by Bess McBride
She attempted to slow her intake to a sip on the second hot toddy, but failed. Two more hours of hot toddies, and she’d be singing karaoke.
****
As expected, within two hours, and several more hot toddies with Lucinda, Dani was well on her way to being drunk, much to Stephen’s consternation, or so she suspected. Her vision seemed distorted, and she couldn’t focus on his face. She was aware he had come to sit beside her...right beside her. She felt the occasional elbow nudge, and she shut her mouth on cue.
“So, Lucinda, I just love your dress. Love it!” she mumbled. “Is that off the rack or...?”
“No, dear, I know ready-to-wear clothing is quite the thing now, but I prefer to have my clothing tailor made. And who is your tailor?”
Dani opened her mouth to say something nonsensical but Stephen interjected.
“My wife does not at present have a tailor in Seattle but will be using Baker and Sons Tailors, Mrs. Davies. Have you heard of them?”
“Oh, yes,” she trilled. Dani thought the toddies might have gone to her head as well. “Yes, fine tailors. I must try them someday. Perhaps we could go together, Danielle?”
“Sure,” Dani pumped her head. “Sounds good.” Nodding had not been a good idea. Her head started spinning, and she attempted to rise.
Stephen put a restraining hand on her thigh. As lightheaded as she was, she didn’t miss the intimate movement, and she looked up at him in inquiry. A muscle worked in his jaw, and he stared hard at her, allowing his eyes to travel to her lap. Dani looked down. Ah, yes! The jeans.
She looked toward Gerald who dozed in the opposite bench, his head resting on the seat back. She gave Lucinda a crooked smile.
“Excuse me,” Dani whispered. “I just have to speak to my husband for a second.”
“Of course,” Lucinda answered with a yawn. “I think I may follow my husband’s lead and rest my eyes for a little bit.” She pulled the hatpin from her hat, removed the hat, and leaned her head back against the seat.
Dani turned toward Stephen and whispered. “Stephen, I have to go to the bathroom. Do you all have bathrooms on the train?” She noted he had hastily pulled his hand from her lap.
Stephen spoke between his teeth. “I was afraid of this. Yes, there is a ladies toilet midway. But your trousers. They will elicit comment.”
“I have to go, Stephen,” she moaned. “They won’t see me.”
Stephen looked toward the couple opposite. Both seemed to be snoozing.
“Very well,” he said. “I will follow you closely in a vain attempt to block anyone from seeing you.”
Dani chuckled. “Not into the bathroom, right? You’ll wait for me outside?”
Stephen’s cheeks bronzed. Dani was surprised she hadn’t noticed the surprisingly rugged stubble of darker blonde hair on his cheeks and chin. The look was unexpected for such a well-groomed man. He must have been traveling for some time.
“That was not my intention, Miss Douglas.” He didn’t respond in the indignant tone she expected but with a wry smile. She wondered irreverently if he was married—to anyone besides her that was.
With a barely concealed smile, she put his coat aside and attempted to stand, but her legs wobbled. Stephen hastened to assist her, and she fell against him.
“Ooops, sorry,” she whispered to his chest. “I’m a sloppy drunk.” She looked up at him from under her lashes. “But I’m not sick any more.” At that, a paroxysm of giggles hit her, and Stephen half guided her and half pulled her toward the rear of the compartment.
“Here you are, Miss Douglas,” he said as he delivered her to a door marked Ladies Toilet. He steadied her as he pulled open the door and ushered her in.
Though Dani’s thought processes were a bit hazy, she noted that the bathroom was quite large and clean. On her way out, she eyed herself in the mirror. Auburn hair having gone wild and her light-blue long-sleeved shirt a wrinkled mess, she tried to smooth both down. With a view toward looking more presentable, she rummaged in her jeans pocket for an ever-present rubber band and tied her hair up into a ponytail somewhere at the back of her head—she hoped. So difficult to see straight.
