Now it was for herself.
Jack scanned the horizon, considering the short distance left of the arduous journey. The sun indicated it was early afternoon and he knew they would be at the ranch in less than an hour. Turning toward the water, he stood transfixed, forgetting even his intense thirst. It wasn't so much that he was accustomed to the desert heat… what captivated him at that moment was a vision in the form of a goddess, much like those he had seen in history books back east. He watched her intensely, after she had stopped drinking… her long black hair slicked back, her face turned up to the sky, her arms raised as she ran her fingers from the crown of her head down to the nape of her neck, pressing the moisture from her hair. Water droplets glistened in the sunlight as they ran down her skin, creating an iridescent beauty about her more stunning than when she was dressed last night as an Indian maiden.
His train of thought shook him to the core. He would have to release the notion that she was his gift. She was a lost traveler, and as soon as he deposited her at the ranch, he was out of it. Desert survival-instinct kicked in and he noticed that although her body appeared fair, her face had been burned by the sun. He walked over to a huge aloe plant and broke off a thick tip. Stepping boot deep into the creek, he squatted and took a few handfuls of water for himself, then made his way toward her, his steps absorbed by the sound of the babbling stream.
As he was looking down to her kneeling before him in the water, his breath caught. Her eyes were still closed, as though she were away somewhere in her mind and in that moment he felt privileged to observe her silent beauty.
"Your face has been burned by the sun." Even to his own ears his voice sounded raspy, filled with desire, and he cleared his throat. "I have something here that will ease the pain and refresh your skin." He stood looking down at her and felt the stirring of something that was better forgotten in this situation and with this woman. "It's the meat of an aloe plant."
Her eyes opened, her lovely blue eyes, and she stared up at him. She really was a goddess, a water nymph, something unearthly that was mesmerizing him. Suppressing a groan, he squeezed the succulent juices of the leaf onto the tips of his fingers and slowly lowered himself into the water until they were face to face. She didn't move. She didn't say a word. Her gaze followed him as he knelt before her and reached out his hand to her face. He hesitated for an instant, waiting to see if she would allow him to minister to her.
The tip of his thumb grazed her cheek with the moisture, and she winced in pain. He pulled back and cursed the rough calluses of his own hand against her smooth skin.
"I'm sorry. I… I'll be—"
"It's okay," she interrupted, with a voice as soft as a whisper.
Their gazes locked in a moment that felt like an eternity. His fingers didn't move. His caress stopped, as he drew in a breath between his teeth, and when his thumb continued to gently soothe her cheek with the aloe his fingers instinctively cupped the side of her face.
He heard her intake of breath, her allowance. The spitfire was gone. In her place was a soft and gentle woman, who was staring into his eyes with a look of wonderment. Nothing else seemed to exist but the water and her… her startling wide eyes, her tender silky skin, her full waiting lips.
An unspoken introduction was made.
His thumb softly caressed the corner of her bottom lip and her face turned ever so slightly into his hand. He stared into her eyes, down to her lips, then back into her eyes… waiting for permission. Eye to eye, mouth to mouth, he inhaled her breath… wanting to take her inside him, to remember this exquisite moment. He kissed her… softly, gently, and watched her lids flutter closed. A rush of desire washed over him and he fought the urge to pull her closer, to deepen the connection, yet it felt so fragile, so precious, that he found his body shaking with the intensity of holding back.
How was he ever going to walk away from this?
Mairie felt every nerve ending come alive. The skin of her cheek received his touch like a gentle magnet, drawing some kind of electrical energy from his fingers. Her lips tingled, as his barely grazed over hers in an exquisite meeting of skin and texture and sensations. Her mind was reeling from the contact. Her senses were screaming at her to open her lips, to abandon herself to the most exquisite kiss awaiting her surrender.
The horse gave a great snort and Jack suddenly pulled away. Mairie almost lost her balance and had to fight to stay upright.
"Let me check the horse," he whispered while standing and hurrying out of the water.
