Tess motioned Justin to a seat on one side of the large wooden table. Paige took the seat across from him. Frank and Tess sat down and they all ate the huge meal Tess had fixed. Justin thought everything was good. The bread was the same as he had eaten in the saloon. Afterwards, Tess brought out fresh coffee and pie.
“Made with fresh apples,” Paige whispered across the table.
The pie was really good and Justin wished Aunt Helen were here to taste these good foods. She would be taking the recipes back to the restaurant.
After supper, Paige helped her grandmother wash up the dishes in the kitchen while Frank and Justin retired to the other room. Frank lit up a cigar and offered Justin one. He declined knowing he would be sick if he even tried the thing. Frank was also drinking from a bottle and offered it to Justin as well.
“No thanks, I might have to do some sheriff work.”
Soon Paige and Tess entered the room and Tess picked up some socks and began to mend them. They talked about nothing, just passing the time.
“I guess you are tired, aren’t you Justin,” Frank asked after a while.
“A little,” Justin answered.
“I’ll show you to your room,” Paige said.
He followed her into a room at the back of the house.
“This was Trace’s room,” she told him. “He was a few years younger than me. He was also a little different I guess. He stayed to himself a lot and sometimes he would disappear for hours or days at a time. Sometimes, Grandfather would go hunt him. Both of them would be gone for days. Trace was always bitter after he grew up. When we were kids, we played together. Then as he grew older, he just drifted away. He would spend a lot of time with Grandfather. He had a bad attitude about everything.” Paige sighed. “Anyway, I will go and let you get some rest. If you get cold, build a fire there in the fire place. I believe there’s wood and kindling.”
“Thanks Paige. Sometime, I would like to hear more about your brother Trace. For now, good night.”
“Good night Justin.” She touched his arm before she turned and walked away.
Justin watched her leave. Her touch had done something to him that he couldn’t explain. He shook his head and closed the door. Looking around the room, he saw there were two lamps on the wall and two more on top of two small tables. On each wall were pictures of horses but that was all.
Finding himself suddenly sleepy, he laid down on the bed. He fell into the feather tick and was asleep. He awoke some time later and blew out the lamps on the wall and tables. This time he got under the cover. The room was a little chilly but he didn’t want to build a fire.
When he awoke again, it was morning. The sun was shining through the dirty windows at the back beside his bed. He had kept warm under the cover laying down in the feather tick which had seemed to wrap around him like arms. Before he could do anything, there was a knock at the door.
“Time to get up son. We got to get to town. Tess and Paige went in earlier to cook. I figured you were tired and let you sleep in for a while. Tess and Paige will have some breakfast when we get to the saloon.
“Thanks Frank,” Justin called. “I’m up. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Justin got up and put on his shoes. He was hurrying because it was cold, but he could feel the heat from the other stove as soon as he stepped from the bedroom.
Frank was waiting in the kitchen. “Oh, here you are. I made us some coffee."
Justin drank the cup of hot, strong coffee and soon he and Frank were on horseback headed for town.
CHAPTER 6
By the time Justin and Frank arrived at the saloon, Justin was chilled to the bone. The coat they had given him to wear smelled and he didn’t button it up which caused him to be cold. Inside the saloon, it was warm and once he had some more strong, hot coffee and a hot breakfast he had warmed up quite a bit. Then he walked down the street to the sheriff’s office. The town was quiet with only a few people out on the street. Mostly women carrying things home or somewhere else. Sometimes there were men going in and out of the general store carrying bags of flour or sugar.
He stopped and watched as two boys took turns kicking a piece of wood back and forth. They seemed to be having so much fun. Justin smiled at something as simple as a piece of wood keeping two children happy.
When he arrived at the sheriff’s office, Joe was stoking the fire and adding firewood to the stove. Mr. Jim was snoring from the cell. Joe closed the stove door and smiled at Justin.
“All good here,” he poured himself coffee from the pot on the stove.
“So there was no trouble last night,” Justin asked.
“No sir, everything was quiet.”
“Good job. Be back here tonight. You can work the night shift except on weekends. Then I think we should both be here in case there is any trouble.”
“So you’re keeping me on?”
“Yes I am.”
“Okay, I’m going home. I’ll see you later,” the young man finished his coffee and set the cup on the desk before he walked out the door. Justin went and stood by the stove, feeling the heat from it, and warmed himself up.
The day wore on without any interruptions and Justin walked back to the saloon for lunch. Oh, he forgot they called it dinner in this time. Paige served him fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy. He must be getting used to this food for he thought it tasted good. Afterward, as he walked back to the sheriff’s office, he thought of Aunt Helen. He missed her. Maybe one day soon he could go back home at least for a few minutes or hours. He couldn’t today because of the meeting with Mr. Harley.
He sat behind the desk and around one o’clock, he woke up Mr. Jim and let him go after making him promise he would go to the saloon to eat and not drink.
That evening, Justin was waiting when Paige pulled up outside the sheriff’s office. He watched as she stepped down from the buckboard. She looked beautiful. Her dark hair was pulled up on her head with curls hanging down. As the sunlight shone on her hair, he could see red highlights. Her dress was blue with a few white flowers in it. The neckline was low but not too low. It fit her tightly down to the smallest of her waist then it flared out into yards of cloth. Justin smiled. She had probably made the dress herself.
