by Bess McBride
Dani pressed her hand against her mouth and nodded, wishing he would go away. She wanted to wail, she wanted to scream, she wanted to keen like some medieval woman who had lost her man. But even in the conductor’s absence, she wouldn’t be able to give in to the anguish that tore at her heart. Though the observation car was fairly empty at the moment, there were a few passengers in it, and they watched her with round eyes.
“Well, if there’s anything I can do, let me know,” the conductor said. He eyed her skirt curiously and moved on.
Dani looked down at her lap. She wore the dress Ellie had given her. Still. The straw hat was not in sight. She remembered taking it off to rest against Stephen. The satchel rested at her feet, as if it had fallen from her lap. It hadn’t been a dream. It had been real. She had traveled in time. Stephen had been real, not a figment of her imagination.
She hugged her waist, her dress—as if in some way she also hugged Stephen, never to lose him. She had always known Stephen couldn’t come with her. There hadn’t been any question. Susan needed him. And yet to fall asleep in his arms and wake up alone had been a shock. She didn’t understand the mechanism that allowed her to travel through time but kept Stephen in the past. Did it depend on desire? Need? As Dani needed to get back home, she did, but since Stephen needed to stay with Susan, he did?
Dani, her eyes still flooded with tears, tried to focus on the terrain through the large windows of the observation car. Somehow, Wenatchee had come and gone, and she’d slept all the way through to Whitefish. Thick pine trees bordered the track like a tunnel on both sides, signaling their approach to Whitefish, a lovely little resort town tucked away in the Rocky Mountains near Glacier National Park.
“At last, you are awake, my love!” Stephen whispered as he slid into the seat next to her. Dani gasped and jerked her head toward him as if he was a ghost. His eyes were bright, his smile broad, his expression filled with excitement.
“Stephen?” she said hoarsely. “Are you real?” She touched his arm tentatively.
Stephen grabbed her hand and pulled it to his lips.
“Did I frighten you, dearest? Yes, I am real. I am here with you.” He looked over his shoulder toward the other passengers. “Can I pull you into my arms in your time? I do not know your customs yet.” He kept his voice low.
Dani launched herself at him. “Oh, Stephen,” she cried. She kissed his cheeks, his forehead, his mouth, his chin and back to his mouth again. “You’re here! You’re here.”
Stephen laughed at the onslaught but did not push her away. He held her against him.
“I see public kissing is permissible in your time. Excellent! I am all for it.” He pulled her face to his, and kissed her deeply as if he would never let her go. He lifted his head and regarded her tenderly.
“I could not wake you, but I saw that you breathed. I decided to let you rest, and I traveled the length of this train. What a marvelous bit of engineering! Wonderful accommodations! A smooth ride. This observation carriage leaves nothing to be desired. The washrooms are superb, albeit a bit small for my taste.”
Dani eyed him with wonder. If he ever looked handsome in his own time, something about his golden hair, the crystal blueness of his eyes, the excitement and energy emanating from him made him that much more striking. She thought she must be the luckiest woman in the world—for just a moment.
“What about Susan? You have to try to get back to her.”
His expression grew grave. “Yes, I do. I cannot stay here with you for long, no more than a few days. But I do want to meet your mother and see how she is doing.”
Dani clutched his hand and stared out the window. The train slowed.
“I hope I’m not too late. I wonder what day it is.”
“I asked the conductor, ignoring his strange expression regarding my clothing. It is the same day as it is in my time. So, it would appear only a little over a day has passed since you left.”
Dani sighed with relief.
“Do you think you can get back on your own?” she asked. “I hate to say it, but both of us have taken our respective trains many times and not traveled through time. How will you know if you can get back?”
“We will not know until I try. I know that you cannot come with me, my love, as your mother needs you, but I must try.”
“I wonder what Rory thought when we disappeared.”
“I cannot imagine,” Stephen said. “I do not know if we simply vanished, or faded as an apparition might.”
The train slowed further, and Whitefish came into view.
