Each door was of solid oak and sconces dotted the walls between each door, clearly electrical. The hotel had named all the rooms on the sixth floor instead of numbering them. Each name was screwed on the door with a decorative bronze plaque.
Brice’s suite was on the south corner of the building and was called Lost River. The suite had a large living room area that extended out into the turret area with a view through the tall windows that looked out over parts of the growing town and the city.
The ceilings in the room were a good twelve feet high and a faint blue-flowered wallpaper covered the walls.
Since it was a corner room, lower parts of the windows opened on both sides of the room allowing a breeze to go through the room and keep it surprisingly cool.
An oak writing desk was tucked to one side of the living room and a large oak table filled the turret area. Brice had a hunch he would be using that table a great deal over the next two months.
The bed was a huge four-poster made out of polished oak that dominated the bedroom part of the suite and off that room was a washroom with a sink, a large metal tub, running water, and a toilet with a water tank high on the wall. For some reason that toilet actually in the room surprised Brice.
He clearly needed to learn a lot about when things were invented and what was new. In all the years of math, it had never once dawned on him that he needed to learn details of history for his future job.
Duster had left him to wash up and get settled in his room. Since Brice didn’t have many clothes, just one suit and vest, there wasn’t much to hang up or put in the big chest of drawers in the bedroom.
He stripped down to his underwear and used the sink and washcloth to wash off the trail grime as best he could. Later tonight he would take a bath to really get clean.
Then he dressed in his black jeans, a dress shirt, a vest, and his suit jacket. He actually looked exactly like every other gentleman on the street, which surprised him.
He left his cowboy hat and oilcloth duster on the hanger near the front door.
He pulled on clean socks and his cowboy boots and was just standing when Duster knocked at his door. Duster’s suite was called Game Lake and was down the wide carpeted hallway on the west corner of the building.
Brice opened the door and Duster came in.
Duster had on a suit jacket as well and a dress shirt, but he also wore his cowboy hat and oilcloth duster, open down the front.
Duster just seemed comfortable with that look.
“Saddle bags?” Duster asked.
Brice pointed to them on the top of an oak table near the door. Other than unpack some clothes and empty out his trail food supplies, he hadn’t done anything with them yet.
“Carry about fifty dollars on you at all times and one of the keys,” Duster said. “Remember how far a simple dime goes in this time period.”
Brice nodded. Duster had given him that talk on the way here yesterday and he had already pulled the fifty dollars.
“The gold and the rest of the money you need to hide,” Duster said. “Nothing worse than being back here and out of money, trust me.”
Brice looked around, but the only places he saw right off to hide anything would be the obvious places.
“Dig the money and gold out and divide it up into three parts after you take out the fifty dollars,” Duster said. “If you need to cash in the gold, there’s an assay office down the street a few blocks.”
Brice took the money out of the hidden pocket of his saddlebag and spread it on the table. The pocket was designed into the saddlebag by Duster and was invisible to almost all searches.
“Leave a third in the saddlebag in the pocket,” Duster said.
Brice did that and Duster took the saddlebag and draped it over a chair near the bed in plain sight.
“Since it’s empty, not a lot of use to some thief and easy to identify.” Duster pointed to Brice’s initials that were stitched in clear letters on both sides of the saddlebag. “So no one would take it.”
That made perfect sense to Brice.
“Grab another third of that and follow me.”
Brice did as he was told, carrying a good five hundred in bills and some gold about the size of his large finger. From what Duster had told him, the money he was carrying would buy a couple really nice homes in this time period.
Duster pointed to the sink attached to the wall in the bathroom. “Take a look up under there.”
Brice got down on his knees on the blue tile of the bathroom and looked up at the underside of the sink. It was molded metal in the shape of the sink and not finished on the underside.
“See the lip around the edge?” Duster asked.
It took a moment for Brice to see it, but then he spotted how the front and side edges of the sink were curled up under the sink to give the sink a rounded bottom look, even to someone sitting low in the bathtub.
That rounded bottom edge that was turned up formed a nice gutter. Brice put the money in under that edge on the bathtub side of the sink, making sure it was tucked down tight.
“That’s pretty nifty,” Brice said, standing and brushing off his knees.
Duster nodded. “Both crooks and regular people don’t know that’s there, so never use it.”
“So what do I do with the last third?” Brice asked.
“We give it to the front desk to put in the safe,” Duster said. “They would expect us, as men of means renting these suites, to do exactly that. And also, anyone watching knows we have left no money in our room, so no point in breaking in.”
“I’m guessing all this came from hard knocks early on,” Brice said.
“More than I care to remember,” Duster said. “So let’s go give this money to the front desk and I’ll show you the best steaks in all of Boise about three blocks from here.”
“Sounds perfect,” Brice said, realizing he really was hungry.
