Amber chewed on her pinky nail. She looked up at Charlotte. “Can Olivia use your phone? Let’s just call them right now. If Mom acts up, take the call out of here. Deal.”
Charlotte handed her phone to Olivia. “I think your mother would like to hear Amber’s voice, if just for a moment. But don’t let her upset Amber.”
“Whose phone should I call? Mom’s? Dad’s?”
“Mom’s. Although Dad will probably answer it,” Amber said.
Olivia dialed her mother’s phone. After three rings, her dad answered. “Matthew Kelly. Who is this?”
“Hi, Dad. It’s Olivia.”
“What’s wrong, sweetie?”
“I’m here with Amber. We’re both in love with these great guys, and we can’t wait for you to meet them.”
“That’s great. Your mom and I can’t wait to hear all about them. We’ll be home in two days. Can you bring them over for dinner? I’ll grill steaks?”
Amber rolled her hand, gesturing Olivia to speed it up. “Here’s the thing, Dad. There’s a private plane waiting for you at Heathrow, and you need to go there now.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Olivia?” he asked.
“All the arrangements have been made for a plane to fly you and Mom to Richmond, Virginia. A car service will be there waiting when you deplane. It will bring you to the VCU Medical Center.”
“What for?” His voice was raspy, neither deep nor high, just rough.
“Amber has to have surgery in the morning and we want you to be here.”
“Let me talk to her.”
Olivia put the call on speaker.
“Hi, Dad,” Amber said.
“If you’re in the hospital, sweetie, something is seriously wrong. What happened?”
“I’ve had several cases of strep throat that were never treated, and I got rheumatic heart disease. The disease damaged my mitral valve, and I have to have it replaced tomorrow.”
After a few beats of silence, Olivia thought the call had dropped. “Dad, are you still there?”
“What’s the doctor’s name? I need to make some calls. Why are you in Virginia and not Denver?”
Amber muted the phone. “I can’t deal with him. You’ll have to explain it all.”
“Dad, a friend of ours, Rick O’Grady, is going to call you with details about the flight. Amber has a fantastic medical team. It’s led by Dr. Charlotte Mallory, renowned surgeon.”
“What kind of surgeon?”
“She’s a general surgeon. She’s not doing the surgery. Rick O’Grady will call you in a few minutes. Or maybe his brother Connor. Connor is the love of my life, Dad, so don’t you dare be mean to him.”
“Olivia.”
She nearly cried at the sound of her mother’s voice. “Hi, Mom.”
“From what I overheard, Amber is about to have open-heart surgery and you’re both in love. Is that the gist of it?”
Amber mouthed, “Noah.”
Olivia scrunched her face. “Amber’s boyfriend is a widower with a ten-year-old son. You’ll love him. His name is Noah.”
“I’m sure I will,” her mother said. “Can this Rick person explain all the details you’re leaving out?”
Olivia did a maybe-maybe-not flip of her head. “Some, but the rest you’ll have to hear from Elliott Fraser.”
“Who’s he?”
“Google him, along with Kenzie Wallis-Manning…McBain.”
There was a slight gasp on her mother’s end of the phone, and Olivia mentally kicked herself for not starting the conversation with the connection to Trey. It would have eased both of her parents’ concerns. “Trey’s friend?”
“One and the same,” Olivia said.
“Is there anyone else I should Google?”
“Braham McCabe, David McBain, Meredith Montgomery.”
“Jack Mallory,” Amber said.
“And Jack Mallory.”
“The New York Times best-selling author? I heard he’s marrying that beautiful ESPN baseball analyst in a big, fancy wedding on his plantation.”
“Reading about them will keep you busy during the flight, Mom. Oh, I forgot someone else. Chris Dalton.”
“From the Golden State Warriors? He’s going to be there, too?”
“No, but you might meet Chris’ son, Austin O’Grady. He’s Connor’s nephew.”
“It already sounds confusing.”
“Oh, trust me, it is. You might also want to study Lindsey MacKlenna Hughes’ family tree.”
