Before the Fire Read online

  George mounted Socrates before he finally looked down to Kane and spoke. “Miss Edmonds, there are few things in life that one must do. We all have choices. I apologize for the cruel words I spoke, but I can offer you no more solace.”

  “But George!”

  The earl held up a silencing hand. His eyes narrowed menacingly green, the vein at his temple ticking. “I would have given you anything you desired or should ever have wanted!” he thundered. “Damn you Kane, I gave you my heart!”

  “And I gave you mine!” she countered just as loudly.

  “Then why do you leave me?” he demanded belligerently.

  “Because I have no choice!” she yelled, the vein at her own temple ticking just as ferociously. “Because my people are depending upon me to find that Neptune-forsaken plant!”

  “What is so bloody important about a damned plant?”

  “It will save millions of lives!”

  George shook his head in dismay, realizing that he needed to get away from Kane before he said or did something unforgivable. In all of his days, he’d never been so close to shaking a woman senseless. “Kane, I’ve no mind to listen to this prattling. There is no plant in God’s creation that can save millions of lives. There—”

  “Yes there is,” she countered, plowing on recklessly. “Your people just have no idea how to use them.”

  George rolled his eyes and shook his head. “And the savage Americans do?”

  “No.”

  “But you said you are an American! Did you lie?”

  “No! I didn’t lie. I never once claimed to be an American. I stated that I am a citizen of the Houston colony.” She took a deep breath, preparing to tell him everything. She might as well. All was lost between them as it was. “Houston is a colony located in the former Americas.”

  George inclined his head toward Kane. He furrowed his brow in confusion. “The former Americas?”

  Kane shrugged. “In your time it is called America. In my time there are no such boundaries as countries. We are governed by colony leaders, but each colony falls under the jurisdiction of the supreme ruling body of the Milky Way Galaxy. These rulers are elected, as they are in the Americas. There are no kings or queens any longer in the Milky Way.”

  George regarded Kane through a haze of amazement, bewilderment, and anger. “Kane!” he bellowed, now beyond the ability to reign in his infamous Blackmore temper. “Do you stand here and tell me that you are from the future?”

  Kane met his gaze as she drew herself up to her full five feet and six inches. “Yes.”

  “I don’t believe this,” George muttered. “I simply do not believe this.” He laughed, but the sound was far from humorous. “After all of these years, I at long last fall hopelessly in love. But with whom?”

  Kane’s heart soured at the words the earl had thoughtlessly mumbled. He loved her! Just as she loved him. He had to believe her. She didn’t want him to think she was leaving of her own volition. “George, you must believe me!”

  “What I believe,” he gritted out as his vein began ticking away once again, “is that you, my dear, are as mad as the daft king!” Without looking back, he shouted a word of prodding to Socrates and rode off into the dusky remains of daylight, dirt kicking up in his wake.

  Kane fell to the ground, morose beyond being consoled, assuming the same dejected pose she had worn before George’s arrival. She took a deep, steadying breath and allowed a single tear to trickle down her cheek.

  What was she to do? She couldn’t possibly live with herself if she lost sight of her goal. A little boy’s life was at stake. Not to mention the millions of other humanoids who would die if she didn’t locate and retrieve the plant. There was no help for it. Whether or not she had succumbed to the seemingly impossible phenomenon of love, bigger and more important considerations than her heart and libido were at issue.

  Kane groaned in anguish as she worked her fingers through her hair agitatedly. George believed she’d lost her mind. He’d called her as mad as the king!

  She sighed. At least one good thing had come of this horrid confrontation. She realized now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the earl was completely and totally aware of his king’s loony inclinations.

  Chapter 10

  “And then she actually told me that she’s from the future! Can you believe it, mother? Of all the hair-brained, half-witted excuses for leaving a man…”

  George’s voice trailed off as he plopped back down into the chair behind his study desk. He didn’t want to speak of the subject any longer. It had been three days since he’d learned of Kane’s imminent departure and he was as touchy now about the subject as he had been then. Daft or not, he loved the crazed woman.

