CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
RAN SPENT THE NIGHT IN EVE’S BED. AFTER WHAT HAD HAPPENED, she needed him, she’d said. Ran hadn’t admitted that he needed her, too. He couldn’t get thoughts of Sabrina and Chrissy out of his head. Had they traveled together through the tunnel of light into the safety of the world beyond? He could only pray it was so.
Sleeping with Eve wasn’t fair. Not when his dark thoughts had plummeted him into the past, when they kept him engulfed in guilt and despair.
And yet when he was with her, those dark thoughts disappeared. He’d made love to her like a madman, taking and taking, desperate to cleanse his mind and heart. Eve had met his every demand and tossed out a few of her own.
Ran almost smiled. Eve was his match in every way, and yet . . .
He let the thought trail off, unwilling to go there. The timing wasn’t right. Eve deserved someone who could give her a future, not a man who was trapped in the past.
Still, he was selfish enough to take what she offered for as long as it lasted. He only hoped he was giving her something in return.
He did smile then. Something more than incredible sex.
“What are you smiling about?” Eve asked as she walked out of her bedroom, freshly showered, dressed in tan slacks and a silky blouse beneath a navy wool blazer.
His gaze ran over her conservative clothes. “You have a patient today?” he asked, wisely dodging the question.
“I was supposed to meet with Bethany Parsons this afternoon. She sounded good, so I put the appointment off until next week. I have an appointment this morning with an older woman named Margaret Michaels who lost her husband two months ago. She’s doing her best to cope, but it isn’t easy.”
“After everything that’s happened, you should be a great help to her in that regard.”
She shoved her fingers through her thick dark hair, lifting it away from her face, making the ruby highlights shimmer. “I still can’t believe what I saw last night was real.”
“But you do.”
Her spine subtly straightened. “Yes, I do.”
He nodded. “So what about Mrs. Michaels?”
“Since I couldn’t chance meeting her at the office, I told her some problems had come up with the sewer line. I said there was a crew working on my home and office. I suggested we meet in a coffee shop near where she lives.”
“Good idea.”
“I hate lying, but—”
“It’s only a white lie and partly true. You are having problems with the house and office, and you do have a crew working to fix them.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I guess you’re right.”
“What about your housekeeper? What was her name?”
“Mrs. Pennyworth. Thanks for reminding me. I’ll put her off for another week.”
Ran nodded. “I need to go back to my own room to shower and change.” He glanced at the door, though he didn’t really want to leave.
Eve walked over and slid her arms around his neck. “You should have joined me in the shower when you had the chance.”
He thought of soaping his hands and sliding them over her delectably slender body, the tempting curves and valleys, her body flushing beneath his touch. Ran blocked the image when he started getting hard.
Leaning down, he lightly kissed her. “At the moment, I’m very sorry I didn’t.”
Eve laughed. She seemed brighter today, some of the weight lifted off her shoulders. Her little friend Wally was safe. Whatever happened next, she could be proud that she had helped him.
“You think Zane will be able to find out what kind of accident killed the children?”
“He and Katie are going down to the newspaper office, the Sunderland Echo, to look into the archives. When an accident like that happens in a town the size of Sunderland, I have a feeling it’s not going to be hard to find.”
“After what Zane told us yesterday, I’m not sure I want to know.”
“But you want to help the orphans, and the more you find out, the better your chances of succeeding.”
Eve made no reply.
“I won’t be long,” Ran said. “Why don’t you order us some breakfast? Afterward we’ll take that drive I promised.”
She perked up. “Really?”
“Really.”
“I can’t do breakfast. I have to meet Mrs. Michaels at the coffee shop, but once our appointment is over, I’m free for the rest of the day.”
Since he couldn’t resist the eager look in her pretty hazel eyes, he walked back to her, hauled her into his arms, and kissed her the very thorough way he’d been wanting to.
“The Bentley will be waiting to take you to your appointment,” he said a little gruffly. Before temptation could get a firmer grip, he turned and walked out of her suite.
* * *
The white and red taxi pulled up in front of an ornate five-story building in Blandford Square, Newcastle on Tyne. In 2019, the Sunderland Echo archives, Zane had discovered, had been moved into the building that housed the Tyne and Wear Archives and Museum.
Zane got out and paid the driver while Kate got out to join him. After what she’d witnessed in Eve’s house last night, she’d insisted on coming along.
“I wish you could have been there, Zane,” she said as the taxi rolled away. “I could only hear Eve’s side of the conversation, but I could see this small, hazy figure floating across the room. I caught hints of blue—his sailor suit, I guess. Eve’s mentioned it several times. She was using his hat to make contact.”
“What about the tunnel of light?” Zane asked. Everyone was talking about it. He wanted to hear Kate’s firsthand account.
“It was amazing—I can tell you that. This golden shaft cut right down through the ceiling.” She gripped his hand. “It was . . . I can’t describe the feeling, Zane. Like joy spilling through me. I’ll never forget it.”
