Page 47 of Once a Villain
“Thank you.” Joan took the offered bag, and caught a hint of sadness, of wistfulness, in Aaron’s expression. Joan had seen glimpses of Aaron’s everyday life; of his family’s cruelty after his mother had died. How different would his life have been if Marguerite had survived?
Marguerite turned back to Alfie and Enid. “I’m very sorry you two were caught up in this. I know you aren’t wolves yourselves.”
Not wolves? Joan looked at Marguerite, surprised.
Alfie confirmed it. “We didn’t know anything. The guards forced us to sign false confessions. They made us swear that we’d been working against the Queen. But...”
“It’s the Court’s latest tactic,” Marguerite said, disgust pinking her face. “They can’t stop the wolf attacks, and they can’t find the culprits, so they scapegoat innocent humans.” She shook her head. “The truth is, there are far fewer wolves than the Court believes.”
The way she said it made Joan wonder if the entire wolf movement had just been Aaron and Nick—aided by trusted confidantes like Marguerite.
She was nearly sure of it when Marguerite shot a curious look at her, and then at Nick, Ruth, and Jamie. Joan had the impression that Aaron’s counterpart hadn’t trusted many people.
A knock at the door made them all jump. Marguerite gestured for Alfie and Enid to hide. When they were safe, she raised her voice. “Come!”
The door cracked open, revealing a young girl in the pub’s uniform. “Your driver is here, Lady Nightingale. He’s in thealley.” She nodded at another door—at the side of the room. Joan guessed that it led directly to the road outside.
As soon as the girl was gone, Marguerite bundled Alfie and Enid up in cloaks, hoods up to hide Alfie’s distinctive hair. “I’ll just be a couple of minutes,” she said to Aaron. “I need to speak to the driver.” She opened the side door, and Joan glimpsed a dark-windowed car waiting outside. And then the door closed again, and Joan and the others were temporarily alone.
Joan released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Beside her, Aaron’s shoulders dropped in a shudder.
“Are you all right?” she whispered to him.
Aaron shook his head slightly. “I didn’t expect to see her. It’s been years since she was...” He trailed off.Since she was executed.
“She’s nice,” Nick said. It was gentle, and his eyes on Aaron were softer than before.
Aaron was silent for a long moment. “She’s older than she ever got in my memory, but she’sexactlylike herself in every other way.” Then he added, so quietly that Joan had to strain to hear him, “I’m not her son, though. I killed her son when I arrived here.”
Joan’s chest hurt. “That’s not your fault.”
“It’s not,” Jamie agreed softly.
“I can’t tell my mother—it would kill her to find out.”
“You want us to keep lying to her?” Ruth’s voice was more sympathetic than her words. Maybe she’d guessed, like Joan had, that Aaron would find it unbearable to lie to his mother.
“We have to keep pretending we belong here,” Aaron said roughly. “Listen... my counterpart was clearly working againstthe Court to help humans. But the five of us”—he indicated Joan, Nick, Ruth, and Jamie—“want more than that. We want to restore the timeline, to make a better world. But to do that, we’ll have to overwritethisworld. We’ll have to overwrite the people in this timeline. We need to be very careful about what we say, and who we say it to.”
Joan took a deep breath. They’d been talking about stopping Eleanor, about fixing this timeline, but she hadn’t thought further than that. Aaron was right, though, she realized now. Restoring the world—fixing it—would mean overwriting everyone in this timeline.
It was an overwhelming thought. Joan wanted to push it out of her head. Because at the same time, this timeline was just wrong.
Nick said it before Joan could. “Wedohave to correct this timeline, though. This world can’t stand.”
“It can’t,” Joan agreed. Her throat felt tight.
Aaron sighed. His head was still down, but he glanced up at Nick, something odd in his eyes. “I can’t imagine our counterparts working together here,” he said to him. “I really can’t fathom it. How did they even meet?”
“We’re working together right now, and I can hardly believe it,” Nick said wryly.
Joan bit her lip. Aaron and Nickwereworking together, but they’d all made it clear this was a temporary truce. Had it been the same for their counterparts? Had they agreed to help each other only until Eleanor was defeated? What would have happened after that?
They fell silent again as the side door opened and Margueritereturned from the alley. The room seemed to brighten with her presence. She and Aaron had the same glamorous aura; the same beauty that made sense on-screen but was startling in the real world.
“They got away safely,” she said.
“Wonderful,” Aaron managed.
