The Adventures of Grace Quinlan and Lord William Hayden Outside of Time (Volume 2)

By Paula Freda

Excerpt: The engine slowed as the cutter plunged into open air. Minutes later, it sunk its nose into another patch of earth, and then dropped on its belly. Lord Hayden and Elizabeth scanned the outside view. For a moment, they thought they were in hell. Intermittently, fires burned from the ground up. Lava pools littered the underground cavern. The earth here was amber-colored and it sizzled. Dirt tossed and squirmed as if alive.
The two archaeologists exited the cutter via the side hatch. To say that it was hot was the understatement of the millennium. The computer had landed the ship near some rocks, their rough, ebony surfaces gleaming with blistering moisture. "I don’t think we’ll need the oxygen masks just yet, Lord Hayden said, slipping his off. Elizabeth followed suit. Keeping close to the rocks, away from the lava pools and the sizzling earth on their left, the duo walked for hours in the red, sweltering haze, checking the map every quarter mile or so. When they at last reached the spot where Kraton intended planting the megatime bomb, they were both exhausted and drenched in sweat. Elizabeth plopped down on the ground. "Oh, my aching feet," she complained, slipping off her boots.
Lord Hayden sank down beside her. "Now we wait. Eight hours are left before our madman arrives. I, for one, intend catching a good night’s rest." He shrugged off his backpack, then opened it and took out an alarm clock, small and round with two metal gongs. He wound it and set the alarm. "Go to sleep, Grace," he said, amused at the whimsical look she cast him. He stretched out, and pulling his hat forward so that it covered his face, he immediately fell asleep. Elizabeth regarded him lazily, and then smiling, she stretched out beside him.
The alarm went off seven and a half hours later. Sometime during their sleep, Lord Hayden had rolled close to Elizabeth and unconsciously slipped his arm about her shoulders, and she had cuddled close to him. Waking to find her in his arms, he gazed at her lovingly. Her red-gold hair was tousled and splayed across his arm. A few moist wisps hugged her temples and cheeks. He failed to remember a time when he had not held her just so, nor a time when he would not want to. He knew he was in love with her. Not infatuated or attracted, but in love. He had been waiting all his life for this woman.
He blew gently on her cheek, and she stirred. "It’s almost time," he whispered.
Elizabeth felt loath to move, feeling warm and safe, as she had not in a long while, not since a babe in her mother’s arms. With a start, she remembered whose arms they were. She blinked away the drowsiness and looked into Lord Hayden’s face very close to hers. To remain in his arms, to cradle his face in her palms and bring her mouth close to his, these were desires she must squelch at this moment, perhaps forever. She turned her thoughts to her need for nourishment. "Gosh, but I’m hungry," she murmured.
Lord Hayden laughed, "Hungry, huh?" Drawing his arms away reluctantly he sat up and rummaged through his backpack. "Have an oatmeal bar," he said, offering her one. Emerald eyes lit. She accepted the bar and sat up. Lord Hayden took one for himself. He held it up. "Here’s to yesterday, today and tomorrow," he toasted. Elizabeth joined him, smiling, and they clinked bars.
Half an hour to the second, the madman arrived. He came in a closed vehicle that was a cross between a van and a tank, advanced technology for Lord Hayden’s time, and ancient for the year 3000 AD. Judging from its appearance, dirt-encrusted and dented in a hundred places, the trip had not been easy. The two archaeologists flattened themselves against the rocks; he must not see them until they were ready to confront him squarely.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paula Freda
• Release date: Jul 12, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465858450

Paula Freda

About the AuthorDorothy Paula Freda, is also known under her pen names Paula Freda and Marianne Dora Rose. Herbooks range from Fiction and Non-fiction Adventure, Romance, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Poetry, Articles, Essays and How-to-Write Instructional complete with Lessons and optional assignments.Homemaker, mother of two grown sons, and former off-the-desk publisher of a family-oriented print small press, (1984 thru 1999), The Pink Chameleon, that she now publishes on line, Paula was raised by her grandmother and mother, and has been writing for as long as she can remember. Even before she could set pencil to paper, she would spin her stories in the recording booths in the Brooklyn Coney Island Arcades for a quarter per 3-minute record. She states, "I love the English language, love words and seeing them on display, typed and alive. A romantic at heart, I write simply and emotionally. One of my former editors kindly described my work, '...her pieces are always deep, gentle and refreshing....'" Paula further states, "My stories are sensitive, deeply emotional, sensual when appropriate, yet non-graphic, family fare, pageturners. My hope is that my writing will bring entertainment and uplift the human spirit, bring a smile to your face and your soul, and leave you filled with a generous amount of hope."