Dani clutched Stephen’s hand.
“We’re here,” she said. The implications of Stephen’s arrival in her time now dawned on her. It would not be as simple as showing up in his time. There were issues of identification and citizenship status. They wore period costume. An astute policeman might observe them closely and ask for ID. What would Stephen show? Did he have identification? A passport from 1901?
She hoped they could manage for a few days. If Stephen had planned to stay forever, however, that would present an entirely new set of complications involving his date of birth, Social Security, a driver’s license. She shook her head and resolved to take things one step at a time.
“I wonder what my mother will say about you,” she said with a smile.
“I will be frank. I am a bit nervous about meeting her.” Stephen gave a boyish shrug of his shoulders.
“She’ll love you, I’m sure of it,” Dani said. “Just like I do.”
She kissed Stephen one more time, and rose to pull him up as the train came to a stop in front of the station.
“Let’s do this,” she grinned.
He grabbed her satchel and checked the seats. “My hat and yours seem to have disappeared. I shall look like a vagabond without my hat. Perhaps I could purchase one.”
“You don’t need a hat in my time, Stephen.” Dani eyed his golden hair appreciatively. “No sense hiding that beautiful head of hair of yours.”
Stephen blushed. “Beautiful indeed, woman.”
Dani ignored the stares from fellow passengers as she and Stephen descended the train. He arrested on viewing the station.
“My word!” he said, enrapt. “What lovely architecture.”
“It is, isn’t it?” She tugged on Stephen’s arm to get his attention. “Listen, dear, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. My purse is lost, completely lost in time. I imagine it’s at the King Street Station in Seattle, but I don’t know. I have no money, no phone, so I can’t call my mother to come get us. I usually get a rental car when I travel here by train, but I can’t do that either. So, we’ll have to get a taxi, and have him wait while I get some money from my mom. If she’s home. Gosh, there’s so much to do. My debit cards, a phone...”
Dani stopped at the confused look on Stephen’s face.
“Oh, I’m sorry. You probably have no idea what I’m talking about.”
He gave a small laugh. “I understand only a small portion of what you said, but if there is a concern with money, I have funds.”
Dani, aware of constant stares around them at their attire, chewed on her lip.
“Your money is from the turn of the century, Stephen. It would definitely raise questions. I don’t even know if we can use it. I’ll bet a taxi driver would hesitate to take it.”
Stephen furrowed his brow. “Why ever not?”
“Well, it would be like you trying to use money from the Civil War era.”
“Ah, I see. Most of that currency is in private collections and museums now. What do you suggest?”
“Well, if my mother isn’t home, we could try to use twenty dollars of your money to see if the taxi driver will take it when we get to my mother’s house. I hate to do that though. I’m sure your money is actually worth more than the face value at any rate.”
“Twenty dollars?” Stephen coughed. “For local transportation? I cannot imagine such a thing.” He pulled his wallet from his jacket and pulled out a bank
note.
Dani grinned. “Everything costs more now, dear, but we make more, too.” She examined the money he handed her. “Oh, gosh, Stephen, this is quite a bit different from the money we use now. I think we should save this for an antique money dealer...if there is one around.”
“Antique?” Stephen rubbed his chin and chuckled. “So, I am an antique now?”
Dani grinned. “I love antiques. Lots of people do. They have good bones, good structure.” She reached on tiptoe to kiss him.
Stephen laughed.
Dani grabbed his hand and led him toward a taxi stand. “Hopefully my mother will be home, and I can just borrow the money from her for the moment.”
Twenty minutes later, they pulled down a long paved drive and to the front of a large A-frame pine log cabin backed by evergreen trees.
“Please wait here while I get the money,” she told the driver. She pulled a bemused Stephen from the vehicle. He had remained silent on the drive but clutched her hand as the taxi flew down the highway.
Dani trotted up to the front door and knocked on it. Her mother came to the door.
“Dani! What are you doing back here? I thought you weren’t coming until right before the surgery.”