  George sighed in resignation as he awaited his mother’s remarks. He knew that eventually he’d have to tell Lady Julia that Kane was leaving, and since that dreaded day was on the morrow, tonight seemed as good a time as any. “Well?”

  Lady Julia pondered everything her son had spent the last half of an hour ranting and raving about. She considered what she knew of Kane. She took into account the mysterious way she had appeared into their lives. She thought on the gel’s odd beliefs, mannerisms, and speech. She thought about her ability to “kick ass”, as she’d appropriately called it. She thought about the lessons she’d been giving her the last few days. There was no denying the girl was from a place far removed from Georgian England, but another time? Surely not! And yet…

  “Are you certain she lied, Georgie?”

  George snapped his brooding profile around and regarded his mother through narrowed jade eyes. “Oh come madam, surely you do not believe that the lady is a time traveler?”

  Lady Julia shrugged. “How can you or anyone else say with all certainty that she lies?”

  “Mother—”

  The dowager countess held up a silencing hand. “Hear me out, Georgie. All I say is that I believe Kane is a good gel. I also know in my heart that she loves you.” She dismissed her son’s adamant denial and ventured onward. “The chit would not leave you unless she felt she’s no other recourse. Mayhap she is not of a sound mind, Georgie, but that does not mean that she doesn’t believe the things she’s telling you. I’ve no doubt but that she believes her words with all of her being.”

  George nodded wearily, accepting his mother’s opinion as the truth. “So what do I do?”

  “Well, you can hardly breed with a daft woman. Your heirs might inherit her madness.”

  “T'would be no worse a lot than inheriting the Lady Jane’s mole, yet still you desired for me to breed with her.”

  His mother laughed. “True enough.” She shook her head absently, marveling still at this latest development. “Then fight for her, my son. Tell her you love her. Tell her you’ll help her find the plant. And when she finds it and isn’t able to create a potion that will cure all manner of diseases with it, be there to support her, to help her find her way back to reality.”

  George rubbed his chin as he considered his mother’s words. He did love Kane. He loved her desperately. More than he’d ever loved anyone or anything in his entire thirty-seven years. He shot to his feet, too agitated to sit. “You are correct, madam. I will fight for the sanity of the woman I love! I will stop at nothing to make her mine! Fates be damned, she will become the next Countess of Blackmore!” he passionately cried.

  George sighed deeply as he considered how great of a task that was likely to be. He plopped back down into the chair and reached for his port. “I will see what I can do,” he qualified under his breath.

  * * * * *

  Kane plucked a red rose in full bloom from the well-kept Blackmore gardens and marveled at the beauty of it. Its scent was so fragrant, its skin so silky and delicate. She rubbed the petals across her face and thought wistfully of George.

  She would be leaving him tomorrow, possibly never to see him again. And worse yet, he thought her a madwoman. He believed her to be no more lucid than the frothing-mouthed victims of BV
-3 who, driven into insanity by too many bad brain downloads, were housed in a roaming satellite off-planet where they could bring no harm to others.

  It was too much to take in. She, Dr. Kane Edmonds, a brilliant scientist respected in star systems from here to Vegas, was believed to be a madwoman by the very man she loved. The only man she’d ever loved. The man she wanted to be breached by.

  Damn him! After all the special moments they had shared together, how could he not have faith in her word? How could he ever consider the possibility that she was insane?

  Kane sighed. Who was she kidding? She wouldn’t have believed her story either. How could she expect George to live up to higher standards than her own?

  She stopped walking mid-thought, coming to an abrupt halt. She gritted her teeth in anger. Standards or no standards, he should believe her! She would not leave Blackmore without making George understand. She refused to have her heart’s only love think ill of her throughout the rest of his days. She might have lost him, but he would come to know why. He would understand. She would make sure of it.