She found herself breathing heavily, as though she'd just run a marathon. What the hell had just happened? And why had she allowed it? Surely she was weak from the sun and she'd had a momentary lapse into madness. Embarrassed, Mairie splashed her face with cool water and rose from the stream. She walked to the shore and stood in the sun to dry. She would not watch him check the horse and surrounding area, as if protecting her.
Lose the knight image, she told herself. This was some delusional man who preferred the past to the present, not a knight rescuing a lost damsel in distress. She'd obviously read too many books. He seemed satisfied that nothing was wrong and walked back to the stream. He filled the canteen and bladder with water and looked to the sun.
"We must be going. We have less than an hour's travel, and then you can get out of the sun."
That was it? He wasn't going to say anything about what had just happened? Typical male… to ignore what he couldn't understand. She mentally reprimanded herself for allowing such behavior. What weakness…
Shrugging, Mairie decided to play it off casually. So what if she had responded? She'd never see the man after today. What did it matter what he thought? It was weakness, sunstroke or something.
"Sure." She walked toward the horse and he didn't even look at her as he tied the canteens to the horn and then laced his fingers together to assist her into the saddle. Up she went, easily, and settled once more onto the horse's back. Soon they would reach this ranch and then this amazing detour would be over. What stories she would have to tell Bryan…
After another three miles or so they passed the lodges of nearly three hundred Paiutes, some of whom worked at the ranch, Jack said. She felt an excitement building inside her as they rounded a bend.
"How much farther?" she asked, seeing a small adobe house with outbuildings.
Jack stopped walking and turned to her. "This is it."
She merely stared back. "This is it?" It couldn't be. She was expecting the Ponderosa, or something. Not this depressing version of the Beverly Hillbillies before they struck oil.
"This is it," he said in a dull voice.
Shit…
There were no electrical lines running to the place. Nor phone lines. No cars were visible. Nothing modern in sight. A tall man was standing in the front wearing dark trousers and a white shirt. An equally tall woman opened the door and stood on the porch. She was wearing a long white dress… a dress that would have been worn a hundred years ago.
Fear slammed into her brain, sending distress signals to every organ. Something was very wrong… no search parties. No planes. It was one thing to think Jack might be living in the past. She could even rationalize the Paiutes in the mountains. But this… this could not be denied.
It couldn't be possible. Not in her world. Not in her mind. Not in any reality…
This was proof, undeniable proof of what she feared the most, what she had been denying since she had landed two days ago… proof that she had somehow time traveled into the past.
She no longer knew where to call out for help to stop this madness. She was alone, a stranger in a very strange land. Her body started trembling in the intense sunlight. Her mind was spinning in overdrive. And then it happened, something so weird that she was mildly surprised as the darkness entered her vision.
Slowly collapsing, she surrendered and welcomed the oblivion.
Chapter 6
Everything was disorienting.
Her forehead was cold. In what seeme
d a distance she heard whimpering, the sound of a plaintive cry. Something in her wanted to stop it, to help out, and she struggled from the deepest sleep she could ever remember. Her lids barely opened and she squinted at the sun through a glass that was veined and bubbled with imperfections. A fine dust added to the distortion of the setting sun.
The whimpering began again and she turned her head slightly. A young boy stood at the foot of the bed, his golden hair matching the fur of the small puppy. She saw two warm brown eyes, two big paws, and a fat pink belly dangling underneath the arms of a sweet-faced child.
An innocent voice called out, "Momma… she's awake!"
Mairie couldn't figure out where she was, or how she got into this bed. Her head ached, as if a steel band were tightened around it. Raising her fingers to her face, she felt a cold compress had been placed on her forehead.
"Let me help you with that, dear."
A tall woman dressed in a long white dress hurried to her side. A cameo brooch was attached to the high collar. She had dark eyes, dark hair pulled up in a bun, and a kind face.
"Where am I?"
The woman smiled and her slightly worn features appeared almost pretty. "Hush now, my dear, you've had an awful time of it, haven't you? Suffering sunstroke and falling off the horse. Rest now. You aren't the first one the desert has brought to their knees."