Not waiting for her to come into the office, he stepped out. She smiled when she saw him. “There you are. You may drive.”
Justin wasn’t about to let her know he didn’t have a clue about driving a horse and buggy. He helped her onto the seat on the other side. “You look lovely,” he told her.
“Thank you Justin.”
Justin jumped into the seat beside her and tried to remember how he had seen Jessie and Frank make the horses go. He untied the reins and took one in each hand. He was glad there were only two horses. As luck would have it, a young cowboy came running by so close he scared the two horses and poof……. off they went at a slow trot.
Paige was impressed. “Wasn’t sure you could drive. You look like a city boy.”
“I do know some things,” Justin added thinking she must not have seen the cowboy run by. Justin was kind of glad. “You’ll have to let me know where we are going.”
“I will,” Paige said as she reached under the seat and pulled out a blanket, throwing it on her legs. “ Just a little chilly. The sky looks like snow.”
“Isn’t it a little too late in the spring to snow?”
“Not really. Sometimes we have snow until early June. Not very often though,” Paige shivered.
Justin had forgotten about the changes in temperature in the times realizing it all made sense. It began to get dark as they traveled and was almost all the way dark and beginning to snow a little as they arrived at Mr. Harley’s ranch.
Justin managed to stop the buckboard and ran around to help Paige down. Mr. Harley came out of the house as he did so.
“Well, I see you are here on time. Good, I like that,” then he turned to a young man who came from the back of the house. “Matt, please take the horses and feed and w
ater them.”
“Yes sir,” the young man said. He took the reins of the horses and led them off toward the barn.
“Come in, come in,” Mr. Harley said as he held open the door. The porch of the house reached across the whole front. Then they walked into the house. Justin was amazed. The furniture seemed new. At first he thought he had stepped back into his own time. It all looked so modern until he saw the oil lamp on the wall.
There must have been at least a dozen lamps hanging in each room making the house as bright as if he had flipped on a light switch.
“Supper is almost ready in the other room,” Mr. Harley said as he motioned them to sit. “Would you like a drink,” he asked as he held up a whiskey bottle.
“No thanks, Mr. Harley, but I would like a cup of coffee, if it’s not too much trouble,” Justin said.
“Not at all, and please, call me Harley. Not Mr. Harley.” The older man nodded to a tall, dark lady who poured two cups of coffee from a pot and served them to Justin and Paige on a silver tray. Justin took a sip of the coffee and found it to be quite good.
“Thanks, Harley, this is very good coffee.”
“I only get the best money can buy.”
Paige took a sip of her coffee. “This is wonderful. I wish we had some for the saloon.”
“All you have to do is say the word Miss Paige,” Harley told her with a small smile on the corners of his mouth.
“I don’t have any say in that Mr. Harley.” Paige told him.
By the time they had finished their coffee, they were called to supper. Harley led the way into a huge room with a large table. The table was solid wood and painted brown. It’s legs had been carved out and must have taken a long time to make. They all sat down to eat. There was plenty of food on the table. The vegetables were also plentiful and tasted rather plain. Justin was hungry though and ate.
After supper, Mr. Harley invited both Justin and Paige into a large sitting room. He poured each of them liquor from a bottle into small shot glasses and handed one to each. Justin didn’t want the liquor but took it and acted as though he was sipping it.
“Now,” Mr. Harley said as he motioned them to a seat and then sat down himself in a large chair. “I have a proposition for you Justin.”
Paige looked at Justin and smiled as if to say. “Here it comes.”
Justin smiled back and then turned to Mr. Harley. “Alright, let’s hear what you have for me.”
“I like your attitude Justin. Let me start by saying that I know your job doesn’t pay much. I can pay you a lot more. All you need to do is report to me everything that happens. You will get your regular pay as well as extra pay from me. Your job will be safe as long as you want to keep it. What do you say?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Harley, I can’t do what you are proposing. I’ll just make the money I’m making now.”
He could tell Mr. Harley was upset with what he had said. But the older man smiled and said. “You think about it son. After a few days, you will change your mind.”
Justin stood. “Are you threatening me, Mr. Harley?”
“No, of course not. I’m just saying.”
Justin turned to Paige. “I think we are ready to leave. Thank you Mr. Harley for the fine supper but we have nothing else to talk about. We will be leaving now, Paige.” He turned to Paige and began to walk toward the door.
Paige smiled and nodded to Mr. Harley as she followed Justin to the door. Mr. Harley turned to a young man in the corner and said, “Please bring out Justin’s buckboard.”
Justin and Paige walked out of the house and onto the porch. Justin was surprised when he saw the snow. There were at least two inches and it was coming down hard. So hard in fact, it was hard to even see the buckboard when the young man brought it around from the barn. Mr. Harley didn’t come out of the house. Paige said as they neared the buckboard. “I better drive. You hold the light. I know my way around better than you and I don’t know it that well out here.”
