The Time Keeper (The Guardians of Time Book 1) (4 page)

‘There are a few rules and –‘

The doorbell rang, interrupting David.  He rose from his perch on the desk and as he went to answer the door, looked back over his shoulder.  ‘Why don’t we take a short break and have some dinner.  Then we can talk about it more once you’ve had some time to think about what I’ve said.’

Emilia slumped back in the chair, her mind buzzing with an information overload.  David definitely believed what he was saying and he’d seemed quite rational – no feverishly darting eyes or crazy cackling laugh.  How cool would it be if she could skip anywhere in time?  She could visit Paris in the roaring twenties, go to a Beatles con-

‘Emmy, there’s a delivery for you,’ David called from the front door.

When she got to the hall, David passed her a bunch of deep red roses before making himself scarce.  She didn’t have to read the card to know who they were from, but she pulled it out of the little envelope anyway.

I’m sorry.  Please forgive me. Justin.

It wouldn’t exactly win any literary awards but she supposed it must be hard to compose a decent sonnet with a hangover.

She found a vase and put the roses in the centre of the kitchen table.  It would be rude to ignore the flowers, so even though she didn’t feel like talking to Justin yet, she pulled her phone out of her discarded bag.  There were three missed calls – all from Justin. 

He answered on the second ring.

‘I thought you were ignoring me,’ he said quietly, his voice unusually contrite.  ‘I can’t say I’d blame you.’

‘I’ve had a busy day.  Thanks for the roses,’ Emilia said briskly.

Justin sighed heavily.  ‘I’m really sorry, Em.  I was mad at you and then I had too much to drink and I… I don’t know what came over me, but you didn’t deserve what happened, no matter what you’d done.’

So he still thought he had reason to be mad at her.  Emilia gritted her teeth.  She was tempted to tell Justin where to shove it like Stace had instructed, but she couldn’t be bothered with an argument right now – she was more interested in getting back to the conversation with David.  Not that she was going to let Justin off entirely.

‘You really scared me, Justin.  I trusted you and you violated that trust.’

‘I know.  Please let me make it up to you,’ he pleaded.  ‘We’ll go out somewhere nice for dinner tonight and then go to a movie; you can even choose what we see and it’s okay if you want to pick a chick flick.  Whatever you want.’

‘Not tonight,’ she said gently.  ‘I’m spending the night in with my dad.’

There was a short silence on the other end of the line.  Justin wasn’t used to his plans being thwarted.  ‘No problem.  Tomorrow night then.’

‘Okay.  I’ve got to go now; I’ll see you tomorrow night.’

She hung up and went to find David.  He was back in the study.

‘What do you want for dinner?’ she asked.  They used to have a housekeeper/cook, who had also been a part-time nanny while Emilia was growing up, but Marion had retired six months ago to be with her ailing sister in California.  Marion was the closest thing Emilia had to a mother and she’d loved spending time in the kitchen watching her cook.  As she’d got older, Marion had started to teach her and now Emilia was a pretty decent cook in her own right and took care of the majority of the meals in the Delcourt residence.

‘I’ve ordered Thai takeout, which should be here in about twenty minutes,’ David said absently.  Then he looked up at her with a sly grin.  ‘That way we can get back to our discussion sooner.’

Emilia snorted and headed off to get a load of washing going.

*

They ate dinner while watching the evening news.  Emilia found it difficult to concentrate; there were hundreds of questions whizzing around her brain, so when the news was over she switched the television off with alacrity and led the way back to the study.

She was about to open her mouth when David asked her a question that seemed to have no relevance whatsoever.  ‘Have you ever wondered why I’m one of the most sought after experts in the field of archaeology?’

‘No.  You’re intelligent, dedicated and you’ve made some seriously groundbreaking discoveries – no pun intended. Why wouldn’t you be sought after?’ she responded promptly, fiercely proud of her father and everything he’d accomplished.

