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“Hello there.” I give her a grin. It’s impossible for me to act worried. I’m going home. With Ben! “Can you fetch Mr. Mitchell as soon as possible? Tell him it’s very important. More important than anything he’s doing right now.”

The maid studies me as she nods slowly. “Yes, miss.”

I beam. “Thank you. Hurry now.”

The maid’s nod picks up speed, though her face loses none of the confused expression. “Yes, miss.” She backs out the door.

It’s an excruciating few minutes waiting for Ben, keeping my hands inside and praying it doesn’t close on me. “Hurry, hurry, hurry,” I keep repeating to myself. I have my back turned, arms shoulder-deep, when I hear the door. I look over my shoulder to see him rushing across the room.

“You did it.” He tips his head back and laughs out loud. “You did it, Clara, you did it!”

“Yes, I did!” I grin in triumph too, but I nod toward the writing desk. “But hurry, write a note. Say we eloped or something. Anything and let’s go.”

“You did it,” he repeats again, rushing to the desk I indicated and scribbling something on a paper there.

“So much for that rush-order corset you spent so much money on,” I say.

“I’ll buy you a new one.” He folds the paper and writes something on the front before coming over to join me.

“Yeah, no thanks.”

He laughs, and I note the authenticity in it. The idea of going home has freed a part of him. “Give me one of your hands,” he says. I extract one to tangle my fingers with his. “Here we go.”

“Home.” I squeeze his fingers and step into the mirror.

Chapter Nine

I’m lying on a hard floor and have no idea how I got here. I vaguely remember stepping through a mirror with Ben—but through? That seems ridiculous. That’s when the déjà vu hits me. Falling through the mirror. Three days in 1901 with Ben. Trying to come home.

How did I end up on the floor? Panic fills my chest as I consider that maybe it hasn’t worked.

“Just so you know, when your eyes move around like that while they’re still closed, it’s freaky.”

It sounds like Ben’s voice speaking, but the rhythm and the words are off. He’d never say “freaky.”

I try to respond. “Mmmm.”

He takes my hand gently in his, rubbing his thumb over my palm. “I’d love to see those gorgeous hazel eyes.”

Despite the lightness in his tone slipping, betraying more concern than his mask allows, it sounds a lot more like Ben. Except for the gorgeous part.

I force my eyes open. Ben’s face floats above me.

He leans forward, brushing his fingers through my loose hair. “Why’d you have to go and knock yourself out? You scared me.”

I sit up, cringing at the way my head throbs. “Ouch.”

“Should we go to urgent care or something?” Ben takes my hand and helps me to my feet.

“No. I’m fine.” I stare around the room, still hanging on to Ben’s hand, and take a deep breath at how wrong it looks in the modern age. If Ben hadn’t been standing next to me, I would have wondered if it was all a dream. “How did we travel back to The Villa? To my condo?” I ask. We’d left the mirror behind in Mrs. Guthrie’s. It could’ve been taken anywhere after that. It’s too much of a coincidence that it ended up back here.

“I asked Mrs. Guthrie and William in my note to make sure it was returned, to this unit specifically.” He still studies me with concern.

I nod and take a deep breath—well, as deep as I can, since I’m still wearing a corset. “You have to undo my corset, Ben. I can’t reach it.”

He chuckles and turns me around. It takes him some time to get through it, but he finally has it, and I tell him to get out of the condo so I can change.

“What about me?” he asks, gesturing toward the old-fashioned suit he still wears.