by Louise Clark
She almost stumbled, saving herself at the last moment. “Surely a church is the safest of places to be, Colonel. I doubt you need to be on guard in this building.”
“I disagree,” he said.
“Colonel Bradley must do as he sees fit to protect you, Mary Elizabeth,” her mother said from behind. She had followed Mary Elizabeth up the steps. “We will wait here until you have deemed it safe, Colonel.” A worried expression clouded her eyes and her mouth was set.
The sinking feeling in Mary Elizabeth’s stomach grew worse. Her mother thought there would be violence if Colonel Bradley found Andrew in the church, but she believed there was no way to stop it. She must do something.
“But Mama!” she cried, desperate to warn Andrew as Bradley opened the door and marched inside. “This is ridiculous. There is no one inside the church at this hour!”
Colonel Bradley didn’t close the door behind him. Doubtless he wished to have the people gathered outside watch as he vanquished his supposed adversary for Mary Elizabeth’s hand. She watched as he strode into the gloom, then paused, probably to let his eyes adjust to the diminished light. He eased his sword from its scabbard and she gasped, raising her hand to her throat in fear.
“What is it, Mary Elizabeth?” her mother asked. “Is there someone in there with the Colonel?”
She shook her head. “No, Mama. The colonel…He has raised his sword in a house of God.” She looked over at her mother.
Lady Elizabeth’s eyes widened. “Ridiculous man.” She shook her head. “Quite improper. What is he thinking?”
He was thinking of dispatching Andrew Byrne. Of course, her mother knew that, too. While she might not want Mary Elizabeth to meet with Andrew, she did disapprove of the colonel’s willingness to resort to violence. That heartened Mary Elizabeth. She returned her gaze to the inside of the church. The shadows had swallowed up the colonel and there was no sign of Andrew. “I’m going inside.”
“Dearest, Colonel Bradley asked you to remain here,” her mother said. But her protest lacked conviction. Lady Elizabeth was clearly doubting the need for Colonel Bradley’s supposed search of the church.
“Colonel Bradley has wandered into the vestry or one of the other rooms. The church itself is empty. I will be safe enough.” Mary Elizabeth smiled at her mother and hugged her. “Mama. You know I am not happy with this marriage Papa has arranged. I do not love Colonel Bradley, indeed I hardly know the man. I must find a way to make my peace with a life that will be very different from the one I would have chosen.” She hesitated, then said softly, “That is not my only concern. I care deeply for you, dear Mama, and once Colonel Bradley and I are married I will be separated from you for many years while you are here and I am in England.”
Lady Elizabeth sighed. “The separation is not something I would wish, but your father has aspirations—for you, and for himself,” she admitted. “Your Andrew is an honorable man from all I’ve seen of him, or heard. If he is in there waiting for you, say your good-byes and find the serenity you need to go forward.”
“Thank you, Mama.” She hugged her again, then stepped back. Turning, she entered the church.
Like Bradley, she paused a few feet inside to allow her vision to adjust. She also looked around. Disappointment washed over her. She had hoped that Andrew had somehow avoided Colonel Bradley’s inspection and that he would appear to her once she’d entered, but there was no movement in the large chamber. She walked toward the altar, slowly as if she were a bride joining her bridegroom on her wedding day. But there was no groom waiting for her there, not today. And when she did marry, the groom would not be the man she wanted.
She slipped into the pew before the altar and sat, bowing her head and closing her eyes. She didn’t pray. She couldn’t. She just let misery wash over her as she wondered how she was going to cope with the rest of her life.
After a few moments she heard the impatient clatter of booted footsteps. Colonel Bradley, somewhere in the dim reaches of the church no doubt. She sat up, listening carefully. She thought that he was in a side chapel and wondered if he had cornered Andrew there. Panic had her rising to her feet and rushing forward.
She had passed the altar and was almost at the side door, which opened to a passage that led outside, when the air stirred near her. She looked around, but there was nothing, no reason for the sudden draft.
Then Andrew’s dear voice said, “Mary Elizabeth!”
Her gaze followed the sound and hope surged through her. “Andrew?”
He was standing behind her and to one side, closer to the altar than to the passage door. He nodded as she said his name, and smiled.
“Where were you hiding?” she whispered, still very much aware that he was still in danger. “I thought Colonel Bradley had chased you from the building. I saw him pull out his sword—”
“The good colonel thinks he is pursuing me. He’ll find out soon enough he’s wrong. We have little time. Listen to me carefully, Mary Elizabeth. Do you remember when I told you that I can travel to the future?”
He’d talked about a special portal, what he called a Beacon, drawing him through time, but truly? She hadn’t believed him. She’d thought he was teasing her. At the time, she’d shrugged it off as just one of Andrew’s unique quirks. Andrew was her Andrew. He didn’t need to have some special ability to make her love him.
Now his expression was so intent, she had to wonder if perhaps he really did believe that travel to another era was possible. The thought frightened her and must have shown on her face, for he smiled in a reassuring way.
“Take my hand and no matter what happens—what you see, what you hear—don’t let go!” he said. He touched her cheek gently. “Do you understand? You must stay with me and always keep your hand in mine until I say it is safe to let go.”