She seemed so happy as she told the story. Zane looked down at their intertwined fingers and felt her warmth sinking into him. He eased his hand away.
“Jesse said some kind of paranormal force destroyed all your equipment.”
Kate shivered and rubbed her arms as if she were cold. “Lucas was saying all this stuff in Latin. The room was shaking. It sounded like a hurricane was going to tear the cellar apart. Then I heard this violent shouting. ‘I will kill you!’ ” Kate shook her head, shifting her long, honey-blond hair. Zane forced himself to concentrate.
“It was terrifying, Zane. Each word was filled with so much hatred. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough. We all ran up the stairs and didn’t stop until we were out of the house.”
“That’s where I found you.”
She nodded.
“Ran told me you’re going back to the orphanage, either tonight or tomorrow night. He says the spirits of the other dead boys are still trapped inside.”
“Ran says Jesse and I don’t have to go, since our equipment was destroyed and he can’t get new stuff here in time, but . . .”
“But you’re going anyway.” Somehow he didn’t doubt it. Kate was a firebrand. Zane was beginning to know her a little too well.
She looked up at him with a hint of defiance. “You weren’t there. You can’t imagine what it felt like. If there are children trapped between earth and heaven, then I’m going to do what I can to help them.”
Zane still wasn’t sure how he felt about ghosts and spirits and whatever the hell was happening in Eve’s house, but he couldn’t deny a feeling of admiration for Kate. Facing a demon was far more frightening than taking on gang members and kidnappers.
Zane squeezed Kate’s hand. “You want to help? Let’s go see what we can find out.”
The interior of the building had mostly been modernized. A helpful clerk stood behind the counter, sporting frizzy, gray-blond hair and a friendly smile. Mrs. Burbage listened as Zane laid out what he was looking for—Sunderland Echo newspaper archives for June of 1883.
The woman smiled. “Some of them are in digital format now, but not all of them.”
“I’d like to see the originals, if that’s possible.”
Mrs. Burbage nodded her approval. “Always better to get the entire story. Follow me.”
She led them down modern white corridors, into an area that looked like an old-fashioned library, with narrow rows of big leatherbound volumes on metal shelves stacked eight feet high. In another area, he could see rows of yellowed, tattered, rolled-up papers that appeared to be maps.
“This way, please.”
They followed the woman down one of the aisles, where she shoved on a pair of reading glasses that had been dangling from a chain around her neck and began to skim the dates.
“There are four volumes for that year. I’d suggest going through May, June, and July, just to be safe.”
Those months consisted of two different volumes. Mrs. Burbage pulled both of them out.
“Let me carry those for you,” Zane offered.
The woman smiled and handed them over. “Well, thank you.”
Zane carried the heavy volumes over to a big, rectangular, clawfoot oak table and set them down on top. “We can take it from here.”
“Just leave them there when you’re finished and I’ll see they’re filed back where they belong.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Burbage,” Kate said. She turned to Zane. “I’ll take this one, you take the other.”
Zane just nodded and opened the second heavy leather-bound book. It was filled with day after day’s worth of yellowed Sunderland Echo newspapers, back then called the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette.
He thumbed through pages until he reached the end of May.
“Zane . . . ?”
Kate’s voice held a tremor that had him glancing in her direction. “I think . . . I think I’ve found it.” When her eyes met his, he saw that her face had gone pale. “Oh, God, Zane. Oh, God.”
His chest tightened at the sight of the tears that welled and began to stream down her cheeks.
Zane moved quickly to her side. “You found the date of the accident? What happened?” But remembering the causes of deaths of the twelve children in the orphanage and seeing the devastation on Kate’s beautiful face, he almost didn’t want to know.
Kate swallowed. “I found out what happened. Oh, God, Zane, it’s going to destroy Eve.” Kate scrubbed at the wetness, but more tears washed down. “Oh, God.”
Zane’s gaze caught on the yellowed page. The date read June 16, 1883. There were drawings, black-and-white pencil sketches etched into the paper. His stomach knotted. For an instant, his own eyes burned and he quickly glanced away. He took a moment to steady himself.
Kate touched his arm and looked into his face. “How could Eve live right here in Sunderland and not have known?”
He wasn’t ready to look back at the paper. He kept his eyes on Kate. “She never really lived in England, remember? She just came to visit her uncle. She’s only been back in the house a few months. This happened nearly a hundred and forty years ago. In the States, a lot of people don’t even know who fought in the Civil War.”
Kate dabbed at a last stray tear. “You’re right.” She gazed up at him with those big blue eyes, and he was touched by the pain he saw. He didn’t want to like Kate Collins, but he did. She was a party girl, just looking to have some fun. A fling would be meaningless for her, but for him? Zane wasn’t so sure.
Though he had to admit, he was tempted.
He returned to the moment, began turning the heavy yellow pages from one date to the next. “There’s a lot of information here. We need to have them make copies for us so we can take them to Ran. He’s going to have to tell Eve.” He turned to Kate, whose eyes were still moist, her face still a little too pale. “Eve is going to need him more than ever.”