The fumes inside the carriage poured out to greet him—a heady mix of roast turkey, fresh rolls, lake trout, and whisky blended with a fog of cigar smoke.
Connor invited him in with a limp and a grand sweep of his arm, and Olivia, pulling off her gloves, finger by finger, welcomed him with her hazel eyes. An emotion Daniel couldn’t identify nearly brought him to his knees.
From the window, Pikes Peak, its highest reaches snow-powdered in the fall moonlight, rose above the darkling lower range.
And a story began that Daniel knew in his heart would change the rest of his life.
51
1878 South Pueblo, Colorado—Daniel
Daniel sat forward in one of the over-stuffed chairs in the sitting room of Connor’s rented railroad car, watching Connor and Braham shuttle uneasy glances back and forth. But it was Olivia’s barely leashed composure that concerned him most. Her eyes were filled with tears, and she was mangling a limp linen handkerchief, sniffing and dabbing at her nose. Connor’s arm encircled her, holding her close, her head on his shoulder. His bootless foot was propped up on an ice-soaked towel. Rick paced the carriage, chomping down on an unlit cigar. Tension rumbled through the carriage, and Daniel was about to snap like a cut wire.
“Is Amber at Alec’s house?”
“She’s in the hospital resting comfortably,” Braham said. “She’s receiving excellent medical attention. If ye want to see her, ye can. Ye can hold her hand, talk to her, hug her, but first we have a few things to talk about.” Braham handed Daniel a glass of whisky. “Let’s take this slowly. There’s a lot to digest.”
“I don’t need whisky to hear the truth. Connor said ye’d tell me everything. Start talking.”
“The whisky will help what I have to tell ye go down easier.” Braham nudged Daniel’s hand with the glass. “Look at yer hands. They’re shaking.” When Daniel still refused to accept the drink, Braham gave up and set the crystal on a table next to the chair. Then he dug into a saddlebag, pulled out a cigar, and laid it next to the glass. “That’s the best cigar ye’ll ever smoke.”
“I don’t want a damn cigar. I don’t want whisky. Ye’re stalling and that makes me madder than hell. If my hands are shaking, it’s because they want to wrap around yer neck and squeeze the truth from ye. Spill it. My hands aren’t going to listen to me much longer.”
Braham withdrew another cigar and ran it under his nose. “The wrapper is Connecticut, the binder is Cameroon, and filler is Dominican. It’s a dark, toothy five-year-old wrapper and the mix of Cameroon and Dominican long-leaf fillers brings out a different type of flavor. Ye’ll get sweet earth and maybe a wee bit of coffee off the foot.”
Braham was pushing him. But why? Finally, Daniel reacted. He bounded to his feet and grabbed Braham by the lapels. “I don’t give a damn about the cigar’s foot. What are ye hiding. Where’s my son? Where’s Amber?”
Braham waited a beat before saying, “She’s gone home. To the twenty-first century.”
Daniel’s head snapped to the side as if he’d been slugged in the jaw. Hendrix had slugged him, but this verbal punch was ten times worse. He shot hot glances to Rick, Connor, Olivia. Their expressions were identical to Braham’s.
“Gone home?” Daniel ignored the rest of Braham’s statement. It was incomprehensible. He let go of Braham’s lapels and dropped to the chair.
She’s gone home.
A cold sweat slicked his neck that had nothing to do with the still air in the carriage. It took a minute or two to pull himself together. When he could finally speak again, he asked, “Where’s Noah?”
Rick pulled a chair up in front of Daniel, holding Noah’s face in a shiny little black box. It was too real looking to be a photograph. Daniel recoiled at the image, and then he touched his son’s face, and it moved. He jerked his hand, and yelled, “Noah. My God. Where are ye, lad? What’s happened to ye?” He shoved away Rick’s hand holding the shiny box. “Where’s my son? What have ye done to him?”
“Hey, Pa. Don’t be scared.”
Daniel quivered. He looked at the box again, his muscles tightening with a strange sense of fear—an urge to protect—yet helpless to do so.
