The Alchemist's Key (13 page)

‘Please.’ Wade broke the silence. ‘Just accept these and I’ll leave you in peace.’

Although hesitant for a moment, Hannah took the bunch of flowers in hand. Wade smiled, turned and abruptly made for the door.

‘Did you invite Louisa to your room last night?’

The question halted Wade, and he wiped the smile from his face before he turned back to answer. ‘You were right beside me all night, Hannah. Do you recall me making her such a proposition?’

‘You could have arranged it before I arrived.’

‘Aw, come on,’ he appealed, noticing Hannah had that cute little pout of hers happening — and it was driving him nuts. ‘I was doting on you all
night! The only reason I didn’t invite you up to my room was because of this damn boyfriend of yours.’ He swung around to face the opposite direction to control his frustration.

‘There is no boyfriend.’

Wade turned back to Hannah with a look of annoyed disbelief on his face.

‘I just invented him, to keep you in check.’ She smiled winningly, and admired the bouquet she held.

Wade decided to let the matter slide to avoid another argument. ‘So what is going to keep me in check now?’

Hannah shrugged. ‘I’ll just have to rely on your integrity as a gentleman, I guess.’

Wade gave half a laugh at this. ‘I really don’t think that is going to save you.’ He walked back to where she stood.

‘Maybe,’ she placed both arms about his neck, ‘I don’t really want to be saved.’

As their lips met, a round of applause sounded from the observation level. Wade and Hannah looked up to find an all-female audience gathered there, the Contessa amongst them.

‘We really need to get these rooms sound-proofed,’ Wade commented quietly to Hannah, his face reddening with embarrassment.

‘Come with me.’ Hannah took his hand to lead him to the door. ‘My quarters are more private,’ she whispered.

Wade raised both brows as he followed her, very much liking the sound of that.

A
ndrew arrived back at Ashby alone. He located Hugh and Louisa in Wade’s studio, and informed them that the Baron would not be returning until the next day. Andrew noticed the four crystal objects positioned alongside one another on the desk. There was a cube, an octahedron, a tetrahedron and an icosahedron.

‘But no dodecahedron,’ Andrew noted aloud, recalling John Ashby chasing his grandson, Ernest, to retrieve such an item.

‘There is a setting for one in the machine, however,’ Hugh advised. ‘The central compartment seems to have given host to such an object once.’

‘Then that must have been the object Wade saw John give young Ernest before the temple collapsed,’ Louisa concluded.

‘The key!’ Andrew uttered. ‘I just thought it the ramblings of a madman at the time. But I’ll bet that’s what Ernest, the loon, was taking about … he really did have the key.’

‘Sorry?’ Hugh wasn’t following.

‘During that first experience I had of a time-slip, Wade and I ran into Ernest Ashby, the eighth Baron, who kept telling us he had the key.’

‘Oh yes …’ Hugh vaguely recollected Wade mentioning the episode.

Andrew’s mind was ticking away now, and he began to pace. ‘But Ernest must have meant he had the key to his grandfather’s machine, that only he knew about.’

‘So where is this key now?’ Louisa posed.

‘According to Wade, it’s hidden somewhere with John Ashby’s diary,’ answered Hugh.

‘But where?’ Louisa queried.

‘That’s a very good question,’ Andrew granted, with no idea of where they would even start to search.

That evening Hugh and Louisa dined in the downstairs drawing room. They discussed the strange crystal objects until finally they ran out of speculation and the conversation died.

‘You didn’t answer my question earlier … about
why it is you dislike me so much.’ Louisa had to bring the subject up again.

Hugh gave a heavy sigh, not really wanting to discuss it. They’d been quite pleasant to one another all afternoon and he didn’t want to spoil it now. ‘I could ask the same of you, Louisa. After all, it was you who ignored me in the beginning, not the other way around. Could it be because I am a mere student, with no title and no lands?’

‘No, of course not,’ Louisa defended.

‘Really? Because you certainly seemed more disposed towards me when you were mistaken in thinking that I was the new Baron Ashby.’

‘Well, it was an honest mistake. You certainly looked more the part than Wade did.’

‘So what you’re saying is that, at a glance, I appeared more your type.’

Louisa smiled at his assumption. ‘Are you jealous, Mr Prescott?’

‘More curious,’ Hugh maintained.

Louisa slouched back in her chair and took up her drink. ‘You think I’m just after the Baron’s money … and in the beginning that was probably true. But I am genuinely fond of him these days.’

‘Fond of him,’ Hugh emphasised. ‘That doesn’t seem to warrant a scorching affair.’

‘What difference does it make now?’ Louisa referred to the Baron’s absence.

‘Well, I’m sure a woman of your beauty and position doesn’t lack for male suitors.’