“I thought I might have to rescue you,” Stephen said dryly when she emerged. “Your hair, while quite beautiful, is very wild, isn’t it? I see you have made efforts to bring it under control.”
Dani leaned against the wall for balance while the train rocked. She put a hand to her hair.
“Does it look dumb?” she asked. “If I’m really in 1901, most women are wearing their hair up, aren’t they? Lucinda is.”
Stephen nodded with a sigh. “That they are. I take it you are able to wear your hair down in your time.”
Dani chuckled. “My time. That sounds so funny when you say it. But yes, we can wear it any which way we want. Even purple if we want.”
Stephen surveyed her for a moment and looked toward the front of the compartment.
“Shall we brave this again? I can walk in front of you.”
“You know, Stephen, I’m not the one who is ashamed of my jeans. I’m quite comfortable in them, and I don’t mind if Lucinda sees them one little bit.”
“Yes, I can see that,” Stephen said with a quirked eyebrow. “However, the scandal would be long lasting. I may not have met Mrs. Davies until today, but I am not unaware of who she is. I could not place the name when they first introduced themselves as I was understandably distracted.” His eyes dropped to her legs again before returning to her face. “But I remembered too late. She is a socialite, well known in Seattle, and her reach is far. I do not wish to immerse myself in such notoriety, nor do I wish you to become the fodder for gossip.”
Dani, her head swimming along with the movement of the train, grasped his jacket lapels and shook them.
“Then why, for Pete’s sake, did you say I was your wife? How are you going to get out of that? Divorce? Murder?” She giggled foolishly. “You could have said I was your cousin or something.”
“Miss Douglas, please try to control your chortling. It would not be acceptable for you to travel alone with me as my cousin. No one would believe that charade.”
The train shifted again, and Dani, her hands still on his lapels, jerked for balance, bringing his face close to hers. Their eyes locked, and Stephen covered her hands with his own.
“No one, Miss Douglas, would believe you are anything to me other than a woman who has captured my imagination...much as you have my coat.”
Chapter Three
“Mr. Sadler, we must return to our seats to collect our things,” Lucinda whispered a few hours later as the train arrived at the outskirts of Seattle. Dani slept, her head tucked into a corner of the bench. “Please take my card and ask Mrs. Sadler to call on me. I quite enjoyed our time together.” She smiled and urged her husband out the carriage door.
Stephen looked down at Dani’s sleeping form. Luckily, Mr. and Mrs. Davies had slept most of the way, and he had not had to further dissemble, lie, prevaricate and generally make things much worse than they were already.
Why he had said Dani was his wife was beyond him, and he regretted his foolish action—not that she was not beautiful and desirable, but it seemed impossible that he should return to town after a two-week absence with a wife in tow. Especially a wife who was as unusual as Dani.
Time travel. Was it possible? In looking at her, he thought it might just be. Nothing about her smacked of the present. Her hair was untamed, her clothes were at once manly and yet quite alluring, her skin appeared almost luminescent against her red hair. He had never seen anything like it, and he longed to run his fingers across her cheek, but resisted. Her speech? Not from this time or place, that seemed certain. A cowgirl? It was possible. Although he taught history, his forte was European history, and he was not well educated about the American West. Perhaps he could consult with a few colleagues, discreetly of course, but just to inquire as to possible mannerisms and colloquialisms of a woman from Montana.
He looked
at Dani. What was he going to do with her? Especially now that he had married her.
The train jolted as it switched tracks, and the whistle blew. From the window, he saw the lights of Seattle. They would arrive at the train depot within minutes.
“Are we here?” Dani bolted upright. She rubbed her eyes, looked around in confusion, cast his coat aside and flew to the window. “Your time or my time? Come onnnn, Seattle!” She squinted out the window. “I can’t tell yet. It’s so dark.”
Stephen shook his head, having forgotten that she seemed a bit unhinged at times. Perhaps she hadn’t traveled in time so much as she had lost her faculties. The latter option seemed more plausible. He sighed and rose to join her at the window.
