by Bess McBride
“You were exhausted. To hear you tell it, you have traveled over two hundred years in the past twenty-four hours.”
Gem wanted to smile but couldn’t.
“So you think the train has come and gone? And there’s no sign of John?”
“No, I am afraid not.”
“I still have to run down to the station, just to see for myself,” Gem said.
“Yes, I know, as do I. Come then, let us hurry!”
With a last glance toward the window, Gem turned to follow Sally. The image of a man pausing on the sidewalk materialized again, and she whirled back toward the window, rubbing her eyes.
No. It wasn’t a vision. John walked up the walkway toward the house.
“He’s here! He’s here!” she screamed, dropping the hat and running for the front door. She yanked it open and ran into his stunned embrace.
“You’re here!” she cried out, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You’re here.”
John held her to him tightly. His heart pounded against her chest.
“Oh, my love, I thought I had lost you,” he whispered against her ear. “I did not know what to do, where to go, how to find you. I thought you had traveled forward in time. But you are here!”
Gem raised her face to John, pulling him to her and kissing him fervently.
“I did go forward,” she said breathlessly after a minute, “but I came back. By hook and by crook, I got back. I’ll tell you about it later, and you can tell me what happened to you.”
John gazed down at her with soft blue eyes, showing her all the love in his heart. Her knees weakened, but he held her firmly against him.
John’s eyes passed over her head. Then he stiffened.
“Sally,” he said. “Mother. How long have you been standing there?”
He dropped his eyes to Gem with a cautionary warning. She shook her head but before she could say anything, Sally spoke.
“Long enough to see that Gem loves you well enough to suit me. It may have taken a hundred years for her to get here, but she will do nicely for you.”
John reared his head in confusion.
“She knows, John. She knows about me,” Gem said.
The corners of John’s lips lifted, and his face spread into a smile, stunning in its handsomeness and openness.
“I am so glad you approve, Mother. Well then, ladies. Shall we go inside and get acquainted with each other?”
John moved forward, his arm around Gem’s waist. He paused at the top step, where Sally waited.
“I would put my arm around you, Mother, but it seems that I can handle only one woman at a time.”
His newfound smile dazzled Gem, and she chuckled at his quip. Behind John’s back, she reached for Sally’s hand and drew it around his waist, locking arms with her.
“But it might take two of us to handle you,” she murmured.
Epilogue
Gem tucked the quilt tightly around the sleepy baby before she straightened and rocked the swinging cradle beside her wicker chair.
“Oh look!” she murmured in a hushed voice. “The first roses of summer.” She nodded toward the yellow blooms of the roses in front of the porch where she and John now sat.
“I do not believe that I ever noticed the roses before. The previous owner must have planted them.”
“Well, they’re my favorite flower, so that worked out well.” Gem covered John’s hand with her own. “Your mom used to cut them and put them into vases when she lived here. Don’t you remember? That’s almost the first thing I remember seeing when I stepped into the house.”
“No, I cannot say that I ever paid attention to such things.”
Gem thought back on the monotone dullness of the furnishings she had noted when she first saw the house the previous year. Now, the Victorian was filled with warm wood furnishings and upholsteries in soft greens, gold and browns. Landscapes of the nearby Yellowstone region dotted the walls. John had a man paint the house pale yellow with green and brown accents.
“No, I guess you didn’t,” Gem said dryly. She loved the colors of the house.
“Poor Mother,” John said. “She probably wanted to color things up a bit as you did, but never found the courage to ask. She has certainly turned her new home into a festive affair with that wildly romantic flowered Victorian wallpaper and furnishings. I still cannot believe that she has taken in boarders. You know that I provide for her.”
Gem squeezed John’s hand. “I know you do, John. She likes taking care of people.”
“Yes, I believe she must.”
“I was surprised when she announced she would take you up on your offer to buy her a home.”
“As was I.”
“Well, she found me a nice housekeeper in Mrs. Grant, so I’m all set. Spoiled, in fact,” Gem said with a grin.
“Not at all,” John said, lifting her hand to his lips. Full and generous as Gem had imagined, his lips still sent a tingle up her spine. He had shaved his beard off before their wedding, and she had fallen in love with him all over again. The scar running down his right cheek lent him the look of a dashing pirate, but it did not detract from his intoxicating handsomeness. She could have looked at him all day and did often stare at him as he slept in the night.
The scars on his shoulder, when seen unclothed, served only to make her love him more. She still could not imagine surviving the pain and recovery as he had. His embrace, the one that he had said he couldn’t do, was as strong and secure as any man with two arms.
The baby moved, throwing off the quilt again, and Gem replaced it.
“I love this quilt your mom made for the baby,” Gem said.
“Indeed, it is charming. I was not aware that my mother enjoyed quilting in her spare time. I am ashamed to say that there is much I did not know about Sally.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“No. I wonder if I shall tell Harvey someday. I suppose it is not my secret to share.”
“I know your mom doesn’t want anyone to know. She’s free to love the baby, take her for walks, spend time with her just like any other grandmother. It doesn’t seem to be a problem for her. She’s actually very affectionate. I never imagined...”
“Nor I. But I am concerned,” he said, changing the subject, “that you will run yourself ragged taking care of the baby and continuing Mrs. Yates’ bookkeeping. I know that you wanted to work before the baby came along, but won’t you tire easily?”
“No, I’m fine. I bring the books home. Mrs. Grant watches Mima when I’m working. I have to do something.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Don’t forget that everyone is coming for dinner tonight—Harvey, Ermaline, the kids, your mom.”
“I remember,” he said with a sigh. “I do enjoy seeing everyone together, but I would much rather spend the evening alone with you.”
Gem lifted John’s hand to her own lips and kissed it.