Book preview

The Adventures of Grace Quinlan and Lord William Hayden

Outside of Time

Volume 2

Copyright 2005 - 2011

by Dorothy Paula Freda

(Pseudonym - Paula Freda)

Cover photo and inserts licensed by Paula Freda from iStockphoto.com

Smashwords Edition

Author retains all rights. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof.

This story appeared in my novel In Another Life (from the Journals of Grace Quinlan and Lord William Hayden) under my pseudonym, Paula Freda. It is a work of fiction. Except for documented historical data and geographical locations, all names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

DEDICATION

With thanks to my Lord Jesus and his Blessed Mother Mary whose strength, guidance, and her Holy Rosary, are my anchor in this troubled world, I dedicate this novella to my husband, whose love, patience and kindness over the past 40 years have kept my dreams and my view of the romantic, alive and vibrant." Paula Freda

The Adventures

of Grace Quinlan and Lord William Hayden

Outside of Time

CHAPTER ONE

Lord Hayden raised his coffee cup, but the rim never made it to his lips. He focused on a picture in the newspaper he had been reading in his study. That’s it! he exclaimed. The picture clearly showed the Totem that he and Grace Quinlan had seen that summer on the alien landscape where Psyche’s Tomb had transported them. He grabbed a magnifying glass from his desk drawer and studied the photo closely. That’s it! he repeated. He quickly read the article beneath it.

The Totem, presently housed in a private collection in Los Cantos, a small town in New Mexico, had first surfaced in an Indian village, and later, in a curio shop in England, where a Professor of Archeology had purchased it for the price of a conversation piece. He eventually sold it to a British museum for a fortune. A Fire at the Museum a few years ago supposedly destroyed the Totem. There was talk of arson and robbery. A few weeks ago, it had turned up at an auction abroad attended by a certain Mr. Harry Stanton, a collector of antiquities. He paid a fortune for the piece and another fortune to add a room tall enough to accommodate the relic.

By the time Lord Hayden finished reading the article, he had already decided to visit Mr. Harry Stanton. He shed his lounge jacket, a wine red velvet collared affair, for his navy blue pinstripe, and left his house, crossing the road to Professor Eldridge’s house. Besides wanting Elizabeth’s views on this matter, he wanted to hear if her cousin had contacted her. Grace might be interested in a follow-up article on Psyche’s Tomb and the Totem.

Elizabeth had mentioned receiving a couple of phone calls from her cousin, the last one during the Easter Holidays. He missed Grace. These past few months had been the longest in his life, despite the two other expeditions in which he had participated. During one, he had met another girl. They had shared a few precarious moments. He had saved her life once or twice, brought back other valuable artifacts for the museum and his own private collection. But nothing lasting had resulted of his relationship with the girl. They had drifted apart, each eventually returning to their own separate lives. He had forgotten the exact color of her hair. All he recalled was that it did not shine red-gold like Grace’s hair, nor did the girl’s lips purse in just that certain way that Grace’s did. Her mind did not challenge like Grace’s, or her heart love the past like his did.

He knocked at Professor Eldridge’s door. No one answered. He noticed her car was gone. Today was Saturday. Of course, he chided himself. Errand Day.

He did not see Professor Eldridge until Monday afternoon, during lunch, in the faculty lounge, when she approached him. He was seated on the drab red camelback sofa.

Excuse me, Lord Hayden. I have a letter here for you. If I’m interrupting your lunch, I can give it to you later.

No, it’s all right, Lord Hayden said, putting his ham and cheese sandwich down on its wax paper wrapping before him on the coffee table. He accepted the envelope, pink and fragrant, with no return address, and posted in a town he had never heard of, somewhere in China. Grace! He mangled it as he tore it open impatiently, so unlike his usual paced reserve. It contained a pink note with a rosebud imprinted in the corner.

My dear Lord Hayden, I hear from my cousin about the whereabouts of a certain totem. I would like very much to do an article on