AN: This chapter introduces the character of Erik Baumer from Emmy's days in the present, who I imagine to be Michael Fassbender.
TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter has heavily implied sexual content and depiction of a toxic relationship of questionable consent. Read at your own risk!
CHAPTER SONG: "You Dream", lyrics courtesy of Isobel Waller-Bridge & Tara Nome Doyle*
March 18th, 2020
Richmond, Virginia
"Attention, everyone. The library will be closing in ten minutes. Please make your way to the exit." The recorded voice on the intercom resonated in monotone throughout the building, breaking the relative murmur of the people's voices in low volume.
Emmanuelle looked up from the shelf she had been focusing on, still standing on the step ladder to reach the top section where she was organizing some volumes in the Historical Fiction section.
She had one ear-bud from her AirPods in her ear as she listened to an audiobook of "Black Beauty" by Anna Sewell. Although she had read the book itself countless times, the story never failed to move her for an animal's suffering to be described without restraint.
So engrossed was the young woman in her task and listening to the narrator in her ear that she was startled when she felt a tickling sensation at her ankle, thanks to her wearing flats and her legs were bare with her recently re-hemmed business skirt, per dress code.
She grabbed onto the shelf, holding back a gasp as she regained her balance on the ladder and she looked down to see the last person she wanted to interact with at this time of the library closing and the building about to have minimum occupancy after hours.
"How's it feel to finally be employee of the month, Em?" A haughty, arrogant male voice spoke her name, making her flesh crawl with loathing. Goosebumps of discomfort formed on the skin of her ankle as the owner of that voice stroked along the soft joint near her foot.
"Take your hand off my ankle before I kick you and break your nose. I'll pretend it was an accident, Erik Baumer." Her normally quiet voice held back a snarl of warning as the man removed his hand from her foot, ceasing in his mock gesture of soothing affection. Just saying his name made her taste bile in the back of her throat. "And don't call me 'Em'. You just don't have enough respect to say my full name."
"Surely you're done burying your nose in these books for one day. If you need help getting down I'll catch you, be your knight in shining armor to sweep you off your feet." The honey-blonde/brown haired young man continued to bother her, not taking the hint that she didn't want to keep speaking with him. His buttery Irish voice lilted with a slice of German pronounced accent spoke in a soft tone, with the intent of distracting Emmy from her concentration as she placed her earbud back in her Airpod charger. "Need I remind you whose family has been funding this library the last few years and keeping little doves like you employed."
Emmy at last found the mental tolerance to look down at the man continuing to pester her. Her huffing breaths only served to increase her growing annoyance and anger directed at this entitled patron of her place of work. Placing the last of her books in their appropriate positions on the shelf, she stepped down from the ladder and faced her unwanted pursuer of her attention.
She looked right into his dark-blue eyes which seemed to be devoid of any empathy or acknowledging of her not wanting to be within his proximity. His smile was nearly shark-like in his focus on her, the odorous musk of strong cologne making her nose wrinkle in an unreleased sneeze. Emmy removed the glasses from her eyes, allowing them to hang against her bosom on a chain around her neck.
She noticed how his predatory gaze went to her neckline, her black blouse thankfully covering her skin from her collarbone and downwards. Emmy glanced to both sides around them, remembering that the Historical fiction section was in one of the more secluded areas of the main reading room. Nobody was coming back here...
She only prayed that the security cameras were able to see them from the angle they stood in this corner of this spacious location.
The second her feet were planted firmly on the ground, his much larger body loomed over her, but she failed to be afraid. She wouldn't cower, nor would she freeze...
She had the routine down by now...
His strong muscular arms that any other woman would have swooned over pinned her from both sides against the bookshelf, barring any possibility of her slipping away...
"What do you want, Erik? Don't tell me that it was to tell me that it was to congratulate me." She crossed her arms against her chest, holding herself up straight to display her stubbornness to fall prey to his charms.
"I've missed you, Emmanuelle." He purred to her, taking her hand and inserting her scarred ring finger and pinky into his mouth. How he pretended himself as the seductive Lothario marking his ownership of the sweet ingénue who was the one woman he could never have. "And I'm so proud of you."
"Don't bother sweet-talking me. You don't care about my job. You just care about holding power over me so I can keep it." The words slipped from her lips as she yanked her hand away, but he managed to grab her wrist instead. "So this place won't go out of business."
She knew what she just said wasn't true. Emmy had gotten this job through her own merits, having already been employed at the Richmond library when they had been threatened with bankruptcy due to lack of business, and the Baumer family from an old-money in Berlin originating prior to the First World War had taken pity on them and offered their patronage since their son Erik had graduated with honors and was set to run his family's engineering business with a successful starting branch in the state of Virginia.
