Simon frowned, embarrassed at his earlier outburst. “I know that. It’s just …”
Elizabeth nodded. “I know. When you want to talk about it …”
What she’d been through didn’t hold a candle to what he’d been through on the back of that lifeboat. They risked their lives every time they went back in time, and each time it changed them a little. Usually it was for the better, but this time, she wasn’t so sure.
He tightened his arms around her, pulled her a little closer and stared into her eyes. She wished she could make the flecks of pain she saw in his go away.
“The important thing,” she said, “is that we made it. And made a baby, too.”
He laughed lightly at that and smiled, the first genuine smile she’d seen today. “That we did. Miracle of miracles.”
They’d been trying for months. Although, the timing of finding out while aboard the Titanic hadn’t been ideal; they were both over the moon at the revelation that she was finally pregnant.
He eased her away and looked down at her belly. “How do you feel?”
“Tired, hungry, wonderful,” she said. Elizabeth put her hand to his cheek and looked up into that face she loved so much. “Always remember that no matter how bad things get, we always have hope.”
“And each other.”
Elizabeth nodded, pushed herself up onto her tiptoes and kissed him.
“Always each other.”
Chapter Two
SIMON FINALLY FELT WARM again. Between the unseasonably warm spring days and Elizabeth, Simon was starting to feel himself again. The night of the sinking had tested him. It frayed him around the edges. Only now, a week later, were the nightmares fading.
Across the lawn, Elizabeth laughed as she knocked Teddy’s croquet ball off course. He smiled at her, as enamored as ever. Simon could hardly blame him.
Since the day they’d arrived, Teddy and Niels had spent nearly every waking minute together—talking, walking, and working on some sort of mysterious machine in the barn. Large crate after large crate had been delivered. Each disappeared into the barn where the scientists spent most of their time.
At night, he and Elizabeth could see a bright light shining through the gaps in the barn’s wooden planks and glowing through the glazed windows as the Teddy and Niels worked well into the wee hours. On what, Simon had no idea. Not knowing made him uneasy, to say the least, but he feared actually knowing might be worse.
Teddy and Niels were glued together at the brain, as Elizabeth put it. They were peas in the proverbial pod, speaking a language Simon didn’t understand. While they were off in their own little world, Simon was happily left alone with Elizabeth in his.
She took off her sun hat and fanned herself. As if she felt his eyes on her, she turned to offer him a small wave. She’d been right about one thing; Teddy’s was a pleasant enough place to recuperate. Although with the recent depart of Niels back to England, he would have to share Elizabeth now. Not that he minded. Much.
Elizabeth and Teddy continued their game, and Simon remained content to watch. He leaned back in his Adirondack chair and a breeze came up from the North. He shivered. He wasn't even cold; it was a reflex his body had yet to unlearn.
The cold had made its way into him like a virus, into his blood and bones. He'd watched men succumb to death, to the siren’s song of comfort in the dark depths of the sea. They had simply slipped away, let go and fallen, finally resting. During that long night, men had died next to him. The few who came to ask for help when there was no room were turned away. He would never forget their faces. There was no anger, no recriminations. They accepted their fate with a grace he was sure he didn’t possess.
Others were pushed beyond physical endurance by will and love, but the fight slowly drained out of them, hour by hour. Each moment Simon felt his body giving out, he thought of Elizabeth—the sound of her voice, the curve of her cheek, the child inside her. And he found one more bit of strength. One more hour to endure to see her again. There was nothing on earth that was going to keep him from seeing her again, from seeing his child born, from holding them both in his arms.
Why his prayers were answered; why he was spared and others were not, he did not know. But he felt the weight of their loss and carried it with him.
That night, the future had all seemed a lifetime away. Now, as he looked around at the beautiful spring garden and heard his wife’s laughter, that night was fading just as far.
Somehow, he'd survived. They'd survived. He was on the cusp of a dream he'd barely allowed himself to have—a wife and child. A family of his own. Nothing would keep him from them now.
Instinctively, he looked toward Elizabeth again, but she wasn’t standing where he’d last seen her. She was sitting down on the grass at the edge of the garden. Curious, Simon stood. He picked up his jacket from the back of the chair and walked over to join her. As he did, he saw Teddy lying on his stomach, his head amongst the flowers.
Elizabeth turned and smiled up at him. “My ball went walkabout. Right into the daffodils. It bent one,” she added.
“Ah.” Simon understood.
Elizabeth moved the skirt of her summer dress aside and held her hand out to him, silently asking him to join her. The sun was bright and warm here, and everything seemed right with the world in that moment. He laid his coat down on the grass and sat down beside her. She leaned back into him and he slipped his arm around her waist.
Next to them Teddy muttered quietly to himself as he worked to right the now-askew flower.
Teddy, brilliant man that he was, took OCD to a new level. It had taken them over an hour to set up the croquet course. He had measured each distance and angle carefully. His garden was comprised of perfect rows of perfect flowers, except for one bed in the middle. It was wild and already starting to overgrow. When Simon asked him why that one patch was uneven and disordered when everything else was so uniform, Teddy seemed confused by the question. It was ordered, just as much as the others. There were patterns; they just weren’t his. There was order in chaos if you knew where to look.
