The Thornless Rose by Morgan O'Neill Page A

different.”
    “Dear Lord.” Catherine paled and put a hand over her heart. “Why is this happening now? Why is this happening to you?” She looked directly into Anne’s eyes. “Is that all you’ve experienced?”
    Anne hesitated, desperate to confess her experience with Brandon, but knowing she couldn’t; she was afraid it would break her grandmother’s heart. She bit her lip. “That’s all.”
    “Oh, dear.” Catherine sighed. “I must admit I don’t fully understand this. Jonnie never brought anything back. There was no real proof. He never brought anything back from the past.”
    Anne stared at her . But I did? This was going way beyond hallucinations. “Are you saying since I have the rose, I’m the one who time traveled, not Dudley?”
    “I have no idea.”
    “No way this is true!” Anne’s thoughts whirled in panic. “Time travel? No way, Grandma!”
    Catherine held up the rose. “Tell me, then. How did you get this? You heard the tour guide say Queen Katherine’s Thornless Rose does not exist anymore.”
    “I don’t know how I got it,” Anne cried out, “but I do know I’m getting out of here. You’re scaring me to death! I’m going back to Chesapeake as soon as I can get a flight. Then I’ll see a doctor. Maybe I’m just going crazy!”
    People on the bus turned and stared, obviously curious about her sudden rant.
    Catherine squeezed Anne’s hand, hard. She glared at the tourists, willing them to mind their own business. “Quiet, Anne. Don’t go wobbly on me. We simply must be practical about this.”
    “No, I’m getting out of England today.” Anne feverishly searched through her leather bag, cursing and shoving things about at the bottom. Finding her smaller pocket book, she rifled through it, looking for the sheet with her airline reservations. “Here it is. I’ve still got the airline’s number listed. I’m calling to change my return flight.”
    She dug into her bag again, found her cell phone, and tried connecting several times, but was unable to get a strong signal. “I need to get off this bus so I can call.”
    “But, Anne, the coach can’t let us off here.”
    “Why not?” She stood up and pushed past her grandmother. “Driver, we need to stop at the next light,” she yelled.
    “Anne!”
    “Grandma!”
    Shaking her head, Catherine gently placed the rose in her handbag, gathered her things, and followed Anne off the tour bus. They found themselves on the outskirts of London proper, in an area Catherine, and seemingly cabs, rarely visited.
    Anne tried her cell again and still was unable to get a strong signal. “Damn!”
    Catherine took Anne by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Anne, you must stop this. Anne! Do you believe people have never gone missing in the United States? Have there truly never been any unexplained disappearances there? Think a moment, and tell me the truth.”
    “Unexplained? Sure, it happens all the time, but––”
    “Going back to the States won’t do you any good,” Catherine continued. “People go missing there, too. I don’t believe this has anything to do with location. I believe it has more to do with the person involved, that there is something about you causing this to occur. But I don’t know! Dear Lord, what if it could happen there as here? If you are destined to go back to Elizabethan times, I’d much rather you end up in London than in Virginia. It was a wilderness then, was it not?”
    Panic gripped Anne. “Why is this happening to me? It’s freaking me out! I didn’t ask for this.”
    “Jonnie didn’t ask for it, either.”
    Anne stared at her grandmother for a moment. Then, she threw her cell phone back into her bag. “Well, it never happened to me in Virginia, Grandma. I never had this happen at home. I have to leave London.”
    …
    As Catherine and Anne entered the house, Duffy raced from the kitchen, yapping with delight. Standing up, he put his front paws high on Catherine’s leg. She