Time to Control (6 page)

Eddie readjusted our hand-holding,
interlacing our fingers, making it more difficult for me to let go. Dang it. I
was more stuck now. I wanted to trust him that he knew what he was doing, but
really, how could he? It's not like he, or anyone else for that matter, had
experience in time traveling.

“Excuse me, are you Charles?”

The smith put down the hot metal,
but hefted his hammer and set it over his shoulder.
Gulp
. He assessed us
with a squint, probably trying to figure out what term of address he needed to
use. Since we weren't in noble clothing, that was most likely easy –
none. “Who wants to know?”

Eddie continued, undeterred. “You
may have made the ring my wife has, and we wanted to thank you.”

That definitely got the smith's
attention. He squinted a bit more, in a “we don't have glasses in this time
period” way, not in a “I'm pissed and will use this hammer on you, just you
wait” manner. Eddie lifted our joined hands to show the man the magic ring.
Charles almost dropped the hammer at the sight, and I stepped behind my
husband. Having Eddie be large and muscular was a nice thing.

“Let's go inside,” the smith
grunted.

Eddie shrugged at me, and we
followed the smith into the attached timber framework shop. A quick glance
around showed simple stairs leading upstairs, where he most likely lived with
his family. I didn't see a wife or children, or even grandchildren, since the
man looked to be in his fifties. Charles gestured to a chair and stool, and
took a seat on the hearth.

“That's my ring,” he said quietly.
“You must give it back to me. I have to save my son.”

Now I remembered the voice yelling
after us as we traveled back to the future the last few times. Coming back here
was a mistake. I reached for my left hand, intending on removing the ring, but
Eddie grabbed my hand again from his spot on the stool to prevent me from doing
so.

“Why do you think this ring would
save your son?” Eddie asked, curious.

Charles looked at us like we were
morons. “You're from the future. You've gotten the ring to work. I found
your...” he hesitated, probably trying to figure out how – and which one
of us – wore the missing bike shorts.

“Breeches,” Eddie prompted. I
breathed a sigh of relief. Calling them bloomers was probably pushing my luck,
so breeches was safer.

“Aye,” Charles said, still a bit
unsure. “I burned them – no one else will see them. So, I did you a
favor. I must insist you give me the ring, so I can go back and save my son.”

“We can't do that,” Eddie said
emphatically.

A forceful look crossed Charles'
face, and I hurried to speak. “We literally can't – if I take it off, we
go into the future with it.”

Frustration warred with grief, and
grief won. He rubbed a filthy hand across his face, leaving more ash there than
there was before.

“Tell us what happened,” my husband
said. “Maybe we can help you.”

I shot a glare his way. Was he
crazy?

I settled back into the rickety
chair as Charles told his tale. His wife had died giving birth to their second
child, leaving him alone to raise both his older son and the new little girl.
Sadly, the girl had died from the plague at the age of seven, leaving him alone
with his son Henry. The boy had grown up assisting the smith, and learning the
trade. When he came of age, Henry left to travel to London, to make his
business there. Twenty years ago Charles received word that Henry died laboring
to help build the Globe Theater, leaving Charles alone in the world. For the
last twenty years Charles had been working steadily in the evenings to make a
ring to control the power of time, so that he could turn it back and prevent
his son from getting killed.

It was a sad story that the smith
told, and I did feel for the man. The time period was tough, and death hit
every family hard. But if we helped Charles, where would it end? There were a
zillion tales of woe, and I didn't know if we could even change time. I have to
admit, I was being a bit selfish – I'd rather travel in time as a
visitor, and not as a do-gooder hero.

Apparently my husband came from
hero stock. He promised the man we would take care of it for him, since we couldn't
give Charles back the ring.

“I'm sorry, but no,” I interrupted.
“I don't want to get your hopes up. We can't promise this.”

Eddie was upset at my refusal, and
Charles looked irritated at my interruption. Nonetheless, I continued. “London
is a big place – in our time as well as yours. Finding one man, that we
don't know, at an unspecified time, to save him from getting killed...that's
ridiculous. There's no way.”

Charles gave Eddie a steady gaze.
“Are you going to let your woman get away with that? Telling you what to do?”

I clamped my mouth shut. Different
times, different norms. As much as Charles seemed to get that we came from a
different time, he was steadfast in his way, and didn't get that women had a
place in the world, that was above that of servant. A glance over at Eddie told
me he was considering his options, and before I knew it, he had pulled me face
down over his lap.

“Eddie! No!” I protested, but knew
it would be no good.

Sure enough, a solid whack sounded
as he brought his hand sharply against my backside. A moment later, the heat
seared my bottom, and I started squirming in earnest. My husband was intent to
prove to Charles that Eddie was in charge of me, and my rear end paid the
price. Over and over again his heavy, calloused hand made contact with my butt.
Thank goodness I was wearing period clothing – the several skirts were
thick enough to provide a bit of padding, but not much. In what seemed like
forever later, but was probably only a minute or two, Eddie let me up, and sat
me down firmly on the chair.

I winced, both from the pain of
sitting and the humiliation of being spanked in front of Charles. I had learned
my lesson – I would no longer talk freely. Around Charles, at least.

“Sir, I believe we can help you,
and we will do our best to ensure Henry's safety,” Eddie said. I studiously
kept my face from smirking; despite my spanking, Eddie did backtrack from the
promise. Take that, Charles!

The menfolk shook hands, and I
curtsied, sure the ringmaker wouldn't shake my hand. Eddie nodded towards my
ring, and I removed it to go back to the future.

“Gahh,” I groaned, and rolled off
the couch.
 