That was Teddy Fiske. He saw things in a way no one else Simon had ever met did. And, Simon was beginning to realize, he saw them in ways no one else ever did as well.
Teddy finished fixing the flower and rolled over. He held out a finger to show them a fuzzy caterpillar he’d made friends with while he tended to the flower.
“He looks like a Hubert to me,” Teddy said as he marveled at the creature for a moment longer then eased it back onto a leafy stem.
For a moment, Simon considered warning him that his new friend would destroy his beautiful garden, but Teddy wouldn’t care in the least. He was a gentle soul, almost to the point of fault.
Teddy picked up a bright blue croquet ball. “Do you want to keep playing?”
“I think I could use a little nap,” she said and then quickly added, staving off any questions about her health, “I’m fine. Just feeling content and nappish.”
Teddy nodded quickly, disappointed, but not wanting to show it.
As Simon stood and helped Elizabeth up, the sound of a delivery truck pulling up the driveway took Teddy’s attention.
“Would you excuse me?” he said. “I should ….”
“Sure.”
Teddy smiled, took a step away, then came back and gave Elizabeth the croquet ball. With another smile, he hurried off toward the truck, waving to the driver.
“What do you suppose he’s up to?” Elizabeth wondered aloud. “I thought it’d stop when Niels left, but ….”
Simon did, too. He’d thought Teddy would be as attached to Elizabeth as he’d been to Bohr, but so far, his attention was split between her and whatever his “secret project” was.
Considering Teddy’s last secret was the discovery of time travel, Simon found the idea of a new secret deeply unsettling but hadn’t pressed the issue. Teddy would tell them in his own time.
Elizabeth rolled her ball back toward the croquet course as
they walked toward the house. Once they were in their room, she made her way over to the bed and fussed with the pillows.
An enormous yawn overtook her. She gave him a wan smile as she turned and crawled onto the mattress, her bottom swaying back and forth as she did.
“I’m no fun,” she said.
Simon laughed. “I wouldn’t say that.”
She turned and, seeing his expression, smiled slyly. Then she lay down and rolled onto her side, propping herself up on one elbow. “I don’t have to nap just yet.”
She gave him a sultry look that was quickly ruined by another overwhelming yawn.
“Very sexy,” Simon said.
She laughed, flopped onto her back and closed her eyes. “At least I’m not so barfy anymore.”
Simon covered her with a light quilt. “Thank heaven for small favors.”
He leaned down to kiss her but paused when her eyes opened again. They were sleepy but filled with love and contentment and gratitude.
He knew the feeling. They both knew how lucky they were to still have each other, and in moments like this one, the feeling was nearly overwhelming.
No words were needed; they knew each other’s hearts too well.
He kissed her tenderly then made himself comfortable in a reading chair. He picked up his book, but never opened it, choosing instead to watch over her and think of their life yet to be.
~~~
Elizabeth sat curled up with Huck and Jim and floated down the Mississippi while Simon battled Cardinal Richelieu with the other Musketeers. Although she and Simon never had trouble passing the time together, they were both restless souls. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Simon was as much of an adventurer as she was. If they couldn’t go somewhere themselves, books would take them there. They both loved to read and, even though they were both lost in their own worlds, they liked to do it together. Thankfully, Teddy’s library here, although not a patch on the one he’d had in San Francisco, was still big and comfortable and filled with wonderful books. But books could only distract her for so long. After two days of rain, Elizabeth was ready to get out.
The day started on the gloomy side with on and off showers, but now the sun was finally starting to poke through the gray clouds. A shaft of sunlight snuck through the window and seemed to be crawling across the carpet toward her in invitation. Who was she to say no?
She put her book aside. “I’m going to check on Hubert.”
Simon didn’t look up, but gave a soft grunt of acknowledgment.
“Do you want to come?”
Another soft grunt was her reply. She wasn’t surprised at his indifference; she didn’t really expect him to come, but she had hoped for more than a grunt.
“Fine,” she said dramatically and got up from her chair. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him lift his gaze from the pages of his book and watch as she put on her shawl with a toreador’s twirl.
He slid his eyes back down to his book when she turned to him again.
With a shrug, she headed for the door.
“Say hello for me,” he said just before she reached it.
Elizabeth grinned and turned around. Simon didn’t look up, but she could see him fighting a smile.
“I will.”
She found Hubert hanging out in his usual spot on the daffodils. He was bigger and considerably fatter than when they’d first met. She lifted the hem of her dress to keep it off the wet grass and bent down to watch him.
“Hungry?”
In answer, he took a big bite out of a leaf and chewed away.
“You and me both.”
Her appetite had never been exactly bird-like and now that she was eating for two it was virtually non-stop. She was only two months in. She could only imagine how enormous she’d be near the end of her pregnancy.
With a sigh, she stood and looked around the backyard. Some of the leaves on the trees still glistened with the morning’s rain and sparkled in the sunlight. Birds chirped happily in the trees and frogs croaked at the edge of the small pond down the hill.
