Nothing But Time (4 page)

“
I did what I did
so
I would have a
good
place to bring you and nice clothes
for you
to wear when you got here,” he explained in that illogical
manner
that
told Kate his
priorities were completely out of whack.  “You should be glad I got here first,
Kate
.  You have no idea how difficult it was to earn money so quickly.  You know what happens to women here when they have no money,
Kate
?”

“You are completely mad, did you know that?”

“Not mad,
Kate
,” he replied
, sending a hesitant smile over his shoulder
.  “Simply in love.
  I know this might
not
be the time to mention it
, but I love you,
Kate
. 
I have
loved you
since
the moment I first saw you.  And look what I’ve given you! 
A home. 
A glimpse into the pa
st and we can share it together!
  How many people get this kind of opportunity?
”

“Oh, no,” she moaned
,
covering her face
with
her hands.  This could not be happening to her.  Getting stuck in the past she could almost handle
,
but getting stuck in the past
with a delusional, love
sick man
was just too much to bear.
It was all her fault.  She had known from probably their third meeting in the cafeteria that
David
was perhaps just a little too fanatical about her, a little too
insistent
on dating her.  How could she not have seen this coming?

And now he expected her to live with him on top of everything else?  She was just supposed to play house with him here in the 1800s until he managed to figure out the problem with the machine and then
hope
that it would get them home?  What if it never happened?  What if she were stuck here with him for the rest of her life?

“
This is too much
,” she muttered loud enough to draw his attention.

“
Think nothing of it
, my dear,” he
replied, misinterpreting her words
.  “
It’s all been for you, for us
.”

Kate
cringed away from his adoring eyes
.

“You do look splendid in that
gown,
Kate
,” he
carried on
softly.  “
It gladdens me to see that I was able to estimate your size so well and
I have a dozen more inside for you to choose from.  Come, let’s get you settled, shall we?
 
It's
been a long night and as they say, the sun always shines brighter after a good night’s sleep.  You’ll see, it will all work out.
” 

He turned and lit an oil lamp o
n a nearby table that he then
held aloft.  “This is the parlor, obviously.”

Helplessly
,
Kate lo
oked around at the room.  It was everything she’d ever imagined of the era right down to the lacy
antimacassars
on the arms
and headrests
of the tufted back settee.  Her grandmother had a dainty sofa that looked just like it.  From there they went back through the center hall circling around a
marble-topped
table
set with fresh flowers in a crystal vase
, through
a formally furnished dining room and
into
the kitchen.  A
long
worktable
dominated the center while a large trough sink with a long-handled water pump and huge cast iron stove sat against the wall.

Completing the rotation of the ground floor,
David
pointed out another informal parlor at the back of the house before turning Kate toward the stairs. 
“Everything is
brand-new
,” he told her as they climbed.
 
“
And not to worry
, I’ve hired a cook to
make our meals since getting a
knack for the stove takes some practice.”

There were four be
drooms above, one
of which
David
was us
ing as his work
room.  Stopping at the lone bathroom,
David
showed
her the basic workings.  “Spent the most time and money updating here and putting this in.
Fairly
new technology
actually
for the average home
these days
.  That’s why I had to
buy in
a newer neighborhood with the proper systems available.  But, and I know you
’ll thank me for this, the loo
flushes almost every time and we have running water. 
The cistern and boiler are above in the attic but not over your chamber so there shouldn’t be any noises to disturb your sleep
.”

Kate
knew she
should be grateful for the efforts
David
had put toward her comfort, but
she
just couldn’t find that bit of generosity in her heart.  She felt nothing but anger, spite and fear.  This was all madness, like a bad dream, but
Kate
was all too aware of the reality.  She was here in 1876…with
David
.  Granted there were probably worse people to be stuck in the past with – Lady Gaga, Just
in Bie
ber…certainly that Snooki
chick – but it was still
a
bad
situation
.

The eager, loving looks he kept
giv
ing her spoke of an expectation Kate wasn’t ready to ac
knowledge
, much less fulfill.  She wasn’t prepared to move in with anyone
,
much less a man she’d been on a single date with.  She knew nothing about him!  How was she supposed to share so much with him?

And what guarantee was there that
David
would ever figure out the problem with
the cabling?  What if there were more problems, one after the other?  What were the real odds that
he could send t
hem home…
that is, safely home? 
Accurately
home?
  Who was to say another trip through the machine wouldn’t just send them back to the Stone Age? 
Kate
realized that she
could
n’t
rely on hope
or
on
David
Fergusson’s skills for that matter
.  She
liked to think of herself as
a realist and the realist in her said she was never going back to her own time.  She was here for good and she had just better make the best of her situation. 

Kate
stumbled
then,
thinking of her parents back in Minnesota, her sister who lived in the Cities, her adorable nephew, Nate.  They had all been so proud of her when she’d gotten her scholarship to MIT, had stood by with delight when sh
e’d been hooded with her Master
s.  They had been thrilled when she
had been offered
t
he job at ISIS
.  When she’d gone home for Christmas a couple of weeks ago, they’d
promised to visit
her
at next summer
to see her home, visit her work
.  What would they think
had happened to her
?  What kind of grief would
David
’s little stunt deliver them
?  She would
be willing to
bet he hadn’t even thought about that yet.