He was finally starting to relax a little and realize just where he was. And that he was going to live for almost two months here in this room, in this town, in this time, in this timeline, while only two minutes and fifteen seconds passed.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
August 15th, 1901
Dixie’s Timeline
AFTER DIXIE WASHED up and got ready to go out for dinner in her one good dress she had packed in her saddlebag, Bonnie had shown her how to hide two-thirds of her money and on the way to dinner they had checked the other third with the hotel front desk.
Bonnie had Dixie carry at least fifty dollars, but only ten of it in her purse, the rest of it in a garter under her dress. It was not a good idea for women to carry a lot of money in this time period, and ten dollars was almost too much, since dinner was going to cost them about fifty cents each in the hotel dining room overlooking Main Street.
Besides that, they would just charge the meal to their rooms.
Dixie’s suite was in the north corner of the building and was called Avalanche Creek while Bonnie’s suite was in the east corner of the sixth floor and was named Dutch Flat. For some reason, numbers didn’t suit this hotel.
The view from Dixie’s windows over the town and part of the valley was flat amazing. She had relaxed after getting cleaned up and seeing the wonderful suite. It would not be a hardship at all to stay for a few months in this suite and work on really understanding the math problems that Bonnie and Duster faced.
Bonnie said it was amazing how at times, simply sitting and thinking added more insight into a math problem than hours crunching numbers on major computers.
Dixie agreed with that.
The dining room of the hotel was a large, high-ceilinged room of cloth-covered tables and high chairs and waiters with tuxedos. Of the forty tables, only about a third were occupied during the dinner hour and no one was close enough to them that they had to worry about being overheard.
Plus the evening was warm, so Dixie decided that after Bonnie left she would have dinner in her room with the cross breeze between the windows.
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They talked about some of the things Dixie needed to be careful of, and a few times with a waiter close by Dixie had to whisper a question to Bonnie about what was standard behavior for eye contact for a woman in this time in a restaurant, what was the right fork, or when to eat and not eat, including where to place her napkin.
It was one thing to eat in a formal restaurant in 2016, another to eat in one in 1901. But somehow she managed to not make any major mistakes and Bonnie assured her she would be fine.
After a wonderful dinner of fresh-caught mountain trout and creamy potatoes in a rich garlic sauce, Dixie felt almost human.
Back in the suite, Dixie took a long bath. The staff brought in three heated containers of water and it felt heavenly.
After her bath, she barely managed to crawl into bed before she fell asleep, the big featherbed holding her like a mother holds a child.
The sun streaming in the big windows woke her just after dawn. She managed to get her long red hair up on the top of her head and dressed in her riding clothes before Bonnie got there.
After a wonderful breakfast of ham and eggs served to them in Bonnie’s suite by the staff, they went shopping and bought Dixie a full wardrobe of dresses and shoes and petticoats.
Bonnie didn’t buy anything for herself, saying that she would do so when she reached San Francisco. And she told Dixie that she should save the clothes and they would take some of them with them to the mine to take back for future trips into the past.
That was the first time that Dixie had thought about going into the past more than this once. It sort of startled her and she decided she would think about that after the next two months.
She had a lot of things to think about. More than she could have ever imagined.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
August 18th, 1901
Brice’s Timeline
DUSTER HAD LEFT early in the morning, heading out to Arizona.
For the first two hours, Brice had just sat in his room, feeling panicked and very much alone. Duster had done everything he could to help Brice get ready, including helping him shop for more men’s clothes of the time.
And for two days they had eaten in a different restaurant every meal, getting Brice used to the different places close to the hotel.
Now, Brice was alone in the past, in a different timeline, and he had to admit, scared to death.
Finally, after a couple of hours, he started to get hungry. He knew he needed to get some lunch. He had decided that for the first day or so he would just stay in the hotel and get used to things. He and Duster hadn’t even eaten in the hotel restaurant, but Duster had said it was good food.
Right now Brice decided that he needed to stay in the hotel, do some thinking, take some notes, get his nerves back.
Brice checked his pocket watch. It was almost eleven and the dining room downstairs would be opening for lunch soon. He and Duster had bought him a few journals that would be suited for a man taking notes. Duster also bought him a couple of the nicest fountain pens and refilling ink. And a few pencils as well.
After a few tries, Brice discovered, to his surprise, he liked the feel of the fountain pens. So he made sure one pen was full of ink, then took it and his journal down the six flights of stone stairs to the main lobby and into the dining room.
The big dining room was wonderful and comfortable and surprised him with its feel. It had very high ceilings and high windows framed in polished oak. The tables were covered in fine linen tablecloths and each table had a single flower in a crystal vase in the center.
A large fireplace dominated one wall, but wasn’t lit. More than likely that fireplace in the winter kept this room very comfortable.
The higher parts of the windows had been opened which allowed the air to move through the room, keeping it fairly cool even though the day outside promised to be warm.