It was idyllic. She stood there taking it in, feeling at one with it all until the moment passed and she grew bored and restless. They’d done pretty well not doing anything, but it was starting to grate a little and Teddy’s project was the cheese to her mouse.
Mrs. Dunlop’s voice cut through the quiet. “Phone call, Mr. Fiske!”
After a few moments, she heard the squeak of the barn door as it opened. Teddy stepped out, pulled a pair of goggles off his face and let them settle around his neck. He took off a pair of thick leather gloves as he started toward the house, leaving the barn door tantalizingly open.
He’d said it wasn’t dangerous. Not too dangerous, but not really all that interesting either. Science stuff. But science stuff was better than no stuff, she thought as she started toward the barn.
It wasn’t like she was going to go inside. She’d just stick her head in. Just peek. A teensy-weensy peek.
She waited until Teddy had gone inside and then moved around the side of the barn to the doorway. It was a small door, cut out of the larger sliding barn doors. She peered inside, but it was dark. She couldn’t see anything. She leaned in as far as she could without actually stepping in. She saw some sort of metal something, but it was just too dark to make out. One small step inside wouldn’t hurt.
She lifted her skirts to step over the high threshold.
“What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
She winced, froze in place and then turned around to see Simon standing behind her with his hands disapprovingly planted firmly on his hips.
“The door was open,” she said feebly.
“And you simply can’t help yourself.”
The words were understanding, but the man who said them wasn’t.
“Aren’t you curious?” Elizabeth asked. She gestured to the unexplored treasures hidden in the darkness.
“To the point of death? No.” He took her arm. “Come along.”
Elizabeth resisted and he let her go.
“I think you’re being a little dramatic,” she said as she readjusted her blouse.
Simon scowled and pointed to the sign next to the door—Danger.
“That’s just to keep snoopy people out.”
Simon raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, and probably me.”
“That’s true,” Teddy said.
They both spun around in surprise. Elizabeth felt a tiny wave of guilt. Usually, she trespassed without any qualms, but doing it to Teddy was different.
“About the other people,” Teddy said. “I guess I should have shown you before. It doesn’t really matter.” He laughed to himself. “Matter.”
They looked at him blankly. “It’s very funny if you’re a particle physicist.”
“We’ll trust you on that,” Simon said and held out his hand to entreat Elizabeth.
She ignored it and turned to Teddy. “Can we look?”
Simon’s arm fell to his side. “He’s already said—”
“I don’t see why not,” Teddy interrupted.
Simon sighed, but he was beaten and knew it. Teddy let Elizabeth step inside and followed her in.
Simon came in last. “So it’s not dangerous?”
“Oh, no. It’s quite dangerous,” Teddy said as he turned on the big overhead lights. “At least when it’s on.”
A large machine, perhaps ten feet tall, sat in the middle of the barn. It looked a little like a small water tower with an oblong tank at the top and two thick legs beneath it. Each leg had a series of metal donuts around them at set intervals and wide copper pipe angled between them, crisscrossing like shoelaces.
“What is it?” Elizabeth asked.
“A voltage multiplier.”
“I’ve seen something like this before,” Simon said. “In a museum.”
“I’m sure,” Teddy said as he walked around it, admiring his work. “It’s quite advanced for 1912, but a relic in your time. It’s an ea
rly particle—”
“Accelerator,” Simon finished and then he went pale. “You’re not trying to split the atom, are you?”
“No, not quite.”
Elizabeth understood why Simon went pale. Splitting the atom was nuclear, and not something that should happen in a barn. “Sorta splitting it?”
“I’m working on particle acceleration. A new form of energy.”
“Nuclear energy.”
Teddy nodded. “Eventually.”
Simon reared back. “Dear God in Heaven, you’re not building a bomb?”
“No,” Teddy said. “Although it’s possible, and Mr. Bohr will help do just that. But not for many years.”
“This is your nudge?” Simon asked.
Teddy nodded and smiled with pride.
“That’s one hell of a nudge,” Elizabeth said.
She circled around the machine to admire it. It was impressive. She noticed a cellar door on the far side of the barn. One of the flaps was open. She started toward it.
“What’s in there?”
Teddy hurried to catch up to her. “You should stay away from that. It’s dangerous.”
Elizabeth grinned. “Now I’m even more curious.”
Teddy closed the door. “It’s storage.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound very exciting.”
“Uranium.”
“I take it back.”
Simon stepped forward and took Elizabeth’s arm. He walked them both away from the door. This time, he didn’t have to coax her along. “You can’t be serious.”
“Very. But it’s safely contained. There’s no real danger.”
Elizabeth frowned. “But you just said there was.”
“Well, uranium,” Teddy said with a shrug.
“And on that note,” Simon said. “We shall be leaving this barn. Forever.”
He led Elizabeth outside and even took a few steps toward the house. Teddy followed them out.
“It really is safe. But just in case.”
“No snooping,” Simon said in a tone that would brook no argument.
Elizabeth wasn’t inclined to offer any. “Don’t worry. I have no intention of becoming a human glow stick.”
Revolution in Time (Out of Time #10) Page 2
