“What if I’m discovered?” Dale said, pacing to the fireplace and turning back to Roys.
“How?” Roys replied, shrugging. “They may think you are a bit odd, but I don’t think anyone could imagine the truth.”
“We are talking about deceiving the crown of England into giving me my title.”
Roys sighed. “You don’t need to claim your title if you don’t want to. But either way, we need to create a lineage for you. Parents and such. Nobody comes from thin air. We might as well use your true lineage. Whether you claim your title will be up to you, and you can decide that later.”
Dale considered it. Did he need the title? He was proud of his heritage, but if it proved to be a challenge, he could relinquish it. This house was another matter. He felt a strong connection to this place. It was where he belonged.
Turning away, Dale ran his hand over the mantelpiece. “Olivia said this house and its contents are being auctioned off in her time. That is actually why she came to England. Do you think I could take some money, gold coins, jewels and such? Would that be enough to purchase this place?”
“It might be, if we invest it and multiply it.” Roys smiled slyly. “We have the power of foresight. You could make as much money as you need to buy and renovate this place, if that is what you want. Mind you, it would be expensive to maintain.”
“I know.” Dale replied, still staring at the fireplace. “I will need to think of ways to generate enough income to maintain it.”
“Yes.” Roys confirmed. “Either way, you will have a significant challenge in front of you. Are you ready for it?”
Dale turned to face the room. His gaze encompassed the three people in it. All of them were making sacrifices to help him reunite with Olivia. “Nothing is more challenging than living without Livvy. Yes, I’m ready. Take me to her, please.”
CHAPTER 72 - The long way back (or forward)
THEY HAD BEEN TRAVELINGfor days. In fact, it could accurately be said they had traveled for over a century, but since he had skipped a lot of that time, he would not count it.
He had never imagined the plan to get him to Olivia’s time would be so elaborate and demanding. They had traveled to at least a dozen time points, another dozen places, and they still had some more stops to make.
He was impatient to be reunited with Livvy, but had to defer to Roys’s leadership on this project. In the few days they had been together, they had talked easily and gotten to know each other better, and the two men had become friends.
Roys was methodical, thorough and very intelligent. He seemed to have thought of everything in advance, and Dale was eternally grateful to him for that. On the other hand, he was feeling rather restless and useless. There was little he could do but to tag along while Roys did most of the work.
But what could he do? He helped a little by providing facts, making calculations, and sometimes even suggesting plausible explanations. But most of the work seemed to involve time traveling and using something Roys referred to as an LT, short for ‘Laptop’.
With that strange device, which looked like a thick piece of paper, but that emitted light and sounds when unrolled, he said he was ‘hacking’. A term that didn’t mean what he thought it did. It had nothing to do with cutting or riding. Instead, he explained, it meant secretly accessing some other such apparatuses and creating all sorts of records for him.
He had no idea how any of this worked. It looked like magic to him. To be honest, he didn’t know how most things around him worked and was constantly feeling bewildered, confused, and just plain stupid.
This was exactly the fear that had kept him in his place when Livvy had left. The fear of the unknown, of feeling out of place and useless. He was worried, and tired, and beginning to have second thoughts about this entire enterprise.
