Time to Love Again Read Free Page B

her nose several times to steady herself
before she could trust herself to speak.
    “I am not going to waste precious time
screaming or crying or having hysterics,” she said in a tight
little voice. “You are going to bring India back. If I can do
anything to help, I will.”
    “That’s just it,” Hank cried. “I don’t know what to do.”
    “Then you shouldn’t be fooling around with
this machine.” Willi shook her head in disgust at his carelessness.
Then she went to the table next to the keyboard, searching for
anything that might offer a clue to India’s exact whereabouts.
“Look here. I know this, it’s Robert’s notebook. And here’s one of
his floppy disks.”
    “Yesterday she was talking about working on
some of his notes,” Hank offered, moving to stand next to her.
“There’s a date on it.”
    “Robert was such an old fuddy-duddy that he
dated and cross-referenced everything,” Willi told him. “See? This
floppy disk is labeled AD 777 .”
    “And this empty sleeve is dated AD
778 ,” Hank added. “This must be the one she was using.”
    “Which means?” Willi asked, a hard edge to
her voice.
    “If what I think happened actually did
happen, India may well have been sent to the year 778,” Hank said,
still looking down at the disk sleeve in his hand.
    “ Henry Adelbert Marsh .” Willi’s voice
was slow and deadly now, and no one hearing her could possibly
doubt that she meant every word she said. “I don’t know what you
have done with this stupid machine of yours to change it from an
ordinary computer into this monster, or how you have done it, or
what mad experiments you have been trying, but this I do know: You
will bring India back from wherever you have sent her, and you will
bring her back alive and healthy, or by heaven, you won’t live to
see Christmas Day.”
    Hank looked at the short, plump young woman
in her black leather outfit. Mythology wasn’t his field of
expertise, but he knew an avenging fury when he saw one, and he
believed Willi would do what she had threatened. Under her
implacable stare he felt himself inundated by a wave of guilt. At
the same time, he experienced a burst of excitement. Was it
possible that his far-out theory was correct? Could he make India
reappear and then duplicate what she had done? If so, he would be
the author of one of the great discoveries of all time.
    “I will do my best,” he promised.

Chapter 3
     
     
    India fell out of blackness to land right in
the middle of a puddle of mud and ice. When she tried to stand up,
someone bumped against her so hard that she was thrown to her knees
again, down into trampled wet snow and dirty water. A dark fog
enveloped her, making sight difficult. Her head ached and she felt
sickeningly dizzy. Around her sounded loud cries and the clash of
metal on metal. Wondering where on earth she was and what had
happened, she blinked a few times, shook her head to clear her
blurred visions, and then looked up into cold grey skies and
drizzling rain.
    A rough hand grabbed her arm, jerking her to
her feet. An unshaven face was thrust into hers. She glimpsed a
rounded metal helmet before she closed her eyes against the glare
of a strange man’s angry gaze.
    “Idiot! Where is your sword?” The man spoke
in a language she had heard only one other person use, but she
recognized it, and she understood a good part of it.
    “Sword? I don’t – sword ?” Her eyes
flew open again. This time the black mist that had kept her from
seeing clearly was gone. The dizziness was receding, too. The man
who had hauled her upright was just a little taller than she, with
dark brown hair showing beneath the gold-decorated rim of his
helmet. His face was square-jawed and hard, his wide mouth firm.
His upper body was covered with chain-mail armor and on his left
arm he bore a large, round shield. The man’s eyes fell upon the
necklace hanging around India’s neck.
    “What message from Charles?” he demanded, the
language