, no cameras appeared to be running in the suites themselves, nor in the patients’ rooms. The man pushed at a rolling office chair with his foot, indicating that I should sit, while he tapped a few strokes on the keyboard. Ten seconds later, the screen in front of him filled with the pool atrium.

He fast-forwarded, and then stopped. I leaned forward. The paunchy American with the ball cap swam the breast stroke at the near end of the pool, and then …

FLASH!

Light blew out the picture on the screen and when it came back into focus, Goronwy, Llywelyn, and I were struggling in the water. I watched the man lift me up while two or three other swimmers helped Goronwy get Llywelyn out of the pool.

Danny stopped the video and rubbed his hands together. “So that’s it.”

“Who else has seen this?” I said.

“Er … a few people. I left a note for my boss this morning to check it out, since I knew he hadn’t seen it yet, but he’s been out sick the last three days.”

I could hardly believe my good luck. “You mean, the manager of the hotel doesn’t know about this?”

“No.” He gestured towards the screen. “Care to tell me what this is all about?”

I studied the screen, thinking furiously, and decided I’d do best with some version of the truth. “You know, I really can’t. How about you? Have you ever seen anything like it?”

Danny shook his head. “I can’t explain it at all. I’ve been taking some courses in physics at the University of Aberystwyth, and if my instructor told me that you were part of an experiment with multi-faceted anacamptic LED photometrics, I’d nod and agree, but I wouldn’t even know what he meant.”

I laughed. Danny had hidden depths. “Thanks for showing me, Danny.” I stood and put a hand on his shoulder. “What about your boss? Will he be mad? Do you think we’ll get in trouble or anything?”

Danny glanced up at me. “I can’t see why.” He gestured to the screen, which was stopped on the image of Goronwy helping Llywelyn out of the pool. “It’s not like it’s your fault our camera blew out.”

“Okay.” I went to the door, but paused to look back. “Do you know when your boss is getting back?”

“He’s got the flu.” Danny tapped into his keyboard, focused on his screens. It was like he’d forgotten me already. “It’ll be another day at least.”

“Thanks.” Once in the hall, I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking. I had a day’s grace, maybe two, before I needed to think about getting Llywelyn out of here. I was grateful to the spa for taking care of him, but if Danny’s boss saw that video, he was going to ask questions.

I hurried back to the elevator. As it rose one floor, I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, resting my head against the walls. And then I pressed the button for the fifth floor. I needed a moment before going back to Llywelyn and Goronwy. I’d felt the closeness of the Middle Ages time and again since we arrived in the twenty-first century, but it was incidents like these that showed that the veil between their world and mine wasn’t a veil at all, but a brick wall.

Chapter Twelve

18 November 2016

Meg

A
s it turned out, it was the spa that decided they’d had enough of us—not because of our abrupt arrival, but because we’d run out of money. After three days in the clinic, we’d maxed out my credit card: $25,000 and they were going to boot us out the door. Not all of that money had been spent on health care, admittedly, what with the suite, food and clothing for Goronwy and me, and a new phone. The administrator who brought the bad news looked at Llywelyn over the top of her electronic tablet. “We’ll have to transfer you to the hospital in Aberystwyth.”

“Can you wait a few more hours? Please?” I said. “My brother-in-law is coming from the States. I think he’ll be able to help us out.”

The woman bit her lip and gazed down at her screen. I could see the wheels spinning in her head. While the spa was relatively full, they still had empty rooms. A paying guest was a paying guest. “And there are these other irregularities …”

I didn’t want her to talk about the surveillance camera, if she knew about it. “I know, I know. We’ll fix it. Give us until this evening. Please.”

She nodded curtly. “I’ll speak to my supervisor.”

I heaved a sigh. This was just what I needed to make the day perfect. I’d told Llywelyn and Goronwy about my encounter with Danny. It didn’t mean much to either of them, even having seen a television now, though they could see that it worried me. I still wasn’t sure what I had actually
seen.
Why the flash of light as we penetrated the space/time continuum? From our experience, it looked like the exact opposite—a black hole.

