A Summer in Time (Train Through Time Series Book 6)

by Bess McBride

  Gem, on the point of answering, stopped. She set down her spoon.

  “You just asked me if we had canned soup in the twenty-first century.”

  “Yes?”

  “The twenty-first century,” she emphasized. “Does that mean that you believe me?”

  John set his spoon down and sat back in his chair.

  “How can I not?” he said with a shrug. “You truly seem different than anyone I have ever met before—your mannerisms, your clothing, your dialect, even your grief. It was when I saw you so distraught over your predicament that I came to believe you. I do not know how it could have happened, nor do I understand how I could be so readily convinced, but I am. To your knowledge, have others traveled through time? Is this sort of thing common in the twenty-first century? Is there a particular mechanism? You mentioned H. G. Wells.”

  Gem shook her head. “No, I’ve never heard of anyone traveling through time before. You can bet that if I had, I’d be running to them for advice.”

  “Advice on what?”

  “On how to get back!”

  “But you just arrived!”

  “I know, but not knowing if I can get back to my own time is pretty stressful.”

  “I am sorry. I should have asked. Do you have family? A husband? Children? I cannot imagine that I did not think to ask.”

  “No husband, no children. My parents are gone. I have a neighbor who’s looking after my plants.”

  “Will she be terribly concerned if you do not return?”

  “Maybe. Hopefully. Though there’s not much she can do besides go to the police. There’s nothing they can do.”

  “No, I suspect not.”

  John picked up his spoon again.

  “Do you have marital prospects? A beau?”

  Gem’s cheeks burned. “A beau,” she repeated softly. She hoped John didn’t know that he had been her secret “beau” for years.

  “No beau,” she said flatly.

  “Do you...intend to marry?”

  “Do you?” Gem asked.

  John shook his head.

  “No, I do not. I enjoy bachelorhood.”

  “So that’s it? No wife, no children? No legacy to pass on?”

  John reared his head at the vehemence in Gem’s voice.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Are you just going to die and leave no descendants?” she snapped.

  “What nonsense are you sputtering?” he returned in a harsh voice. “How can that possibly be your concern? I will bequeath my estate to charity.”

  “Your estate! Who cares about your estate?”

  “Well, then what are you asking? I thought she must be mistaken, but Sally ventured an opinion that you had materialized in order to ingratiate yourself as my heir.”

  Gem gasped.

  “Your heir? Are you kidding? Did I transport myself from the twenty-first century to collect a few pennies from your estate? Does that really make sense? Honestly!”

  John opened his mouth, then closed it.

  “No, I do not imagine that it does. I censured Sally for such thoughts. They are not her place, and they are uncharitable. She was not aware of your origins in the future. I should not have repeated such nonsense. I was out of line.”

  Gem settled down, cursing herself for getting riled up at the thought of John dying without a wife, without children. He didn’t know his future, but she did, and she wanted him to leave descendants. She couldn’t explain her obsession. It just was.

  “I’m sorry too. I apologize. Your life is your business. But no, I am not here to claim your estate. We’re not really biological cousins, remember?”

  John looked up sharply.

  “Are you ready to share what you know of that with me yet?”

  Gem bit her lip. She thought she knew far more about his “adoption” than she had before she traveled in time.

  “All I know is that your father and mother adopted you privately in Ohio. Your birth certificate was amended to show them as parents.”

  John stared hard at Gem, for so long in fact that she grew uncomfortable.

  “Why do you squirm in your chair and avoid my eyes?” he asked. “Do you know more than you are not sharing, Gem? If it concerns my life, should I not know? I am not asking you to reveal my future, the day and time of my death, but since you have already disclosed the lie of my parentage, should you not at least share all that you know?”

  “I don’t know any more than that, John. I promise.”

  “Then why do I feel that you prevaricate?”

  She hated to lie to him, just hated it, but was it a lie if one didn’t know the truth? She didn’t know him well enough to share theories, and the matter of one’s parents wasn’t something to speculate lightly about.

