Page 39 of Never Leave Me
“Perhaps we’re too late. The testing would have been much more effective if we’d conducted it immediately after the ingestion.”
Dr. Lionel clicked away at the keyboard, typing something before pausing. “We have no choice but to proceed with the next phase of our plan.”
“Do we really want to use our one flask on her?”
One flask. Of holy water? Had Lionel found an ampulla? If so, where?
“It may be our only chance to secure more of the water.”
“But if we test the curative properties on my dad”—Jasper’s voice contained a note of frustration—“we can study the effects immediately this time.”
Jasper’s dad had Lou Gehrig’s disease. Last year when she’d spoken with him about the illness, his dad was holding steady. Had the older man deteriorated over the past months just like she had? Maybe Jasper was as frantic to find a cure for his dad as Marian and her dad had been to find one for her. The same way she was now anxious to find one for Josie.
“Even if we give your father the flask and study the effects right away, my guess is that we will still find nothing.”
“But it’s worth a try—”
“Must I remind you? Arthur’s bloodwork showed nothing. Marian’s showed nothing. And now Ellen’s shows nothing. What makes you think your father’s will be different?”
“I don’t know—”
“Precisely why we must now seek the source.”
The source? As in the source of the holy water? That’s what Dad and Marian had tried to do. And they’d failed.
“It’s much too risky,” Jasper said.
“Someone supplied Ellen with more holy water.” Dr. Lionel’s tone was clipped. “We must assume that was either Arthur or Marian doing so from the past.”
Ellen tried not to start at Dr. Lionel’s assumption that time crossing was possible. More people were aware of the powers of the holy water than she’d realized.
Jasper sipped his coffee and then spoke. “Or perhaps Harrison’s antiquarians stumbled upon the last ampullae finally.”
“As closely as we’ve been monitoring them, we would have known if they did.”
Harrison had antiquarians searching for another ampulla? She should be surprised. But she wasn’t.
Dr. Lionel rolled away from his computer, the wheels of his chair scraping across the cement floor. “With the extensive search Lord Burlington is orchestrating for her, we may not have much time before we need to move out of the country. While we have access to this location, we must inject her with the dose today and instruct her to find more.”
Harrison was searching for her? An ache formed in her chest. Of course he was.
“And if she doesn’t want to?”
“You said she was pliable.”
So, they were planning on giving her a flask of the holy water in an attempt to send her to another era so she could locate more of the water to deliver to them?
“I won’t do it.” The words tumbled out before she could stop them.
Jasper spun and nearly spilled his coffee, apparently not expecting her to be awake yet. Dr. Lionel stood more slowly.
Wearing only a hospital gown and covered in a thin sheet, she shivered, frigid from her fingers to her toes. “You’ve gotten the tests you want from me, now let me go.”
“Miss Creighton, please think seriously about the matter.” Dr. Lionel approached in a calculated manner, as if every word, every step, every breath was somehow important. “Surely after benefiting from so great a cure, you’d like to help others find the same healing. Perhaps Josephine Ansley.”
The protest inside her fizzled. How did they know about Josie?
“Think of the good you could do for Josie and all the children who stay at Serenity House.” He stopped at the end of the examination table, but Jasper hung back.