Justin did as she asked. As she took the reins and they slowly left the house, it was hard to see where they were going. They had been on the road for about half an hour when Paige stopped. “I think we may be lost. I know we are off the road. Better to find somewhere to stay for the night and start again in the daylight.”
Both Justin and Paige climbed down from the buckboard. It was snowing so hard it was difficult to see far in front of them.
“Let’s just start walking and maybe we will find some place we can wait out the weather.” Justin said.
“Good idea,” Paige said. We need to get the blanket and here’s the light and these,” she held up two matches. “We might need them.”
Neither of them knew just how far they walked when they could see a mountain. “There must be some shelter up against the wall of the mountain,” Paige told Justin.
“Yes, I agree,”
Soon they came to the base of the mountain. Here it wasn’t snowing quite as hard. They walked around trying to find some sort of dent inside the rock. They hadn’t traveled far when Justin spotted something. “There, what’s that?”
Paige held out the light. “I think it’s a cave. We can weather out the storm in there.”
The cave wasn’t really a cave but it was back in the mountain about eight feet. They had to stay over against the far wall of the rock to be out of the snow. Someone had used it before for there was fire wood piled up as if someone was going to make a fire but left before they could.
“I knew we would use these,” Paige pulled one of the matches out of her pocket and soon they had a small fire in front of them. Paige then spread the blanket out across both of them as they sat against the wall. Justin could still feel cold air coming through the opening and could see the snow piling up against the low opening. For several inches inside, there was about an inch of snow.
Justin was also glad he had the old sticky overcoat they had given him. At least it was a little warmer now. He leaned over and placed his arm around Paige and pulled her close. She slid up against him. “Our body heat will help keep us warm,” he said.
They could feel a little heat from the fire but it was still chilly because of the opening. Paige was quiet for a minute and then she said, “I often wonder what really happened to Trace, Justin. Grandfather said he was killed in a gun fight but I’m not sure.”
Justin listened to her as she spoke. The next words he heard shocked him. “Grandfather thinks I don’t know but I know he and Trace used to time travel.”
“Are you sure,” Justin asked.
Paige looked up at him studying his face in the dim light. “You are from the future, aren’t you Justin?”
Justin was quiet for a while. “You knew?”
“All along. That’s why you don’t understand our way of doing things. I knew it from the first time you were here. Grandfather doesn’t know I know and I don’t let on to him. I would love to try it sometime. What year are you from Justin?”
“In my time, it’s 2013.”
“Oh my, tell me how you got started in time travel.”
Justin told her about his grandfather dying and leaving him the journals and about finding the watch and learning how to use it. He also told her about Aunt Helen and her restaurant.
“I would love to go back to your time with you Justin. Would you take me when we get out of here? Maybe I can find out more about Trace and why he was like he was,” Paige told him.
“What about your grandfather?”
“I’ll tell him I have to go out of town for supplies. I do sometimes.”
“I would love to take you back with me Paige. I know the people you should meet to hear the story of your half-brother.”
“Do you use the saloon to travel from?”
“Not really, there’s a portal behind it.”
“We can go back come morning. You will have to get me some clothes…..” her words trailed off and Justin realized she was falling asleep.
After a minute, he closed his eyes and was
soon fast asleep. He awoke sometime later chilled and saw that the fire was almost out. He laid Paige down on the ground carefully as to not wake her up. Then he picked up some more of the wood from the floor and added it to the embers which instantly began to burn.
He pulled the old coat close and shivered. Then he laid back down next to Paige where it was warmer. After a little while, he fell back to sleep. When he awoke again, his back was hurting and so was his head. He realized what was causing his head to hurt was the rock he somehow had laid on. The sharpness of it bit into his head.
Standing up he stretched. Paige was already up. It looked as if she had been outside for there were footprints leading in and out of the snow. She smiled at him.
“Good morning, Justin. I take it you aren’t used to sleeping on the ground.”
“No, I have a warm bed and a coat that doesn’t smell,” he made a face which caused Paige to laugh.
“Well, the good thing is, we aren’t far from town. The bad thing is, we will have to walk. The snow is too deep for the buckboard.”
“We will be frozen by the time we get there.”
“I found a couple of sacks. We can tie them around our shoes. They should help keep our feet pretty warm.”
Paige began to wrap her feet in some of the sacks. Then she turned to Justin. “Let me wrap your feet. If you do it, they might not be tight enough.”
Justin held out his feet with his shoes on for Paige to wrap in the sacks.
“There,” she said as she finished. “That should be good.”
He stood up. The sacks were tight around his feet. He was impressed. Paige knew what she was doing. She led the way out into the snow. Justin followed her. The sun shone bright on the white snow. It was beautiful in the morning light. Before long, they came upon the buckboard where Paige found two hats and handed one to Justin.
“Better put this on. Being out in the sun for long when there is snow can cause snow blindness.”
Justin pulled the hat over his head and it was so big it almost covered his eyes. Paige laughed.
“Way too big but it will keep your eyes protected,” she put the other hat on her own head. “Okay, we are ready. Can you ride bareback?”
Portals of Time Page 24