Of much greater import was the news that Llywelyn and I were having twins. His response had been the same as mine, passing through surprise, joy, and resignation in turn. We were having a boy and a girl and had progressed out of our shock far enough to start thinking about logistics. When the administrator had arrived, we were in the middle of an argument about whether or not we should be thinking about returning to medieval Wales at all. If birthing one child was dangerous in the Middle Ages, birthing two could be exponentially worse.

We hadn’t even gotten to the part where I went into labor and found myself in a different time. To give birth to twins after leaving Llywelyn behind, either here or there, was my worst nightmare—and what had prompted me to sew my credit card and identity into my dress in the first place.

If I hadn’t been pregnant, I would have drowned my emotions in Bronwen’s foods of choice—chocolate, onion rings, and diet Coke—because that was all I wanted, but I forced down a sandwich and milk instead. Llywelyn, on the other hand, had eaten three meals yesterday, breakfast and lunch today, and the hospital staff had begun to look upon him favorably. I knew better. Another day here and he was going to become very grumpy about still being abed and would begin to make everyone else’s life miserable.

I walked the attendant out the door, making small talk and trying to butter her up a bit, and then paced around the lobby, trying to calm myself. I got another cup of milk from the snack bar and then returned to the clinic. Llywelyn looked up as I returned to his room. “Are we going?”

“We’re not leaving until they forcibly wheel you out of here,” I said. “But I think I managed to stall them for another day at least. It may be that’s all the time you really need.”

Llywelyn plucked at the sheet. “The longer I stay in this bed, the weaker I’ll become.”

“You’re stronger than you were when we left Chepstow,” Goronwy said from the recliner. “Far stronger.”

Llywelyn raised one leg and then the other. He could get to the bathroom by himself now, especially since he was no longer attached to an IV. His last session with the therapist had been spent speed walking the corridor, far better than what he’d managed on his first attempt two days ago.

Llywelyn pointed his chin at Goronwy. “Where did you get those clothes? If I’m to leave here soon, I can’t wear what I wore into the pool.”

Goronwy smiled and smoothed the lapels on the black leather jacket I’d bought him, since I wouldn’t let him wear his cloak in the hospital. “As soon as you are able, I’ll walk you to the lobby. You can see some of these magical items Meg has been keeping from us all these years.”

I rolled my eyes. I had $400 in cash left. That would be about enough to buy a jacket to match Goronwy’s. None of the clothes had sported price tags when we’d shopped initially. At the time, I hadn’t cared what they cost.

I was glad, however, that we’d done the ultrasound yesterday when we still had money.

In the middle of his banter with Goronwy, Llywelyn’s eyes tracked to the door. I turned. Ted stood in the doorway, smiling, though with no Welsh—or medieval Welsh for that matter—he couldn’t have understood our conversation.

“Hi, Meg.” He wasn’t looking at me as much as he was observing Goronwy and Llywelyn.

I got to my feet and went to him. “Hi, yourself.”

He was tall and lanky and had to bend to hug me. “You look great!”

“Thanks.” I rubbed my hand down my belly, revealing the curve beneath my outsized shirt.

“Oh, wow.”

“You’ll be an uncle for the third—and fourth—time.”

“I’m staggered,” Ted said, “but glad nonetheless.”

I tipped my head to the bed. “Come meet my husband.” I made the introductions, switching back and forth from English to Welsh so all the men could understand.

Llywelyn held out his hand and shook Ted’s, medieval style, grasping forearms instead of hands. Ted shook and then bowed at the waist, and then did the same towards Goronwy. I didn’t bother to mention that it wasn’t necessary and simply patted him on the arm. For someone who’d never bowed to anyone in his life, except perhaps to an Asian client, he did it well.

“Go on, Marged,” Llywelyn said, his eyes on Ted as he spoke. “The more you let him help us, the quicker we can get home.”

I looked up at Ted. “Thank you for coming. At this point, we do need your assistance.”

“You need my credit card,” he said, though with a grin. “Always my pleasure to serve the King of Wales.”

He bowed towards Llywelyn again, I kissed Llywelyn’s forehead, and we left the room. Rain beat against the windows in the atrium as I took Ted to the front desk to do what he did best, which was to take care of things. He had the desk clerk refund all the money I’d spent on my card and transfer the full amount to his, but with the assurance that he would continue to pay for whatever we needed until we left the spa.