"That's not true. You know I care about you, Schatzi." Erik loosened his grip on her wrist, his other hand reaching up to run his finger along the length of her throat. "Why can we not make anything official between us? A pretty American flower like you on my arm. You've no idea what I can provide you with beyond this. You wouldn't want for anything, no need to lift a finger."
His lips went to her throat, his stubble scratching her skin and his masculine heat radiating from his entire body threatening to overwhelm her into a trance. He peppered delicate kisses along her neck, and she never felt so thrilled and scared, knowing he could physically break her with his finger and thumb.
"I'll be leaving in a couple days for London. You won't see me for awhile." Emmy managed to gasp between the kisses, the words coming out before she could stop herself. "I predict by then, you'll find yourself another girl who's willing to do nothing but be a thoughtless doll with no resistance to you."
"I doubt that, my lovely one." His gruff whisper vibrated through her ear. "It's always the ones who run away that make the sweetest prey, Emmanuelle Julia Barnes."
Emmy stiffened at the mention of her father's last name, a name she had abandoned, wanting no association with anything he was. She managed to push him away from her with a sudden bout of strength to overpower him. "How...how do you know...?"
Before he could answer, she heard the front door open leading to the lobby open with the security system beeping with the arrival of the night guard starting his shift after hours. Emmy briefly breathed a sigh of relief at the intervention, but it was short-lived. Erik took her wrist and pinned her arm above her head as he whispered in a warning tone. "Meet me in my car, front parking lot, five minutes."
He pulled away from her, releasing her from his dominating grip and he was gone from her sight in the blink of an eye as though he hadn't even been there. Emmy wrapped her arms around herself, holding back tears of frustration rather than fear.
She blinked them away, keeping up a façade of professional dignity as she went to punch out her time card and leave for her last day before her trip to Europe, but she had to overcome this final hurdle before she could seek temporary escape from her life.
It was pouring rain outside, ironically reflecting her current mood. Thunder rumbled through the air as Emmy clutched her purse, aiming to keep her phone from getting soaked as lightning illuminated the front parking lot, Erik's black Mercedes-Benz pulled up slowly. Her feet feeling heavy with each step taken as though she were being led to the pyre to be burned at a stake.
Her shaking hands opened the front passenger door and she climbed inside, shaking her wet hair and landing water droplets onto the dashboard. If Erik minded that, he didn't show it, his eyes glancing between the windshield and her dampened blouse, making Emmy self-conscious that her bra was visible underneath, but she knew it was nothing he hadn't seen before when it came to their tumultuous dynamic.
They were both silent, Erik reaching forward to turn up the heating for her.
Erik couldn't have his American cupcake losing her color...
After about fifteen more minutes of no speaking with each other, Erik turned his car into an abandoned warehouse lot where no cars were visible signaling nobody else present to disturb them.
Emmanuelle battled the urge to vomit and bash his head against the steering wheel in the gritty style of Indiana Jones.
She just wanted to get this over with so he would take her home...
"You're wondering how I know your real last name, Emmy. If you're so smart, you'd deduce it for yourself." Erik turned off the engine's ignition, the pouring rain splashing against the car outside.
"You looked at my employment file and my application from when I was hired at the library." She stared straight ahead through the windshield, refusing to look at him.
Erik reached over and stroked her cheek and Emmy fought not to flinch away.
"I know your mother had your last name changed after the restraining order was filed against your father. You know I have the connections to protect you from him now that he's not restricted by that filing anymore with your being an adult." Erik moved his hand from her cheek to her soaked brunette hair.
"What the hell are you saying, Erik? Are you willing to threaten me with my father?" Emmy turned to him, leaning close to look into his eyes, fuming with disbelief.
"What I'm saying is if you were mine, other than our clandestine meetings, I'd have the power to make sure he can't hurt you again. You'll agree to be mine officially, such as proper dates in public and eventually meeting my parents and allowing me to slip a ring on your finger. You wouldn't have to keep your pretty head buried in books to find some satisfaction in life." His voice was a low whisper but thick with diabolical intent. "I'm the only one able to protect you, Em. You belong to me and you need me."
A crash of thunder rumbled through the outside air, vibrating through both their bodies.
Emmanuelle slowly looked at the man holding her semi-hostage with his bargaining with her freedom, safety and dignity. Inhaling a deep breath, she opened her mouth to speak, choosing her words carefully. "I...I just need time, Erik. After what you've done for the library...for me."
A sour taste entered her mouth as she said that final sentence, but she held herself together and continued.
