Page 7 of The Runner
‘The wall was there again when I came around, but I swear it disappeared before. I think that’s why I fell—I reached out to touch what looked like a wall, but it was just thin air. Then I heard the vortex, and I remember nothing until later. Maybe I just imagined there was no wall.’
CHAPTER4
Willow Manor, York - Georgiana
Caroline crossedinto the grounds of Willow Manor as dusk descended over York like a dark cape. It had been a warm, sunny day, but the evening chill permeated the air and Caroline shivered as the cold seeped through the layers of the much-repaired skirts of her gown. She looked back once more to check Ralph hadn’t followed her. He had a habit of tailing her like a lost puppy. When she asked him about it, he said he only ever wanted to make sure she was safe. When they were younger, she’d found his adoration and attention endearing, but lately it only irritated her, and for some time she’d been doing her best to shake him off without hurting his feelings. She knew she had failed today.
There was no one in sight, and she paused to take a couple of deep breaths of the crisp evening air before she neared the servants’ entrance. The stars shimmered like precious stones in the swiftly darkening sky. As she approached the house, she heard the comforting hum of low voices and the sound of pots and pans. The busy household was winding down for the day, and soon the servants would retire to bed, ready for another long day in service. Caroline knocked lightly on the heavy door.
‘There you are, lass. I was just saying that you should be back by now. It doesn’t do to be wandering about on your own at night,’ said Cook, clucking over Caroline as she shooed her inside the warm kitchen. Just as Harriet had predicted, the kind-hearted cook had taken Caroline under her wing.
‘I beg your pardon for being late. I got held up in the village,’ said Caroline. She wasn’t accustomed to having anyone fuss over her. Her father loved her dearly, but she looked after him, not the other way around.
‘Would you like a cup of tea, my dear, before we close up and retire?’
Caroline nodded eagerly.
Cook waved her away with her hand as if it was nothing, before beckoning for Caroline to sit down, and turning to pour some tea from the pot on the stove. Caroline waited at the table, pleased to rest her weary legs and warm herself after the long trudge through the fields in her thin shoes. Each sharp stone and twig had made her wince. She gazed dreamily around the comfortable, well-equipped kitchen, the grandness of which she’d not believed possible until that morning. Caroline didn’t understand why, but she already felt at peace in the house—her love affair with Willow Manor had begun.
Willow Manor,York - Present day
Cara tossedfrom side to side in the king size bed she shared with George in their newly refurbished bedroom in the old manor house. She whimpered as she dreamt, and her lips moved.
George sat up and switched his bedside lamp on and then reached out to touch Cara’s restless body. ‘Cara,’ he whispered. She flipped over again and continued whimpering, obviously distressed. He touched her arm firmly this time. ‘Darling, wake up,’ he said, his voice louder.
Cara heard him and her eyes flipped open. ‘I was dreaming about Willow Manor in another time,’ she said, still groggy from sleep.
George stroked her damp hair and helped her sit up and drink a few sips of water.
‘That was weird,’ she said. ‘I was here, but not here. I don’t even know how to explain it.’ She shook her head.
George, now wide awake even though it was only three in the morning, said, ‘What was going on, then? You sounded distressed.’
‘I remember little. I saw myself—or at least, a version of myself, in a small cottage and I was eating a meal with my father.’ She shook her head again. ‘But he wasn’t my father. He looked different, and we were different. Like we were from another time.’
‘I see,’ said George, not understanding what she was talking about, but wanting to give his troubled wife a chance to settle down.
‘But he wasn’t unlike my father. Gosh, I’m making no sense,’ she said.
‘It’s okay, you’ve just had a nightmare. Dreams don’t all have to mean something deep, you know.’
Cara studied the face she loved so much, and as she looked at him, she saw a vision of a different George.
‘You’re going to think I’ve lost it, but there was another George too.’
Cara’s heart raced as she considered the implications of her dream.
George tried to make light of it. ‘You’d think three of me would be quite enough, what with a version of me in the other timelines.’
Cara stared at him, trying to make sense of the moving parts from her dream. ‘I’m losing sight of the images already. I can’t remember what else happened, but it seems like more than just a dream; it seems significant somehow.’
They stayed like that for a while with Cara resting her head on George’s shoulder, his arm around her and him supported by a large, white fluffy pillow, until Cara’s eyes drooped.
‘Come on—try to get some sleep. You look exhausted.’
She nodded and George pulled the light quilt over their chests and up to their chins and Cara drifted off into a peaceful sleep, cocooned in George’s comforting arms.
The next morning after breakfast and some more discussions about the builders, Cara said, ‘Do you have time for me to show you the secret passage, or whatever it is, in the library now?’