Margaret Douglas, an older version of Dani, with silvering red hair, stopped and looked them up and down.
“What on earth are you wearing?” she laughed. “Is there a Victorian festival in town I don’t know about?”
Dani, holding Stephen’s hand, felt him stiffen.
“I’ll explain in a minute. I lost my purse, Mom, and I need to pay the taxi. Neither one of us has any money. Can you loan me twenty bucks?”
Her mother narrowed her eyes and stared hard at Stephen for a moment.
“Come inside. I’ll get my purse.”
“No, we’d better wait here in case the driver thinks I’m trying to stiff him.”
Margaret turned away.
“Dani,” Stephen whispered. “She thinks I am a man without means. One who preys on women. I saw it in her eyes.”
“Yup, I think you’re right, Stephen. I’m not sure what I’m going to tell her, but I’ll clear that right up.”
Her mother returned with a twenty-dollar bill, and Dani ran down to the taxi to pay him. She returned to find her mother glaring at Stephen, and Stephen meeting her expression with a charmingly innocent smile. How could her mother resist that?
Dani grabbed Stephen’s hand again.
“Mom, this is Stephen Sadler. Stephen, my mom, Margaret Douglas, or Maggie.”
“Mrs. Douglas, I am honored to meet you. I have heard so much about you.”
Dani’s mother blinked. “Well, uh, thank you. It’s nice to meet you as well. Come inside, you two.”
They followed Maggie into the house, a comfortably furnished home with walls of highly varnished pine logs. Bright furniture livened the place, an open loft with an iron railing presided on the second floor. Her mother, widowed and retired from nursing, had moved to her new house a few years after Dani had relocated to Seattle for college and then stayed for work. Other than her current bout with cancer, she had been healthy and happy in her small community. Dani worried that she lived alone, but her mother had been on her own since Dani’s father died when she was twelve. She had several close friends with whom she spent the majority of her time.
“Can I get you something? Some tea?”
Stephen looked to Dani, who nodded. “That would be great, Mom. In fact, I’ll come help.” Dani turned to follow her mother into the kitchen, throwing a reassuring look over her shoulder toward Stephen who stood with his hands laced behind his back gazing at the view of the mountains from the large floor-to-ceiling windows.
Maggie paused as they entered the kitchen.“Okay, Dani, just what is going on? Why do you have some guy in tow who doesn’t have a penny to his name? And what happened to your purse? Did something happen on the train on the way back?”
“Put the kettle on. I’ll answer your questions.”
Dani perched on a stool at the breakfast bar and thought quickly as her mother set the kettle onto boil.
“Well, I’d like to tell you that I traveled through time and ended up in Seattle at the turn of the twentieth century, but I guess you won’t believe that?”
Her mother braced her hands on the opposite side of the breakfast bar, one eyebrow raised.
“Not likely.” She waited.
Dani smiled. “And that Stephen was born in the nineteenth century, and I fell in love with him there?”
Her mother’s other eyebrow quirked.
“You’ve only been gone two days. That’s a lot of story for two days.”
Dani sighed and thought fast. “No? Okay, you’re right about the reenacting. I never told you about it before. Stephen and I were on our way to...Havre, Montana, for a Victorian/Edwardian festival, but I lost my purse. He didn’t have his wallet on him because, well, the pockets of his costume weren’t that big, so I had his wallet in my purse. I don’t know whether it got stolen or I just can’t find it. Anyway, since the train passed through Whitefish again, I thought we’d better jump off here and see what I could do. You know, get some temporary ID or access to my bank. Something.”
Her mother’s forehead creased. “You know, I think I like the time travel story better. It seems more simple.”
“Okay,” Dani grinned. “Have it your way.”
The teakettle hissed and screeched, and Maggie turned toward it. Dani wiped the perspiration from her upper lip, and leaned back on her stool to look into the living room for Stephen. He was peering at the monitor of her mother’s laptop computer on a small desk in the corner. The screensaver scrolled through images of nearby Glacier National Park.