I ran for the bathroom,
barely getting the toilet seat up before losing my dinner.
 
I could hear Eddie throwing up in the kitchen,
and it set me off again.

A pale and shaky Eddie came into
the bathroom and grabbed his toothbrush.
  
I regained my feet.

“Have another toothbrush?” I asked,
and he searched through the vanity drawers one-handed before finding me
one.
 
I joined him in brushing the
nasty taste out of my mouth, then followed him out of the bathroom.

“I think I'm done for the
night.”
 
I looked at the alarm clock
on the nightstand, which read after midnight.

“What time is your flight
tomorrow?”
 
My face and mood fell at
the reminder that I had to go back home the next day.

“Three.
 
I have to check out by eleven,
though.”
 
I looked longingly at
Eddie's bed; not that I wanted sex right now, but the bed was so close.
 
And it didn't involve going outside and
getting wet again.
 

“We'll set the alarm for ten,
then.”
 
He did so, and I crawled in
the large bed gratefully.
 
He turned
the lights off and made sure the door was securely locked, then took off his jeans
and joined me. I had removed the sweatshirt so I didn't get too warm overnight,
and was glad for that when Eddie came over to spoon, warming me up
instantly.
 
I fell asleep wrapped up
in his arms.

I woke a couple of hours later,
Eddie still sprawled across me.
 
The
emotions from the long day finally caught up with me, and I started crying.
 
The sniffles woke him.

“Hey, what's wrong, sweetheart?”

“What are we going to do?” I asked
softly.

“About...?”

“The elephant hiding under your
kitchen table.
 
What do you think
it's about?
 
Being suddenly
married.
 
Which isn't normally something
that 'suddenly' is attached to.”

“We could tell people we eloped.”

I snorted and wiggled closer.
 
Eddie tightened his arms around me.
 
“That's not going to fly with my
family.
 
We have to do the whole
church wedding thing.
 
Which we
already have, but they would never believe that was a real wedding.
 
Heck, I still don't know if I believe it
was real.”

“You don't think we're married?”

I paused.
 
“I've known you for three days.
 
You're investigating my IT department.”

“Non sequitor.
 
Did you think you were dreaming?
 
When you said yes?”

“No.
 
Yes.
 
Maybe.
 
I'm not sure.”

“What were you thinking when you
pulled me towards the priest?”

“I wasn't.”
 
I shifted in his arms to face him.
 
“I was just going with the flow.
 
I had liked spending time with you, and
you were attractive, and I liked you.
 
We were getting along well.
 
We were there, and the priest was there, and we had the
opportunity.
 
I was being
spontaneous, I guess, for once in my life.”

His face was expressionless.
 
“Did you mean your vows?”

“Yes.
 
I don't believe in divorce, same as I
don't believe in pre-marital sex.
 
When I said the vows, I would have been perfectly happy spending the
rest of my life with you.
 
Now that
I've gotten to know you a bit more, and know you,” I reached a hand down to say
hello, “I'm still happy.”

I thought about it for another
minute.
 
“So, yes.
 
Even if I thought it was a dream at the
time, I'm perfectly willing to make the same vows in the light of day.
 
I just hope you are as well.”
 
I dropped my gaze from his eyes, and
buried my head in his shoulder.

“Schroeder, look at me.”
 
I did, and his hazel eyes were
serious.
 
“I didn't think it was a
dream.
 
I said yes, and I'm saying
yes now.
 
And I will continue to say
yes every day until the end of time.”
 
He gave me a quick minty kiss on the lips.
 
“You're mine.”

“Possessive, much?” I teased, and
rolled back over, wiggling into him.

“Mmm-hmm.
 
Mine,” he said, squeezing my
shoulder.
 
“Mine.”
 
His hand moved to a breast, and I
giggled. “No giggling.
 
Mine.”
 
He moved to my rump.
 
I gave a sharp intake of breath as he
took cool fingers inside my waistband and moved them some place to warm them
up.
 
“Mine,” he whispered in my ear
and I shuddered with sensation.

“Umm.”

“Yes?”

“Me, umm, you...”

“I've gotten my enjoyment several
times today, and you haven't.
 
I was
rudely interrupted in London.
 
I
intend to finish what I've started.”
 
Eddie pulled the sweats down to my knees and entered me from
behind.
 
I gave up any semblance of
talking as he played with my clit while moving in and out at the same
time.
 
I moved my hips to change his
angle, and that worked, and I bucked against him as I rode my passions and
tried not to pass out.

Several minutes later I regained
awareness.
 
“Thank you,” I breathed
in amazement, finding his cheek for a quick kiss.
 
Wow.
 
I'd been missing out big time.
 
I could get
very
used to being
married.

Eddie chuckled.
 
“Any time.”

I closed my eyes.
 
“Ugh.
 
No traveling right now.”

Eddie made a face.
 
“Yeah, about that.”

I looked up at him in alarm.
 
“You don't want to time travel
again?
 
I thought you were all fired
up about saving Henry?”

“Heavens, no!
 
I don't know how it works, or why, or
anything, but it gave me my wife.
 
No, we are using that ring.
 
Just maybe not three times in a day again.”

“Wow, it's only been a day,
huh?”
 
A lot has happened in that
amount of time, I thought.
 
“And
yeah, once a day, tops.
 
I don't
want to get time travel sick again.
 
That wasn't fun.”

“Time travel sick, huh?” He laughed
at the phrase.

“What else would you call it?
 
And we really need to do it right next
time.
 
There's so much we don't
know.”

“Well, we know underwear doesn't
magically appear.”
 
He fondled my
still bare bottom.
 
“I wanted to
test stripping you then and see what happens.”