A Husband in Time

by Maggie Shayne

  Zach drew in a breath, let it out slowly. “Tell me about…about Cody’s father.”

  Jane’s head came up quickly, her soft brows bending together. “No.”

  “I didn’t mean to pry, Jane. I was just wondering how such an old-fashioned girl managed to—”

  “I really should be working on the books,” she told him. “Why don’t you go back to the house and finish your breakfast?”

  He’d touched on a tender subject, then. All right. He told himself he wouldn’t ask again. Though, for some reason, he was dying to know about the man who’d fathered Jane Fortune’s child.

  “Yes, I suppose I will,” he said. And he managed to take his eyes off her, turn and leave the shop.

  “We have lunch at noon,” she told him as he started through the door.

  He nodded, and closed it behind him.

  Jane had more customers that morning than she’d had since she’d opened the shop. A few of them even bought something. The rest, she was convinced, had come to see if they could catch a glimpse of the man Isabelle Curry had no doubt told them about. The man who was living in sin with an unmarried mother. Damn. It had been hard enough seeing the speculation in their eyes when she arrived here. Everyone wanted to know where her husband was. Most came right out and asked, though a few were subtler. She didn’t blame them for being curious. She’d moved into their close-knit, old-fashioned midst, and they wanted to know what kind of person she was.

  Lord, now they probably thought they did.

  “I need a slate board,” Zach said.

  Cody tilted his head. “There’s one in the attic.”

  Zach’s head came up. He’d been muttering to himself, unaware of Cody’s presence in the room. He’d stationed himself at a small table in Cody’s bedroom. The tools he’d brought along with him lay scattered around him on the table. The device, too, was there. Its protective cover removed, and its insides exposed as he checked to be sure it hadn’t been damaged coming through the portal. The leather-bound journal with his notes inside was open, and a newfangled ballpoint pen lay beside it. Zach had already filled three new pages with his account of his trip.

  “Cody. Just the man I want to see.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, indeed. I’m having some trouble with your modern vernacular. Tell me, son, what does it mean when a woman refers to a man as a, uh, hunk?”

  Cody grinned. “Means he’s handsome.”

  Zach felt his brows lift in surprise. “Handsome?”

  “Verrrry handsome,” Cody said. “Did my mom call you a hunk, Zach?”

  “Er…no. No, of course not. I read it in a book, actually.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Zach actually felt his face heat. So Jane found him to be…handsome. Verrrry handsome. It wasn’t such a major revelation. And it certainly shouldn’t be this pleasing to have confirmation of what he’d already suspected. He cleared his throat. “You were telling me about the attic?” he prompted, in an effort to change the subject.

  “Yeah,” Cody was saying. “There’s lots of neat stuff up there. A big safe, and some old furniture. But I don’t know why you need a chalkboard.”

  “Ah, yes, my safe.” Zach frowned. No doubt everything in it was worthless today. And it occurred to him that he was, for the second time in his life, lusting after a woman who was far wealthier than he. That thought troubled him more than it should. He cleared his throat. “The slate board. I need it for calculations, Cody. My work involves complicated mathematical problems, and it’s easier to work them out if I have…” He let his voice trail off, because Cody had turned away from him and yanked open a drawer.

  “How come you don’t just use this?” He showed Zach a small unit, a bit smaller and thinner than Zach’s device.

  “What…?”

  “It’s a calculator,” Cody told him. He turned so that Zach could view the tiny screen on the thing, and he pressed numbered buttons. “Watch this. One hundred fifty-three times forty-five divided by 56.9 plus two. Equals….” He pressed the button with the equal sign and held the box up to Zach.

  It read 123.0017574. Zach shook his head slowly, and turned to the table, rapidly doing the figuring on a sheet of scrap paper. Amazingly, he came up with the same answer.

  “It’s gonna be a lot faster this way,” Cody said, and he set the calculator down on the table beside Zach’s journal. “I’m really sorry about Benjamin.” Cody pulled up a chair, close beside Zach’s, and sat down.

