Train Through Time Series Boxed Set Books 1-3

by Bess McBride

  Ellie shook her head. “No, I mean your group. This Victorian thing. The train. I assume you all hooked your cars up to the train at some point, because I didn’t see them when we left. How do you all do this? It must cost quite a bit.”

  With a slight shrug of his elegant shoulders, he searched her face with an expression not unlike a laboratory researcher studying his specimen. His lips twitched. “You say the strangest things, Miss Standish. I am not sure what you are asking.”

  She shot him a dark look and stomped her foot...just a bit. “Oh, stop this silly act, Bobby. Y’all are driving me nuts. I feel like I’ve landed in a madhouse.”

  Apparently unimpressed by her righteous rage, he chuckled and murmured in a low voice. “I am beginning to feel the same way, Miss Standish.”

  “Mr. Chamberlain, can I help you?” A tall man who appeared to be in his early forties approached—his wheel hat, dark suit and bow tie marking him as a conductor. A thick dark mustache dominated his pale face. Blue eyes flickered to Ellie and then back to Robert. He moved with a balanced stride undeterred by the rocking of the train, coming to a halt in front of Ellie and Robert, his manner deferential but quietly authoritative.

  “Yes, Conductor, Miss—”

  “I can speak for myself. Listen, Mr...?” With no encouragement from the conductor, she gulped and hurried on. “Listen, sir, somehow I’ve gotten myself onto this section of the train by accident. I don’t know what happened. I went to sleep last night and when I woke up...” She paused, catching his perplexed eyes sliding toward Robert. “Excuse me, could you look at me and not Mr. Chamberlain, please? I’m talking.” Ellie tilted her head back and eyed both tall men with irritation and a certain amount of trepidation as they exchanged a glance.

  What if she stood on tiptoe?

  “Miss Standish. If you would allow me, perhaps I could explain to—”

  “No, thanks, Robert. I’ve got this covered.” She tossed the words over her shoulder and turned back to the conductor. “If you would just listen to me for a moment.” She swallowed hard, her courage failing. Why did the man continue to look over her head to Robert? “What I’m trying to say is I’m in seat 31B. That’s where I went to sleep last night. This morning, I woke up on his carriage.” She jerked her head in Robert’s direction. “I don’t know how or why—and believe me, I will be seeing a doctor about this when I get back—but for right now, I’d just like to get back to my seat, get my purse and get myself organized.” She gulped air and waited expectantly.

  The conductor stared at her with troubled eyes and a grave expression.

  “Miss Standish, I am not sure what has occurred here. We do not in fact have a seat 31B.” Could you be mistaken about the number?” She caught his veiled glance at her clothing. “Could you perhaps be traveling in tourist class or—forgive me—in immigrant class?”

  Chapter Four

  Although the dining car seemed warm, in fact too warm, Ellie broke out into a cold sweat. Her knees buckled slightly, and she would have slid to the floor had Robert not caught her elbow. She turned to him with a beseeching look.

  “Robert, help me. Please don’t continue to do this.” She turned back to the conductor. “Are you part of this thing, as well?”

  He raised a thick, dark eyebrow. “Thing, Miss Standish?”

  She sighed and rubbed her forehead. What a nightmare!

  “This period piece you all are doing.” She heard the exhaustion in her voice.

  “Miss Standish, please let me lead you to a table. I think you need something to eat or drink.” Robert slid his hand from her elbow to the small of her back and guided her forward. The conductor stood to the side to let them pass.

  “Conductor, if you will allow us a few minutes...”

  “Certainly, Mr. Chamberlain. Take as much time as you need.” He pulled a large golden watch from his coat pocket and flicked it open. “We reach Wenatchee in forty minutes.”

  Ellie watched in bemusement. Robert propelled her forward like a small child. About a dozen men and women occupied most of the tables in the dining car—all of them in period costume of the late Victorian/early Edwardian era, the women in lovely high-collar lace shirtwaist blouses and decorative hats, the men in suits with vests, many of them sporting large mustaches. Ellie felt their stares as she and Robert moved through the car. She had obviously crashed someone’s private Victorian party, but the wide-eyed look of astonishment on several faces seemed unduly...astonished.

