A thick layer of dust covered everything. A black iron wood-burning stove sat in the dead center of the room, the chimney going straight up. On each side were two rows of students’ desks and chairs. In the front of the room sat a larger desk for the teacher, a lone oil lamp sitting on the surface. A blackboard, on the wall behind the desk, had various statements of how much the children hated the school. There was a lovely drawing of a male figure standing on a platform, his head in a noose. Someone had drawn a circle with the word Teacher inside and had drawn an arrow to the man about to be hung.
“Wow, the kids really liked their last teacher, didn’t they?”
The men laughed.
Sunlight poured through the six windows, enabling her to see all the signs of infestation. It was clear several critters now called the building home. A stack of books lay neglected and forgotten on the teacher’s desk.
“It’ll take a lot of work to get this suitable to hold classes.”
David put his arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry. We’ll help you get it cleaned up.”
“I’m not sure I…” Kat turned at the sound of footsteps.
She felt David stiffen when two people walked through the door. The man was tall, maybe six feet, with broad shoulders, dark-brown hair and eyes. His eyes looked cold, almost sinister. The woman was fairly tall and had long brown hair in a braid. She was lean and muscular, her calico dress dragging the dirty floor.
David’s hand moved to her wrist, tightening almost painfully. “What are you doing here, Timothy?”
Timothy gave a small smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I saw you come in here when I was walking my sister home.” He nodded at Kat. “This lovely young woman is a new face, and I’d hoped to get an introduction.” He bowed slightly at the waist. “Good afternoon. My name is Timothy Canders, and this is my sister, Alicia.” He gave her a little quirky grin. “I know all the beautiful women for miles around, so I know you’re not from around here. Are you visiting?”
David pulled Kat closer to his side while Win came up on her other side. “This is Kat Evans. She’s visiting my family.” He cleared his throat and glanced over at Win. “Her mother is a good friend of Anna’s.”
Timothy narrowed his eyes. “Hmmm, is that so?” He walked over and held out his hand.
Kat stared at it a moment and then reached out with her own. He enclosed her hand, squeezing tighter than she would have liked. She forced herself to keep from wincing.
“It’s a great pleasure to meet you, Kat. May I call you Kat?”
Feeling confused, Kat nodded her head. “Sure, okay. It’s nice to meet you too.” She pulled her hand away.
David nudged her toward the door. “We really need to be going now. We’ve got a lot to do this afternoon.”
Timothy moved to block their path. “Perhaps you’d do me the honor of having dinner with me tonight?”
Before Kat could answer, David pulled her toward the door. “Sorry, Timothy, but she’s spoken for.”
Kat stared up at David as he led her out into the sunshine.
* * * *
Timothy watched David and Win practically drag the lovely young woman down the street. “This is our lucky day, Alicia.” He turned and grabbed her arm, leading her toward the door.
She yanked her arm free and scowled. “What are you yammering about?”
“Don’t you see? It’s happening again.”
Alicia raised a brow. “What are you talking about?”
He sighed. “She’s just like David’s mother, Alicia. She’s from the future.”
She laughed and batted his hand away when he tried to take her arm. “Don’t tell me you’re as crazy as Pa was.”
Timothy growled and grabbed her roughly by the shoulder, smiling when she cried out in pain. “Don’t you ever say anything bad about him. There wasn’t anything crazy about him. He found out the truth about that woman.” He pulled Alicia out the door and stopped on the boardwalk. “If he hadn’t been caught, there’s no telling where we might be by now.”
Alicia stopped, pulling at her arm. “What, exactly, did he tell you about her, Timothy?”
He started walking, leading her toward the livery. “He said that she knew things before they happened.” He lowered his voice. “The day the mill burned, Anna was there. She told Pa that she’d come because she knew he was going to be there and that the mill was going to burn to the ground. Somehow she knew it was going to happen before it actually did.”
Alicia let out an unladylike snort. “I’ve heard the stories all my life, brother dear. Our father set that fire to cover up that he was stealing from the mine owners and to kill some harlot he was messing around with.”
Timothy tightened his fingers and shook her harshly. “Not another word against Pa. He was a good man. That woman is some kind of witch. He didn’t start acting crazy until she showed up. He told Ma that we’d all be rich if he could get her off alone somewhere and make her tell him about the future.”
“But it didn’t work that way, did it? They say he got her alone, all right, but not to ask her questions. I heard some Indian rescued her from a cabin where he’d left her tied up until he could get back.”
“Yeah, he left her in the old line cabin on the other side of the Silver Bell Mine. He wanted to get back to town and be seen so people wouldn’t think anything about it. He’d hoped they would think she just up and run off. He didn’t know that damn Indian had followed him when he took her from Beau’s cabin.”
Alicia sighed when they stopped in front of the livery. “What does any of this have to do with Miss Evans?”
“You heard them. They said she’s a daughter of some friend of Anna’s back East. In all these years that woman’s never left this town, and she never gets any mail. She doesn’t have any friends, at leastways not in this time. Kat’s got to be someone that came back in time to check up on her friend.”
She shook her head. “Even if that were true, what does it have to do with us?”