"After I come back from my trip, I'll give you my answer to your proposal. I promise." She gulped despite her throat being dry. "Just...give me some space to think about where I want this to go."
As she spoke, holding eye contact with Erik, Emmy forced herself to crawl over from the passenger side and situate herself upon him to straddle his lap. He leaned his seat back to give her more room so she wouldn't be stuck against the steering wheel.
Erik's large hands clutched onto her thighs, reaching underneath her skirt to play with the hem of her underwear. His grip was tight, surely to leave some bruises there to mark her skin.
"Very well, Liebling. Take some time to make your decision." His fingers felt deeper between her legs, and Emmy released a moan of faux pleasure and genuine pain. "Just remember, one way or another I always get what I want."
Emmanuelle placed her hands on his shoulders to balance herself in his lap, her eyes never leaving Erik's as she kissed him hard, her mouth opening slightly to where her teeth caught onto his bottom lip and she bit down, tasting blood on her tongue.
Erik growled and pulled away from her, moving his hands from under her skirt to one gripping her shoulder and the other moving to seize her chin. "Still stubborn, aren't you? One of these days, you will be brought to heel, your spirit will be tempered and that fire inside you will be extinguished, sweet Emmy."
"What you just described to me isn't love, it's possession. If I acted the same way as other girls and threw myself at your feet, you wouldn't be targeting me to be yours." She blinked back tears of dread as he managed to maneuver her so that he hovered over her and the driver's seat was lowered further down.
"You will be soon, my dear. A fine woman by my side...a blushing bride-to-be in due time, you'll be carrying the heir to the Baumer family fortune." His rough lips kissed hers as his hands loosened her skirt to pull down her legs.
Willing herself not to scream in defiance, Emmy clamped her teeth into his clothed shoulder and closed her eyes, praying this time he would take her quickly. Her trembling hands went to unfasten his belt buckle, wanting to keep up the façade that she found this enjoyable in a forbidden "secret affair" type of way found in guilty pleasure romance novels.
The sooner this was over, the sooner she could get home and shower his stench off of her body and scrub her skin raw until she could drown her misery in a bottle of wine. And she needed to pack her things for the plane ride in the next couple of days.
And she had never been more grateful for the existence of birth control, God forbid he gain further leverage over her if he knocked her up anyway regardless of his long-term plans for her...
.
.
April 22nd, 1917
Midnight Express en route to Waterloo Station
Emmy was trapped in the nightmare of feeling a weight holding her down and not letting her go. Tears streamed down her face as she screamed like a wailing banshee. The train floor beneath her bed rumbled with the locomotive's movements along the tracks.
An urgent banging on her cabin door nearly pulled her up to the surface of consciousness but she kept being dragged down by the monster restraining her. She cried out in resistance, not wanting the invisible enemy to drown her in an inescapable dream.
She knew exactly who it was pursuing her, even though they didn't speak, but she had never been more frightened, not even when her father had contacted her last in her 2020 London hotel room.
No! She would never let this monster take her for his own, to terrorize her into submission. Not when she had people who truly loved her in her life now, a hundred years away from 2020 and in the middle of the deadliest war recorded in history.
The pounding sound on her cabin door made her finally open her eyes, and she sat up fast enough that a wave of vertigo driven dizziness overtook her. Her head landed back on the pillow as she heard the voice of the only man she wanted to hear in that moment.
Her William! He was here to slay her mental demons, to protect her sanity...
"Emmy! Are you hurt?! Please open the door, love!" Will begged her from the other side of the door, worry saturating his normally calm voice. "Please answer me!"
Emmy pushed herself up from the bed despite her apparent dizziness and staggered over to the door to unlock it. Her voice barely managed to say her soldier's name without having it slip from her tongue in an unintelligible garble.
"Will..." Her fingers unlocked the door and immediately she was wrapped within the protective embrace of Corp. William Schofield, the safest place she could ever be, her head against his shoulder, relishing the comforting fabric of his blue undershirt that was part of the inner layer of his uniform. Nothing could harm her while she was in his arms...
He stepped into her room, shutting the door behind him. Normally he would be concerned about propriety when it came to crossing such boundaries, but he would dash it all to hell when it came to the well-being of the woman he loved. He cared not if anyone saw him go into her cabin room unaccompanied.
And he did his damndest not to think about how heavenly she looked in her nightgown of white lace and linen and her brown hair loose around her shoulders and bosom...
His arms were around her waist as they both sat down on the floor near her bed. Emmy's sobs filled him with such heartache and melancholy that he was willing to stay the remainder of the night in her room to comfort her, let the train staff say what they may.