All of this was going through her mind as
David
showed her around her bedroom
with its
small desk
, dressing table,
the promised
wardrobe full of gowns
…
and t
he door connecting her room with his.  This
last bit of information was accompanied by
a smile
and
Kate
wince
d
again
.  She knew what
David
wanted from her.  She’d known it for months because, even if his hints had been subtle – which they weren’t
– th
ey’d been plentiful and detailed.

His more broadly delivered hint upon their arrival had only cemented her dread.
  She wasn’t prepared for this especially with a self-satisfied guy like
David
, but Kate knew, when it came right down to it, she had no one to blame but herself – oh, not for this time travel incident but for not nipping
David
’s lovesick crush in the bud.

She’d known
what he had wanted from her before she had agreed to go on
this
date with him and now she heartily regretted caving under the constant pressure and doing it.  Now,
David
had set a whole scenario for them as a happy couple.  H
e h
ad probably spent the last
eleven
months building on his little fantasy and would most likely blow a gasket if she told him flat out that she wasn’t interested in him that way.  She’d heard stories of what happened when things like that got out of hand. 
Boyfriends turned stalker. 
She couldn’t live with him here, couldn’t play into whatever expectations
David
had of her. 

And, as far as she could see,
if she was to be stuck in this time for the remainder of her life,
the
best thing she could do was get as far from
David
as possible before he lined up a priest for them and had her nestled away as the little woman.

She had to get away.

But where?

How?

Kate curled up on the bed without getting undressed.  She needed to face the facts and the facts told her she had no idea what or
who
was outside those doors.  Unlike
David
, she remembered little about her required history classes beyond wars and disaster
s
. 
American
wars and disasters.  As with any
egocentric
country, she hardly learned a thing
about what went on
beyond US borders.  This was 1876.  It was the centennial of America’s independence.  Thanks to her genealogy-crazed mother, she knew 1876 was the year her Norwegian ancestors arrived in America and moved to Minnesota to begin farming.
However, as far as British history went, it might as well be entitled ‘the year in which nothing happened’.  She couldn’t think of a single event from this year that could help her now.

So what was she to do?

Kate felt a shiver of child-like fear shake her.  For the most part, at twenty-four, she considered herself ma
ture if occasionally given to b
outs of immaturity but – in that moment – she just wanted her dad to take her in his arms and tell her everything was going to be all right.

H
owever, h
er dad, the one she’d always gone to with her problems, was a lifetime away.  Here, there was no one she could run to for help. 

The only one who could help was Dr. David Fergusson. 
If there was a key to their return to the future, he held it.
Only he could take her home.

And she had
very little
faith in him.

Two Weeks Later

“What is it now, Kate?”

“I’m just watching,
David
,” Kate rested her elbow
s
on
David
’s worktable and propped her chin in her palm
s
,
scrutinizing the work he was doing. 
Cables of different materials and diameter were strewn across the
workbench as
David
assembled what was
to be his third attempt at fabricat
ing a sustainable
power transfer
cable
for the
siphon/
time machine since she’d been there.

Two weeks
now
. 

“Why don’t you–
”

“So help me,” Kate cut him off
before he had a chance to finish the thought,
“
i
f you tell me one more time
to ‘run along’ and like a ‘good
little woman’, I might have to kick you where you’d rather I not.  This might be the nineteenth century, but please try to remember I’m not a nineteenth century woman.  I want to help.  I want to go home.”

“I’m used to working alone, so please just run…”
David
cast her a look from the corner of his eye before
his gaze slid away
.  “Besides, you’ve already said you know nothing about power
cables
.”

She didn’t, but Kate was
bored
.  Scared.  N
ervous.  And tons of other things that she didn’t want to think about.  I
ncluding the fact that she was rapidly l
osing
whatever minu
scule iota of faith she’d ever had i
n
David
’s ability to get them home…ever.
 
After t
wo weeks of watching failure a
fter
failure pile up, Kate could only wonder how many
other attempts
had gone to the wayside before she arrived.  Not that watching him fail made things better, but Kate liked to think that progress was being made. 
She wanted to be witness to some sign that the bi
g moment
would one day come
.

Besides, there was nothing else for her to do.

At first, she’d tried to take an interest in the new world around her – without
treading
as
ruthlessly over
Star Trek’s
Prime Directive as
David
had.  A couple
of
days after her arrival,
David
had let slip that they were mere blocks from the northern end of the Beatles
’
famous Abbey Road.  She had walked for miles up and down its length only to be strangely disappointed
when she did not find
that iconic zebra crossing from the album cover or
even
the
zigzagging
painted lanes or crosswalk
that existed in her time
.

With the exception of a few missing modern residences, a dramatic lack
of
cars and those
distinctive zebra crossings
of her time, St. John’s Wood didn’t seem
to
have
change
d
much in the intervening years.  The
Bobbies
looked essentially the same as well. 
Overall, i
t was
still a quaint residential area
.  Occasionally it was almost even easy to forget when she was.