She nodded her understanding, because that was what she thought he wanted. “But, Andrew—”
A clatter of feet sounded near the entry to the church. Mary Elizabeth glanced toward the doorway and saw her mother standing in the opening. Behind her loomed the larger figure of Colonel Bradley. He must have left the church from the little side door, thinking he was following Andrew, then circled the building from the outside and come out again at the church steps.
“She was to remain outside with you!” the colonel announced, outrage in every word.
Lady Elizabeth gave him a haughty tilt of her head. “Really, Colonel. There is no need to shout. I am standing right in front of you.”
“God’s blood, I didn’t find the rogue. He could be in there with her now!”
“And if he is, Colonel, I am sure you will find him.” Lady Elizabeth lifted the fan attached to a cord at her wrist and calmly plied it.
“Then let me pass, my lady, so I can ensure your daughter’s safety and search the building properly.” There was barely controlled impatience in the colonel’s deep voice.
“Of course, Colonel,” Lady Elizabeth said, but she didn’t immediately move.
Mary Elizabeth realized that she and Andrew must be visible to her mother, just as her mother was visible to her. Her mother was stalling, giving her time for her good-byes with Andrew. A wave of gratitude and love for her mother flowed through her. If Andrew could move through a portal in time, in a few minutes she would simply disappear and her mother would not understand how it had happened. The not knowing would be a terrible burden for Lady Elizabeth and she ached with the thought of it.
“Andrew,” she said. “My mother and Colonel Bradley…If we suddenly disappear…”
“Trust me,” he said. He reached for the nearby door that lead to the corridor and opened it. He held out his hand. “Come with me, Mary Elizabeth, so that we might marry and go forward into our future.”
There was tenderness in his voice and love in his eyes. She wasn’t at all sure she believed he could travel into the future, but he’d asked her to trust him, so she would. As she put her hand in his she heard the thump of booted feet from behind. She peeked
over her shoulder and saw Colonel Bradley was inside the church.
“Halt!” he shouted as he raced down the side aisle toward them.
“Andrew!” she cried, terrified that Bradley wouldn’t be content with merely separating her from Andrew, but that the man was intent on killing him.
Andrew looked at her and grinned. Then he said, “Remember, don’t let go!”
“I won’t!” She scuttled after him as he took a path that led them near the side door. To those in the church they must appear to be going through it, but when she looked she saw that they weren’t in the passage, but directly in front of the altar. Oddly, the altar cloth was a different color and far less ornately worked than it had been a few minutes ago. She frowned. The candelabra that had stood behind the altar, at either end, had also disappeared. What was going on? She looked past the altar and noticed that the walls were different too. Moments before they had been whitewashed a bright, almost harsh, white. Now they were a rather pretty ivory.
Andrew tugged on her hand, reclaiming her attention. “I have introductions to make,” he said.
She looked at Andrew, then past him to a group of people clustered nearby. People who were dressed in the strangest clothes she had ever seen. Shockingly, the two younger women appeared to be wearing nothing but gaily colored shifts, while an older woman was dressed in men’s clothing, in the form of an odd-looking pair of breeches, topped with a frock coat of some kind.
She blinked. Was it true? Had she actually travelled through time with Andrew?
The dark-haired man who stood beside one of the strangely dressed young women smiled at her in a friendly way. His clothing was casual too, with no coat or vest or neckcloth over his long-sleeved collared shirt, but his smile reassured her.
“Mary Elizabeth Strand, may I present you to my family,” Andrew said.
There was a mischievous gleam in his eyes that she didn’t quite trust, particularly since she knew that his only family in the area was an aunt and cousins who lived in Concord.
“My future family.” He pointed them out and named them as he went. “Faith Hamilton and her betrothed, Cody Simpson”—that was the dark-haired man with the reassuring smile— “her mother and father, Chloe and Daniel Hamilton, and her sister, Liz Hamilton.”
She glanced at him in a wondering way. “Future? So, it is true?”
He nodded.
She drew a deep breath. Andrew had told her that he had the ability to travel to the future by walking into a light he called a Beacon, but she had seen no blaze of light. She had no proof this Beacon of his existed. Yet, here she was, standing in a church that was the same, but not, talking to people she didn’t know and who were clearly not from her own time. She wasn’t sure she was prepared for this strange world, but there was a definite bright side to it. “If we are in the future, can Colonel Bradley follow us here?”
“Not unless he holds my hand, as you are, and I bring him with me,” Andrew said, raising their clasped hands for emphasis. His voice softened. “You are safe, Mary Elizabeth, and will continue to be as long as you remain attached to me.”
“What will happen if I let you go?”
“You will return to our time.”
“You both should go back now,” the man called Daniel Hamilton said. His eyes were narrowed. Mary Elizabeth sensed his annoyance and thought that he didn’t like Andrew very much.
“Nonsense,” said Chloe, the older woman in the man’s clothes. She smiled. “I’m delighted to meet you at last, Mary Elizabeth. Andrew has talked of nothing but you ever since your family moved into the area.”