  She did prevaricate, if by that he meant stall. Truth was what he wanted. Truth she would give him.

  She stopped squirming, looked up at him and spoke.

  “I don’t know who your birth parents are, John.”

  John narrowed his eyes, studied her for another moment and then let the subject go.

  “I will take you at your word. I think I must pursue the matter in other ways, now that I know I am not truly a Morrison. I would like to know who I am.”

  Gem bit her lower lip. She really didn’t know anything. She knew nothing at all.

  “Maybe Sally knows something. You said she has been with your family forever.”

  John blinked and nodded.

  “Yes, she might very well at that. I would think she would have disclosed such information if she were aware of it, but perhaps she was sworn to secrecy. Excellent idea! I will ask her tomorrow at the first opportunity.”

  Gem’s heart pounded.

  Chapter Eight

  Gem awakened to the sound of a tap on her door.

  “Come in!” she called out.

  The door opened a crack, but no one entered

  “Are you dressed?” John asked from the other side of the door.

  “No!” she called out, pulling the covers to her chest. “What’s happening?”

  “You slept in,” he said, not entering. “We are shopping today. Have you forgotten?”

  Gem scrambled from the bed, disoriented, looking for her clothes, her shoes, something familiar. The cotton nightgown Sally had left on her bed covered her from neck to ankle, but she felt naked. Or at least she thought John, with his turn-of-the-century ideals, might think so.

  “Am I late?” she squeaked.

  “Not at all!” John said, rather gallantly. “Dress and come down to breakfast. We will shop for your needs, and then I wish to show you the car I am thinking of purchasing. You can tell me with your advanced knowledge if you think it is a good buy.”

  Gem crossed the room and peered around the crack to see John fully dressed in another well-tailored conservative dark suit, his wet hair suggesting he had bathed.

  He averted his face when he saw her. She spoke to his profile.

  “I have no advanced knowledge on Model A’s, John. I’m no expert on cars at all. I bought mine new. It’s blue, and it runs if I put gas in it. That’s all I know. I don’t want to disappoint you.”

  “I see,” he said with a nod. “You do not understand mechanics. Women generally do not. No matter. I shall ask your opinion of the color.”

  “Wait a minute!” Gem said with something between a laugh and a sigh of exasperation. “Many women understand mechanics, John, astrophysics, mathematical theory, biological science. I’m just not one of them, but don’t judge all women by me! If your time gave women half a chance instead of corralling them into marriage, motherhood and housekeeping, then you would be surprised at how intelligent they are.”

  John turned to look at her.

  “I did not mean to imply that women were less intelligent than men,” he said slowly. “Perhaps I misstated. I meant only that ladies are largely uninterested in the mechanics of such things as automobiles, industrial equipment, locomotives.”

&
nbsp; Gem grasped the side of the door.

  “That’s just not true, John. In the nineteen hundreds, women will start working on automobiles, trains, boats, airplanes and rocket ships. Wars will come, and women will build those very things. More wars will come, and women will drive and fly those things. It’s wonderful! You have so much to look forward to. Lots of innovation. I can’t even begin to describe how much change is coming, but for women? Lots, bless their hearts. They’re going to get the vote, John! Can you believe it? The vote!”

  She ran out of air. John stared at her with wide eyes, with an expression she interpreted as horror.

  “I’m sorry! What a rant! I don’t know what came over me. Don’t be afraid, John. I doubt if your life will change radically unless Sally demands modern equipment or a pay raise.”

  She gave him crooked a grin.

  John shook his head slowly. “I do not fear the future you describe. I am simply astounded at the information you impart. Rocket ships?”

  “Let me get dressed, and I’ll tell you about them. I can’t describe how they work, only where they go.”

  “I look forward to learning more. I will see you in the breakfast room.”

  “See you!” Gem prepared to shut the door but paused. “Breakfast room? Where is that?”

  “Ah! You do not know. Of course not. It is just off the kitchen. I will await you downstairs in the parlor.”