“It means if we can get her alone, we can do what Pa never could. We can make her tell us about where she came from.”
“But how will that help us?”
“I won’t know for sure until I make her talk. Pa was convinced that knowing what was gonna happen in the future was the key to making money, being rich, and having an easy life.” He looked down at his sister. “That’s what I want, Alicia, to have an easy life. I want to get out of this lousy town that looks down on us because of our last name.” He blinked back the moisture he could feel in his eyes. “I wanna make Pa proud of me.”
Alicia took his arm. “Timothy, please, let go of this. You can’t make Pa proud because he’s dead. You can only bring shame on yourself, and maybe even me.”
He hugged her close to his side. “Don’t you worry none, little sister. Maybe I’ll just get her to tell me how she got here. I mean, if she can get here, then somebody should be able to go back to where she came from.”
Alicia’s eyes widened. “You mean go to the future?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean. What if we could travel to some new place that had never heard of Bart Canders and what he did? We could have a wonderful life, Alicia. We could have a chance to make something of ourselves.”
She shook her head and glanced around warily. “Timothy, I fear you have more of Pa in you than I originally thought. Please promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”
He took her hand and guided her to the buggy he’d left parked at the livery. “Don’t worry, Alicia. I’ll be very careful. I promise you I won’t get into trouble like Pa did.”
* * * *
Kat looked at Anna’s family sitting around the dinner table. She’d spent the day exploring with David and Win, and now everyone had gathered for the evening meal. “How the hell do you stay up on what’s happening in the world? Or in the United States for that matter?”
Anna laughed. “We do have access to newspapers from time to time.” She looked at David. �
��Do you still have the one that miner from Wyoming left here a while back?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I put it in my desk, upstairs. I’ll run get it.”
Kat watched the way his pants contoured over his ass as he left the room. She cleared her throat. “So, what kinds of things have been in your news lately?”
Beau choked on his water. “How far back do you want to know about?”
“Let’s just stick with the last year for now.”
He scratched his head. “Let’s see…”
Anna patted his arm. “Stick with things you think might interest her, maybe things that would also apply in her time.”
“In my time. I thought it was your time too.”
Anna ran her hand along Beau’s cheek. “Not anymore. I’m living in the time I’m supposed to be in.”
Beau grabbed her hand and kissed her fingers. “Okay, in late January, or maybe it was early February, the Spanish-American War ended.”
Kat nodded. “Uh-huh.”
He laughed. “Okay, how about March of last year the first automobile was sold, and Traveler’s Insurance wrote the first insurance policy for drivers?”
Anna punched his arm. “Come on, give her the good stuff.” She took Kat’s hand and squeezed. “They just came out last month with a soft drink called Brad’s Drink.” She shook Kat’s arm. “I swear, Kat, you’d think you were drinking a Pepsi.”
Kat leaned forward. “Do you have any?”
“No.” Anna sighed. “We only got the sample case and it didn’t last a week. I’ve got an order coming from North Carolina, but I’m told they’ve oversold their inventory so it’ll be a while.” She sat back in her seat. “Oh, and aspirin finally became available in March of this year.”
“Wow.” Kat giggled. “That was really noteworthy.”
David walked into the room and handed Kat a yellowed newspaper, his fingers trailing softly over her skin. “We had a miner from Wyoming stay here for one night back a couple of years ago. He was just traveling through.” He leaned closer, his warm breath fanning her cheek. “Take a look. You might find it interesting.”
She gulped, her hands shaking, and looked at the paper. “Lander, Wyoming, Monday, September 27, 1897.” She glanced at the front page and laughed. “Exciting headlines. Banker’s Protest, Free Silver Camp Meeting, Success Assured.” She turned the page. “Oh, this is cool. The Frozen Deep, a novel by Wilkie Collins, International Press Association.”
“Hey, I remember that.” Zeke got up to get the coffeepot. “It was a very interesting story.”
David leaned closer to look over her shoulder, his clean, masculine scent intoxicating. Clearing her throat, she turned her attention back to the paper.
“Oh, my gosh, listen to this ad. Don’t tobacco spit and smoke your life away. It’s an advertisement for some kind of smoking cure. It says all druggists fifty cents or a dollar. Cure guaranteed.”
Anna reached for the paper and flipped it over. “Sit down, David. She doesn’t need your help to read. Turn the page over, Kat. There’s a story about a photographer who tried to take a picture of some lions on the beach and narrowly escaped being eaten alive. He told the lions to ‘smile.’”
Kat laughed as she watched David pout as he returned to his seat. “It has an ad here from Mrs. Pinkham of Lynn, Massachusetts. She gives free advice to women on life’s issues. There’s even an advertisement to buy a buggy harness for eight dollars and fifty cents from a wholesaler in Denver.”
“Sounds reasonable,” said Beau.
“Holy crap! They’ll send you the merchandise for examination before you buy.”
Beau took his plate to the sink. “Yeah, people are pretty trusting.”