“Why?”
“Elliott will explain.”
“Olivia, this is all sounding mysterious. It wouldn’t have anything to do with that old MacKlenna brooch lore your great-grandmother Hughes used to talk about, would it?”
“Ah, crap, Mom. You know about the brooch?”
“The amber brooch in the loom? Yes, I’ve known about it since I was a little girl. I was warned never to touch it until I was ready to find the love of my life.”
“You never told us?”
“Told you what, dear? That there was an old Scottish brooch buried in the loom? A brooch that would take you to your soul mate? I didn’t believe it. I found my soul mate in law school.”
There was a strange blending of exhaustion in Olivia’s soul. She ignored the leap of her pulse, the knot in her stomach, the fear surrounding her, and the heavy dose of frustration at her mother and granny because they had never shared the brooch lore with her and Amber. How much easier would the last several days have been if they’d been told the truth?
“We’ll see you in a few hours, Mom. Have a safe flight,” Olivia said.
“Olivia,” her mom said. “Kiss Amber for me.”
Olivia kissed Amber’s cheek. “Done. And back atcha. Goodbye, Mom.” Olivia disconnected the call.
“I can’t believe she knew about the brooch,” Amber said.
“But she didn’t believe the family stories.”
Amber took Daniel’s letter back and held it against her breasts. “The brooch led me to my soul mate.”
Charlotte twirled the wedding band on her ring finger. “And to mine.”
Olivia handed Charlotte back her phone. “I don’t think it led me to mine, but it opened my eyes and heart into believing the man in my life was truly the love of my life.”
54
The Present, Richmond, Virginia—Amber
Four days later, Amber was sitting up in her hospital bed eating small portions of salmon and asparagus that Daniel had prepared. When he’d asked for recipes, she’d given them to him, assuming Charlotte’s cook would prepare the dishes.
Amber was wrong.
“I can’t believe you made this without help.” She wiped her mouth and pushed away the tray table. “It was delicious. Thank you.”
Daniel’s eyes gleamed. “I told Charlotte I wanted to do something special for ye. She said since ye were a foodie—she had to explain what that meant—that ye’d like a meal that didn’t come from the hospital kitchen. I don’t blame ye. It’s terrible food.”
“Noah and I watched YouTube videos about how to use the appliances, but we did it by ourselves. Pretty good, huh? I think we might have a budding chef in him. He asked for more recipes. He wants to create a meal all by himself next time.”
“Both of you have caught on so quickly to twenty-first century technology.” She snagged Daniel’s arm and tugged him down for a kiss. First, she kissed his cheek. “That’s for the sous chef.” Then she kissed Daniel, and the effects of the tender touch of their mouths tingled her lips. “That’s for the executive chef, and I’m so impressed.”
Elizabeth Kelly strode into the room, wearing yoga pants and a T-shirt from a half-marathon she’d run in September. “What are you impressed about?”
Connor and Olivia came in behind her, holding hands. “Who’s impressed?” Olivia asked.
“I’m impressed with Daniel’s salmon dinner. It was delicious.”
Daniel stood and pushed the recliner aside to make room for Elizabe
th at the side of the bed, and he shifted his gaze to the activity outside the window. Amber watched him do that every hour or so, as if to be sure nothing had changed, and he hadn’t been transported to yet another realm of the universe.
The streets beyond the hospital, the adjacent buildings, and the shapes, colors, and sizes of the vehicles filling the parking lot amazed him. He would describe what he saw and pepper her with questions on a variety of topics. But mostly, he stared out the window to find in the layout of the streets the Richmond he knew in 1865.
She grew more and more in love with him each moment they spent together. He seduced her with his compassion and thoughtfulness. Whenever he touched her, he did so with gentleness and strength, charm and steely patience, and she marveled at how powerfully she was drawn to him.
And he to her…
Elizabeth Kelly kissed her daughter. “How are you feeling?”
“As long as I don’t laugh, cough, or get up, I’m fine.”