“You need to sleep,” I said. “I can see it. Why don’t you go up to our room and we can talk more in the morning.” Ted hadn’t wanted to cancel our suite, even though Goronwy and I had used it only sporadically, taking turns napping on one of the great beds.

“We need to talk now,” Ted said.

I eyed him, suddenly concerned that something wasn’t right in his life. “About something other than the enormous debt I owe you?”

“Just—” he stopped, seemingly at a loss to articulate what he was feeling.

I took pity on him. “Come with me.” I brought him to the clinic’s waiting room. It was still deserted, as it had been every time I’d passed through it in the last three days. Ted collapsed onto one of the couches and gestured for me to sit across from him.

I sat.

“Elisa and I have money,” he said. “I can’t imagine spending it on anything more important than Llywelyn’s health.” He shook his head. “It’s not that. It’s you. How are you, and what is your plan? Do you really intend to go back? And if so, how?”

I looked away. The rain glistened on the picture window. The sun had gone down while we were at the front desk and the light from the lamp posts lit the driveway as it had every night, though I hadn’t noticed it particularly since that first evening. “We have to go back, Ted. David and Anna are there. My grandchildren are there.”

“Grandchildren?” he said. “David told me about Cadell, but ….”

“Cadell is three now, and Anna is pregnant again. Bronwen has her little Catrin, and David’s Lili is pregnant with their first.”

Ted sputtered. “
David
is married? He’s only nineteen—”

“He turned twenty two days ago.” I smiled. “We live in the Middle Ages, Ted. Life is too short to wait on love.”

Ted held up his hand. “Okay. I guess I can understand that. But
how
are you going to get back? Between you and David, you’ve sacrificed two cars for this endeavor. Are you going for a third?”

“I don’t know.” I wrapped my arms around my middle, imagining the rental car bill he’d be stuck with if we drove it into the Middle Ages. No wonder he was concerned. He and Elisa were wealthier than anyone I knew (or had known), but they weren’t made of money. “I’m scared, actually. Scared to try.”

“You came here okay,” he said.

“I know. But at the time, I didn’t feel like I had a choice. Llywelyn was
dying
. But now …” My voice trailed off as I tried to find the words to explain what I was feeling. It was true that I didn’t want to stay in the twenty-first century, but it would be
easier
.

“What did you do to come here?” Ted said.

“We jumped off the wall at Chepstow Castle, into the Wye River.”

Ted gaped at me. “That’s a sixty foot drop!”

I was impressed that he knew that. It occurred to me that even though he’d been married to my sister for nearly twenty years, I didn’t know him quite as well as I thought I did. “Less, since the water was running high, but you’re right,” I said. “If I’d had more time to think about it, I would have been terrified.”

“Good Lord.” Ted threw back his head and gazed at the ceiling. “If Elisa hadn’t had David standing in her kitchen three years ago, I think she still wouldn’t believe where you live, where you went.” His head came down. “Part of me wants to go back with you. I took a trip around Wales after David’s visit, in the hope of gaining a better idea of what your life was like.”

“Ted—”

“I know, I know. I can’t go with you. I can’t leave Elisa and the kids, but Meg … my God. Have you considered, you know, telling anyone?”

“About who we are?”

“And what you’ve done,” Ted said.

“Who would I tell?”

“I don’t know … a scientist? One of those famous physicists?” Ted said.

I stared at him. I did not want to get involved in this. I’d already said as much to Llywelyn and Goronwy. “That’s David’s department, not mine. Besides, how could we possibly convince anyone here that what I said was true? Llywelyn is the
King
of Wales. Who’s going to believe that?”

Ted raised a hand and let it drop. “I don’t know. Just an idea.” He studied me for a moment. “What if you’re not alone, though? What if other people have shifted worlds like you have? What if it’s not just you?”

Anna, David, Bronwen, and I were officially
missing persons
according to the police. “I hadn’t ever considered it at all until Goronwy brought up the idea that Wales might have been the recipient of travelers in the past.” I had to laugh. “I don’t want to think about running into someone else from the twenty-first century in medieval Wales.”