“It does not appear to be any darker than normal. It is very late at night.” Stephen consulted his watch. “Eleven o’clock.”
Dani turned to him with stricken eyes. “This doesn’t look right. There should be a lot more lights, even at this hour.”
The train slowed further and then stopped. Stephen steadied her as she swayed with the motion, and he tried to imagine what she might be seeing if this were his first time arriving in Seattle by train. The depot boasted a few lights. The surrounding buildings were darkened on the first-floor shops and the apartments above. A few carriages and carts stood by, including his own, but generally, the entire scene was subdued given the lateness of the hour.
“This isn’t right. This isn’t King Street Station.” Dani’s voice held a hint of hysteria, and Stephen longed to comfort her, but he did not know how. While she slept, he had considered what was to be done with her, and he spoke.
“Miss Douglas, please do not distress yourself. I hear the alarm in your voice. If there is truly no one to meet you here in Seattle, if in fact, this is not your time, then you shall come to my house. My housekeeper will see to you. You need have no fear from me. In the morning, we shall discuss what is to be done.”
She turned to him. “No! This can’t be happening! I just want my car.”
Before he knew what she was about, Dani had run to the back door, pulled it open and escaped through it. He followed hastily and was in time to see her take the steps from the observation carriage platform two at a time. She jumped to the ground and paused to scan the area.
“Miss Douglas,” he called while trying to keep his voice low so as not arouse suspicion. “Come back. Where are you going?” He clambered down after her.
Dani seemed not to hear him. She turned one way then turned another. The nearby carriage horses whinnied. She stared at them.
Stephen finally reached her and caught her arm in his.
“Miss Douglas, my carriage is just over there.” He nodded toward one of the carriages. “Please let me help you in.”
Her body shook uncontrollably.
“Stephen, I can’t be here,” she repeated herself. “I’m supposed to go back and see my mother in two weeks. She’s having surgery. I have to go home.”
Stephen’s heart melted at the forlorn note in her voice, and he longed to fold her into his arms to comfort her, to ease the tremoring he felt in her arm. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mr. and Mrs. Davies descending from the train several carriages away. Should they see her dressed as she was, he could not imagine how much more difficult her life would become.
“Miss Douglas! I insist you come with me at once. We can do nothing here in the street at this moment.” He urged her in the direction of his carriage, and to his surprise, she came willingly. He dared not leave her to recover their things from the train lest she attempt to run away into the darkness again, and he spoke to his driver.
“Samuel, please gather my luggage. If you could step aboard the observation carriage, please retrieve my hat, my coat and some sort of knitted thing that Miss—Mrs. Sadler dropped on the floor. Also, there was a needle with it. I shall await you here in the carriage with Mrs. Sadler. Then home.” He handed Miss Douglas in and climbed into the carriage.
Samuel, a short elderly man, tipped his cap, shut the door without comment or expression and hurried over to the train. Stephen appreciated the man’s loyalty. To announce a wife without warning must surely have piqued the man’s curiosity, but he was too well trained to show it. His parents had been fortunate in their driver, as was he to have Samuel’s continued loyalty.
Stephen eyed Dani with concern. She had slid to the far side of the carriage to peer into the night and watch the activities. She rested her elbow on the side of the coach and chewed on her clenched fist. Her eyes were wide in her pale face, and he could see the occasional tremor pass through her body.
“What can I do for you, Miss Douglas?” he asked quietly.
Dani did not turn to him but merely shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
There seemed nothing to say at the moment so he remained silent, not daring to touch her or offer comfort. Her rigid posture suggested she wanted nothing to do with him...or anyone else for that matter.
Samuel returned in good time and handed Stephen the items he requested. While the older man loaded luggage onto the rear of the carriage, Stephen handed Dani her knitting.