David chuckled and eased down into the chair opposite hers.  ‘True.  But the reason I’ve been able to break new ground in the archaeological field is because I haven’t had to piece together little pieces of evidence to try and recreate the past.  I have actually
been
to the past – I’ve seen and experienced it first hand.

‘I visited Pompeii right before the volcano erupted, I hid inside the Trojan horse with the Greek soldiers and observed the sack of Troy, I helped the slaves build the Egyptian pyramids and so much more.  All because I’ve been able to use that device,’ he gestured towards his desk where the time piece lay, still open, ‘to live and breathe many of the most significant events of our history.’

Emilia frowned.  ‘Isn’t that kind of cheating?’

‘I suppose it could be construed that way,’ David acknowledged with a dry chuckle.  ‘But during that time, my partner and I sought out the special individuals the Elders sent us for, so I think we deserve the odd “unfair” advantage.’

‘You had a partner?  Who was it?’ Emilia asked eagerly.

‘Do you remember James?’

Emilia nodded slowly, memories of a short, ginger-haired man who had often been closeted in the study with her father flooding to the forefront of her mind.  He hadn’t been a particularly good-looking man, but he’d had a wicked sense of humour, which had entertained Emilia during dinners around the table.  ‘I haven’t seen him for a few years.’

A shadow passed across David’s eyes.  ‘No, he died almost four years ago now.  Since then I haven’t been actively in the field.’

‘I’m sorry, Dad.  That must have been hard,’ she said softly, realising for the first time just how good David was at hiding his emotions. Suddenly, she sat bolt upright as alarm coursed through her body.

‘Hang on a second… does everybody have to have a partner?’

‘Yes,’ David said, his expression suspiciously neutral.  ‘It would be too dangerous alone.  Each partnership is made up of two skills.  One is the time keeper and the other is the magic maker.’

‘The
magic maker
?  Holy crap!’  Emilia dropped her face into her hands with a groan.  ‘Am I in the middle of some really bizarre dream?  Because things just keep getting weirder and weirder!’

David patted her sympathetically on the shoulder.  ‘It’s not a dream, honey.  It’s reality…
your
reality.’

Emilia’s head shot up and she threw her hands out like she was holding back an invisible wall.  ‘Okay, okay, okay… let me get this straight,’ she said slowly, trying to put it together logically.  ‘We’re having this conversation today because you’re trying to tell me I’m one of these time keepers, right?’

David nodded, but let her continue.

‘And sometimes I’m going to have to go on missions back in time to help out some people who are significant to the preservation of our planet.’

She swallowed hard as it dawned on her that somewhere along the way she’d actually begun to believe what David was telling her.  ‘And I’m going to have to do this with a partner.  Are
you
my partner?’

‘No Emmy,’ he said gently.  ‘I’m a time keeper like you and you need to be partnered with a magic maker.’

‘So who’s my partner going to be?’  Her voice became high pitched and squeaky at the end, because she’d just had a really bad thought.  Seb had been spending a lot of time with David over the last year or so, but he didn’t work for David.  Seb had stormed out of her house mere hours ago looking fit to commit murder.

David watched the expressions crossing her face in quick succession.  ‘I think you know,’ he said gently.

‘Please don’t tell me it’s
Seb
!’ she wailed.  ‘He can’t stand me!’

‘I’m sure that’s not true, Emilia.  Everybody likes you.  If there’s some friction between you, then I’m sure you can both work it out.’

Emilia lurched to her feet.  ‘No.  I won’t do it.’  She paced up and down the length of the study.  ‘Do I get a choice in this whole time travel thing?  Can I turn down the
wonderful
opportunity to save the world and all that?’

David scratched his head absentmindedly, before attempting to carefully navigate the waters of his daughter’s distress.  ‘In theory, yes you can.  Ultimately the choice is yours, but I have to say, honey, that while you will face numerous challenges and the inherent dangers of what you’ll be asked to do, you’ll regret it if you don’t take up this opportunity.  It’s a
calling
that’s in your blood and I suspect you’ll feel empty and restless if you let it go to waste.’