  “Okay, I’ll hurry!”

  John nodded and left. Gem pranced on her feet until he disappeared down the stairs. Then she ran down the hall to the bathroom. She relieved herself and washed her face and hands before trotting back to her room. She dressed as quickly as she could, contemplating how she was going to ask John to buy her clean underwear, and what kind of underwear women even wore in 1905. She pulled her hair up again, adding one more thing to her mental shopping list—a hairbrush.

  She shoved her feet into her sneakers and hurried down the hall, imagining John pacing the parlor, hungry and waiting on her.

  “I tried to hurry,” she said on dashing into the room. She stopped short at the sight of a man of medium height who appeared to be about thirty years old. Dressed as nattily as John, though in a dark-blue suit, the auburn-haired man swung around as she entered.

  “Gem!” John exclaimed “Let me introduce you to my brother, Harvey Morrison. Harvey is an attorney as well, though he has his own practice.”

  To say that Harvey looked stunned did not do justice to his wide blue-eyed expression.

  “Who is this?” he asked bluntly.

  “Harvey, this is my guest, Miss Gemima Holliday. She is a distant cousin of ours.” John shot me a warning look, as well he should. Harvey looked nothing like his tall and dark-haired brother. Clean shaven where John was bearded, Harvey’s cheeks carried a red tone that could have been the lot of a redhead or could have been shock.

  “A cousin? Staying here? How are you related to us?”

  Harvey’s question sounded innocent enough, and although he was definitely startled at Gem’s presence in John’s house, he didn’t seem unwelcoming.

  “Oh, it’s distant,” she murmured, lacing her hands behind her back. She tugged at the edge of her blouse, pulling it down over her makeshift unbuttoned waistband.

  “I thought I knew all of our cousins, but I am not familiar with the Holliday name, other than the legendary gambler and gunfighter, Doc Holliday.”

  At that, Gem smiled. No matter what century she lived in, people always made that association—that and Christmas.

  “I’m no relation to Doc Holliday, but I am related to you.”

  And she was. She was biologically related to Harvey Morrison through his mother, Amelia Holliday Morrison. She threw John a quick reassuring glance.

  “We’re first cousins, three times removed.” She hoped Harvey wasn’t a genealogical whiz. “Very distant, but there you go. It’s so nice to meet you, cousin.”

  She held out a hand, and Harvey jumped forward to take it.

  “Well, I’ll be...” he said. “And what brings you to Livingston, Miss Holliday?”

  “Please, call me Gem. As for Livingston, I was just touring the area,” she said airily. “I looked John up in his office, and he invited me to stay for a bit. My luggage was stolen on the train, if you can believe that! So I’m stuck for a bit.”

  “Oh, how bad!” Harvey seemed a very pleasant man. Gem liked him immediately. It didn’t hurt that he was technically family. She had never seen a photograph or portrait of him, but she knew that he’d married and had ten children. She hoped he was on his way, because at thirty he had a lot of children to produce.

  “Yes. Are you married, Harvey? Do you have children?”

  “I am,” he said with a wide smile. “My wife’s name is Ermaline. We have four children.”

  “Four?” I asked faintly. He had so much more to do.

  “Yes. They’re a handful.”

  John visibly relaxed as he watched the conversation. Gem sensed that he approved her handling of the situation.

  “I am so sorry to hear about your luggage. Is there no hope of recovering your things?”

  “No, I imagine not,” John said. “We were going to sit down to breakfast, and then I was going to take Gem shopping to replenish her wardrobe. After that, I wanted to show her the automobile I wish to purchase, the one you and I discussed.”

  “You are going to take her to a dress shop?” Harvey asked. “You, John? Are pigs flying?”

  Gem looked from brother to brother.

  John’s cheeks reddened, and he threw a quick glance toward Gem.

  “Nonsense. I have been inside a dress shop before.”

  “Gem, John has never set foot in a dress shop before. This is quite an honor.”