Maggie poured the tea into mugs, and Dani grabbed Stephen’s cup as well as her own. They returned to the living room.
“A Victorian festival in Havre, huh?” Maggie said to Stephen who swung around, startled. “Havre?” She looked toward Dani. “I can’t imagine that small town having anything like a Victorian festival. Maybe a rodeo. Whose idea was this anyway?”
“Mine,” Dani said blithely. “I’ve always been into reenacting the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Love it.” She turned her back to her mother and handed Stephen his mug with a pointed look. Stephen nodded with a brief smile, and studied the mug in his hand with interest.
“Tea,” she said. “A mug of tea.” She emphasized the words for him, hating treating him like a child but knowing she must if he was to learn fast.
“Thank you, Mrs. Douglas. It looks delicious.” Stephen took a sip and beamed. “Yes, quite good. I must take some home with me, if possible.”
Maggie tilted her head and regarded him. “It’s just generic store bought. I’m sure you have some in Seattle.”
“Ah, yes,” he replied with another hasty sip.
Maggie gestured for them to sit. Stephen waited until the women sat.
“So, how long have you been doing this reenacting thing?” Dani knew from her mother’s tone that she still suspected something, but she hadn’t believed the truth. Dani smiled. Her poor mother.
“Have you heard anything about your surgery since I left?”
Maggie turned a quick eye on Stephen who studied the graphic design on the side of the cup depicting a moose from Glacier National Park. His cheeks bronzed.
“He knows, Mom. I tell Stephen everything.”
Stephen remained silent, continuing his perusal of his cup.
“Well, as a matter of fact, yes. They’ve moved the surgery up. To tomorrow.”
Dani set her mug down on the wooden coffee table with a thump and a splash. Stephen looked up.
“Mom! How long have you known that? Did you know when I was here?”
“No, actually, they just called me yesterday afternoon and asked if I wanted to move surgery up. That never happens. They had a cancellation. So, I thought I’d go for it. I didn’t call you because I thought I’d wait until it was over. You’d just left, and
I didn’t want you to have to drive all the way back...or take the train. You must need to get back to work.”
“Do I look like I’m working, Mom?” Dani said. “Well, at any rate, I didn’t have my cell phone, but I can’t believe you weren’t going to call me and tell me.”
“Sarah and Jean are coming over, and they’re going to stay with me.”
Maggie and her childhood friends were like sisters, always there for each other, probably a significant reason why her mother never felt the need to marry again. Life with her mom had been like living with three single lively aunts full of giggles, local gossip, sympathetic ears, and the nurturing of three women who more than made up for Dani’s lack of siblings or other family. Both her parents had been only children.
“Still, I wanted to be here.” Dani picked up her tea and looked toward Stephen. He smiled gently at her, reassuringly, and she felt immeasurably better just knowing he was there. “Well, I’m glad we ended up back here then. We’ll stay for your surgery, and I’ll stay for your recovery. Stephen needs to get back.”
“The house will be full, honey, with Sarah and Jean practically moving in as they threaten to do. I don’t know where you’d stay.”
“I can stay at a motel.”
Maggie shook her head. “I hate to think of you doing that. I’m going to be fine, I just know it. The doctor said he can’t say for sure until he operates, but he thinks with the surgery and oral chemotherapy for a couple of years, my chances are good.”
Dani bit her lips, willing herself not to cry. It seemed she had cried so much over the last few days, always about a fear of loss. Now, the two people she loved most in the world were in one room together...at least for the moment. She swallowed her tears. She had nothing to cry about.
“I love you both, you know that? I’m so glad you’re both here,” she said on a watery chuckle. Maggie’s eyes widened and she looked at Stephen. Stephen drew in a sharp breath but favored her with a tender smile, his blue eyes, so like his sister’s, soft. An image of Susan’s piquant small face came to her.
“Mom, what do you know about chronic bronchitis? Is it treatable with antibiotics?” Dani turned toward Stephen. “My mom was a nurse.”
