by Bess McBride
Chapter Eighteen
“What was that about?” Rachel asked. “What happened?”
Roger’s face had gone pale. “It seems that Lord Halwell believes you and I are...” He stopped short.
“A couple?”
“It would seem that is what he believes.”
“Why would he think that?”
“Because I stand at your side, and in polite society, that suggests that I have a romantic interest in you.” By then, Roger’s face was bright red.
Rachel turned to find Halwell’s tall figure in the crowd but couldn’t see him anywhere.
“I didn’t know that!”
“I am afraid that I did. I should have said so sooner. Mary did ask me to stay at your side.”
“What was all this about a conversation? Pouring his heart out to you?”
“He stopped at the gatehouse last week and talked at length about his confusion. Given that he truly did not understand Miss Hickstrom’s powers or that you were brought specifically back in time, it is understandable that he is befuddled. I could not enlighten him, of course, but I listened.”
“I should talk to him. Where did he go?”
“I think he must have left. I saw him stride toward the front door.”
“He left? Oh no! Maybe I can catch him!”
Rachel hurried toward the entrance. The footmen pulled open the door for her, and there before her stood Miss Hickstrom, poised on the front step as if she was about to enter. Wall torches highlighted the ruby red of her extravagant dress. She sported a rose confection in her blue hair.
“Rachel, my dear! What is amiss? You look distraught.”
“Halwell just left!” Rachel cried out, looking beyond her. “Did you see him?”
“I did not, dear! Why did he leave?”
“Oh, gosh! I don’t know really! I think he was mad, but I don’t see how that’s possible. He seemed angry about Roger and me.”
“What is this? Roger and you? Oh, no, Rachel. There is no Roger and you.”
Rachel was too upset about Halwell leaving to worry about Hickstrom’s continuing interference.
“No, of course not, but it seems as if Halwell thought so.”
“Goodness! That cannot be. Has young George come around then?”
“Come around?” Rachel looked at the footmen still holding open the door. She beckoned for Hickstrom to follow her outside, then signaled for the footmen to close the door behind them.
“Do you mean, is he prepared to love me? Does he love me? No! Of course not! I told you that.”
“Then why was he angry at the thought of you and Mr. Phelps?”
“I have no idea. I don’t understand anything about anybody.”
“And you were about to pursue George just now when I arrived?”
“Well, yes, I wanted to explain.”
“Then you care for him.”
Rachel sighed. “Yes, Hickstrom, I do. But it won’t do me any good, so I’d just as soon not. But yes, I do!”
“Then we have only to discover how George feels!”
“No, we don’t,” Rachel protested. “You promised me that if I stayed through the ball, you would let me go home. I’m going to miss Mary, but I’ve had enough humiliation for one century.”
Rachel turned to her. “Hickstrom, come on. You promised.”
“But I promised that I would consider giving up on this project after the ball.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the ball is over for me. I can’t dance, I don’t know what to say to anyone, Mary has St. John at her side, the ballroom is beautiful, and Halwell is gone.”
Hickstrom’s smile drooped. “You two are very stubborn. I have had easier tasks. If you wish to go home, Rachel, I shall allow it. Do you wish to say goodbye to Mary?”
Tears sprang from Rachel’s eyes and slid down her face.
“I can’t go back in there. Look at me. I hate to say goodbye. I just hate to say goodbye to anyone. I’m sorry, Hickstrom. Please tell her I’m sorry and that I’ll miss her. Do it now.”
“Miss Lee! Rachel!” called a voice out of the darkness.
Rachel looked out toward the drive. Halwell strode toward the house, his hand raised in greeting.
“Halwell!” She turned to Hickstrom. “He’s back!” She ran down the stone steps toward him, forgetting that she wore long skirts. Her shoe caught in the hem of her skirt, and she fell forward, arms outstretched. The world went dark.
****
“Rachel?” a voice called from the darkness. “Rachel?”