  “Nonsense!” John said. “Do you join us for breakfast?”

  “I had not planned on doing so, but now I think I will. I would like to know more about our newly found cousin!”

  Gem swallowed hard. She had imagined she was just sprinting through her lies with Harvey for a few moments while he stopped in. She didn’t know she would embark on a breakfast marathon of half-truths, lies and general dishonesty. It wasn’t how she wanted to treat her cousin, not how she wanted to treat family. But she had no other choice, not if John didn’t intend to share her arrival information with Harvey. And it appeared as if he didn’t.

  “Shall we?” John led the way down the hall past the dining room to a small multi-windowed circular room. Bright and sunny, the breakfast room faced a lovely flower-filled garden at the rear of the house, through which Gem caught sight of more yellow rosebushes. Sally was already in the breakfast room, setting platters of food onto a mahogany buffet.

  “Good morning, Sally,” Harvey said.

  Gem watched the two of them interact.

  “Good morning, Harvey. Are you staying for breakfast?” Sally asked with a look of surprise.

  “Yes, I think I will,” Harvey said congenially. “Another plate?” He looked at the small round table holding two plates.

  “Yes, of course.” She opened the buffet cabinet and withdrew a plate, teacup and saucer to set on the table.

  “If that is all?” she asked John. She either avoided Gem’s eyes or didn’t think enough of Gem to look at her.

  “Yes, thank you, Sally,” John said.

  “Good morning, Sally,” Gem prompted. The housekeeper’s attitude toward her was becoming irksome.

  “Morning, Miss Holliday,” she said, still avoiding Gem’s eyes.

  “Thank you again so much for the loan of your clothing. I hope to get it back to you as soon as possible,” Gem said, slipping into the chair that John held out for her.

  “No need. I was going to donate them to the poor anyway, so it is just as well that you keep them.”

  Gem’s jaw dropped at the insinuation.

  “Sally!” John said sharply. He stared hard at the housekeeper, a muscle moving in his jaw.

  Harvey coughed behind his hand and too
k a seat. He avoided looking at the housekeeper, whose pale cheeks were high with color.

  “I did not mean that the way it sounded,” Sally said, speaking directly to John. “I only meant that I had no further use for the clothing, and Miss Holliday had no need to return them to me.”

  Gem looked down at her lap, uncomfortable with John’s sharp tone toward the older woman. She was fully aware of Sally’s resentment of her presence, but she didn’t want to be the cause of conflict between the two. Especially given that she felt they were biologically related.

  The sight of Harvey, auburn-haired and of medium height, compared to John, dark-haired and tall, was enough to make anyone wonder if they had the same parents. But when one compared Harvey, John and Sally in the same room, the likeness between John and Sally was striking.

  Gem didn’t know how, why or where, but she was convinced that Sally was John’s mother. Whether his father was his paternal biological parent, she had no idea.

  “If there is nothing else then, I will finish up in the kitchen,” Sally said, turning for the door. Thankfully, John let her go without another word. After the door closed behind her, he sat down heavily, his expression dark.

  “This all looks wonderful!” Gem said, hoping to lighten the mood.

  “Indeed, it does,” Harvey said, joining her.

  His personality seemed more congenial than John’s, but she supposed John had reasons for his somber demeanor.

  “Yes,” John said. He looked toward the closed door, his expression transforming from one of anger to puzzlement.

  If Gem could have eased the tension between housekeeper and employer—maybe mother and son—by removing herself, she would have, but she had nowhere to go. She wondered if Sally’s immediate resentment of her was healthy for John. Was Sally the reason John had not married?

  Gem studied John, now busy pouring out coffee. Her heart swelled as she watched him. She wondered what he looked like without a beard, whether his chin was firm, dimpled, strong. She imagined that his lips were probably fuller than they appeared, buried as they were beneath the mustache and beard. Gem had no doubt that John had grown the facial hair to hide the scars on his face, ineffectively as it happened.