In just a few days, Kate had seen all there was to see within the limited range of her ramblings.  After that,
she’d stuck to the house and indoors when
spring
rains came daily making outdoor excursions impossible. 
In these two long weeks, she’d read every
scrap of reading material in the house
.  She’d tried to cook on that big cast iron stove
,
managing to burn every meal she’d attempted – she’d never take temperature control as a given ever again in her life – and had even asked thei
r part-
time cook to teach her how to knit.

There was nothing else for her to do.

It was endless.  Tedious.

Kate could hardly
imagine living the next two days in the same manner much less the next two
weeks, months or even years until
David
figured out how to get them home.  She’d go simply mad without something to occupy her time. 

And
David
was right.  She couldn’t help him.  So it would need to be something else.

“I think I might look for a job then,” Kate said
as the idea formed in her mind
.  “So I won’t be around to bother you.”

“What?”
David
’s head popped up.  “You’re joking
,
right?”

Kate’s brows rose in surprise.  “No, I’m not.  I’m not used to sitting around doin
g nothing and you don’t seem to like having me around.”

“Kate, I love having you here,” he argued.  “But you must understand, if you truly want to go home…”

“Of course, I want to go home!  Don’t you?” Kate asked
,
thinking the question nothing more than rhetorical, but when
David
didn’t answer immediately, she studied him hard and was scared by what she saw there.  “You do want to go back, don’t you,
David
?  Don’t you?”

“Of course I do,” he answered finally.  “
But what’s the rush?”

“What’s the rush?”
Kate gaped at him. “Are you kidding me?  My parents probably think I’m dead,
David
.  I want to go home, I want my life back.”

With a wave of his hand,
David
dismissed her concerns.  “When we get back, it will be as if we never left.  No one will ever know we were gone.  We should have our fun here while we can.”

Fun?
  Kate’s mind nearly scrambled at his indifferent attitude.  There was nothing fun about being here, while back ho
me was everything she lived
and worked
for.  Couldn’t he see that? 
Clearly,
not.  Surely, there must be something…  “What about your time machine,
David
?” she asked.  “Don’t you want to go back home
for all the kudos that will be waiting for you when they find out what you’ve invented?”

With a wistful sigh,
David
nodded.  “Yes, I do.”

“So…?”

“
But
, on the other hand,
I have so enjoyed the time here.
  Sometimes I feel that this is where I was truly meant to be.
” 
David
had a gleam in his eye as he studied Kate up and down
,
taking in
another of the
gown
s
he’d bought for her to wear.  It was all Kate could do not to shudder.  She knew exactly what he thought when he looked at her like that. 
David
was definitely an old-fashioned guy.  He would have done
– ha
!
he
w
as
doing well – in
this era of ‘
barefoot-and-in-the-kitchen
’
.  She simply could not figure out how he thought she played into that fantasy because she certainly wasn’t an old-fashioned girl!
“This is exactly how I hoped things might be when you arrived.  I think it’s all been rather
wonderful.”

Kate grimaced.  She hadn’t found it
all
as wonderful as
David
did.  In the evenings – those long, long evenings – without a TV or movies to fall back on, they had taken to playing cards or chess together. 
Admittedly, i
t hadn’t been as bad as she initially imagined it would be.  As if sensing that he’d gotten close to completely alienating her with his talk of love and a future together,
David
had backed off his
declara
tions of love and become once more the moderately interesting date he’d been back in Oxford.

However, Kate didn’t want to date him every night.  She didn’t want him thinking that those evenings were going to fill the remainder of their days.  She couldn’t imagine spending the rest of her life just like that.  The monotony of it all might be the end of her.

“I know you enjoy the quiet life,
David
,” Kate began slowly
,
thinking that she’d rather tell him she had no plans to rub his feet and cater to him the rest of her life
.  “But I’m used to having more to do than that.  I used to rock climb, run, bike or go camping
and fishing
with my
dad.  I’m just not used to long days and longer nights sitting in a house with nothing to do.
 
I can’t even research
my dissertation here. 
If nothing else, at least a job w
ill
keep me busy.”

David
just shook his head
with a snor
t of amusement
.  “And what do you think you will do?  No university here will hire a woman to do research even if there is a subject matter that would interest you.”

“I could teach,” Kate shot back.

He scoffed.  “Unlikely given this day and age.  No one will hire a woman as a teacher.”

Kate couldn’t stop herself from bristling
as she blinked at him in surprise
.  “
Are you telling me that y
ou think I can’t get a job because I’m a woman?”

“That
’s exactly what I’m telling you.”  H
e grinned down at his work before picking up his tools and refocusing his attention on his task.
  “I told you when you arrived that women with no prospects usually end up in the very worst situations.”

“I am a bright
,
educated woman,
David
!” she told him with her hands on her hips.

“
Mmm.
”
H
e smiled even more broadly
with a patronizing nod
.

“I have dozens of marketable skills,” she went on.  “You just wait.  You’ll see.  I bet I can go out there and get a job just like that!”  Kate snapped her fingers.

“Ten pounds says you couldn’t get a job for anything better than waiting tables at the local pub,”
David
told her snidely.

“You’re on.”