  They neared a small table at the opposite end of the car, and Robert pulled out a chair for her. She sank into it gratefully, her knees continuing to buckle in an unpredictable way. At least Robert didn’t have one of the ubiquitous mustaches!

  “You know,” she said with a shaky smile as she watched Robert take the chair across the table, “maybe I do need a little something to eat. I’m pretty sure my blood sugar must be dropping. I just can’t seem to get my knees to stop wobbling.”

  His green eyes surveyed her with compassion. “Yes, I did wonder if you weren’t feeling well. Tell me, Miss Standish, are you in the medical profession? A nurse, perhaps?”

  Busily scanning the elegant white linen-covered table for something edible such as crackers, she looked up at his words.

  “No, why do you ask?”

  “I just thought perhaps your references to blood sugar suggest a knowledge of medicine.”

  She chuckled and leaned back in her chair, surprisingly more relaxed now that she was out of public view.

  “Oh, Bobby. How long are you going to continue this charade? You guys are a hoot! And if I weren’t so tired or confused, I could appreciate it. But as it is, I’m starved and I’m exhausted.”

  To her satisfaction, he winced. “My dear Miss Standish, please do not call me by that childish name.” He turned to signal for a steward. Samuel seemed to materialize out of nowhere.

  “Samuel. There you are. We thought we had lost you.”

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Chamberlain. The conductor came when you did. I didn’t have a chance to talk to him.”

  Ellie watched the exchange with interest. Robert certainly had a way about him, a sort of friendly yet distant lord-of-the-manor confidence that she found both irritating and intriguing. Of course, it was a performance, but still...

  “We would like a menu, Samuel. Miss Standish needs some nourishment.”

  “How about you, Mr. Chamberlain?” Samuel instantly whipped out a paper menu from a mysterious location behind his back and laid it in front of Ellie.

  “Nothing for me, Samuel. We just had dinner, as you know.”

  Ellie raised her eyes from the rather intriguing menu to see Robert watching her while he spoke to Samuel. She blushed at his direct gaze. Samuel melted away.

  “Y-you’re not eating?” she stammered. “Listen, I can eat by myself. You don’t have to wait with me.” She threw him a bright grin, as toothy as she could make it. “I’ll just have a quick snack, snag that conductor and find my car.”

  “It is no trouble, Miss Standish. I think I should wait with you, to see if you feel unwell again.”

  Her face flamed again, and she dropped her eyes to the menu. As with most things that day, the menu proved to be another facet of her continuing nightmare in Victorian land.

  “Does this really say boiled leg of mutton? Boy, you guys really went all out on this. I don’t even know anyone who eats boiled leg of mutton. The prices are great, though.” Ellie glanced up at Robert and pointed to the menu. “Seventy-five cents for the food.” She shook her head and chuckled. “I can’t imagine how they swung that price.”

  “I eat boiled leg of mutton, Miss Standish. Now, you know someone who does.”

  A quick glance revealed he maintained a straight face...and a handsome one, at that. He leaned back in his chair, his posture relaxed, green eyes watching her with amused interest. Ellie couldn’t help but be flattered. Kyle never looked at her like that. She couldn’t really understand why Robert did. She knew she looked a fr
ump, but it hadn’t mattered.

  “Cute, Robert, really cute,” Ellie chuckled. She set the menu aside. “Listen, I’m not all that hungry. I just need a snack. I think I’ll just have some cheese and crackers. You know, a little protein.”

  Robert’s lips twitched and he crinkled his brow.

  “Protein?”

  “Yes, you know. Protein. Cheese.”

  He nodded. “Ah, cheese. Are you sure you wouldn’t like to have something more to eat? Some soup, perhaps, something hot?”

  She shook her head. “No, that will be enough.” She craned her neck to see down the length of the car, aware some of the other diners continued to throw curious glances in their direction...especially the women. “Now, where did Samuel go?”

  Without turning around, Robert raised his hand, and Samuel appeared. Ellie’s eyes widened. How did he do that?

