Lucy - Wed. August, 17, 1814
By some miracle Lucy had been granted the freedom she had hoped for. She wasn't being escorted all around the house anymore, and she was given the freedom to come and go from meals and activities by herself. She concentrated hard on appearing normal and made it a point to spend a little bit of time with all of the available Bridgertons so that they could all say they had seen her that day if Anthony were to ask about her whereabouts, and then she was able to escape on her own. She had hurried back to her room and grabbed her clutch that she had also hidden the night she arrived and then was hurrying off to the garden shed to put her experiment together. She had managed to find both bits of metal she needed during her explorations of the house that morning, all she needed now was the potato and a conductor, and she was going to try and use horse hair for that.
Her heart was pounding in her chest, if this worked, and she could get a charge on her phone at the very least, it meant that more was possible. She was careful to walk normally through the house so as not to attract attention of any workers, she had been pretty sure she wouldn't run into any of the Bridgerton's, well at least not the women. The men had been gone all day, but she had to take the chance. So, Lucy carefully made her way to the gardens and skirted the side of the house, not wanting to make it obvious she was walking across the field to do something, there would after all, be no reason for her to be out there alone. The only risky part was running from the house over to the stables. Once she got beyond the stables she was out of sight of the windows as long as she walked straight, and then the vegetable patch was right there. She had taken a quick look around, and upon seeing no one she ran for it. She stopped for a breath as soon as she hit the stable wall and then she skulked around the side. She thought she had made it when a vice like grip closed around her wrist and she was spun around into a hard body. Lucy knew the moment his fingers touched her wrist who it was, but when she was pressed against him his scent was what over-powered her senses and left her with no doubt who it was.
"Anthony!" She gasped, swallowing hard and trying to ignore how firmly her body was pressed against his.
" . !?" He demanded, his voice low and deadly. For the first time since they met, she was afraid of him.
"I demand an answer!" Anthony shouted, shaking her a little.
"I was just...in the garden and I -" Lucy choked out, not having the strength to lie as Anthony's power and anger was zapping it from her.
"Do not dare to attempt to insult my intelligence by lying , tell me the truth!" Anthony hissed, his grip, which had moved to her upper arms, tightening.
"I can't!" Lucy cried, hanging her head.
"You are staying in my family home, you are putting my reputation, and my family's reputation at risk and you are throwing our hospitality in our face and I want to know why, so tell me!"
"I can't!" Lucy shrieked, pushing away from him. She couldn't tell him the truth, but she had to make sure he saw that she wasn't using them, she wasn't trying to hurt them.
"Anthony I am so thankful for all you have done, and I promise you I am not -"
"Is it your plan to bed a Bridgerton? The way you kissed me in the library should have warned me of what your intentions might be." Lucy flinched away from his words. They shouldn't have bothered her, they were the farthest thing from the truth, but hearing them come from Anthony, and with such venom, wounded her deeply. He reached for her and started pulling her to him again and Lucy couldn't bare his touch at the moment. After he refused to release her Lucy took back her arm and slapped him right across the face. The moment he released her in shock, Lucy took off running. She had no idea what to do now or where to go, she was worse off than before, but what was her other choice?
She ran flat out for the copse of trees, ignoring Anthony's pounding footsteps as he chased after her. Lucy's lungs were burning but she kept pushing herself to go further, all she had to do was get away from Anthony, but he was fast and getting closer. He reached for her a couple of times, his finger tips even brushing her skirts, but Lucy twitched the fabric away and managed to stay out of his grasp. She had finally pushed ahead of him again and kept herself going forward, not daring to look behind her to see how close Anthony was. Then his body knocked into hers, as he grabbed her around the middle and brought her to the ground. They both laid on the ground motionless for a moment trying to catch their breath, which was made harder for Lucy as Anthony was still on top of her. He rolled off and slowly sat up and Lucy sat up just as slowly.
"Did you - Did you just...tackle me!?" Lucy asked Anthony, incredulously.
"Well, traditional methods were just not catching your attention." Anthony fired back. Lucy burst into laughter then and laid back down to breathe easier, laughing while already winded was not easy feat in a corset.