“I’m not really inside the box, Pa. This is called a video. It’s a moving picture of me. I’m in Richmond, Virginia. In the twenty-first century. Amber is sick and needs an operation. Ripley got hit on the head and she has a concussion. I’m here with Lincoln. He belongs to Braham and Charlotte. He was named after the president. Lincoln and Patrick are the smartest kids I’ve ever met. Patrick is from 1909. He’s only been here a few months, but you’d never know he came from someplace else. He knows what it’s like to jump in time.”
Jump in time?
Terror, unlike anything Daniel had ever experienced, even in the war, took hold and rattled him. He leaned forward and yelled at the box, “Noah. What have they done to ye?”
“Pa, I know you don’t understand where I am. You’re looking at my likeness and listening to my voice. Rick and Braham and Olivia and Connor know the truth. Trust them, Pa. Amber wants to see you before the doctors operate on her heart. Rick asked me if I wanted to go back with him to find you, but I couldn’t leave Amber and Ripley. That’s why I’m still here. If I left Amber, I’d never see her again. Just like Ma. I had to stay with Amber and Ripley. They need me.”
“Noah. I need ye.”
“Don’t be afraid, Pa. I know it looks scary, but when you get here, you won’t be scared. I promise. If I was afraid, I’d tell you. But I’m not. It’s nice here. The people are nice. I don’t understand most of what I see and hear, but Patrick said it won’t take me long. Hurry up, Pa.”
“Noah, come back, lad. Come back to me.” Daniel had lost his wife and infant daughter and now he’d lost his son and Amber. A drop of blood from one of his cuts fell onto Noah’s face.
“It’s okay,” Rick said. “I can fix it.” He used a napkin and Noah’s clean face appeared again.
“Noah,” Daniel groaned.
Then Amber came on the little box, and Daniel jerked. She had tubes and gadgets all around her and something stuck in her nose. He touched her face. “Amber.”
“Daniel…” Her voice sounded less stressed and she wasn’t struggling to breathe. “I’m going to be operated on in a few hours. If you come with Rick and Braham, you’ll get here in time. We can talk. I’m so sorry I lied to you, but I didn’t think you’d understand. Please come. I love you.”
And then she was frozen inside the little shiny box.
Daniel glanced up at the people in the room. “Ye took my lad. Now he’s stuck in this little box with Amber.” He got up and walked to the door. “I don’t know who ye are, what kind of magic ye’re using, or how I’ll ever get Noah back, but I swear to God, I will.”
He left the railroad car and swung up into the saddle, but he just sat there, arms crossed over the pommel. Where did he think he was going? He couldn’t leave, not without knowing how to get Noah back.
Braham walked out onto the platform and held up a glass of whisky. “I thought ye might want this while ye plan what to do next. Sometimes it clears a man’s thinking. Other times it hops around like hail and dulls the imagination.” He lifted the glass in a mock salute. “Here’s to clear thinking.”
Daniel took it. “Ye can’t imagine how confusing this is.”
Braham chuckled. “Afraid I do. It happened to me, too.”
“I doubt it.”
Braham lit a cigar and puffed to get a good burn.
“Did ye bring one of those for me?” A cigar materialized, and Daniel lit it, puffing, sending the rich fragrance into the air. “How long has it been since we shared a cigar?”
“Probably when we were chasing the Confederate gold.”
Rambler pricked his ears and whickered as if agreeing. “I doubt it’ll ever be found.”
Braham’s face, perfectly at peace in the lamplight spilling from the open door, burst into a smile. “Kenzie found it.”
“K
enzie is a canny woman, but if two dozen Union officers couldn’t find a lead, I doubt she could.”
“My wife’s brother got a lead on it first. Then Kenzie deciphered the clues and identified the location. David and I dug it up. It was a group effort.”
“Did ye keep it? I never heard it was found.”
“We turned it over to the state of California. But I digress.” Braham leaned against the railing, cigar propped between his fingers. “There’s a lot to talk about before we get to the treasure hunt.”
Daniel dismounted and joined Braham on the platform. “Start talking.” A blue cloud of smoke quickly obscured the air between them.
“Do ye remember when I was captured by the Rebs in Richmond?”
“Shot in the gut. Yeah, I remember.”