Daniel turned away from the window. “She walked down to the nurses’ station and back about an hour ago. Later, we’re scheduled to try the loop around the floor.”
“You can do the loop,” Amber said. “Or you can push me in a wheelchair.”
He leaned against the windowsill and crossed his arms. “Ye have to walk to get yer strength back so we can take Noah to visit yer dinosaurs in Washington.”
“We’re not going to see dinosaurs today,” Connor said. “We’re going to drink beer at a pub down the street. David, Braham, and Jack are waiting in the car. Grab your jacket and let’s go.”
Daniel looked at Connor. “A pub? To drink beer? Like a saloon?” He turned his gaze to Amber. “Do ye mind?”
“Not at all, and I think you’ll be safe enough with those guys.”
Olivia eyed Connor suspiciously. “Are you taking him to a campus bar?”
He grinned and tugged her in for a hug. “It’s the only one close by.”
“Right,” Olivia said. “Just remember, you guys are twice the age of those coeds.”
He kissed her. “I’m just kidding. It’s a sports bar with pool tables. Braham wants to teach Daniel how to play eight-ball. We’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
Daniel reached into his pocket and pulled out his pocket watch and a handful of coins. “I haven’t learned yer money yet. Do I have enough for beers?”
Amber gawked. “Are you kidding me? Let me see those.” She flipped through a couple dozen coins. “I can’t be sure, but this Shield Nickel might be worth three thousand dollars. And you’ve got a dozen Liberty Head Double Eagles.” She looked up at Daniel. “What else did you bring with you?”
“A few books. Do ye need something to read?”
“Like…”
“Noah has The Three Musketeers and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I have”—he glanced up, tapping his fingers on the windowsill—“Moby-Dick, A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Life in the Woods, The Mysterious Key, and Anna Karenina.”
Amber shook her head and returned the coins to him. “Would you please give those to Braham, along with all the books, and ask him to put them in his safe.”
“Should I give him my Denver & Rio Grande Railroad stocks and bonds, too?”
“The actual certificates?” she asked.
He nodded. “I had them with me to talk to General Palmer about selling them, but we never had time.”
“Please do. They might be very valuable.” Amber trembled. Daniel could liquidate his coins, books, stocks, and bonds and have a revenue stream he could invest. If he had his own money, he wouldn’t feel like he was living off Braham’s charity. “Do you have anything else?”
“Only a copy of a speech and a few letters that have sentimental value. Nothing like the coins.”
“Who wrote them?” Elizabeth asked.
“The speech was written by President Lincoln at Gettysburg, and I have a few letters from General Grant written after Appomattox. I’ve carried them in my Bible for years.”
“Daniel,” Amber asked slowly. “Are you saying you have a handwritten copy of Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg?”
“I have one he wrote in pencil. It may have been only the first draft. I also have a Bible he gave me that he used in the second inauguration.”
She stared with disbelief. “Braham needs to lock everything up immediately. Is there anything else?”
“This won’t win me any honor points, but I took the quilt off Lincoln’s death bed. After everyone left, I saw it and thought I’d have it cleaned, but I couldn’t wash away the blood he shed for the country. It’s been wrapped up in my bedroll since he died.”
Elizabeth passed her iPhone to Amber. “Read this.”
“According to this article Mom found there’s a standing ten-million-dollar reward for the original Gettysburg Address penciled in Lincoln’s hand.”
Daniel’s eyes snapped into focus, as if he’d been only half awake before and hadn’t fully understood the significance of what he had in his possession. “Ten million dollars for an old piece of paper?”
“It’s not just any piece of paper.” Amber continued to read, “The quilt from his death bed and the second inaugural Bible are relics that have never surfaced.” She glanced up at Daniel. “With your Lincoln relics, stocks and bonds, coins, and first-edition classics, you could have a twenty- to thirty-million-dollar collection. If it’s all sold at auction, you could get more.”
His face turned white and he curled his hands around the edge of the windowsill. “Millions? Are ye sure?”