"Why, Lord Bridgerton, I can't believe you did that!" Lucy said between breaths of laughter. Soon enough Anthony was chuckling too. Lucy sat up at the sound of his laughter. It was beautiful, it made a ball in the pit of her stomach and she got the sense that he didn't do it enough.
"Lucy...Why can you not tell me what is going on?" Anthony said softly once their laughter subsided.
"You...won't believe me." Lucy admitted finally in defeat. She could see no other way out of this.
"Whatever do you mean?" He asked, somewhat surprised by her answer.
"I...You won't believe me." she said again.
"That does not mean that I do not deserve to know." Lucy sighed and nodded. Anthony was right, he did deserve the truth. He had been nothing but kind to her and she had desperately wanted to share her secret with him, but she was afraid of the outcome. There was nothing else for it now though, it was time to come clean.
"Ok, um...You're going to hear a lot of words and things that you might not understand but just...just let me finish ok?" Anthony eyed her cautiously, but nodded remaining silent.
"Ok so, I don't understand it all or how it happened really but, I haven't lost my memory. My name is Lucille Anne McCoy, I am 27 years old and I am an elementary school teacher in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. I was at a work event at an art gallery on Saturday night and I ran into my ex-boyfriend and his new fiancée so I decided to leave. I caught a taxi to go home, but there was a car accident. I woke up in the wreck and the driver was gone. Longer story short, a man and his dog found me and brought me back to his house to get help. He was an inventor and he had numerous strange inventions, and one...changed time apparently. You see...I am 27 but I was born on September 21st 1990. The current year where I am from is 2017. When I first woke up in the bed in the room you have given me, I thought I must have really hit my head hard and was having a delusion of some sort but...the next morning I was still here and I just had to accept that I was in 1814 instead of 2017" Lucy held her breath tightly after letting it all spill. She had to make him understand that she wasn't using him and she was telling him the truth, but it had almost taken her an entire day to process the news how could she expect him to process it in a matter of minutes? Anthony remained silent for an agonising minute then he sighed.
"Retardation." He murmured sadly.
"Excuse me!?" Lucy gasped, utterly offended at the term and the implication.
"It is alright. We will get you help. Come on, up you get." Anthony said softly, standing and holding his hand out to Lucy to help her up.
"I do not have mental issues! I am telling you the truth and -"
"I am sure it seems like it. We will call for the surgeon and - "
"No! I have proof!" Lucy said urgently, scrambling to her feet, ignoring his helpful hand.
"Proof?" He asked doubtfully.
"Yes, proof. I can prove I am telling the truth." She told him earnestly, praying he would entertain her for a little while longer so that she could prove to him she wasn't lying.
"Show me." He said with only a little bit of hesitation.
"Ok um...is there somewhere we can go to insure we can't be seen or heard?" Anthony thought hard for a second and nodded, motioning for her to follow him. He led her through the trees towards a chapel, in front of the chapel was a bench and a large stone sculpture that Lucy noticed was actually a memorial stone.
"Your father?" Lucy guessed as they got closer. Nothing had been shared about his father yet, but she knew that a Viscount was an inherited title, which had to mean his father was dead. Anthony nodded tightly and said:
"Just a memorial, he is interred at Aubrey Hall, our ancestral home" before he led her around to the door of the building and pushed it open. Once inside he lit candles and closed the door behind them, blocking out the sunlight.
"No one will overhear us in here. No one comes here...it is too hard for most of us." He explained tightly. Lucy simply nodded, understanding what he meant.
"Ok, so I am going to show you a few things, and try not to panic. I fainted twice upon learning I had gone back in time, and I can't catch you if you react the same to learning I am from the future." She said lightly, hoping to lighten the mood a little bit. Lucy took her clutch out from a fold in her dress and snapped it open.
"This, is called a cell phone. I realise you don't even have normal phones yet, but in about 60 years or so they will be invented. It is a device that people have in their homes and you pick it up, press a certain number which pertains to someone else's telephone and it will ring, and then that person will answer it and you can talk to them. Anyway, this is an advanced, personal version of it without getting too technical." She fished her smartphone from her clutch and handed it to Anthony. He took it gently and turned it over in his hands a few times looking at it. He tapped the glass and looked at it with a confused expression.
