Page 5 of Never Leave Me
His fingers couldn’t fly fast enough over his mobile’s keyboard.He pulled up the first search result. “Pearls are symbolic of wisdom and are born of water. People used to believe that pearls dissolved in wine could bring about immortality.”
Wisdom and water and immortality.
He let his mobile fall into his lap, his thoughts zinging with anticipation and hope that he hadn’t allowed himself to feel in months.
“Marian, did you do this to communicate with us?” he whispered.
If she had lived and amended the family heraldry, the effort would have taken quite a lot of trouble. She would have had to gain permission from the head of the house, the man she supposedly married. If her husband had been in agreement, then they would have had to petition officials, commission the design, and wait for the artist to complete the work, which would have entailed redoing all the crests around the manor as well as on the weaponry and other equipment used in battle.
If indeed Marian had made the change, why would she do it? Why go to so much effort?
Was she attempting to assure them she’d lived a good and full life?
He angled his head and studied the shield again thoroughly. With all the symbolism, she had to be telling him not to give up on Arthur’s research into the Tree of Life and the miracles associated with the holy water.
Harrison picked up his mobile and texted Drake. Within minutes, his butler opened the door and poked his head inside.
“Would you like me to lay up tea and biscuits, my lord?”
Harrison nodded in the direction of the shield. “Have a look at the family crest and tell me what you think.”
Drake stepped into the room, stood next to Harrison, and stared at the shield. “Is something amiss, my lord?” Drake asked tentatively, as though somehow Harrison was testing him.
“Think on it, Drake. What do you see?”
Drake studied the picture. “Well ... honestly, nothing new.”
“Look more carefully. Anything stand out?”
The older man examined the shield again, as though searching for the answer to a riddle. After a moment, he shifted nervously. “I’m flummoxed.”
Harrison bit back a sigh. Was he wanting so badly to see a message in the coat of arms that he was letting his imagination get away from him?
Drake was quiet for several heartbeats before snapping his fingers. “The pearls, eh? Those look like Miss Ellen’s pearls.”
“Precisely.” Harrison allowed himself a deep breath. “Not only do they look like them, I predict they are one and the same. Marian purposefully had the pearls painted in the crest.”
Drake furrowed his brows.
“Do you know what this means?” Harrison didn’t allow Drake a chance to answer before continuing. “It must mean Marian survived the time crossing and is alive in the past.”
Harrison knew he sounded insane. But fortunately, Drake was accustomed to his idiosyncrasies from the previous year, when Harrison first learned of Arthur’s speculations about breaching the space-time continuum. Drake had helped Marian and Harrison find the ampullae hidden in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. The faithful butler had protected them and gone along with Harrison’s wild conjectures without any questions.
If Marian was trying to encourage him not to abandon the research, then that meant...
Harrison sat forward, renewed energy coursing through him. “We need to check the vault and crypt. Both of them. Right away.”
Drake’s brows furrowed. “Right away?”
Harrison understood Drake’s skepticism. They’d searched the vault from top to bottom numerous times following the excavation. Harrison had even paid a specialist to come in and exhumefurther. But they’d found nothing of any consequence—a few historical artifacts and some jewels. But mostly everything of value had been removed when the vault had been filled in. Over the ensuing months, Harrison had no reason to go back to either the vault or the cathedral crypt, especially since at the mere mention of either one, Ellen got worked up.
Of course, with his assumption that Marian had died in the past as well as the present, he’d had no reason to look for more holy water in those places. But if he was analyzing the symbolism in the family emblem correctly, then he’d given up on her too soon.
If she’d lived, it was still possible for her to pass along holy water. He’d learned from the previous exchanges of ampullae that something in the molecular makeup of the holy water allowed it to defy constraints, the particles moving at planck, maybe even chronon, time—the smallest wavelengths possible. On some quantum level, the holy water itself was timeless, making it possible to transmit from one era to another.
In other words, just because the holy water hadn’t been in the usual hiding places when he’d first checked, didn’t mean it wouldn’t be there now, not if Marian had located more for them.
“It certainly won’t hurt us to check again, will it, Drake?” He pressed the switch on the control panel of his wheelchair and started for the door, his heart whirring as fast as his chair.
