Page 59 of Once a Villain
“How long before that happens?” Nick said tightly, echoing Joan’s question.
“I don’t know,” Jamie said, but his tone saidnot long.
“You need to tell us everything you know,” Joan said to him. “Everything you remember. How was the King planning to lock the timeline?”
Jamie spread his hands to indicate that he didn’t recall.
Nick shifted his weight. “We’re not going to figure out anything on this boat,” he said, and Joan registered the way that everyone turned to him. The brisk, soldier-like note in his voice. It reminded her of his counterpart. “Tom—you need to take us back to the Oliver house. We need to analyze the message from my counterpart. And we need to break that cipher.”
He was right. Nick’s and Aaron’s counterparts had clearly been several steps ahead of them in figuring out Eleanor’s plans, and how to stop her. He was right about the need to break thatcode too. Joan was sure it held the key to physically accessing Eleanor.
Tom looked at them all. “Ineedto, do I?” His posture was almost too relaxed suddenly.
Joan’s heart stuttered before she’d even realized why. She kept forgetting this wasn’t their Tom. That they still hadn’t persuaded him to their side.
“Tom... ,” Jamie said.
“So I’ve been listening to you all.” Tom scratched his neck, still faux relaxed. “Iheard you say that the Queen is going to save the world. She’s going to fix the damage to the timeline. And the five of you want to stop her.”
Joan shook her head. She could understand why he’d think that. “Weplan to repair the timeline too,” she said, willing Tom to believe her. “If Jamie’s right, those tears only exist because Eleanor pushed the timeline too far from true.”
“If we restore the timeline, those tears should vanish,” Jamie agreed.
They were all still standing in the small space beyond the narrowboat’s kitchenette, and Jamie had ended up between Tom and the others again. Joan was sure he’d done it on purpose.
“You don’t understand how bad this place is,” Jamie said to him earnestly. “You don’t have anything to compare it with. I know you can feel it’s wrong, though. You know that this world shouldn’t be set in stone.”
“Is that what I know?” Tom said mildly.
“You can feel it,” Jamie persisted. “There’s something wrong with this timeline. It’s not only the damage you showed us, orthe way humans are treated. You feel it inside yourself. You know you’re not living the life you’re supposed to be living.”
Tom gave him a long look, but there was a crack of vulnerability in his expression. Jamie’s words were resonating.
“You feel that something’s missing,” Jamie said. Joan could hear the pleading note in it.
Tom folded his big arms against his chest. “Are you going to say it’s you?” His own tone wasn’t quite mocking, but it was challenging.
Jamie didn’t flinch. “I know you’ve guessed who I am, Tom.”
“I know what you want me to guess. What you’ve led me to guess.”
“It’s the truth.”
“You have an agenda. Youwantme to trust you. That gives you an incentive to lie.”
Jamie swallowed visibly. Even standing a little behind him, Joan could see his pain—it was in his stiff stance, his tight shoulders. He bent now to carefully work his wedding ring from his finger.
“Really?” Tom said. “A proposal? We’ve only just met.”
Jamie’s jaw twitched in what might have been an attempt at a smile. He offered the ring to Tom. “There are words on its inner side,” he said. “From you to you. You had them etched in case anything like this ever happened. I always thought you were being paranoid. But...” He huffed a soft laugh. “You were just thinking ahead, covering all the bases, as usual.”
“Ididn’t write anything,” Tom said. “And unless there’s an essay on here, it’s not going to convince me.” But he took thering reluctantly and held it up to the light.
Joan was too far to read the etched words on the inner side, but she saw Tom’s reaction. A breath shuddered through him.
Tom closed his fingers around the ring, hiding it from sight. “Why didn’t you show me this before?” he asked Jamie. There wasn’t much emotion in his voice.
“Because... ,” Jamie said helplessly, “I knew it would be a mind-fuck. Because I hoped we’d have more time together to get to know each other. To talk. But thereisno time, Tom. We need your help before the world falls apart.”