“It depends on what you have, and we’ll only know that after the experts examine it all.”
“How will you explain where this treasure came from?” Elizabeth asked.
Connor laughed. “Are you kidding? Braham, Kenzie, and Jack Mallory found the Confederate gold. A few Lincoln relics, coins, and books discovered by those two treasure hunters wouldn’t cause much of a stir.” He clapped Daniel on the shoulder. “Just so you know. You’re buying drinks this afternoon.”
“Oh, Connor, wait. Before you go, did Rick leave?” Amber said. “He said he would call, but he didn’t, and now he’s not answering his cell.”
“He’s flying commercial, so you’ll have to wait until he lands in California. We were on a conference call with Meredith until he had to turn his phone off.”
“What’d she say?”
“She was finally allowed back on the winery property. The vineyards survived but none of the structures. For the next few months, it’s all hands on deck. I’ll be splitting my time between Denver and Napa,” Connor said.
“JL won’t go, will she?” Olivia asked.
“Meredith sent a company-wide email advising all employees and board members that anyone with a health issue was banned from the property for at least six months.”
“I don’t have a health issue,” Elizabeth said. “I can go. Meredith will need someone to handle contracts and insurance companies. That’s right up my alley.”
“That’s nice, Mom, but I’m sure Kenzie has it under control,” Amber said.
“We were talking about the fire this morning at breakfast. Kenzie said she couldn’t go there because the soot created a health issue for her. She didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t ask.”
“Why is it an issue for her and not everyone else?” As soon as Amber asked the question, she slapped her hand over her mouth.
“It looks like you already know the answer,” Elizabeth said.
Amber mimed zippering her lips.
Elizabeth gave her that all-knowing mother look. But when Amber noticed Daniel’s pink cheeks, she started laughing, which hurt her chest. Daniel grabbed her heart pillow off the bedside table, and she clutched it for sternal support.
When the giggles passed, she asked, “Where’s Kenzie now and where’s Dad?”
“Kenzie is in Braham’s office working and your father is the guest lecturer today for the kids. When we left the house, he had James Cullen, Emily, Lincoln, Patrick, an
d Noah gathered around a table looking at maps. He’s teaching a unit on the ecology and conservation of the animals and plants of Africa.”
“And the kids are interested?” Olivia asked.
“Except for the twins, Robbie and Henry. They were there for the first part of the lecture but got side-tracked when Matt started talking about the wildlife. They wondered what kind of rifle they’d need to shoot an elephant.”
Amber hugged her pillow again. “Please don’t make me laugh. Did they really ask that? What’d Dad say?”
“He let David answer,” Elizabeth said. “A wise decision.”
“I’ve got to hear this. What’d David say?” Connor asked.
“David told the twins to use a Holland and Holland .700 Nitro Express double rifle, which is designed for fast shooting on extremely large game animals like rhinos and elephants. He then went on to say, if they didn’t hit the target in two shots they would be eaten or trampled by their prey. And he said, if they shot an elephant they’d have to eat the entire animal all by themselves because they knew the rule.”
“Which is?” Amber asked.
Elizabeth laughed. “You never shoot anything you don’t intend to eat.”
Amber hugged her pillow tighter, trying not to laugh.
“What’d the twins say to that?” Olivia asked.
“They said they couldn’t eat an elephant and they’d rather play with wee Kit than listen to a boring lecture on plants and inedible animals. So, they left.”
“What’d the big kids think of Dad’s class?” Olivia asked.
“James Cullen was in contact with a travel agent checking dates for a time they could all go to Africa for a field study. Then Noah found an article on the dinosaur renaissance in South Africa.”
Amber yawned, and her eyelids started to drift closed. The company had exhausted her, and she needed to take a nap while Daniel was gone. “South Africa has a really long paleontological history. They were collecting dinosaurs there in the 1840s.”
The Amber Brooch: Time Travel Romance (The Celtic Brooch Book 8) Page 66
