Page 26 of The Journal of a Thousand Years
Thurlow grunted. “Families, eh? This is why it’s better not to have one. Don’t you agree, Miss Ashe?”
I ignored him and addressed Bertie. “You don’t have to do as they say. Do the right thing and let me go.”
Bertie blinked rapidly back at me. “I don’t have a choice!” He indicated Thurlow and his thug, standing at the base of the steps, guarding the way out. “I’m sorry, Miss Ashe. Truly, I am.” He indicated my tied hands. “Is that entirely necessary, Mr. Thurlow? She can’t escape past your man.”
Thurlow snickered. “It would be amusing to see her try.” He untied me then stepped back, as if he expected me to leap at him like a wildcat.
I remained seated. Bertie was right; I couldn’t get past the guard. The only thing I could do was to try convince Thurlow he would achieve nothing by luring Gabe here. “What do you think Gabe can do for you? I told you, he’s artless.”
Thurlow sat on one of the other chairs and crossed one leg over the other. He looked unruffled, as if this were simply a casual meeting between acquaintances. “Come now, you don’t believe that and nor do I. Not after what I witnessed at the Epsom racetrack during the storm.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Someone fired a gun.” He put up his hands in surrender. “Before you ask, I don’t know who. I didn’t organize a shooter. I was merely a witness. And what I witnessed was Glass saving you.”
I crossed my arms. “That’s absurd.”
“You would have been shot if he hadn’t pushed you out of the way. The thing is, he moved in the blink of an eye. Less than a blink.” He clicked his fingers. “No one saw him actually move. So I asked myself how that could be possible. How did a man save someone without being seen to move? It must have been the same way he survived four years of war unscathed, and saved that boy from drowning. He traveled through time.”
I kept my features schooled, even though part of me wanted to laugh. He was right that Gabe’s magic involved the manipulation of time, but he was quite wrong about the time-travel theory.
Bertie must have heard this explanation before because he didn’t look surprised. Indeed, he clarified for me. “It explains a lot. Every time he was hit in the war, he used his magic as he lay injured, perhaps dying, to wind back time. Then he made sure he was prepared and out of the way when the attack came again.”
“Just as he made sure you were out of the way at Epsom, Miss Ashe,” Thurlow added. “It makes sense that he can travel through time. His mother is, after all, a watch magician. Her magic must have mutated within him somehow, or perhaps her husband isn’t artless after all, and they’ve been fooling everyone all these years.”
He might be wrong about how Gabe’s magic worked, but he still believed Gabe was a time magician. And that was dangerous. So, I rolled my eyes and chuckled. “That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
Thurlow merely shrugged. “Deny it all you want, but I was there at Epsom that day.”
It was best to steer the conversation in a different direction so that I wasn’t in danger of accidentally telling him the truth. “How did you get the Hobsons to agree to kidnap me and lure Gabe to you?”
“After first meeting Glass, I did a little research and discovered Ivy was his fiancée for a time. I’d already read about the former soldiers whose Hobson boots had failed, and it made me wonder if there was something there that I could use to my benefit. I befriended Bertie and he admitted he was artless. From there, it was easy to put two and two together and realize he was responsible for the batch of boots failing.”
“He tricked me,” Bertie grumbled. “I thought he was my…particular friend. We became close and I thought I could trust him.”
Had Thurlow and Bertie been lovers? It would explain why Bertie trusted Thurlow with an important secret.
“At first, I simply asked for money,” Thurlow went on. “The time you saw Mrs. and Miss Hobson meet me at the racetrack, they were paying me for my silence.”
I tried to meet Bertie’s gaze, but he kept his head low. He sniffed.
Thurlow continued, unconcerned that Bertie was upset. “Then, once I witnessed Glass save you from the gunshot during that storm, I realized the Hobsons could be useful in another way.” He gestured to me with a flourish of his hand.
“He’s blackmailing us,” Bertie muttered. “We wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t being forced.”
Thurlow made a show of being pained by the accusation. “Blackmail is such a dirty word. Let’s call it payment for my services. In exchange for me not divulging their traitorous secret to the nation they are being useful by bringing you here, which will lure Glass. It’s a neat scheme. I did consider having Ivy go directly to Glass and not involving you at all, but it was her mother who pointed out that he wouldn’t be fooled. We had to be smarter. So we came up with this plan instead. I must say, Hobson, your mother is quite the shrewd woman.”
Bertie sniffed again. “My mother is a she-devil.”
Thurlow chuckled.
“You should be ashamed of yourself, blackmailing a widow,” I said.
“She may be a widow, but she has always ruled the family and overseen the business. Her husband was little better than a puppet.”
“It’s true,” Bertie muttered.
It was no use continuing to appeal to Thurlow’s conscience. He didn’t have one. I turned to Bertie instead. “It would be better to come clean about your artlessness yourself and face the consequences, rather than do this. Thurlow can’t be controlled. If Gabe doesn’t do as Thurlow expects, he’ll kill Gabe, and me. Is that what you want? Our murders on your conscience and to never be free of him?”