"Where am I?" Mairie repeated. Her confusion deepened as the woman removed the cold cloth and dipped it into a basin of water on a nightstand.
"You're at the Las Vegas ranch, dear. Jack Delaney brought you in from the mountains. He said you were lost." She placed the refreshed cloth on Mairie's forehead.
Mairie stared up at her as everything started falling into place. Delaney. The Indian encampment. The pool of water and the kiss. The shock of seeing that where the glittery town of Las Vegas was supposed to stand was merely a rundown farm. She was lost… definitely lost… in someone else's time.
"Do you have a phone, a telephone?" Mairie whispered.
The woman stared down at her. "I'm sorry… you mean a telegraph?" She laughed lightly and shook her head. "No. The nearest one is in Fort Mojave. There will be a wagon train corning in from the fort in a couple of days and you could send your message back with them."
This couldn't be happening. It simply couldn't… Jack couldn't have arranged this. He wasn't a delusional executive having a nervous breakdown and living in the past. The Indians weren't isolated in history. She was the one… she was out of place, and out of time.
Her time.
"Please," she whispered to the woman. "I am so lost. I need to get to modern civilization. Can you help me? Do you know what's happened? I don't belong here." She started to rise and the woman appeared worried. "Please… help me."
"Now, now… lie back down and rest, my dear. I took your clothes, and Lee, my Chinese man, is washing them. Strange clothes for a woman, but I say, never judge another person by appearances. You may use one of my dresses, until you're well enough to travel again." Her smile deepened in friendliness. "I'm Virginia Gass, by the way. And we already know that you're Mairie Callahan from back east. We can talk later and you can fill me in on everything that's news. Besides, you can't go anywhere yet, so you just might as well take advantage of the situation and recuperate while you can. Supper will be ready in about a half hour. Fenton here will keep you company until then. If you feel up to it, you can join us. Or I'll bring a plate in here for you."
The woman patted her son's head and left the room as efficiently as she came into it.
Totally confused, Mairie looked at the child and the puppy.
"What's his name?" she whispered.
The young boy grinned. "I call him Digger, cause he digs in the yard all the time and Momma says if he touches her vegetable plants again, she's gonna plant him pure and proper. But he's a good one. Really…"
Mairie tried smiling as the boy came over and let the puppy rest on the edge of the bed. Immediately the dog scampered up to kiss her face and she grabbed his golden fur to stop him. "It hurts too much."
Fenton collared the pup and scolded him. "You had best behave or I'll have to put you out again. Momma says this here's a special visitor and we have to be nice." He looked up to Mairie and grinned. "You want me to show you my kittens, too?"
Children were innocent. Children this age didn't lie. She looked into his big blue eyes and asked, "What year is it? Do you know the year?"
"The year?" Fenton scrunched up his nose and looked at the beamed ceiling. "It's… uh… it's… Momma, what year is it?" His voice carried throughout the house.
Virginia stuck her head in the room and scolded her son. "Now, you just leave if you can't speak in a proper tone of voice. We do not yell in the house."
"But what year is it, Momma? The lady wants to know."
Virginia looked from her son to Mairie and smiled in sympathy. "Sunstroke confuses you, doesn't it? Had it myself once, the first year I came here. It's 1877, dear. Now, rest easy, and Fenton, if you can't be pleasant company, then you must leave."
"I'll be good, Momma. I promise."
When they were alone, Mairie simply stared at the rough planked wall. How could this have happened? How could she be in 1877? This… this was impossible, insane! Yet even as she thought it, everything started to make sense. No wonder no one was looking for her. No one she knew was even born yet! Bryan… her brother… dear God, she would never see him again… what must he be thinking? Did anything of her life in the future exist? She wanted to cry out at the unfairness, to scream at the universe for this trick. Was she insane?
This just didn't happen in her world.
