Troianne (Book 1 of A Time Travel Society Novel Series)

Chapter 15 - Notes

Copyright: CLG March 2013

Chapter 15

Notes

The sign above the green door read "The Hare and the Tortoise" this is the place that he was told to meet the blonde haired lady when he received his assignment after leaving France.

He entered the crowded pub, looking around he quickly spotted her sitting at a table in the corner. The place wasn't too bad. The wooden floors were swept clean and the bar itself gleamed as if it had been polished daily, but the lady seemed out of place among all the men sitting around either playing chess or drinking themselves into oblivion. As he approaches her table he grabs an tankard of ale off of a tray being carried by a very busty barmaid.

"Hey! Ya bugger wait yer darn turn," she yells at him until, she looks up into his gorgeous face and decides to recant her words.

"What I mean milord, is I will be round in just a few seconds to take yer order from ye." Smiling at him brightly she heads off to another table.

"Tis no problem at all Belle Fille, he smiles at her evilly. "I shall take this tankard and bother you no further."

Sitting at the table he takes a big swig of the stale tasting drink.

"Good Evening Mademoiselle," Monsieur Garvey at your service." He says to the blonde woman sitting properly wearing a most attractive bonnet of velvet blue upon her head of golden locks. He had to admit she was beautiful, but women were all the same needy, useless creatures with their own agendas. He was not impressed with her beauty at all.

She held out her hand for a kiss, and he obliges, quickly letting it fall unceremoniously upon the table.

Retracting her hand into her lap, she looked into his black eyes and for a second became frightened. He was devilishly handsome but something about him sent a chill up her spine.

"Madame, you have summoned me for what purpose?" He asks.

"I have information that a child was born just days ago to a Time Traveler from the twenty first century. You are to take the child and bring it to me."

"Kidnapping a child, is not part of my job description."

"It is if you want to make certain that our secret is safe."

"Madame I assure there is no secret among the Time Travelers that Followers exist."

Not liking where this conversation was going. He folded his hands together under his chin and listened with a gleaming hatred in his eyes.

"What does the child have to do with all of this anyhow?"

"The child may have special powers that would be invaluable to our kind."

"What kind of powers are you talking about, we are not magic, we exist because Time Travelers exist. We travel on their thoughts and consciousness. We bind ourselves to their souls."

"This child is the first child ever born to a time traveler, who has come here from the future. There is most definitely something different about the child."

"How can you be certain?"

"Because I know the Mother and Father." The Father is Becker Love the "Jumper."

This information surprised Garvey, he knew of the "Jumper," they had many previous encounters, none of them were pleasant.

"And the Mother, who is she?"

"She is Troianne Shelden, Daughter of William and Ellie Shelden, also Time Travelers."

"Your assignment is to get close to Troianne and get her to trust you enough to get close to the child."

"Where does this lady live?"

"That dear sir, is the sticky part, she is living at Cusworth Hall with The Earl of Yorkshire Duncan Bells - Whitby and his Mother the Dowager Duchess of Yorkshire, Daria."

"What?" You are telling me I must penetrate the whole family to get to the woman to get to the child?"

"Would it not be easier for you to make friends with Troianne and get close to the child rather than me, a man?"

"Troianne was a close friend of mine in the twenty first century, she would not understand my being here in the nineteenth century. She must not find out that I am here, much less that I am a "Follower."

"How do you propose that I am to get close to this woman?"

"I am sure you as a man can figure that one out! She is 22 years old, single and very very naive. You should have no problem wooing her."

"What about the Earl will he not be jealous?"

"Why ever would he be? He is just the doctor who delivered the child, he has opened his home to a wayward Time Traveler that is all."

"I have arranged for you to attend a Time Travelers Society Meeting on Wednesday evening. I have a dear friend Agatha who will introduce you as Monsieur Henry Dubois from Paris. You are to make the acquaintance of Miss Shelden and get her to trust you. Once you have infiltrated the home and the family, you are to summon me and let me know the best time to take the child, so that I may be waiting to intercede."

"How will I contact you?"

"Send a coded message to Agatha, she will instruct you should you have any problems or need to speak with me. Here is the key to decifer incoming information." She hands him a slip of paper which he quickly puts into his jacket pocket. "For now you will stay here at the Inn. I have booked your room for one week. After that you will need to find a way to be invited to stay at Cusworth Hall, IF you should find yourself needing longer to complete the task. However, I advise you to complete it as soon as possible, Joe doesn't like to wait for me to return home to him for long."

"He has provided you with the payment you requested I presume?"

"Yes, that business was conducted in Versailles."

"Well then, Monsieur, our plan will be put into motion immediately. You will need to ask some of the locals about the family and get familiar with your surroundings."

"We will be speaking only through correspondence. I shall await a report from you after the meeting on Wednesday night."

He loathed being told what to do by anyone, but it was the nature of his job. Usually he was assigned to a diplomat or dignitary of some sort, to ferret out information that would help protect the "Followers". There were times when he had been hired to murder a few people of interest, in order to alter historical events. Hating all woman with every breath he took, he watched as this one moved to leave. The plan was one that had he known more about it it would have been personally taken off his assignment list immediately. For now he was stuck and knew he had to make the best of it. From the corner of his eye he spotted the barmaid and motioned her over for another ale.

"Allo love, can I bring ye another ale?"

He looked at her with those black soulless eyes and grabbed her up to him roughly pinching her breast.

"Je pourrais te tuer chienne." (I could kill you Bitch!)

Shoving her away from him, she quickly grabbed another tankard from her tray handed it hastily to him and fled far away from the man with the evil stare.

Tonight, he drank to nothing. Nothing is all he had, and would ever have. He possessed no soul of his own. He'd already used up so many others. Nothing was left.