‘But
Seb
…’  She slumped back down into her chair, uncertainty and anguish etched in the tense lines of her slender frame.

David rubbed the bridge of his nose and leaned forward in his chair, propping his elbows on his knees.  ‘There’s a lot about Seb you don’t know, most of which I would have to break confidences with him to tell you, which I’m not prepared to do.  But I will tell you this.  Usually new recruits are approached around their eighteenth birthday or, these days, once they’ve graduated high school.  Seb was a little different.

‘Before I could track him down, he joined the Army, which made the task of getting to see him more difficult than usual.  It was a couple of years before I could extract him from the Army – they like letting new, talented recruits go even less than we do!  When you met Seb a little over a year ago, he was just starting out.’

Emilia straightened.  ‘So he must have had a partner, right?’

‘Yes.  Her name was Megan and she was from Cayuga Heights, so not too far from here.  They could have had a good partnership, I think, but while Megan was intelligent and compassionate, she was also reckless and impatient.’

‘What happened?’ Emilia asked apprehensively, although she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know.

David leaned back in his chair with a sad sigh.  ‘They were in Russia in the 1890s, a time when there was great famine throughout most of the land.  Seb had gone to make contact with a key informant.  He left Megan hiding in a barn, where she would be safe.  But there was sickness in the village and many were dying.  Megan could hear the cries of grieving relatives from her hiding place and couldn’t resist going to help.

‘When Seb returned, he found her tending the sick in the small huts on the outskirts of the village.  She didn’t think she could catch it, you see, because she’d had all the preventative shots our modern world offers.  But these people were dying of cholera, which neither Seb nor Megan knew.  She should have burned all her clothes and washed thoroughly, but they didn’t know that.

‘At first Megan seemed fine.  She was thirsty and lethargic, but she put that down to an exhausting day.  By the following morning, she was vomiting and had severe cramping and diarrhoea.  Seb aborted the mission immediately, of course.  Megan was so weak she could barely talk, but she managed to summon enough strength to get them both back here.  Seb rushed her to the hospital but by that point she was dangerously dehydrated; the doctors did everything they could, but she died.  If she’d been treated earlier, she most probably would have survived but the disease had progressed too far.’

Emilia blinked back tears.  She’d never met Megan, but for someone around her own age to die so young was incredibly sad.  ‘Poor Seb.  He must have been devastated.’

‘He was.  It still haunts him.’

‘But what has that got to do with his attitude towards me?’  Emilia shifted in her chair, curling her legs beneath her.

David sighed.  ‘It’s nothing against you personally, Emmy.  Seb blames himself for Megan’s death.’

‘But it wasn’t his fault!’ she interjected.

‘You and I can rationally understand that.  But Seb can’t.  He thinks he should have got her back here sooner or left her in a safer place, away from all the sickness.’  David paused and looked her directly in the eye.  ‘He doesn’t want to be partnered up with you Emilia, because he doesn’t think he’s capable of taking care of you.’

‘I can take care of myself,’ Emilia pointed out.  ‘You know that.’

David’s mouth lifted in a small smile.  ‘I do, otherwise I would never let you do this.  But what you’ve got to understand is Seb doesn’t see it that way.  He looks at you and he sees a young girl, small in stature and fine boned.  In other words, very breakable and his worst nightmare!’

‘Oh.’

‘So you’re going to have to give him some time to get his head around being partnered with you.  And you’re also going to have to get used to him being domineering, overprotective and generally difficult as all hell.’

Emilia grimaced.  He was bad enough as it was without adding all of that into the mix.

‘It’s the only way he’s going to be able to cope,’ David said with a chuckle.  ‘So don’t be surprised if he drives you up the wall… but please try to go with the flow as much as possible and not upset him.  He’s a good guy, honey, and I couldn’t have asked for a better person for you to be partnered with.’