“If I survived they intended to hang me,” Braham continued. “That didn’t sit well with President Lincoln. He twisted the arm of a Confederate surgeon to smuggle me out of Chimborazo Hospital.”
“I remember ye disappeared then showed up weeks later in Washington, miraculously healed,” Daniel said.
“The Confederate surgeon…” Braham puffed on his cigar. “Her name is Charlotte Mallory. She took me to her hospital in the twenty-first century.”
Daniel stared at Braham, recalling what Connor had said… If she needed immediate medical attention, the logical person to help her would be Braham’s wife Charlotte. He stared incredulously at Braham.
“She operated on me and saved my life,” Braham said. “After surgery, I recuperated at her plantation near Richmond. While I was there, I found a book about President Lincoln. It described his assassination. I knew then that I had to return and save the President’s life. Charlotte was adamant that I couldn’t change history. But I had to try.”
“Ye knew he was going to be shot, yet ye didn’t save him. After all he did for ye, and ye couldn’t do it for him?”
“I was going to Ford’s Theatre, but he wanted me to take a document to Secretary Seward’s house. I was caught in the assassination attempt on Seward’s life and arrived at the theatre too late.”
“Why didn’t ye tell someone? They could have stopped it.”
“The president knew assassins would try to kill him. If not that night, the next. I could have told the whole damn city an attempt would be made on his life. He was an easy target, and he didn’t intend to change. The Lincolns could have stayed home that night. Gone the next. Booth and his group of conspirators would have adjusted their plans. The president was determined not to hide or show any fear.”
“Ye should have told him.”
“I decided to stay by his side and prevent it from happening. But what we learned was that we can’t change history. We can tweak it a wee bit, but we can’t change major events. For me, it will always be a personal failure.”
“Not saving the president is more than a personal failure.”
“Ye don’t have to remind me.”
“So where have ye been for a decade?”
“I fell in love with Charlotte,” Braham said, “but she wouldn’t stay in the past and I refused to go back to the future. We separated, and I returned to California. After a couple of years, I asked a woman to marry me, but I never stopped loving Charlotte. Before I could marry, I came to my senses, cancelled the wedding, faked my death, and disappeared. I’ve been living in Richmond, Virginia, in the twenty-first century with her and our three children. I’m a contented man. I have my vineyards and racehorses. I write books and search for the perfect cigar.”
“I’m glad ye’re happy, but where are Amber and Noah, and how do I get them back?”
“Amber is in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. She’s very sick. As Noah said in his video, he didn’t want to leave her and Ripley. He wanted us to come here to get ye.”
Olivia walked out onto the platform, clutching Amber’s journal. “My sister needs open-heart surgery to replace a valve in her heart. She wants to see you, Daniel, before she has surgery. If I have to tie you up and kidnap you, I will. I’ll do anything for her. When Kenzie and Connor told me that Amber traveled back to 1878, I didn’t believe them. I said some hateful things that I regret now. Every time Amber lied to you, it ripped out pieces of her heart. You’re having trouble with the truth now. What would you have done if she’d told you the truth the day you met?
“Would you have believed her if she’d told you Craig Hughes is our seven-times great-grandfather? Would you have believed her if she admitted to graduating from Yale with a degree in geology? She is the gutsiest woman I’ve ever met. And I need to go home. I need to see her, and I need to call our parents. It’s time to go, Daniel.”
All the odd words and inconsistencies he’d heard from Amber, Olivia, Kenzie, David, Rick, and Connor all spun around in his head. It didn’t make sense, but if his son wasn’t afraid, it couldn’t be so bad.
“I’ll go, but I won’t live in a little box.”
“Amber and Noah aren’t living in a little box. That’s how we communicate with each other. Like you send telegrams. We have other methods. You’ll be just like you are now. Same stubborn Scot, and when you meet Elliott Fraser, you’ll be in great company.”
“And ye’re certain I can come back with Noah and Ripley?”
The air on the platform was clouded by the haze of cigar smoke and coal oil lamps. Olivia used her hand to fan it away. “This isn’t a forever decision.”
Daniel flicked the cigar ash over the railing, wishing he could flick away his fears as easily. “When is Amber’s surgery?”