  “Hey, Samuel. Okay, could I have some of this Edam cheese and some crackers?” She pointed to the menu.

  Samuel’s eyes widened, and he threw an inquiring look at Robert.

  Ellie put a stop to that. She waved her hand. “Yoohoo, Samuel! Over here. Pay attention to me. This is my order. I’m paying for it—or I will when I find my purse.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Samuel dipped his head and hurried away. She followed his retreating back, perplexed by his actions. Then she brought her eyes back to Robert who watched her with a puzzled frown.

  “You could be kinder to him, Miss Standish. He is only doing his job.”

  She glanced at Robert in surprise. Her? Was he serious? He wasn’t laughing.

  “I am kind to him. In fact, I feel kind of sorry for him that he has to play this weird subservient role in your program here.”

  “Program?” He cocked a dark eyebrow in her direction.

  “Well, whatever you want to call it. I’m just tired of everyone looking at you when I talk to them. It’s really very odd. Makes me feel like I’m living in the Dark Ages.”

  A corner of his mouth lifted slowly. “The Dark Ages?” His smile broadened. “Surely not, Miss Standish. It is the turn of the century. We are much more advanced and civilized than the Dark Ages.”

  “Oh yeah, the turn of the century. I forgot,” she murmured with a sigh. Ellie planted her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her palms. She steeled herself to meet his eyes with a steady gaze.

  “Okay, Robert, I’ll play along. What year is it?”

  Robert’s amused gaze, which had fixed on her elbows on the table, returned to her face with a glint. “1901, Miss Standish. As I said, the turn of the century. And a fine year it is proving to be.”

  She sniffed and shook her head with a wry twist of her lips. “Mmmhmmm. Okay. And who is the President?”

  His smile widened to an amused grin. He reached for a glass of water delivered by Samuel and took a deliberate sip before answering.

  “William McKinley. And since we are playing at questions, I believe it must be my turn, Miss Standish.”

  Ellie narrowed her eyes and regarded him for a moment before crossing her arms and leaning back into her chair with a half smile.

  “Okay, go ahead.”

  “What is your first name?” The sparkle in his green eyes robbed her of breath for a moment. Her heart bumped against her chest.

  “Ellie,” she murmured, suddenly shy at the unexpectedly intimate quality of such an ordinary question.

  “Ellie,” he repeated. The well-known name sounded suddenly fresh and desirable on his lips. “And does that stand for Eleanor?”

  She inhaled deeply to bring oxygen back to her deprived brain, and she hugged herself tightly.

  “No, just Ellie. It’s just a name my hippie-dippy parents decided to give me.”

  “Hippie-dippy?” He shook his head with a wry smile. “And what part of the country are you from, Ellie? May I call you Ellie?”

  “Oh yeah, sure.” She was distracted by a sudden memory of the man who had sat next to her on the train yesterday with a similar question. Was it only yesterday? She remembered the color of his eyes. Green.

  “Ellie?” Robert repeated his question with an inquiring arch of an eyebrow. She met his questioning eyes...the same green.

  She shook off the odd coincidence. “I’m sorry. What was the question?”

  “Where are you from?”

  “Oh, Chicago. Well, no, not really. I mean I live in Chicago now. I’ve moved around a lot, though.”

  “I see. I have been to Chicago several times. Some of your expressions stupefy me. I do not believe I have heard them in Chicago, either. What do you mean by hippie-dippy parents?”

  “Oh, so you’re saying you haven’t heard that expression, either, Robert?” She studied his face through narrowed eyes. His face registered genuine curiosity. Was it possible? “Well, maybe you haven’t. I’ll give you that. But you have heard of hippies, right? The late sixties and early seventies? San Francisco? Woodstock?”

  She watched various expressions cross his face, the most prominent being a look of confusion. “Well, certainly I’ve heard of San Francisco. In fact, I’ve been there. The sixties and seventies? The reconstruction era?”

  She almost laughed, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

  “Robert, you have an American accent, but are you actually from the United States? Everyone knows about hippies...flower children.” The train took a sudden lurch, and water sloshed from Ellie’s glass. She was surprised the whole glass hadn’t jumped off the table by now, with the uneven movements of the old-fashioned carriages.