But as she gazed into the true eyes of the child, Mairie realized she wasn't in her world any longer. It wasn't some massive elaborate plot to trick her. Somehow, in some way, she had traveled into another dimension. What was happening in her world, her time? What happened to Bryan, her friends, her life…? Everyone she ever loved, everything that mattered possibly never existed. She was alone. Terribly alone, abandoned into the isolation of the past. Was it her past? Was her life in the future all a dream? It was impossible to consider anymore. It was too overwhelming to comprehend. She stared at the wall, wondering if she could stay in this bed and just die. Nothing seemed to matter.
"I could show you my secret place if you want."
Blinking, Mairie shifted her gaze to the child. She almost forgot he was in the room. "Maybe later, okay?"
He smiled shyly and nodded. "I always go there when I'm sad and it makes me happy again."
She couldn't help it. In spite of all the bizarre circumstances surrounding her, she smiled back. He was so innocent, so sweet… how like a child to come to her rescue in this moment. And how like her to respond. If she trusted anyone right now, it might as well be a child. "Later. I would love it if you'd show me your secret place. How long have you lived here, Fenton?"
He shrugged and stuck his finger into his mouth, as if thinking really hard. "I just always been here. Lee tells me of magic places across big oceans, but I ain't never been there. Just here."
"You were born here, then."
"I guess."
Mairie smiled and looked down at the white cotton nightgown she had on. "Is this your mother's?"
"I guess." He shrugged again shyly.
She reached out and touched his freckled cheek. "Tomorrow you can show me your secret place, Fenton. I would like that."
Lifting the patchwork quilt and stiff linen sheet to the side, she eased her legs to the edge of the bed and began slowly to raise herself with her arms. Pain shot through her entire body and into the crown of her head.
Fenton backed away as she grimaced and grabbed her skull.
"Ahh, I've had better hangovers than this."
"Huh? Are you gonna be okay, lady?"
Her eyes still closed, Mairie began to stand. The throbbing in her skull increased as she gained the altitude of her height.
"I'll be fine, just give me a seco
nd to get my bearings." She opened her eyes and gave Fenton a forced reassuring smile. Mairie saw there had been a house coat placed on the end of the bed. As every muscle in her body ached, she pulled it over her shoulders.
"Can you show me to the bathroom, Fenton?"
"You wanna take a bath? It's not Saturday. We always take baths on Saturdays."
"I need to use the… the bathroom, Fenton. Can you tell me where it is?"
"Oh! If ya gotta go, ya hafta use the pot there, under the bed."
Mairie resigned herself to the situation. She couldn't think about it now. Later… much later, she would settle it in her mind, but right now her attention was focused on a priority. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do…" she muttered. "Will you excuse me, Fenton?"
"Oh, sure." Fenton grabbed the puppy from the bed, nearly pulling the quilt with it, as Digger had begun to chew on the fabric. Balancing the pup under his arms, he went out the door and before he shut it poked his head back into the room. "You gonna eat dinner with us at the table?" he asked softly.
Mairie turned to the boy and nodded, her face describing the pain that wracked her head and body as she lifted the heavy ceramic pot onto the bed.
Fenton closed the door quietly, then, from beyond, she heard him shout, "Ma, I don't think that lady's doin' so good. But she says she's gonna eat with us at the table."
Staring at the chamber pot, Mairie let the tears come.
Her body was jolted by the ring of a loud bell. She rose and wiped tears from her tight cheeks. She slipped into the soft white cotton dress with tucked pleats on the bodice and shoulders. It was actually comfortable and the cool fabric felt soothing against her skin. Barefoot, Mairie pulled her hair back with a ribbon she found on the night table and took a deep breath as she saw her reflection in a small discolored mirror. Her face was red and parched from the sun. Sighing, she realized that a day at Elizabeth Arden's was out, so what was left? She'd just have to find more of that aloe and hope she didn't peel. Nothing could be done now about anything. And what did it really matter any longer? She steeled herself to meet her uncertain future in the mysterious past and walked out of the room.
Anywhere You Are Page 10