“Without getting into time traveling technicalities, surgery is scheduled for early in the morning,” Braham said.
Daniel did a few mental calculations. He’d taken the train from the East coast to the West coast and knew from personal experience getting to Virginia from Colorado in twelve hours was impossible. He clicked open his pocket watch and checked the time. “We can’t get to Richmond by morning.”
“The way we travel, we can,” Braham said.
Daniel tucked the watch back into his waistcoat. “And Noah will get out of the box.”
“He’s not…” Olivia raised an eyebrow without further comment. “Never mind.”
Daniel didn’t really believe Noah was captured in the box, but until he understood the technology involved and how the talking images got there, it was easier for his small brain to accept.
“And Noah and I can come back?”
“As easily as Kenzie and David reappeared in Denver, you can reappear, too,” Olivia said.
“In what? Days? Weeks? Months?”
“I believe ye can come back soon enough that explaining yer absence won’t be difficult,” Braham said.
Daniel’s voice took on an edge when he asked, “How do we get there? Do ye have a magic ring like Aladdin?”
“No ring,” Braham said. “Just a brooch and a few magic words.”
52
The Present, Richmond, Virginia—Daniel
When the fog lifted, Daniel’s gaze darted all around. Rick and Braham stood next to him. The sun peeked through the shedding branches of a live-oak lined drive that led to a stately Southern mansion. There wasn’t a loud roar of rushing water, but the distinctive smell of a river told him one ran through the property. The land held a prevailing peacefulness, and an ease, unlike anything he’d ever experienced, came over him in a healing wash.
It was as if he’d been called home.
He hugged Amber’s journal to his chest, sensing her nearby. “Where are we?” His tone was soft, reverent, as if speaking any louder would make it all evaporate.
“A sweet little place on the James River.” Rick closed the amber brooch and slipped it into his waistcoat pocket. “If you can’t relax here, you can’t relax anywhere.”
“Charlotte’s family has owned this land since the 1600s,” Braham said. “Her brother and his family live in the homeplace on the other side of that tree line.” He clapped Daniel on the shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go find N
oah.”
They walked along the bricked drive toward the front door of the mansion. “Did her family come from Scotland?” Daniel asked. “I know several families who settled here in Virginia.”
“Charlotte’s ancestors were Protestant dissenters from Ulster,” Braham said. “Michael Mallory married Lorna MacKlenna, who was James MacKlenna’s great-aunt. But here’s a connection you can relate to: James MacKlenna’s daughter, Lindsey, married Craig Hughes.”
“From Leadville?” Daniel asked. “Interesting. So Charlotte is distantly related to the Hughes family?”
“Distantly,” Braham said.
Daniel followed Braham up the steps—their spurs clinking against the brick—to a wide veranda lined with pots of gold and red chrysanthemums. The earthy scent of the skinny petals created a warm welcoming embrace.
“We need to take off what we can. Our housekeeper won’t be happy if we track in mud.” They sat in the porch rockers and removed hats, boots, and coats.
“I’m so dirty, I need to strip completely,” Rick said.
“Brush off what ye can,” Braham said.
Daniel brushed the legs of his trousers. Most of the dirt was embedded in the heavy cotton and would need a few washings to get the pants clean enough to wear again. He unfastened the buckle at his waist and coiled the cartridge belt around his holster.
“I’ll take yer rig and lock it up in my safe,” Braham said. “Ye can have it anytime, but ye won’t need it here.”
“God made man, but Sam Colt made them equal until McCabe locked up everybody’s guns,” Rick said, lining his boots up against the wall. Then he folded his coat and left it and his hat in one of the chairs.
Daniel slapped the rig into the major’s hand. “Where exactly is here?” He followed Rick’s lead, lined up his boots, folded his coat, and left it in a chair with his hat.
Braham lined up his boots, too, but left his coat and hat where he’d slung them on the porch rail. “We’re a few miles north of Richmond.” He opened the screen door and gestured with his thumb for Daniel to precede him. “Let’s go find yer lad.”
The Amber Brooch: Time Travel Romance (The Celtic Brooch Book 8) Page 62