Rachel opened her eyes. She recognized the commercial-grade beige carpeting of her bookstore floor. Her face was level with the baseboard of the dark oak counter.
Sally bent over her.
“Rachel! Where have you been?”
Rachel pushed herself upright, pain choking her throat such that she couldn’t speak. Anguished tears flooded her eyes.
“Rachel! What happened? You vanished a week ago. I waited and waited for you to come back, because I didn’t know how I was going to explain what happened. I still don’t even know! But I had just decided that it was time to call the police this morning. That’s a great dress! Where did you go? What happened?”
Rachel grasped Sally’s hand and allowed her assistant to pull her to a standing position. One foot felt carpet, and she looked down. She had lost one shoe. She tried to recall the moments before she’d fallen down the stairs. Her shoe had caught in the hem of her dress...when she had run down the steps...when she had seen Halwell.
Had Hickstrom sent her back?
She had been begging Hickstrom to send her back, but changed her mind when Halwell returned. He had called her name, even using her first name.
“Hickstrom?” she called out in the middle of the empty shop. “Hickstrom? Send me back! I didn’t get a chance to talk to him, to explain. Send me back!”
“Rachel! Who are you talking to? Wait! I remember that name. That was the lady who was here. She vanished right along with you. What has been going on? I’m so glad you’re back. I was so scared!”
Rachel searched the shop, looking for Hickstrom.
“Where’s the book?” she asked in a strangled voice. “Where’s the book?”
“Come sit down,” Sally said, guiding Rachel behind the counter. “You’ve been through something, that’s for sure. I’ll get you some water.” She settled Rachel in the office chair near the desk behind the counter and retrieved a cup of water from the water cooler.
Rachel drank the water automatically.
“Where is the book, Sally? I need the book!”
“What book?” Sally settled herself on the desk surface, facing Rachel.
“Hickstrom’s book!”
“Oh, the book of fairy tales? We sold it, Rachel!”
Rachel jerked, spilling the water. “What?” she cried out. “No, that’s my only way back! Who bought it? Oh, please tell me they used a credit card!”
“I don’t remember. I’d have to look. Rachel, what happened?”
“I don’t know how to explain it,” Rachel said mournfully. “I have to find the book.”
“Try,” Sally said.
“I traveled through time,” Rachel said, finally meeting Sally’s eyes. She had thought that if she didn’t look her assistant directly in the eyes, then she could just will herself back in time.
Sally stared at her for a long minute before nodding and speaking.
“I can’t say that I’m surprised. After I saw both of you vanish, I knew magical things were happening. Where did you go? Did you go with that lady, Miss Hickstrom?”
“Kind of. She was there. She’s a fairy godmother, you know?”
“So she said when she was here.”
“I went to England, to the Regency era.”
“The Regency era?” Sally reached down and fingered the lace of Rachel’s dress. “Yes, this is an empire-waist dress. Very Regency.” She looked down at Rachel’s feet. “But your shoes? Or your shoe, I should say. How did
you get away with those? And where is your other shoe, Cinderella?”
Rachel looked at her bare right foot.
“I fell on some stairs. My dress got caught in my shoe, and I must have come out of it. I imagine it is still on the steps at Alvord Castle.”
“A castle?” Sally whispered. “Oh my!”
“Yes, a fairy-tale castle.” Rachel sighed. “I asked Hickstrom to send me home, and she did—a little too quickly, as it happens.”
“You’ll have to tell me all about it. I can’t tell you how panicked I was when you disappeared. I didn’t know what I was going to tell the police, or what to do with the shop. I’m so glad you’re back safe and sound, Rachel.”
“I’m safe, Sally, but I’m not sound...at all.”
“Well, you’re not crazy, Rachel Lee! I know you, and I saw you disappear, and I found you when I opened the shop this morning.”
“No, but my heart feels fractured. It doesn’t feel sound at all. I wanted to get back to the bookstore and my home so much that I begged and begged. Now that I’m back, I feel lost.”