Brice took a seat near the window on the Main Street side, his back to the wall and out of the sun. Not only from there could he see anything in the restaurant, but he could also watch the traffic on the boardwalk outside and in the wide Main Street.
He opened his journal and titled the page with the date, August 18, 1901, and his location and the time. Then he closed the journal and placed the pen on top of it and just sat back.
He really, really needed to calm down. But in all his life he had never felt so alone and helpless. He felt more like he had been dumped in a distant country.
This traveling in time and crossing timelines was very real. And the world around him was very real. The only thing that made it different than his timeline was his presence and Duster’s presence.
And if neither of them did anything to really change this timeline, it would remain the same as their own completely.
Of course, with infinite amount of timelines, in some timelines he and Duster would change something.
But that didn’t really matter. With an infinite number of timelines and every person making thousands of choices every day, no one timeline was the right timeline. Brice knew that from his math.
But hard to convince his surface mind.
A waiter soon took his order for a beef sandwich and an iced tea with real ice chipped off of stored ice two stories down in cool cellars under the hotel. It was expensive, but as Duster had convinced him, they could afford it without a problem. Brice needed to act like a man of means.
You don’t stay for a few months in one of the most expensive suites in the new state and not act the part.
Brice was about to open his notebook again when a very short, and very stunning woman with bright red hair and light skin came into the restaurant alone.
She had her hair up and never even looked around, just straight ahead.
One of the waiters bowed slightly to her, and she smiled and nodded her thanks.
The smile about took Brice’s breath away.
He watched her every move as the waiter showed her to a table on the far wall, directly across from Brice, and held the chair for her until she was seated.
She couldn’t be any more than a few inches over five foot tall, and from what Brice could see, her hair was held fashionably on the top of her head with some decorative barrettes made of some sort of bone.
She also looked uncomfortable and slightly unsure of herself.
She had been carrying a small journal and a fountain pen and placed both on the table in front of her.
Then she took a deep breath that made Brice catch his breath.
He couldn’t remember when he had had a reaction to just seeing a woman like this. He had had his share of girlfriends through college, but most had found him dull, since his focus was on his studies so much.
And he had never been much of a drinker and he found parties boring to the extreme. So what few women in college who had made it clear to him that they were interested soon dropped their interest after a couple months of fun sex.
So this reaction to a woman was unusual for him.
And then he realized exactly where he was.
It was 1901.
This woman had been dead in his timeline for half a century, if not more. She was more like the age of his great-great grandmother.
And besides that, he would have no idea how to meet a woman of this time.
He just shook his head and opened the journal and marked down his thoughts.
He hoped she was staying for at least a few days. Her beauty from a distance would give him the distraction he needed to get calmed down and thinking about math.
CHAPTER TWENTY
August 18th, 1901
Dixie’s Timeline
BONNIE HAD LEFT two days before, heading to San Francisco, and today was the first day Dixie felt brave enough to even leave her room and go down and eat in the hotel dining room on her own. She had decided that lunch would be the safest and less crowded of the times. And so far she had been right. Only a few people were in the dining room and she didn’t look at them.
She had been taking her meals in
her room and just letting herself relax and watch the town and the street below her window. She hadn’t gotten her mind clear enough yet to even think about the math problem at hand, but she had a hunch that given a little more time, she would be bored enough and settled enough to do just that.
She reached the dining room shortly after it opened and was greeted by a waiter that remembered her from the number of times she ate here with Bonnie.
Dixie asked for a table facing the restaurant with her back to the wall and he showed her across the room to a wonderful table that also allowed her to see Main Street outside the big windows.
The dining room was still cool, but she could tell that by dinner it would be too hot to eat here. Until the weather changed, she would take breakfast and lunch here, but not dinner.
She placed her journal and pen on the table in front of her and took a deep breath to get herself to relax. Then she looked around at the others in the dining room with her.
An elderly couple clearly of means sat together near the front windows not talking. Two men were engaged in a hushed conversation at another table, more focused on what they were saying than anything else around them.
And against the far wall directly across from her sat a man with short brown hair and chiseled features that took her breath away. He was bent forward slightly writing in a journal. He had on a clearly expensive suit and wore it like he had been born in it.
Her breath seemed to catch in her throat and she could feel her heart start to race. Not out of fear, but out of excitement just looking at him.
She stared at him for a moment, stunned at how strong her reaction to him was. She had to force herself to just take a breath. And she could feel her face getting flushed.
She had never felt that kind of reaction to just seeing a man before, let alone a man who, in her timeline, had been dead for more years than she wanted to think about.
Bonnie had given her no pointers at all about meeting men in this time period. And just the idea of that scared Dixie more than she wanted to admit. She wasn’t any good at meeting men in her own time. What would she talk about with a man born in the eighteen hundreds?
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