  A huge lump rose in Zach’s throat as he recalled, vividly, the way Ben used to work at his side before he became too weak from the illness to do so any longer. That was when Zach had moved his table and tools into his son’s bedroom. So that they could work together the way they used to.

  “I want to help,” Cody said.

  Zach blinked at his burning eyes, and ruffled the boy’s hair with one hand. “You’re a good man, Cody. But I’m not sure what you can do.”

  “More than you think.” Cody spun the chair he sat in around and wheeled it across the hardwood floor, stopping at the desk on the other end. “You haven’t seen my computer yet.”

  “Another modern wonder?”

  Cody nodded and flicked a switch. “I have a modem. We can talk to scientists all over the world, download all kinds of information. And you can feed in all your numbers, and try making changes on the computer before you try it on the real machine. That way, you might be able to figure out if something’s gonna work before you go ahead and do it.”

  Zach braced one hand on the desk, blinking rapidly. “This machine…can do all that?”

  Cody grinned. “Yeah.”

  “Are all children in this century as smart as you are, Cody?”

  “Nah. I’m s’posed to be gifted.”

  Zach nodded, and drew his own chair over beside Cody’s. “Well, it’s a good thing. I’m beginning to feel decidedly uneducated. It does look as though this equipment of yours can save me a lot of time. So…will you teach me, Cody?”

  Cody nodded hard, and it seemed to Zach the boy’s spine lengthened and straightened. Zach watched and listened as Cody explained the machine to him. Part of him was wishing he could take the modern wonder apart to see what was going on inside it, what made it work. But he couldn’t risk breaking it. Already he knew this piece of equipment would cut his research time by leaps and bounds. If he’d had access to this in his own time…

  Perhaps he could find a way to avoid the side effects before he returned to the past. Or even a way to speed up the recharging process. And get back to his son all the sooner.

  Jane found them together in Cody’s room, hunched over the computer, and she stood there a moment, watching as Zach slowly punched keys and Cody looked at him with adoration in his eyes.

  “Time to wash up for lunch, Codester,” she said, startling them both.

  “Okay, Mom.” Cody smiled up at Zach. “We’ll save this, Zach, and work on it some more later.” Cody executed the save command, jumped out of his chair and rushed past Jane on his way to the bathroom down the hall. Zach got up, as well.

  “Wait a minute,” Jane said. “We need to talk.”

  Zach’s brows rose, and he sat back down. Jane came into the room, glancing down the hall first, to be sure Cody was out of earshot. Then she took the seat her son had formerly occupied.

  “Cody…he’s a special boy.”

  “I can see that.”

  “His IQ is far above what’s considered normal,” she explained. “And from what I’ve read about you, I imagine yours is, too.”

  He shrugged, saying nothing.

  “Zach, don’t get too close to him.”

  He looked confused.

  “Look, I don’t want to see him get hurt. We both know you have to go back to your own time, eventually. But he’s getting attached to you, I can see that already.”

  “Ah… I see what you’re getting at. But, Jane, I need the boy’s help. With the use of this machine, I can—”

&nb
sp; “I don’t care about the machine, Zach. What I care about is my son.”

  “Me, too,” he said softly. And she felt a rush of guilt for objecting so strongly. Even more for what else was on her mind. She sighed, and lowered her head. “I know how important this is to you. I do. It’s just…he’s never had a father, Zach. And lately, all he’s talked about is wanting one.”

  “I understand that,” he said.

  “No, you don’t. You can’t possibly. He’s—”

  “I understand, Jane.” He sighed, and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Benjamin and Cody have more in common than you know. My Ben…he’s never known a mother’s love, and since he’s been ill, it’s all he’s talked about. Wanting a mother. I understand everything you’re saying.”

  He did, she realized slowly. She swallowed hard, looking him in the eye. “I’m sorry…about your wife, I mean.”

  Zach lowered his head, but not before she saw the bitterness flash in his eyes. She frowned at him. But he shook his head, seemingly eager to change the subject. “This drug,” he said. “The one that can cure my son. Do you have any idea where I can obtain it?”