She clutched it and pressed it to her face. “Thank you,” she said in a muffled voice. “Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me right now...and it’s just a silly bit of crocheting.”
“It is a pretty piece.”
“It’s just a granny square for an afghan blanket, but what it does mean is that I am me. I did exist. I do exist.” She lowered the square. “I know I’m not explaining it very well. But you know what I mean.”
Stephen did not have the slightest idea what she meant, but if it made her happy, then he was content.
“You refer to the possibility of time travel?”
She nodded. “I have to find a way back. I just have to.”
Stephen knew a moment’s despondency at her words. Just then, the carriage moved forward.
Dani looked out the window. “I’m riding in a carriage. At just about midnight. I don’t feel like Cinderella. But I sure could use a fairy godmother right about now.”
Stephen could think of only one woman who could fit the bill, who could possibly understand Dani—a woman who shared some of the same characteristics and mannerisms.
He resolved to send a note to Ellie Standish Chamberlain in the morning to see if she could help. And to discover why it was that Miss Douglas reminded him so much of Mrs. Chamberlain.
****
Stephen tapped on Dani’s door the next morning. The previous night had been eventful with directing his housekeeper, Mrs. Oakley, to organize a room for Dani along with some refreshment. Fortunately, his sister had been abed, and so knew nothing of Dani’s arrival. He was unsure of her response.
The first order of business this morning was to see Dani suitably attired. He had already sent the note to Ellie asking for her help. He suspected she would come without question.
“Who is it?” Dani whispered from the other side of the door. He had instructed her to let no one in other than himself or Mrs. Oakley. The less people saw her clothing, the less damage to her reputation he would have to repair.
“May I come in?” Of course, the request was improper, however, it was very necessary at the moment.
She opened the door a crack, and he slipped in.
“My apologies, Miss Douglas. This is entirely unacceptable for me to present myself at your door, but we must put the niceties behind us at the moment.”
She nodded. “I know it’s different in your time.”
“Is it?” he asked distracted. Her hair was even more unruly than the day before though she’d made some attempt to capture it on her head. She looked bright-eyed this morning, perhaps too wide eyed, but her wits seemed to have returned.
“Yes. You mentioned that you were going to ask a woman for help. Did you manage to contact her?”
“I sent a note around. I am sure she will come. She shares some of your mannerisms, and I wonder now ab
out her.”
Dani sat down on the blue velvet couch in front of the fireplace. Mrs. Oakley had placed her in one of the guest rooms of his home on Queen Anne Hill.
“Do you think she’s a time traveler?” Her cheeks brightened with a rosy hue. She was beautiful, and his heart thudded in his chest. He swallowed hard.
“I do not know, but I begin to wonder. At any rate, I have asked her to bring a few things for you to wear until we can see you properly dressed. You and she appear to be of the same size.” His cheeks bronzed. “My sister is taller, but I dared not creep into her room last night to steal a few articles of clothing. There is no telling what I might have grabbed. She does not know of your arrival yet.”
“My arrival,” Dani snorted, a most unladylike noise. “You know I appreciate everything you’re doing for me, Stephen, but this seems a bit excessive for a stranger, don’t you think? Why didn’t you just leave me at the train station?”
“Because I am a gentleman, Miss Douglas,” he said with a rueful smile. “That would have been an ungentlemanly act.” And because he simply could not imagine letting her disappear from his life forever, he thought to himself.
“I see,” she smiled. She looked around the room with interest. “Ummm...I’m starving. Those two biscuits your housekeeper gave me last night are long gone. Do you all eat breakfast?”
“Mrs. Oakley is bringing you a tray. I think it best you stay in here until Ellie arrives.”
“Okay,” she said in a reasonable tone. It was that tone which concerned him.
“Okay, yes?”
“Sure.”
Reassured, Stephen seated himself opposite her.
“You mentioned a job and your mother last night. What sort of job did you refer to?”
“Well, I’m a librarian.”
“Ah! A lover of books.”
Dani nodded.