“Listen—why don’t you go home, get reacquainted and relax? Your car is still out front. You might want to change while you’re at it. But save the dress. That is an antique!”
Rachel looked down at her dress, fingering the ivory silk
“It’s actually brand new.”
“And expensive!”
“I think it was.”
“Why do you think you need to go back, Rachel? Did something happen back there? Do you know why you traveled through time? Can anyone do that? I would like to!”
“So many questions,” Rachel murmured. “I don’t know if just anyone can travel back through time. Hickstrom had that power, and if she needs a lonely heart for another lonely heart, she’ll snag that person, if they read and touch the book of fairy tales, I think. That’s what happened to me. You read it, you touched it, but she must have decided I was the one who had to go. Apparently, my heart was lonely.”
“Well, I’ve always known that, Rachel, ever since your grandparents died. But you seemed okay with the bookstore. It kept you busy.”
“Busy, yes.”
“So is your heart still lonely?”
Rachel nodded.
“Then why do you need to go back? It’s the nineteenth century. Things are a lot harder then, aren’t they?”
“I left someone behind.”
“Ohhhhh!” Sally exclaimed. “Did you fall in love, Rachel?”
Rachel nodded. “I did. I didn’t think he could love me, but I think he may have fallen in love with me after all. I’m not sure though. He was calling out to me when Hickstrom sent me home.”
“Oh wow! Well, I can see why you want to get back to him. If you don’t, you’ll never know.”
“No, I’ll never know,” Rachel repeated, depression settling heavily on her chest.
“And you have to have the book to go back?”
Rachel nodded. “Yes, I think so.”
“But wait! You said the fairy godmother sent you back in time when you were standing on the stairs...or fell. You didn’t have the book then, did you?”
Rachel drew her brows together, trying to concentrate. “No, but Mary told me when she went back through time that she had to have the book to get back to the nineteenth century. So I guess the book of fairy tales is like a one-way ticket to the past?”
“Who’s Mary? Did this happen to someone else?”
“Yes. She’s a countess now. Lady Mary St. John.” Rachel’s eyes filled with tears again. “I didn’t say goodbye to her. I should have.”
“Well, it doesn’t sound like you had much warning!”
“I’m the one who begged Hickstrom to send me back. I did this.”
Sally sighed. “Aww, Rachel, you sound so darn sad.”
“I am so darn sad.”
“How can I help?”
“Help me find out who bought the book!”
“Okay. I’ll check the receipts. Meanwhile, why don’t you go home and check in on your plants? I got your key from under the mat and looked in on them, and everyone is okay.”
Rachel stood, and Sally rummaged in a desk drawer and produced Rachel’s purse, handing it to her.
“Are you okay to drive? Woozy or anything?”
“I’m fine. Thanks for taking care of the shop...and my plants.”
“No problem.”
“Okay, I’m going then.”
“Call me.”
Rachel nodded, left the shop and scanned the street. She ignored the occasional stares and wondered why she felt so out of place. She had lived in Halifax County, Virginia, her entire life. She had only been in the nineteenth century for less than two weeks. Why then did she feel so lost? A man in loose jeans and a plaid shirt passed her, eyeing her up and down, and she turned to watch him walk down the sidewalk. The back of his jeans sagged a bit as he shuffled along. He wasn’t as tall as Halwell, nor as elegantly dressed as Halwell, and certainly not as handsome as Halwell. Rachel turned away and got into her car.
She drove home to her grandparents’ acreage—it would always be her grandparents’ home to her—and entered the old farmhouse. Everything was just as it had been before she went to work that fateful day, and yet everything was different. Her plants did thrive, thanks to Sally. Several of them had been her grandmother’s.
She eyed her grandmother’s collection of Delft-blue porcelain odds and ends that she had stored on several shelves in the kitchen. Her grandmother would have loved the color of Halwell’s eyes.
