Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine (reading an ebook TXT) 📕

comes from another time. Yes, brother, I have forgotten who you are. Why don't you tell me?"

Nick straightened his shoulders. Slowly he stood once more. "You dare call me brother?" he said.

"Your name?" Sam said. "Tell me your name, then I shall know what to call you?"

"I am John Plantagenet, " Nick shouted suddenly. "I am the king's brother! I stand in England now in my brother's stead, " he said slowly. "And one day, de Braose, I shall make you kneel to me. You, and that witch you call your wife. " He smiled coldly. "Are you deranged, man? Can it be that you do not know your prince?" He strode toward Sam suddenly and took hold of the front of Sam's shirt. The blood from the cut on the back of his wrist was trickling across his palm and a smear of it transferred itself to the blue cotton as Sam tried to pull himself free. "Look at me!" Nick shouted suddenly. "And look well, de Braose! Remember the face of your future king!"

For a moment neither of them reacted to the sound of the front door buzzer. Nick had not heard it, but Sam, as he wrenched himself away, turned angrily and glanced toward the hall.

It buzzed again. Sam cursed. He had to get rid of whoever it was. He backed away from Nick cautiously. "I shall return in a moment, sir, " he said, trying to contain the anger and impatience that had swept through him. "Sit down, sir, " he added forcefully. "We shall continue this conversation in a moment. " He paused, reluctant to move, but Nick, after a second's annoyed hesitation, had swung away from him and was standing in the middle of the room, his arms folded across his chest.

Sam hurried into the hall, closing the door behind him, as the buzzer sounded for a third time, and he dragged open the front door. A bedraggled figure was standing on the dimly lit landing, dressed in a fawn raincoat. It was Judy Curzon.

"Thank God!" she said, pushing past him. "I thought you were out. I'm half drowned. "

"Judy!" Sam was still holding the door. "Wait! You can't come in! Why didn't the janitor ring through to say you were here?"

She had unknotted her belt and dropped the soaked raincoat on a chair.

"He wasn't in his cubbyhole, so I dodged past and grabbed the elevator. I hate being interrogated by your janitor. It makes me feel like a burglar. What do you mean I can't come in, for Christ's sake? Why not?"

"I have a patient here, Judy—"

"Crap! You don't have patients. You do experiments on poor, bloody animals. " Judy pushed open the drawing-room door. "Get me a drink and a towel and let me wait until the storm is over, then I'll go—" She stopped dead in the doorway. "Nick?" Her good humor vanished. "I thought you were supposed to be in the States. "

Nick turned slightly toward her but he said nothing, and after a moment he turned back to the window where the lightning was almost continuous behind the streaming rain.

Judy scowled. "And hello to you too, Nicholas, sweetie!" She walked across to the table and picked up the gin bottle, holding it up to the light. "You said you were with a patient, Sam. Do I gather you meant your benighted brother?"

Sam had followed her into the room. He closed the door firmly. "Sit down, Judy, and please be quiet. " His voice was quietly threatening. "Nick is deeply hypnotized. He doesn't know you are here. "

She stared at Sam, then, stunned, she turned to Nick. "You mean it? He can't see me? Have you made him go back into the past, like Jo?" Judy raised her hand as if to touch Nick's face, then abruptly she moved away from him again.

Sam nodded. "I've been trying to do that, but he is not so good a subject as Jo. He doesn't go deeply enough into the trance. "

Judy poured herself out an inch of gin. "But he's deeply enough in a trance for me to come into the room and him not know it! What has he done to his hand?"

Sam smiled enigmatically. "I cut him. "

Judy stared, aghast. "Why?" she breathed.

"To see if the trance was deep enough. "

Judy had begun to feel a little sick. After staring at the blood on Nick's hand, she turned to look at Sam. "You're sure you didn't have a fight?" she asked faintly.

Sam shook his head. "Of course not. "

"Wake him up, please. " She was suddenly frightened.

"I was about to when you arrived. " Sam helped himself to another drink. He was watching Judy closely, noticing the conflict of emotions as they followed one another in quick succession across her face. Fear, disgust, interest, excitement, and then something like calculation betrayed themselves in her eyes. But no affection that he could see.

"Can't he hear us talking at all?" she said after a moment. Nick was staring out of the window at the rain.

"He can. But he's not listening. He's in a world of his own, aren't you, my liege?" He walked up to Nick and slapped him playfully on the shoulder.

Nick turned. His expression was icy. "You display the manners of a peasant, de Braose, " he said.

Sam colored. "Peasant or not, brother, " he replied smoothly, "I am the one who holds the power now. I can free you or leave you locked in the past. Do you know what would happen to a man who thinks he is King John? He would be put away somewhere where he could harm no one for the rest of his days!"

"Sam!" Judy cried. She ran to him and grabbed him by the arm. "Sam, for Christ's sake, wake him up. Stop it!"

Sam smiled at her. "Afraid of losing your handsome Nicholas to the men in white coats?"

She clung to him. "Wake him up! What you're doing is evil. It's vile! You're