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Hope's doubts were reawakened rather sharply when, the following week. Eldon roused the little community at the break of dawn. Once everyone had packed what meagre belongings they had, Eldon then led them into town, from where, he said, they'd catch a bus to York station, and then on to Kings Cross. They'd then board the Eurostar to France, and this raised more than one set of eyebrows, Hope's included. Emma summarised the feelings of the group during their walk. "Has tha lost thy mind?" she demanded of the man who had promised so much, and yet, to date, had delivered so little.
"No, tha hasn't lost his mind," Eldon replied, mimicking Emma's accent so flawlessly the Yorkshirewoman had to give him a grudging smile. "I know it sounds crazy," he added, returning to his normal accent. "But trust me, this is the best and easiest way to get to Pandora. Earth and Pandora lie very close to one another in the solar system, but Pandora is actually a half-step out of time with Earth. However, the closeness of the two worlds enables very swift travel, and the Eurostar to France is the point where the barrier between worlds is the thinnest. Specifically, the Channel Tunnel is the entry point between the worlds. When we reach that point, I'll transfer us onto the corresponding train, and that will deliver us safely and easily to Pandora. The journey through space is the more conventional way, but there are risks to unborn children that I won't sanction. And the best part of our route is that we can get to Pandora with a lot less fanfare than if we'd gone the traditional way."
Hope sighed. "You really have lost your mind," she muttered. Her hopes and dreams of an escape from her abusive father were melting away faster than the snowman James had forced her to watch melt as a child, and she felt the same sick feeling now as she did then, but the sensation was much, much more acute.
Eldon, to his credit, didn't try to reassure them further, instead letting silence reign as the bus arrived. Hope blessed him for his tact, even as she resented him for being such a damned charlatan. Idly, she wondered what she'd do when the Eurostar delivered them to Paris, but the sick feeling spoilt her daydreams, and as the bus carried them to York station, she gave up and stared moodily out of the window, wishing no one had come and fished her out of the river that night.
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The train ride to Kings Cross was very silent and strained, and the walk over to the Eurostar platforms was equally tense with a pulsating resentment that grew by the moment. None of the women were quite prepared to give up on Eldon just yet, but the sentiment was clear - when they reached Paris, as surely they must, Eldon would be handed over to the authorities as a fraud and a charlatan. The man himself said nothing, not in commiseration or condemnation, but Hope could sense the calm radiating off him, and she wondered, as they boarded their train, how the hell he could sleep at night. He hadn't told them anything about Pandora, and when Emma raised the question as the train got underway, he said soothingly that Pandora was a place that had to be seen to be believed, and that words would not do it justice.
Hope rolled her eyes. "Jerk," she muttered, before giving it all up as a lost cause and resigning herself to the new fate of becoming a rich man's mistress on the other side of the Channel. That seemed the more likely option, and she could tell by the strained faces around her that her friends were feeling exactly the same.
On the plus side, it meant getting away from her father, and even if she did become another man's concubine, it would have to be better than the fate James surely had in store for her once he got out of jail. That's not my problem, she told herself, but try though she might to look on the bright side, the tears of disappointment rolled down her cheeks for a very long time.
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