‘True. But the upper class gentry are all so boring!’ Louisa rolled her eyes to accentuate the fact. ‘Wade is different. He’s a real person, who has real feelings that he’s not afraid to show.’

‘I’m a real person.’ Hugh moved around one seat, so that he was seated beside Louisa, and taking up her hand he gently kissed her fingers. ‘And I’m not afraid to show how I feel.’

Louisa couldn’t keep the smile from her lips. ‘Is this some sort of test, Hugh?’

He turned her hand over and kissed her palm. ‘Why would you think that?’

‘Well, you’ve already made it rather plain that you think I’m easy. So if I submit, I’m a whore, and if I don’t, then I’m a social snob.’

Hugh let go of her hand, feeling somewhat insulted. ‘I see. It’s okay for you to throw yourself at Wade, who is plainly not interested, yet to sleep with me would make you a whore?’

Louisa was stunned by the swing in Hugh’s mood. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t think you were serious.’

‘And why not?’ Hugh stood. ‘Because I couldn’t possibly aspire to a relationship with a woman of your social standing?’

‘Hugh, you’re getting me all wrong.’

‘I don’t think so. And you know what, I feel sorry for you, Louisa, because you are what is commonly known as a control freak.’

‘That’s not true!’

‘Really? Think about it. As long as you are calling the shots in a relationship, it’s okay, but as soon as anyone else tries to take control, or get close, you can’t handle it!’

‘Is that what you think?’

‘That’s what I know. And I’ll tell you something else for nothing. As long as you insist on following your intellectual idea of the perfect mate, you’re going to miss out on any chance you may have to experience real love and emotion. Money may get you hot, Louisa, but it will never make you truly happy.’

Tears began to well in Louisa’s eyes. ‘Just because I won’t let you have your way with me, suddenly I’m an emotional misfit?’

‘I don’t think there’s anything sudden about it. How many other truly genuine suitors have you passed over because of their bank balance, or their chosen line of work? Huh?’

Louisa opened her mouth to retort, but realised that to deny what he said would be a lie.
How could he know me so well?
she wondered on the quiet, hanging her head as she had no response.

‘I figured as much,’ Hugh resolved, and left Louisa to dine alone.

Come Sunday morning, Wade felt so high that he decided to walk back to Ashby.

Hannah excused herself from going with him on the pretext that she still had much work to do on the new dance curriculum. She vowed to make it over to see his excavation later in the week. Wade suspected that Hannah had no desire to confront Louisa after Friday night’s episode, which he felt was fair enough.

After passing through the village, Wade cut across country as the locals did — it was all his property anyway.

He rounded the house to find Louisa loading her belongings into her sports car. ‘Where are you going?’

‘I wanted to get moving before Hugh wakes up,’ she replied.

‘Love ’em and leave ’em, hey?’ Wade jested, sure that Hugh and Louisa would have figured out how they felt about each other in his absence.

‘Hardly. We had a bit a falling out, I’m afraid.’

‘God, you two are hopeless.’ Wade threw his arms in the air, still smiling broadly.

‘You obviously had a good night.’ Louisa lowered her sunglasses to view him better.

‘Outstanding!’ he emphasised, but when he noted how puffy Louisa’s eyes were, he dropped the cheery demeanour.

‘Jesus, Louisa, what the hell happened here last night?’

She quickly replaced the sunglasses, which would otherwise not have been necessary as the day was rather overcast. ‘Nothing that I won’t get over.’ She forced half a smile and climbed into the car.

Wade was suddenly struck with guilt. ‘I should have come back here. I’m so sorry, Louisa. It was very rude of me to invite you and then —’

‘Nonsense,’ she told him. ‘I’m glad you worked things out with Hannah, truly I am. If I hadn’t been so damned selfish in the first place, you wouldn’t have had to stay away.’

‘Well, what did Hugh do to upset you like this?’

Louisa stuck the keys in the ignition and started up the car. ‘He just hit me with a few home truths, which perhaps I wasn’t quite ready to face.’ She sniffed and released the handbrake. ‘I should
thank him really, he certainly helped put my life in perspective.’

As she waved, Wade spied the tears beneath her sunglasses as they began to flow down her cheeks. ‘I should have known better than to leave those two alone.’ He watched her drive away.

Wade made straight to Hugh’s bedchamber, and was not entirely surprised to find him packing. ‘What are you doing?’

‘What does it look like?’ Hugh continued to make haste about it. ‘I want to get out of here before Louisa wakes up.’

‘Louisa just left,’ Wade informed him. ‘Whatever went down between you two last night, it seems to have her pretty upset.’

‘She’s upset!’ Hugh scoffed. ‘She makes a mockery of my emotions, and
she’s
upset … typical!’ He took a seat on the bed to calm himself, and then looked at Wade.

‘You got your end in I presume?’

‘If you’re asking if I had a fantastic night of unrivalled passion, yes, I did.’ Wade grinned.