  Chapter 11

  “As much as I appreciate your words of encouragement, I had truly better find Kane, mother. I do not want to risk losing her.” George rose from his seat and bowed politely over the dowager countess’s proffered hand.

  “Good luck, Georgie,” Lady Julia smiled. “Make her understand how much she means to you.”

  George inclined his head respectfully to his mother. “I will.”

  The door to the study crashed open a moment later, inducing the earl and dowager countess to whirl about. “Kane?” George inquired. “What is wrong?”

  “See to it that no one comes near this door until all three of us leave, Stuart, or I shall hold you personally responsible.” Kane shouted her order to the butler then slammed the study door shut behind her and strode angrily toward the bull-headed man she loved and his equally stubborn mother.

  “A little less than three months from now, on July 4, 1776, the United States of America will emerge from the former English colonies and declare war on its mother country. Furthermore, the Americans will win, the British will lose, and the people of your country will be so angered that King George III will eventually be forced from the throne. His son, George IV will rule as regent for the nine years preceding your insane king’s death.”

  George and Lady Julia stared at Kane aghast. After a long, tense moment the dowager countess spoke up. “We lose?”

  “Yes.”

  “Damn the incompetent king! I knew—”

  “Madam, please,” George protested as he waved an agitated hand tersely through the air. “Kane,” he began in a tone one would use to soothe a frightened child, “I have come to realize that you believe these things you say, but—”

  “Spare me, George!” Kane interrupted, angrier than she could ever remember being. “I am not crazy. I am from the future. I come from the year 2429!”

  “Kane!” he bellowed, losing what little hold he’d had on his temper to begin with. “’Tis preposterous to even suggest that mighty England will lose a war to the Americans. I realize you are a trifle touched in the head, yet do I love you still. I…”

  “Damn it, George! Listen to me!”

  The earl was effectively shocked into silence. He arched a raven brow as he regarded the woman he wished to wed…and put over his knee. “Very well.”

  “Have a seat.”

  “I do not desire—”

  “I said sit!”

  George sat. As did the dowager countess. They fell side-by-side into the pillows of the Elizabethan sofa sprawled across the middle of the study. Kane, on the other hand, paced. She fumed through glittering eyes and raged against the fates that made it necessary for her to be on the defensive. She mumbled to herself incoherently as she wore a proverbial hole into the floor from her restless pacing. She no doubt looked the madwoman they believed her to be.

  After long moments, she halted before the Blackmore duo. “In July you will both know that I tell you the truth.” Kane let go of her anger and regarded George beseechingly. “But it will be too late to offer apologies, too late to know that I am not insane and that I told you no lies. It will be too late because I will be gone. Do you want that George?”

  George rose slowly from the sofa, his legs unsteady. “No,” he whispered. “My God Kane, I love you. Please don’t leave me.”

  Kane felt as if her heart was being ripped from her chest and torn to tatters. “Oh George, I love you too. That’s why you must understand that I do not leave of my own will. I leave because I must.” She shook her head and closed her eyes against the torrent of emotions ripping through her body. “My people are dying,” she whispered.

  Lady Julia rose to her feet. “Dying?”

  “Yes,” Kane confirmed, “and I need to find this kabitross plant to make a serum to end the senseless deaths.”

  Kane looked back and forth between the earl and the dowager countess and realized with all certainty that they were beginning to at least listen to her. Now was the time. She could prove to them once and for all that she was neither insane nor a liar.

  “My lord, my lady,” she began with a polite incline of her head. “I realize that I am asking you to set aside everything you have ever believed in that you might believe in me. I realize that what I ask is too much of any humanoid no matter what planet they dwell on, no matter what age they are raised in. So I offer you indisputable proof of my claims.”

  “Proof?” they repeated in unison.

  Kane nodded her head. “Please sit down,” she instructed, though respectfully this time. When the earl and his mother did as they were bade, Kane crossed the room and picked up a stool. She carried it in front of the Elizabethan sofa and placed it gently upon the tiled floors.

