The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway (mobi ebook reader .txt) 📗

jump, then stroll back. As if we are walking up from the main road.”

“It makes no sense,” Nick said. “We would drive up in a coach, or at least a phaeton.”

“We were dropped off by a traveling friend.”

“Without luggage?”

“We were robbed.”

“My family is not comprised of fools.”

“Your family will be glad to see you. They will not ask questions. And the truth? It is so outlandish that they will never guess it. Believe me, I have done this many times before.”

“And yet still you do not inspire confidence, Arkady.”

The Russian flicked dust from his sleeve and stuck his nose in the air. The twenty-first century was falling from him with each step he took. He looked every inch the elegant and slightly savage Russian count. It was impressive. Nick tried to follow suit and did manage to find his more upright nineteenth-century stride. The two men crunched along in silence for a minute.

“Arkady?”

“Mm.”

“You won’t abandon me there . . . here?”

Arkady glanced at Nick out of the corner of his eye, then stopped and put his hand on Nick’s shoulder. “I am your friend, Blackdown. I know you are frustrated that I do not teach you to jump, I do not teach you to freeze time. I only teach you to recognize time play. But believe me, it is for a reason that you are kept without these skills. It is perhaps more dangerous to have the skills. The Ofan can sense time play like we can. If they sensed you shifting time, they would know you were with the Guild. We need you to be clean, ready to infiltrate, to get close to them, to be inside.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

Arkady grinned. “You are to use your . . . how do you say it? Your charmingness? The charmingness you have. The charmingness that makes you so good at what you do.”

“What I do?” Nick shrugged his shoulder free of Arkady’s grip. “I don’t do anything. I bum around New York seducing women and eating expensive meals. I help some farmers in Vermont. I enjoy myself.”

“Well. Even these little, lazy things. You do them with your charmingness.”

“You mean my charm,” Nick said. “And I’m not lazy. I work hard at enjoying myself.”

Arkady chuckled. “Yes, yes. You work hard. But you see, it is more than hard work we need. Any person can work hard. In 1815 you are Lord Blackdown, hero of the war. You are the rich marquess and you have this thing, this charmingness. And you have Falcott House. You are perfect, you see, for what we need. You are the only one.”

“What does Falcott House have to do with it?”

Arkady’s expression hardened. “Something is going on, near Falcott House and also in London. In Devon we need you to be the marquess, magically returned, but secretly on the alert: What are the Ofan doing down here? In London it is yet more important, what you are to do. You must be charming to the Ofan. Make them want you. You must pretend to join them.”

“I thought you wanted me to fight them.”

“Fighting, spying—it is the same. Do not worry. I will always be near you and I will be playing my part. When it is all over, I will bring you back again to this century.”

“And if I don’t want to come back?”

“You must come back.” Arkady’s voice was tinged with regret. “There is no choice. The Guild permits no one to be left behind. Even should you die. If you die, I will personally bring your body back to the twenty-first century. Like in that film, you have seen it, yes? It is the First World War, where the soldier goes into the no-man’s-land to get his friend’s broken body. I am your comrade, like that. The music swells and the guns are shooting, but still he goes forward for his friend—”

Nick held up a hand. “I haven’t seen that film.”

“But I didn’t tell you the title.”

“Nevertheless. I don’t like war movies.” Nick’s tone was abrupt. “I give you permission to leave my dead body in no-man’s-land, Arkady. Please.”

The Russian shrugged. “Never. I am your brother! But the point is not this foolish movie. The point is that you will come back.”

“Dead or alive.”

“Yes.”

Nick shivered in his stiff clothes and thought about his warm, living body underneath them: scarred, yes, but strong and still relatively young. He didn’t want to die for Arkady’s cause. He had jumped forward two centuries rather than die for England’s cause. Cowardice. Treason. Words he used to excoriate himself. Was this cowardice that he felt now, this reluctance to follow Arkady into the River of Time, into this war against the Ofan? Nick packed that thought away. This was no time for memories and no time for self-doubt. He was about to step lightly across an abyss that was centuries deep. He was about to go home.

They followed the bend in the drive, and the house was lost from sight. Arkady stopped and looked around. “Behind this tree,” he said. “In your time, would there be anything over there, a building where people might see us?”

“There might always be someone about. Scything the lawn, tending sheep, walking or riding across the land.”

“Hm. Perhaps we jump to nighttime.”

“It’s probably best. But not too late in the evening. I don’t want to wake my mother.” Nick laughed without humor. “That’s a sentence I never thought I’d say again.”

“You are about to say many things you never thought you’d say again. Do many things again.”

Nick didn’t reply. He was thinking about dark eyes, trying to stay calm.

“Now then,” Arkady said, stepping off the path and behind the tree, being careful not to get dirt on his shining black boots. “Are you ready?” He held out his hands. “Hold tightly.”

Nick gripped the Russian’s hands. “What am I supposed to do? Lie back and think of England?”

“No, you do nothing,” Arkady said, missing the joke. “I will think of England. You will come along with me as I think.