‘What about the boyfriend?’

Wade shrugged, figuring it would be more diplomatic not to go into it. ‘I’m the boyfriend now.’

‘Well, good for you.’ Hugh tried to sound happy for him.

‘So.’ Wade decided to change the subject. ‘Did you discover anything interesting in my absence.’

‘Hell, yes, I almost forgot.’ Hugh raised himself and motioned Wade to follow him to the studio.

‘I’d like to take them to the labs at Oxford, and have the contents analysed.’ Hugh commented, after Wade had looked the crystal objects over.

‘No way … not until we find the key and the notebook.’

‘But —’

‘But nothing! Until I know exactly what these things are, nobody is to know about them, understood?’

Hugh, although disinclined to, agreed.

‘If you want to do something useful, you could research these shapes and see what you can find out about them,’ suggested Wade.

‘Consider it done.’ Hugh gave a heavy sigh.

‘Now don’t be like that.’ Wade had seen this reaction in Hugh many times before. ‘These objects all appear well sealed. If you start mucking around with what you don’t fully comprehend, you’re liable to destroy them before we really know their function.’

‘But the substance inside, which I strongly suspect to be Ghost’s Gold, has been lost to science for centuries.’ Hugh pushed his view.

‘And it will remain lost, until such time as we figure out that machine’s function.’

‘I don’t think you understand,’ Hugh stressed. ‘You could be holding the key to human immortality in your hand.’

‘I know I am,’ Wade responded, looking one of the objects over. ‘John Ashby told me so.’

‘Well, this is bigger than you or me. You can’t just deny science —’

‘Don’t give me that!’ Wade interjected. ‘John Ashby, the creator of this device, saw fit to deny science what he knew, and I’m sure he had good reason. I will not betray his secret. Not yet.’

‘All right,’ Hugh caved first, ‘have it your way. But don’t blame me if the whole thing blows up in your face.’

‘I take full responsibility,’ Wade assured him.

In the months that followed, Wade and Andrew turned the house upside down searching for the fabled key and diary of John Ashby. As the warmer months approached, however, Wade didn’t have as much time as he would have liked to dedicate to the search.

Louisa requested that the Baron attend some of the training sessions of horses they were preparing for the imminent racing season. This side of the business he greatly enjoyed, but it was time-consuming.

The Contessa was requiring his attention as the new wings of the college were being erected at an amazing rate. The plan was to have the new buildings operational for classes the following year. Although the Contessa was taking care of most of the furnishings and decoration, Wade was personally supervising the purchase of equipment, which demanded a good deal of his time.

His new relationship with Hannah was also very important to Wade, and although she understood that he was a busy man at present, he set aside time to spend with her as well.

Thus between all the women in his life, the young Baron’s spare hours were very few and far between.

Hugh had been of some help with the house mystery, having chased up some information on the strange crystal shapes they’d pulled from the machine. He’d discovered that some of the esoteric schools of thought considered these shapes to be forms-with-power, especially when combined with crystal. These forms had varying
vibrational frequencies that increased the energy of the material that was moulded in that form.

As Hugh had suspected, the objects each related to one of the elements, as with the alchemic symbols on the dining room floor. The cube related to Earth, the octahedron to Air, the tetrahedron to Fire, the icosahedron to Water, and the dodecahedron to Space or Ether. The interesting thing was that, except for the dodecahedron that was featured in the centre, none of the shapes corresponded to the same directions as the symbols on the dining room floor. For example, the Earth symbol on the mosaic was depicted to the north. Yet the cube shape, also relating to Earth, was found in the box that was positioned to the east of the cross on the machine. In fact, all the corresponding shapes were one quarter turn past their compass position as depicted on the dining room floor moasic.

This discovery prompted Wade, Andrew and Hugh to re-examine the machine room. Using large metal props to support the remains of the roof, they dug deeper into the refuse and discovered an archaic winch. This contraption connected to the large cross that had housed the crystal objects. The lever, which was the control arm of the winch, was frozen in the ‘on’ position, and as hard as they tried to shift it into reverse it would not budge. Even when they’d
replaced the crystal keys into their respective housing, the winch still remained frozen stiff.

‘We must need the key,’ Wade concluded, out of breath from trying to shift the weighty metal control arm.

Hugh raised a brow and shrugged. ‘Then again, the mechanism could just be stuffed from being buried for so long.’

‘I don’t think so.’ Andrew slouched beside the Baron, just as exhausted. ‘I reckon that once we find the key —’

‘If,’ Hugh corrected.

‘Okay,
if
we find the key, then it will only be a simple matter of placing it, throwing the lever and all our problems will be solved.’

Wade grinned at his young friend’s optimism. ‘There will be no way of returning Grace to the past, you mean.’

‘That, too.’ Andrew tried not to sound as excited by the prospect as he felt.