  She drew a breath, lifted her chin. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you about that. Zach…”

  “We can’t get the medicine without a doctor helping us, can we, Mom?” They both turned to see Cody in the doorway, drying his small hands on a towel. “Don’t you need a prescription?”

  Zach’s eyes met hers, and they were worried. “Yes,” she said. “It’s a powerful antibiotic, and a controlled substance. You can’t buy it unless a doctor orders it.”

  “Then we’ll contact a doctor,” Zach said. “We’ll explain, and—”

  “And he’ll have us all tossed into a rubber room,” Jane said. It wasn’t a good solution, and maybe it wasn’t even a solution at all. More like a delaying tactic. When Zach only frowned, she explained, “He’ll think we’re nuts.”

  “Then we’ll find another way.” Zach’s eyes were intense.

  “We can look it up on the computer,” Cody said. “Find out how to make the medicine, and—”

  Zach shook his head. “We’d have the same set of problems, though. We don’t have the supplies or equipment we’d need to create the drug. And if we didn’t get it exactly right, it might not work at all. I can’t risk failure.”

  Cody stood still, gnawing his lip. “Mom? You know how you said it was only okay to tell a lie when you really, really had to?”

  She looked at her son through narrowed eyes. “Yeah?”

  “Well, is it the same with, uh…with stealing?”

  “Cody! You know it’s never, ever all right to steal. Not ever!”

  “Why, son?” Zach asked, going to Cody and kneeling in front of him. “Do you know where we can find some of these pills?”

  “Sure. Doc Mulligan keeps all kinds of ’em in the little white cabinet at his office. ’Member, Mom? When I had the strep throat? He just opened up his cabinet and got out a bottle of penicillin. He has lots of antibiotics in there.”

  Zach looked at Jane. Cody looked at Jane.

  “No.” She shook her head firmly. They were still looking at her. “No, we’re not doing it. Isn’t it bad enough we have the whole town thinking I’m having—” She bit her lip. “We’re not going to convince them I’m a master burglar and a drug addict, as well.”

  “We could leave money to pay for the pills, Mom. So it wouldn’t really be stealing.”

  “Cody Nicholas Fortune, I do not want to hear one more word about this. Do you understand? Not one word. No one in this house is stealing anything, anywhere, anytime. Got it?”

  Cody’s chin fell to his chest. “Yeah.”

  “Good. Now…lunch is ready. Come on downstairs, the both of you.”

  She sailed out of the room, and they followed.

  “Perhaps,” she heard Zach saying, “I could convince this good doctor to give me some of the pills. If I were to see him, I mean.”

  “He’s smart,” Cody replied. “He always knows if you’re faking it.”

  “Well, maybe if I spoke to him. Where did you say his office was, Cody?”

  Jane turned and glared at Zach, but Cody was already giving him detailed directions to Doc Mulligan’s office. She couldn’t put it off any longer. She had to talk to Zach, tell him why he couldn’t go through with this. And she had to do it soon. Tonight, after Cody went to sleep.

  Five

  Zach needed rest. Jane had made up a spare bedroom for him to sleep in. He hadn’t taken advantage of it yet, though every muscle in his body was aching to do just that. He was fairly certain he was running a fever. He felt slow and a bit groggy at times. But then, at other times, he felt perfectly fine. The symptoms did not seem to be easing as quickly as he had expected they would. Hopefully the research he was doing while he waited for the device to recharge would give him the answers he needed to avoid this kind of illness hitting him on the return trip.

  The device. It sat on Cody’s desk beside his computer, and Zach picked it up, held it in his palm. Hard to imagine that something this small could mean the difference between life and death for his son. Already it was beginning to recharge. It might even be strong enough to open the doorway now, though if it wasn’t at full power, there would be something different awaiting him on the other side. He might go back farther than he’d intended, which wouldn’t be too terrible. Then again, he might not get back far enough. And that would be disastrous. No use risking it. He didn’t have the drug yet, anyway. Two more days. The device would be at full power, and it would send him back to the precise moment whence he’d come. And he’d save Benjamin’s life.

