Out of Time (7 page)

So much for calm. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this. She stepped tentatively into the room, self-consciously tugging her T-shirt down. Simon turned quickly away, but it was too late. The image of her wearing only the small shirt and panties was burned into his memory. Not to mention the fact he could see her reflection quite clearly in the window.

She slid under the covers and pulled them up to her chin. “S’okay. You can turn around now.”

Simon stood awkwardly on the far side of the room. This was impossible. He looked nervously around the room and noticed the light switch near the door. “Do you mind if I shut the light now?”

“Sure.”

Simon turned off the light, but instead of feeling relieved, he felt strangely more on edge. The darkness only heightened the sense of intimacy. The rustle of the covers as Elizabeth moved in the bed brought images to his mind the darkness couldn’t hide. He walked back over to the table and began to undress.

His fingers fumbled at the buttons of his shirt. He hadn’t been this nervous undressing since Eton. But he’d been a boy then, losing his virginity in the blink of an eye with a girl he couldn’t even remember. Now he was a man. A man who had to spend the night lying chastely next to a woman he desired more than any he’d ever met.

He really had to curtail that train of thought before he embarrassed them both. Latin. Consummate—conjugate verbs.
Abstenero, absteneras, abstenerat…

Finally, when he’d finished undressing, he slipped under the covers and tried not to feel the heat of her body next to his.

A soft moan escaped her lips in the darkness. He lifted himself up on his elbow. “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” she said and swallowed. “It’s all just a little overwhelming.”

“We’ll be fine,” he said in a voice that felt far too deep. He cleared his throat.

“You don’t snore, do you?”

He could see the vague outline of her face as she moved onto her side. The soft curves of her smile shone through the darkness.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “But I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

She laughed and let her head rest on the pillow. “Goodnight, Simon.”

“Goodnight, Elizabeth.”

She rolled away from him, and he let out a deep breath, closing his eyes.

Sleep was a long time in coming. As the night dragged on, he found himself watching her. It was soothing and comforting in ways he didn’t dare explore. He listened to her slow breaths and watched over her until sleep finally claimed him.

“I’M TELLIN’ YA THAT ump was blind. Fletch oughta get him some cheaters. The Babe was robbed. That was a two bagger,” a man growled loudly and thumped his hand on the counter.

“Don’t see what you’re gripin’ about. Yanks won, didn’t they?” his companion said.

“It’s the principle of the thing. Ain’t right.”

Simon glared at them, but their argument continued. It seemed everyone in the diner felt the compulsion to converse loudly enough to wake the dead. He turned back to Elizabeth, who’d been listening to the conversation with glee.

“Can you imagine getting to see Babe Ruth play?” she said. “If we have time, we are so going to a game.”

“This isn’t a vacation, Miss West,” he said, picking up his menu.

“It isn’t a prison sentence either. Think of the opportunity we have. We get to see what it was really like. Not some revisionist history from a book, but the real deal. And I’ve always wanted to go to Yankee Stadium,” she added with a grin.

“Miss West—”

“I’m kidding. Mostly. And it’s Elizabeth, remember?” she said, wiggling her ring finger.

He hadn’t forgotten. He hadn’t forgotten last night when she’d rolled against him in her sleep. He hadn’t forgotten this morning when he’d awakened to find his hand resting casually on her hip. He had not forgotten.

After this morning especially, he felt more compelled than ever to keep his distance. It wasn’t bad enough that he’d dreamt of her and that the dream had coalesced, in a frighteningly smooth way, into reality. But if he was going to wake up every morning with a raging morning erection, this was going to be impossible.

“First thing we should do is visit the local library,” he said. “We need to know the exact time of the next eclipse.”

“Wouldn’t want to be caught with our pants down.”

Simon cleared his throat. “No,” he said and quickly went back to his menu. The prices were absurdly inexpensive. Steak and eggs for a quarter. Coffee and a donut for a dime. Blue plate special only fifteen cents. Remarkable really, or would have been if he had more than twenty dollars to his name.

He heard someone snapping gum and looked up to see their waitress impatiently tapping her stubby pencil on a pad. “What’ll it be?”