  He quirked a quizzical eyebrow in her direction.

  “Well, unless you are referring to children who carry flowers in a wedding procession, I have no earthly idea what you are talking about. Please instruct me.”

  She opened her mouth to retort, but Samuel appeared with a silver tray. He set an elegant porcelain plate before Ellie with slices of Edam cheese and saltine crackers.

  “Oh, thank you, thank you, Samuel. I’m starving.”

  Samuel nodded, threw a last glance at Robert and moved away.

  Ellie sliced several small sections off the small block and laid them on the crackers.

  “Are you sure you don’t want some?”

  “No, thank you. I am fine.”

  She bit into her snack and paused, her teeth seemingly hitting solid rock. With a self-conscious glance in Robert’s direction, she pulled the food from the edge of her mouth and examined the cracker. While it looked like a saltine, she could see now that the small white square was thicker than what she was used to. With another flushed look in Robert’s direction, she bit into the cracker again. It gave way this time, and she ground it in her mouth. With one bite of the hard cracker swallowed, she eyed the rest with misgiving. She reached for her water to help the food make its way to its final destination.

  “Wow, those crackers are really hard.” Hungry and unwilling to fight the food, she popped a slice of the salty cheese into her mouth.

  “They used to be called hardtack,” Robert said. “Haven’t you ever eaten them before?”

  “Hardtack?” She eyed the crackers again with suspicious eyes. “Hardtack? Are you serious? No wonder. I’ve never had hardtack before.” Ellie picked up another cracker and attempted to nibble the edges.

  “Don’t they have hardtack in Chicago?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. At least not in this century.”

  “How interesting.” He lowered his eyes for a moment while he ran his finger around the rim of his water glass.

  “Tell me, Ellie. Are you married?”

  Ellie almost choked on the dry cracker and grabbed another gulp of water.

  “Er, no, I’m not.” She bit her lip. She hesitated to say the words But I’m engaged, and she didn’t know why.

  “No Mr. Standish?” Robert asked with a sparkle in his eye.

  Ellie blushed. “No Mr. Standish,” she said. “How about you, Robert? Are you married?”

  “No, I am currently not so
fortunate.”

  Ellie chuckled at his odd speech pattern. “Never been married?”

  “If I had ever been married, Ellie, I would still be wedded...to the same woman.”

  Her heart caught in her throat. He stared at her with a steady gaze, a half-smile playing on his lips. His words seemed so certain, so confident, so...permanent.

  She cleared her throat. “Well, certainly. Of course. I just...well, you know, a lot of people are divorced these days. You never know. I...uh...I didn’t mean to be rude.”

  “I did not take offense.” His smile widened to a grin.

  “I intend to marry only once, and I have not yet found the woman who could put up with me for the rest of her life.” The twinkle returned to his eyes, but Ellie had no doubt about his firm stance.

  “Mr. Chamberlain, Miss Standish.” The conductor towered over the table, his wide stance preventing any need to brace himself against the rocking of the train. “Is this a good time for me to interrupt? The train will be pulling into Wenatchee in a few minutes. I think we need to figure out how we can help Miss Standish at that time.”

  Robert glanced up at him and turned to Ellie. “Do you feel better, Ellie? Have you eaten enough?”

  Ellie nodded, having eaten only three slices of cheese. “Yes, I’m fine. I’ll be glad to get back to my seat. I could use a nap.” She gave Robert a small smile, hoping he wouldn’t see the lie in her eyes—a lie that took her by surprise.

  “Good. That is settled, then. I must return to my carriage to check on the ladies. They will be worried about my extended absence by now. It seems as if Mr...?”

  “Bingham, sir.”

  “It appears as if Mr. Bingham is going to assist you in whatever way you need.” Robert gave her an encouraging smile, and turned to the conductor, who stood by silently.

  “You will let me know if Miss Standish needs any further assistance, of course. My family and I are more than happy to see to anything she needs should her seat...go missing.”

  Ellie rose slowly from the table and smiled with a slight shake of her head.