  He was glad that the time travel hadn’t seemed to affect his intelligence. He’d picked up Cody’s computer lessons very quickly, and spent half the night “inputting data,” as the boy called it. Transferring all his notes and calculations onto the computer. With the boy’s help, he’d contacted a physicist in Detroit, and “downloaded” some “software” that enabled the computer to perform the tasks Zach needed it to. It was amazing. Utterly amazing.

  He’d nearly finished filling this thing with all his notes. Cody had fallen asleep on his child-size bed. Zach felt bad for having the light on and clicking the keys while the child tried to sleep. It was time for a break, anyway. His eyes were beginning to glaze over.

  He went to the bed, bent over it and gently slipped his arms beneath the sleeping child. When he picked him up, he was painfully reminded of Benjamin, so weak he could barely get out of bed anymore without Zach’s help. Cody was heavy by comparison, and the age difference wasn’t solely responsible for that, as Zach knew all too well.

  He looked down at Cody’s freckle-spattered face and red curls. And his heart squeezed tight. Lowering his head, he kissed the child’s forehead. Zach wondered whether Cody’s father were truly dead, or whether he’d simply abandoned his child the way Claudia had abandoned Benjamin. If he had, Zach thought grimly, he was a fool. To have a son like Cody and a woman like Jane… Any sane man would kill to keep them. Not walk away.

  He stepped into the hallway, carried Cody to the guest room Jane had made up for him, then lowered him gently into that bed. He’d sleep more soundly here, without the light and the clicking keys. He tucked Cody in, and the boy stirred, opened his eyes and peered up at Zach.

  “I wish,” he said, his voice slurred with sleepiness, “I could have a dad like you.”

  Zach blinked the inexplicable burning that sprang into his eyes. “If I could, my boy, I’d make you my own.” Cody smiled and fell back into a deep sleep. But Zach only stood there, shocked at the words that had just fallen from his lips. Make Cody his own? And Jane, as well? Good Lord, what kind of foolish fancy had come over him just now? For just an instant, though, the thought had occurred to him, and now he couldn’t get it out of his mind. The thought that he could take them both back with him when he opened that doorway the day after tomorrow. Make his son well, and give him the mother he’d been
wishing for. And an older brother to boot. That he could keep Jane Fortune, that incredible mixture of modern woman and old-fashioned girl, by his side, make her a part of his life, for always…

  Ridiculous. Not only did he have no use for a woman in his life, he had no delusions that Jane would agree to such a scheme. To leave her modern conveniences, her microwave, her automobile? To take Cody from his computers and Nintendo games? Half of what the child had learned in his life wasn’t even known in Zach’s time. No, it was a foolish notion, and one best left unexplored. He had his son, and his work. And that was all he needed. All he’d ever needed.

  He returned to Cody’s computer screen, working some more, waiting, as he’d been waiting all night, for the sound of Jane’s footsteps as she walked past on her way to bed. He glanced down at the note he’d made earlier, when he asked Cody if he knew the name of the drug that would cure quinaria. And, of course, the boy genius had readily supplied it. Tryptonine. He had everything he needed to proceed, but he couldn’t do a damned thing until Jane was asleep. A glimpse at his watch told him it was after eleven, and she still hadn’t retired. What was she waiting for?

  The door opened, and Jane stood there, a cup of fragrant coffee in her hand. “I saw the light was still on,” she said. “Thought you could use sustenance.” When she came in, he saw the plate of cookies in her other hand. And his stomach growled a welcome.

  “Thank you, Jane.”

  “Are you going to stay at this all night?”

  “I want to be ready. When the device has recharged, I need to be ready to use it. If I can find an explanation for these side effects before then, all the better.”

  She nodded. “I know that, but Zach, you won’t do Benjamin any good at all if you work yourself until you collapse.” She lifted the cup, and he took it, his hand touching hers. Jane frowned, quickly looking down at his hand. Then she came closer, pressed a palm to his forehead, and then to his cheek.

  He liked her this close to him. He liked her touching him.