"The battery in it is dead, I was actually trying to find a way to charge it when you found me. If I can get it to work again I might be able to get a hold of the guy who's stupid invention landed me here." Lucy spat angrily.
"Anyway, it doesn't work right now." She said, taking it back from him.
"I will admit I have never seen anything as peculiar as that device, but it does not really prove you are from the future, simply that you have access to an odd assortment of gadgets." Anthony said stubbornly.
"I figured I'd start you off slow." Lucy smiled, reaching back into her clutch and getting out her license and health card.
"Where I am from, horse back riding is a hobby or sport and only to very few people, I have never even done it. Everyone gets around by automobiles that are called cars, which have also not been invented yet. Basically in layman's terms it is an engine powered carriage that you drive yourself. You need a special license to be able to drive one, and this...is a driver's license. It tells police, if you get pulled over or anything, where you live, your date of birth and what not, it's your form of identification." Lucy explained handing the card over to Anthony. He took it gingerly in his hands and his eyes widened as he looked at it.
"This...this is you!" He looked from the card back to Lucy who nodded silently.
"But it is an exact likeness! How can this be?" Anthony said astonished, continuously looking from the small photo card to Lucy and back again.
"Yeah, I guess photography hasn't been invented yet either. People really only paint portraits for a hobby now, and everyone has a camera, my phone if it were working, is a camera too and it takes pictures. I have probably hundreds of photos saved on it. And this, is my health card. In Canada we do have free health care, well I mean our taxes cover it, I know England does too...or at least will if you don't now." Lucy prattled on nervously before getting back on track. "Anyway, you just have to show them this card that tells them you are Canadian and entitled to it, and then you see a doctor." She handed him her health card, which not only had a photo, but a hologram and was coloured, which he took just as gingerly and looked just as shocked at what he was seeing.
"What is this material?" He asked, tapping it with his nail and bending it a little.
"It's plastic, which I also don't think has been invented yet." Lucy laughed and said with a shrug.
"And this...is called a zipper. We still have buttons, but most things we want to keep closed, clothing and acessory wise at least, is zippers instead of buttons now." She explained grabbing the zipper on the interior pocket of her clutch and sliding it open. She also shook out the money, which she only had a few coins, and handed that to him as well.
"And that, is our money. This big coin is a toonie, or two dollars, the second biggest coins there, the silver ones, are called quarters and they are twenty-five cents and the smallest ones are dimes and they are ten cents." He took them into his hand and looked closely at both sides.
"And if you look at the edges of the coin, the numbers will tell you what year those coins were made."
"2015...wow! And who is Queen Elizabeth the second?" Anthony said, holding a coin up the the candle to read the edges.
"Who is the current monarch?" Lucy asked, trying to think back to her knowledge of the monarchy.
"King George the third." Anthony replied instantly.
"Ohh wow, ok well she is the daughter of King George the sixth and she is the current reigning monarch of The U.K. Canada is its own country now and not part of the U.K. but, we still have strong ties to the country and we are still considered a British colony so we still use the British monarch on our money."
"You...you are telling me the truth." He said almost in wonder.
"Yes...I am, and I hope you understand now why I couldn't tell you before." Anthony nodded, still staring at the coin in his hand.
"I don't know if I can get back home, I might have to stay in 1814 but I don't know what is proper and what is not for this time, so I have to try. I just have to get home, I am just...I'm so lost." Lucy admitted, sadly. Anthony cleared his throat and handed the coin back to her.
"What were you trying to do when I found you?" He asked softly, no traces of anger left in his voice. Lucy explained then about the electricity experiement and what she was going to try and do in order to get enough juice to charge her phone.
"Let us go get you that potato then, but do not try and do anything until you are back in your room. We had better not let anyone else in on this secret alright?" Lucy was surprised by Anthony's quick turn around and acceptance of what she had told him, she felt like a weight was lifted from her shoulders so she nodded and dutifully followed him from the chapel after helping to blow out the candles. She didn't know if she could get her phone to work, and even if she did if she could get a hold of anyone to help her get back home, but she at least felt better about the time that would be spent here while she waited.
Disclaimer: I own none of the above characters, they are all creations of Julia Quinn(With the exception of OC Lucy McCoy).