Rachel sat down at the kitchen table and dropped her head into her hands. She missed her grandparents terribly at that moment. She hadn’t realized how lonely she had been for the past few years. The shop had kept her so busy, and Sally had been there most days. Rachel had worked in the shop seven days a week, often spending twelve or more hours a day there, if one could call hanging out with books working.
And at that moment, she missed not only her grandparents but everyone she had met in the nineteenth century—Mary and Halwell, even Roger and St. John. But not Lady Georgianna. She didn’t miss her.
“Hickstrom?” She raised her head. Rachel even missed the interfering fairy godmother who seemed to know her better than she knew herself. “Hickstrom? Can you come tell me what to do?”
A tap on the door startled her, and she jumped up to open it. Hickstrom, dressed in some frothy Caribbean-style ankle-length dress, stood there with a broad smile on her red-painted lips. Her blue hair, still in a bun, was adorned by a sequined hairband.
Rachel hurriedly pushed open the screen door.
“Hickstrom! Oh, Hickstrom, I’m so glad to see you!” She hugged the plump woman, who patted her on the back.
“So this is your grandparents’ home!” she said, stepping inside. “How very quaint!”
“How do I get back, Hickstrom?”
“Will you not offer me some tea?”
“I don’t drink tea...here. I have coffee. Do you want coffee?”
“Yes, that will do, thank you.”
Hickstrom seated herself at the kitchen table, an incongruously festive apparition in the old-fashioned kitchen, while Rachel made coffee in an instant brewer.
She set a cup in front of Hickstrom and sat down across from her.
“I’m so glad to see you,” Rachel said again.
Hickstrom sipped her coffee, and Rachel waited impatiently.
“I wasn’t ready to go!”
“You begged me to send you home, dear.”
“But that was before Halwell came back, before he called out to me.”
“Yes, that was unfortunate timing, was it not? The transfer through time was already in progress.”
“Can you just send me back?”
“No, I cannot. I am sorry.”
“Hickstrom!” Rachel shrieked. “Oh, please! Please. I’ll do anything. I promise I won’t complain anymore, not if Halwell fell in love with me.” Rachel stopped. “Wait. What d
id he say when I disappeared?”
“He did not wish you good riddance, if that is what you fear!” Hickstrom said with a laugh. “After rushing to collect you from your fall, which he could not do since you were no longer there, George picked up the shoe you left behind and stared at it for a moment before asking me what had occurred.”
“Did you tell him?”
“I did. It took some time, but I explained that I had brought you from the future to ease his loneliness. He asked many questions, so many that I was forced to sit on the castle steps to rest while I explained the situation.”
“How did he take it?”
“He was skeptical at first, naturally, but he stated he had noted some things that were unusual about you. Of course, the shoe—I believe you call them athletic shoes?—dangled from his hand the entirety of our conversation.”
Rachel didn’t want to hear about the shoe. She wanted to hear about Halwell.
“Well, does he love me or not?”
“Rachel, I have done all that I could, more than I should, but I cannot establish that. You and George must take charge of your own futures. For now, George understands that he will never marry.”
“What? Why would you do that, Hickstrom?”
“That was the agreement. He understood it at the time.”
“Hickstrom, you can’t make a man fall in love. You can’t.”
“I offered him happiness. It was his to take.”
“Send me back. You can do it if you want.”
“No, I cannot, dear. I am so sorry. You must find the book.”
“My assistant sold it. We have to figure out to whom. If she sold it for cash, I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“Let us hope she kept a record of the purchase.”
“There is always a record of sales for tax purposes, but there may not be a record of the buyer’s name, just the purchase.”
Hickstrom drank the last of her coffee.
“I must go, dear. Yours is not the only lonely heart to which I must attend, as I have told you before.”
She rose, and Rachel jumped up and grabbed her hand.
“Does he love me, Hickstrom? Should I go back?”
“Do you love him, Rachel?”
Rachel nodded, pumping her head up and down. “I do! I do!”