“You don’t have Wheatina.”

Snap. Pop. Snap. “Nope.”

He stared down at the menu looking for something that didn’t sound positively dreadful.

“We’ll have two specials,” Elizabeth said. “And two coffees.” She glanced over at Simon. “Unless you want tea?”

Simon was about to say something about being able to order for himself, but the idea of some tea in his future blocked out everything else. “Do you have Chinese Gun Powder?”

“This look like an armory to you, buddy?”

Elizabeth handed her menu to the waitress. “Two coffees will be fine.”

Simon pursed his lips and gave up. He watched her walk away and looked around the diner. Steam billowed from behind the cook’s counter. A corpulent man with a sour face and a grease-stained T-shirt tossed ridiculously large slabs of meat on the grill behind the long curved counter. There wasn’t even an empty stool, so Simon was pleased they’d managed to get a booth. At least here they had a modicum of privacy.

“We won’t be having tea at the Ritz any time soon,” Elizabeth said. “Better get used to it.”

Simon wiped the tabletop in front of him with his napkin and set it aside. “That much is clear.”

“So, how’d you sleep?”

“Well enough, thank you,” he said uncomfortably. But she smiled back innocently, and he felt his tensions ease a little. “Did I snore?”

Elizabeth grinned. “Nope.”

“You did,” he said.

She sat up a little taller. “I do not snore.”

“Like a locomotive,” he teased, thoroughly enjoying her look of embarrassment.

“That’s not a very nice thing to say.”

“The truth is often ugly,” he said, trying not to smile.

She blushed. Beautifully. “Did I really snore?”

“It was more of a gurgling sound really.”

“Oh, really? Well, better a gurgler than a bed-hog.”

“I beg your pardon.”

“You practically pushed me off the side.”

“I did? I’m sorry. I…” Who knows what he’d done in his sleep. If it was anything like what he dreamt of…

Elizabeth grinned. “I was joking. Mostly. You did bogart the middle a little, but it is a small bed and well, by size rights you should have two thirds anyway. It’s only fair.”

Simon was about to argue the point when the waitress arrived with the coffee.

Elizabeth took a sip and let out a contented sigh. “Oh, I needed that. So, after the library, what’s next on the hit parade?”

Simon tried the coffee. It was too strong and too bitter, but he forced it down. “That depends on how long we have to stay here. I had considered trying to contact my grandfather.”

She seemed surprised at that.

“He was living in London at this time, I believe. Although, aside from the difficulty of tracking him down, I’m not sure we should. I doubt he knows anything about the watch at this point in time. We have no idea when it came into his possession, and if I were to tell him something about the future, the consequences could be disastrous.”

He took another sip of coffee. It didn’t taste any better than the first. And his beard was beginning to itch. “We have to do everything we can to ensure the integrity of the timeline.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. Your grandfather seemed to get pretty involved in the times he visited. Brunch with the death eaters and all.”

“No doubt he embellished his adventures for my benefit.” Although at this point, the line between fact and fiction seemed blurred beyond recognition.

“Could be. But then again, maybe not,” she said, her brow furrowing in thought. “The Heisenberg Principle says that we change what we study by the very act of studying it. Maybe he was telling the truth.”

“Perhaps.” Regardless, he thought, the less they were involved in the unknown here the easier it would be to keep an eye on her. There were far too many factors as it was, in a city and a time he was unfamiliar with. Adding in more could only spell disaster. She was far too open and accepting, but she wasn’t a fool. She had a good head on her shoulders, and he decided to appeal to her logic. “But, you must admit, the less we interfere here the better.”

Elizabeth nodded grudgingly, but fixed him with a raised eyebrow.

“We’re going to have to do a little interfering though,” she reasoned. “If the eclipse is more than a day or two away, and judging from our luck, my money’s on months, we’re going to have to find a way to earn money. Even at these prices twenty dollars won’t last much more than a week. We’re going to have to get jobs.”