Zeke got to his feet and stretched. “Well, this has been fun, but you’re heading to Treasure City tomorrow morning so you’ll need a good night’s sleep. It’s a fairly long ride, and you’re not used to the hard buggy seat. I’m betting it’ll be a slow trip with you needing to stop every once in a while.”
Beau pulled out Anna’s chair. “We’ll be saying good night as well. Just lock up when you leave, David, and we’ll come over later in the morning and open up. Take your time and if the weather turns bad just get a hotel room and come back the next day. I’d rather you not make the trip after dark if it’s storming.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take every precaution.” David glanced at Kat. “Wouldn’t want to do anything to endanger our guest.”
Anna snorted and walked toward the door. She turned back and gave Kat a long look. “I want you to remember something.”
Chapter 3
“What’s that?” asked Kat.
“Enjoy your day, but try and keep an open mind about where you are now.”
“What does that mean?”
“Look first, speak never. Don’t comment on anything until you come back here. Women don’t regularly give their opinion on anything these days.”
Kat groaned. “Don’t tell me. Let me guess. Women can’t even vote yet.”
Anna laughed. “Now, you know as well as I do that women won’t be allowed to vote all over the States until 1920, although there are places in the West where we can vote now. I think Wyoming was the first to pass a law giving women the right some thirty years ago. Hell, they had the first woman judge ever.”
“So, why haven’t you up and moved to Wyoming?” asked Kat, trying to hold in her laughter.
“Because the time portal’s here, you ninny.” Anna hugged Kat and then took each of her husband’s arms and left.
Kat stood and began picking up the plates from the table. David walked over and took them from her hand, his fingers caressing hers under the plates.
“Let us get these, Kat. You must be tired after your first full day.”
Win walked over and picked up more of the plates. “What’s your first impression of our little town?”
She sat back down. “It’s too quiet. It needs the sound of children.” She ran her finger around the edge of her glass. “Anna says the miners have kids. Where are they? Why aren’t they in school?”
“There are around twenty or so children that I can remember. Isn’t that right, Win?”
“Yes, sounds about right.”
“The miners keep them inside during the day. The parents are off working at the mill or the mine, and they leave orders for them to stay in and not run around getting in folks’ way.” He put the dishes in a pan in the sink and then turned to look at Kat. “Do you think you’d like to open up the school?”
Win pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. “It’s been closed for a long time. It might be difficult to get them to trust someone they don’t know.”
Kat sighed. “Well, after tomorrow I won’t look like such a stranger, so maybe they’ll give me a chance then. It’s the only thing I know how to do. How old are the children? Do you know?”
David looked at Win and then back at Kat. “I think they range from small boys of five or six, to older girls and boys around fourteen or fifteen.”
“But you can forget about the older boys.” Win ran his hand through his hair.
“Why?” asked Kat.
“Their folks wouldn’t want to waste the boys’ time in school. Boys that age are for working the fields and in some cases the mine itself. You won’t be persuading the parents to let them boys come to class, unless it’s the dead of winter.”
Kat stood. “We’ll see about that. Education is important for everyone.”
David walked over and put his hands on her shoulders, giving her a light massage. “He didn’t mean anything by it, Kat. We just don’t want you to get your hopes up. Can you forgive us?” He took a small step closer.
Kat’s breath caught as she gazed into his eyes. She felt Win move to stand close at her side. “Uh, there’s nothing to forgive. I just won’t worry about it until it’s time to open the school.” She took a small step back and looked down at her feet. “What time are we leaving in the morning?”
David
moved close enough for her to feel his breath against her forehead. “We’ll leave out at first light if that’s okay with you.”
She nodded. “Then I need to get to bed. I’m not exactly a bright morning person.” She swallowed and took a deep breath before looking up. “Well, dinner was wonderful, and I’ll just say good night now.”
David leaned down and lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “Good night, beautiful Kat.” He touched his mouth lightly to hers, pressing harder when she didn’t push him away. His tongue came out and glided across her lips, but she stubbornly kept her mouth closed.
Anna would never forgive me if she walked in right now.
When he finally pulled back, she turned quickly, determined to get away before anything else could happen. She gasped when she found herself firmly in Win’s embrace. He kissed her, taking full advantage, his tongue forging inside. She became lost in the sensations of his tongue exploring her mouth. When he ended the kiss, she pulled back, unable to meet his gaze.
“Good night,” she mumbled, racing from the room.
* * * *
David grabbed Win and pushed him against the sink. “That was so hot, watching you kiss her.” He pressed closer, their hips grinding together, their tongues twining. He pulled back from Win’s lips to nibble on his jaw and felt his lover’s lips and tongue against his neck, licking, sucking, and biting gently.
“Do you want to go upstairs?” Win whispered.
He hooked his finger in Win’s belt loop and pulled their hips back together then walked him backward until they hit a wall. Leaning forward, he nuzzled cheek. “It would take too much time.”
Licking just below his ear, David slid his hand beneath Win’s shirt and drew little circles on his heated skin. He rubbed their cheeks together as he began to unbutton Win’s shirt. He pushed the cloth over Win’s shoulders and smiled when his nipples hardened under his gaze.
When Kat's Away [Sequel to Anna Doubles Down] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 5