  Kane drew her leg up and set it gracefully upon the stool. She raised one side of her skirts all the way to her thigh, until she located the laser-c strapped there.

  “My goodness,” Lady Julia blushed as she clutched her heart. “I don’t think you should be sporting quite so much leg in the earl’s presence, dear.”

  George, on the other hand, was hoping she’d show more. He lounged on the sofa, semi-erect, waiting in anticipation for Kane’s next move. She reached for a tiny object strapped to her thigh, secured it in her grasp, then replaced her skirts in the proper manner. Damn. He’d always had rotten luck.

  “This is a laser-c,” Kane explained. “It is, among other things, a very deadly weapon that can stun a man to unconsciousness or kill him completely. You look skeptical,” she grinned when she noticed the disbelieving frowns smothering both of their faces.

  “Oh, just a trite bit,” George admitted.

  “You can say that again,” Lady Julia muttered.

  Kane raised the laser-c into position, aiming for the gold-gilded statue of King George III sitting atop the earl’s desk. She clicked the laser-c into kill mode and pulled the trigger.

  The earl and the dowager countess sat spellbound, mouths agape, as they watched the tiny object in Kane’s hand emit a powerful burst of white light. The light struck the likeness of England’s king, causing it to burst into thousands of charred pieced. They looked to the fallen statue in bewilderment, then to each other, and finally to Kane.

  “My God,” Lady Julia muttered breathlessly. “You…you…you killed the daft king!”

  “Only his likeness,” she assured her.

  “But…but…but…” The dowager countess sputtered, unable to form a single coherent thought. “Oh my,” she relented in a near swoon.

  Lady Julia was, George noted amidst his own daze, shocked into speechlessness. That was twice now in little more than a sennight. Amazing it was the feats his little Kane could accomplish.

  Kane glanced at the tongue-tied dowager countess then threw her gaze to the earl. George sat upon the sofa, his jaw still slack, staring transfixed at Kane. After a long moment that seemed to go on an eternity, he blinked. Kane smiled at him, bemused.
“Do you believe me now, my lord?”

  George gulped. He tugged at his cravat, which seemed to be inexplicably tightening of its own accord. “Yes,” he managed to choke out, “I believe you.”

  George broke out of the haze that had blanketed him and stood up to draw Kane into a loving embrace. This explained so much. Her bizarre words. The bathing episode. Everything. “Forgive me for not believing you, my sweet. Your story was just so…so…”

  “I know,” she interrupted, smiling up to him warmly. “I wouldn’t have believed me either. Don’t fret over it, George.”

  Lady Julia, apparently the mistress of her mind and body once more, strode to her son’s side a moment later and patted Kane on the shoulder. “What can we do to help you, dear?”

  “I don’t know that you can do anything,” she admitted.

  “Come now,” the dowager countess crooned. “Sit down and tell us the whole of your story, from the beginning. Between the three of us, we’ll work it out.”

  Kane shrugged. She’d told them this much. What harm could there be in telling them the rest?

  * * * * *

  “It’s all so much to comprehend,” Lady Julia admitted in a near whisper. “To think that one day people will travel to other planets, even dwell within them.” She shook her head dazedly. “Truly amazing.”

  George dismissed his mother’s bewilderment with a nod toward Kane. “But Kane, this kabit plant you speak of, it—”

  “Kabitross,” she corrected.

  “This kabitross plant,” he amended, “I’ve never heard of it.”

  “Nor have I,” the dowager countess seconded.

  Kane shrugged. “I believe that it is here…somewhere.” She ran her fingers through her hair, squinting her eyes in thought.

  The records that had survived the last two world wars were all but scarce. Even the ones that had made it through the fires were so charred as to be almost unsalvageable. But she had seen a plated picture, a drawing of this plant she named kabitross. And Linder had informed her that although the electronic historians hadn’t been able to glean from the charred remains what the plant had been called by the ancients, they had figured out that the drawing had been of a hillside in Blackmore. “Perhaps you call it by a different name?”