She was right, of course. How did she manage such calm, even enthusiasm in the face of this gaping maw of uncertainty? Didn’t the prospect of spending months, perhaps a lifetime here unsettle her in the least? Simon sighed and forced his mind back to the issue at hand. Money had to be a priority. It was a rather daunting prospect. He had never wanted for money in his life and he sincerely doubted there was a great call here for professors of the occult. “I don’t think it’s quite that simple.”

“Two specials,” the waitress said, putting down plates laden with eggs, hash browns, bacon and toast. “Anything else?”

“Know where we might find some jobs?” Elizabeth asked. “We’re new in town and really don’t have any idea where to start.”

The waitress raked her eyes over Simon and arched a thinly plucked eyebrow, before turning back to Elizabeth. “There’s a chalk board over on Fourth and Broadway. Lists all sorts of jobs, but I don’t think they’re exactly your type.”

Elizabeth gave a good natured shrug. “You never know. Thanks.”

The waitress snapped her gum and ripped their bill off her pad. “Good luck, honey.”

Elizabeth turned to him and smiled triumphantly. “That wasn’t so hard. Library, job boards. Looks like it’s going to be a busy day.”

She dug into her food with relish. “Better eat yours before it gets cold.”

Simon poked a fork into his runny eggs. Busy indeed.

Elizabeth had never ridden a subway before. The cars bumped along, jigging from side to side, as they clattered through the dark tunnels. She felt like a native, bouncing in her seat like the rest of the passengers. If they only knew.

The train’s brakes squealed as it ground to a halt at the 42nd Street station. She and Simon fell in with the press of people hurrying out the doors and up the steps. She could see the library looming down the block.

It was enormous and comforting. Inside, it looked like every other public library in a big city. Same vaulting architecture and marble floors. It felt like a little bit of home.

They found a book on eclipses easily and settled into one of the long tables in the main reference hall. Elizabeth watched Simon skim through the pages until he hit the one they’d been searching for. His face was unreadable as he closed the book.

“Well?” Elizabeth prompted. “You going to tell me or what?”

“It could have been worse.”

It was an annoying habit of his, withholding information just for the privilege of watching someone squirm in anticipation. “And?”

“The next lunar eclipse will occur September 3rd of this year.”

She did some quick math. “Six weeks?”

“So it would seem,” he said.

September third. That was a month and a half before the stock market crash. She hated to admit it, but Simon was right—they should limit their involvement in the culture. She’d read enough science fiction to know that, but it was so tempting. To be able to avert one of the darkest periods in American history. Not that she really could. What was she going to do? Walk the streets wearing a sandwich board that said, “Sell your stocks! Black Tuesday approaches!” They’d lock her up and throw away the key. Still, it was an enticing idea. However, there were definitely more pressing matters to think about. Six weeks was a long time. And even then, there was no guarantee the watch would work. They might be trapped here forever.

“Are you all right, Miss West?”

“It’s Elizabeth, remember? And I’m just thinking.”

“Indeed,” he said with a sigh. “Since we seem to be stuck here for an extended period, I suppose we should look into employment.”

The way he said employment nearly made her laugh, as if he were being asked to live in a basket of snakes. Her own fears about what may or may not come fell away. Why was it facing adversity was easier when someone else needed you? “It’s not that bad.”

Simon looked surprised. “You almost sound as though you’re pleased with this turn of events.”

She shrugged. “Like you said, it could have been worse. Now that we know, it’s not so bad really. It’s kind of an adventure.”

He frowned, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Your definition of adventure is profoundly warped.”

After they’d finished at the library, they started back to lower Manhattan. Fifth Avenue was a far cry from their neighborhood, at least the little she’d seen. Huge buildings stretched toward the sky, except for one huge hole in the ground. A large, elaborate sign stood at the rim—”Future Site of the Empire State Building - Starrett Bros. & Eken.” The Empire State Building, something that seemed so old in her mind, hadn’t even been built yet.

Everything about the city seemed about to happen. As if every person, every thing were on the verge of something better. She always thought New York would feel oppressive, impersonal, but it was just the opposite. Energizing and inspiring, where the only limit was your own imagination.