Mary Elizabeth frowned at that and looked up at Andrew. “Do you come to the future often?”
“Once a week, for dinner and to clean himself up, twenty-first century style,” said the blonde woman called Faith. “Andrew, what is your plan?”
“We’ll wait with you until after dark,” Andrew said. “Then we’ll return to my time. My sister has arranged for the minister at her church to marry us. I still haven’t figured how I am to get Mary Elizabeth and myself to New York, but I’m sure it can be done.”
Mary Elizabeth loved his optimism, but she was a more practical person. “Colonel Bradley will not give up searching for me. He brought a troop of dragoons with him from Boston. I am sure he will be guarding the church and your farm, Andrew. How can we escape his net here, in Lexington?”
The dark-haired man named Cody stirred and she saw Andrew’s gaze sharpen. “What have you to say to that, Master Scientist?”
Cody looked at Faith, who frowned, shot a look their way, then returned her gaze to her betrothed. Mary Elizabeth thought she saw her move her head a fraction, as if in silent agreement for what he planned to say. Cody looked back at Andrew. “By going to New York,” he said.
Andrew’s eyes lit up. “You would drive us there in Faith’s horseless chariot?”
“You can’t,” roared Daniel. “It’s not allowed!”
“They are supposed to be married in two days time,” Chloe said. “They’ll never reach New York City by then in their own time, even without pursuit by a bunch of dragoons.”
“Oh,” said Liz, clasping her hands together. “This is so romantic!”
“We’ve been talking,” Faith said, indicating Cody and herself. “I don’t think we are harming the timeline by taking them to New York. I think we’re just fulfilling our obligation.”
“I agree,” Chloe said.
The man called Daniel stepped forward until he was standing right beside his wife. His cheeks were red and his eyes were angry. “This is absurd. What if you are wrong? What if by doing this, you do change the timeline?”
Chloe grabbed his arm. “Daniel, the children must be married in New York to ensure that Andrew’s sister comes to know and like Mary Elizabeth. So that when the time comes she gives her babies into her care…” She broke off, looking guiltily at Mary Elizabeth who was listening to this statement with shock.
Andrew, however, said in a delighted voice, “That settles it. We must make use of Faith’s vehicle.” He set off down the center aisle, his enthusiasm growing with each passing moment. “You will be amazed by this modern carriage, Mary Elizabeth. The windows rise up and down through a mechanical motor fueled by the engine that powers the vehicle instead of horses. There is a wondrous machine inside the vehicle that provides music, and the interior is always cool and comfortable!” He patted her hand. “The coach will move very quickly, far faster than you have ever travelled before, but you must not be frightened. I will be there beside you.”
Mary Elizabeth thought Andrew must be exaggerating once again, but things were moving so quickly that there was no time to do much else but nod her acceptance. Besides, maybe it was true. She was, after all, in the future with Andrew. Anything was possible.
Andrew paused, to look back at the others who were trailing behind. “I suppose Mary Elizabeth and I will be sitting in the rear seat? That Master Cody will be riding ‘shotgun’?”
“Shotgun?” Mary Elizabeth said, alarmed. “Are there footpads on the road to New York?”
“Don’t worry,” Cody said coming up behind her. “It’s safe. Shotgun is just the term we use for the seat beside the driver. No firearms are involved.”
She looked at Andrew, wide-eyed. “The driver sits inside the carriage?”
He nodded. “Amazing, is it not? Once you have visited this time more often, you will not find it so strange. But…” He stopped. After a moment’s hesitation, the others flowed around them and out the front door, leaving them alone in the cool quiet of the church. “Mary Elizabeth.” He touched her cheek with the fingertips of his free hand. “By going to New York, by marrying there without your father’s permission, you will be disowned. Are you absolutely certain?”
This was her last opportunity to change her mind, the biggest decision of her life. If she wanted, she could free her hand from Andrew’s and return to her own time.
If she wanted.
But
she didn’t. She gazed into his eyes and saw the love glowing there. “Andrew, I love you. I shudder to even think what my life would be like if I hadn’t made this decision.” She smiled at him, at the concern she saw in his eyes, the caring in his gentle touch. “I made my choice before I walked into this church. I love you. I want to live my life with you. My mother will come round. My father may not. But whatever happens, you are my family now. Yes, Andrew Byrne, I am absolutely certain.”
He bent and kissed her, long and with all the pent-up emotion of the last few weeks. When he raised his head, his eyes were gleaming with the devilry she loved so much.
“Then, Madam,” he said. “We are bound for New York.” He raised her hand and kissed her knuckles in salute. “Come. Your horseless carriage awaits!”
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THE CAT CAME BACK
Book One, in The 9 Lives Cozy Mystery Series From Louise Clark
The Cat Came Back
The 9 Lives Cozy Mystery Series, Book 1
The cat bounded onto his chest. It was a brute of an animal, big as a small dog and heavy boned. He called it his house tiger because of the restless way it prowled through the rooms, almost as if it was exercising to gain strength in its healing muscles. He scratched behind the cat’s ears absently and the beast settled on his chest, purring in a satisfying, soothing way.