“Me too. It seems like we’ve been out quite a bit this month.”
“Well, dear, if you had not accepted Mrs. Sarah Stewart Pennington’s invitation to dinner last week, I would have been most pleased. I still cannot abide that woman.”
Gem chuckled. “Me either, but we can’t ignore her forever. She’s married now, she’s not chasing you, she doesn’t have you, so I can afford to be generous.”
John’s face bronzed, and Gem loved that she could see the extent of his blush without the beard.
“Goodness,” he murmured.
“Harvey’s trip to Seattle went well, I understand. He enjoys visiting the city,” John said. “As always, I am glad when he returns unharmed.”
“And in the right century,” Gem said with a smile.
“Indeed. I wonder if you miss Seattle, Gem? In this century or yours?”
Gem shook her head. “Not enough for me to get back on a train. Maybe when you get a car that drives faster than thirty miles an hour, we can take a trip there.”
“I do not think there are roads t
hrough the mountains yet.”
“There will be,” Gem said. “There will be.”
She chewed on her lower lip for a moment.
“Did he deliver my letter to Robert Chamberlain, do you know?”
“How could I forget to tell you?” John exclaimed. “Yes, he did find Robert and Ellie Chamberlain. Ellie, it seems, wasted no time in dashing off a response. Harvey gave it to me to pass along to you. I have it here.”
He retrieved an envelope from his pocket, and Gem took it with a racing heart. She stared at her name handwritten on the front.
“Do you think...” She didn’t finish the sentence.
“Open it and find out.”
Gem did open the letter and read aloud.
“My dear Gemima,
“Many hellos to you! I heard about you from Macy Buckley and that you had told her to say hello to me. Now, your brother-in-law, Harvey Morrison, has stopped by with a note from you.
“Yes, my friend. Yes! You and I are the same. We come from the same time, the same country. I am so happy to meet you.
“Harvey doesn’t seem to know why he is delivering this note, and I trust he won’t read it.
“He did mention that you are not a fan of trains, and I know why, though I’m not sure he does.
“I’d love to see you someday. I had Robert buy a car, but that thing is so slow. I don’t know when we’re going to manage to get it out of town. And I can’t remember when highways are going to run through the mountains.
“Phones, much later, right?
“Write back to me. I’m so glad to meet you. So glad!
“Talk to you soon!
“Ellie Chamberlain.”
“Then you were right! You are not the only one who has traveled through time,” John said in a deep voice.
“No, it looks like I’m not. I hope I get to meet her one day.”
“You will, my love. I am certain of it.”
Mima cried out, just a chirp at first, and then she woke with a wailing sob. Gem reached for her but stopped when John spoke.
“Let me take her.”
John rose, crossed over to the cradle and expertly scooped the baby up. He resumed his seat next to Gem and bounced the baby gently in the nook of his arm as he whispered to her. Gem watched with a full heart.
“I thought you were terrified of tears,” she said softly.
“I have had to change many things over the past year, my love, most of all myself. I would not have it any other way.”
Gem wrapped her arm around John’s shoulder.
“Are you pleased with me, Gem? I am no longer a confirmed bachelor, and we now watch over our offspring, our descendant.”
“I am pleased with you, John,” Gem said, pressing her lips against his cheek. “You will always be my favorite ancestor!”
Books by Bess McBride
Time Travel Romance
The Earl Finds a Bride
(Book One of the Fairy Tales Across Time series)
A Ship Through Time
The Highlander’s Stronghold
(Book One of the Searching for a Highlander series)
My Laird’s Castle
(Book One of the My Laird’s Castle series)
My Laird’s Love
(Book Two of the My Laird’s Castle series)
My Laird’s Heart
(Book Three of the My Laird’s Castle series)
Caving in to You
(Book One of the Love in the Old West series)
A Home in Your Heart
(Book Two of the Love in the Old West series)
Forever Beside You in Time
Moonlight Wishes in Time
(Book One of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)
Under an English Moon
(Book Two of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)
Following You Through Time
(Book Three of the Moonlight Wishes in Time series)
A Train Through Time
(Book One of the Train Through Time series)
Together Forever Across Time
(Book Two of the Train Through Time series)
A Smile in Time
(Book Three of the Train Through Time series)
Finding You in Time
(Book Four of the Train Through Time series)
A Fall in Time
(Book Five of the Train Through Time series)
Train Through Time Series Boxed Set
(Books 1–3)
Across the Winds of Time
A Wedding Across the Winds of Time
(Novella)
Love of My Heart
Historical Romance
Anna and the Conductor
The Earl’s Beloved Match
(Novella)
The Dishonest Duke
Short cozy mystery stories by Minnie Crockwell
Will Travel for Trouble series
Trouble at Happy Trails (Book 1)
Trouble at Sunny Lake (Book 2)
Trouble at Glacier (Book 3)
Trouble at Hungry Horse (Book 4)
Trouble at Snake and Clearwater (Book 5)
Trouble in Florence (Book 6)
Trouble in Tombstone Town (Book 7)
Trouble in Cochise Stronghold (Book 8)
Trouble in Orange Beach (Book 9)
Trouble at Pelican Penthouse (Book 10)
Trouble at Island Castle (Book 11)
Trouble at Yellowstone (Book 12)
Will Travel for Trouble Series (Books 1–3)
Will Travel for Trouble Series (Books 4–6)
Will Travel for Trouble Series (Books 7–9)
About the Author
Bess McBride is the bestselling author of over twenty time travel romances as well as contemporary, historical, romantic suspense and light paranormal romances. She loves to hear from readers, and you can contact her at [email protected] or visit her website at www.bessmcbride.com as well as connect with her on Facebook and Twitter. She also writes cozy mystery short stories as Minnie Crockwell, and you can find her website at [email protected].