Before Will could pull her into his lap to hold her closer, she suddenly pushed herself away from him, standing up on her feet despite stumbling on her healing leg. Emmy balanced herself on the wall furthest away from him.
He was left speechless at her actions, but he wanted to know what he could do for her.
"Emmanuelle, did you have a nightmare? Please talk to me." Will spoke as softly as he could, afraid she would bolt like a scared deer from the room. "Is it your father or your mum? I promise you're safe, my darling."
She refused to look at him, enfolding her arms around herself as she braced herself against the wall. "Please, Will. Don't touch me. I'm...I'm not worthy of being touched by a good man like you."
"Emmy...what are you talking about? What happened?" Will stayed glued to his spot on the floor, not moving an inch although his arms reached toward her, aching to hold her and make whatever pain she was feeling go away. "Talk to me, please... Are you hurt at all?"
"No...I...just had another dream about my past back in 2020." Emmy sniffed, wiping away tears from her reddened cheeks. "Something that reminded me that...I have no virtue or honor to protect. I'm not the sort of woman a man like you is expected to be with; if I told you the details, you'd be disgusted by me."
"What on earth convinced you of this? Emmanuelle, I love you! And nothing in your past could make me walk away from you." William dared to step toward her, kneeling down on the floor before her and taking her hands within his. "You're brave and kind...and you've a strength that could bring the most stubborn of suffragists to their knees in humility."
"But...I'm...not a virgin. Where I'm from, women are free to be with anyone they want to, while there's still judgment on them." She tried to word it in a way he would understand as he was still wrapping his mind around the world she had come from, a whole century forward in time. "I've been with other men before...one in particular recently before I ended up here in 1917."
William looked away from her face an briefly down to the floor, absorbing that her physical womanhood hadn't been reserved for marriage...and he couldn't help but feel that pang of envy knowing that another man had been intimate with her...but in what context?
He had to ask her, but in regards to her welfare and not his own masculinity being emasculated...
"Emmanuelle, I ask this not to embarrass you, but as someone who cares for you more than anything and can't bear to think of you being harmed." He paused to think his words through carefully. "This man you were with before you came here... did he...violate you?"
An involuntary gruffness entered his voice with those two final words, a sound that rarely entered his speaking pattern of formality. Anger boiled within him as he mentally pictured the source of her nightmare and the sounds of her screaming.
At first she wouldn't look at him and shook her head, focusing on the wooden floor beneath them, more tears streaming down her beautiful face. And she looked up again at him, and she wasn't able to speak anymore...
And that was answer enough for him.
He took her up into his arms, holding Emmy tightly against him as though he were afraid the monster from her nightmares would snatch her away. He would never let that happen as long as he lived...
He sat with her on the floor by her bed, her exhausted form cradled in his lap as she cried into his chest like a child seeking comfort from a parent.
If Erik Baumer could see her now, so vulnerable and ripe for the taking...
And Emmy hated herself for it...but she had to tell William. Nobody else had known and she would tell him everything including all the details...but after she had a good cry in the arms of a man who loved her for her.
William's fingers stroked her hair away from her angelic features. What he would've given to free her mind from the memories that haunted her.
Part of him hoped she would fall asleep again and he aimed to help her to dream of things that made her smile and brought her unmitigated joy... He continued whispering soothing words, assuring her of her beauty and goodness, until eventually his voice morphed from talking into singing a soft melody in her ear...
He prayed God would bless his enigmatic beloved with nothing but happy dreams for as long as she lived...
"You dream of summer, of hearing bluebirds chime
Your golden locks drenched in moonlight,
Sitting in silence, as we watch the birds fly by
Come dance with me into the dark blue night..."*
As William continued with the song, his nose tickled by her hair as he kissed her head, he saw something gleaming on her wrist that caught his eye. Tenderly enfolding her hand in his grip, noticing the damned scars on her fingers that made him want to kiss them away, he saw the string-tied bracelet...
And twined with the string were Thomas Blake's rings that he'd removed from his hand moments after having the man himself expire in his arms... The last William had seen of them was when he'd given them back to Lt Joseph Blake...
How had Emmy acquired them?
William had one theory of why Joe Blake would give her something so personal, one of the few possessions left of his little brother... And it pained him to consider the possibility that he was correct in his conclusion.
He ran his thumb along the bracelet, careful not to unravel it before feeling the strong pulse of Emmy's wrist...
He finished the lullaby, having soothed her into a calming slumber. William Schofield knew that whatever she had wanted to tell him in the morning, he needed to have faith in her honesty and her willingness to confide in him and he would find the strength in her openness for the both of them.
"Weathering hours, the gentle days
Keeping us warm, in your arms flowers;
Turn into promises,
That linger into dawn" *