Spelled, page 5
I put my fingertips against my lips as though to keep the feel of his kiss from fading.
Though I’d agreed to stay here, I didn’t know if I could keep that promise.
Not knowing why I was here to begin with, I didn’t know if being here meant that I’d be here forever or if it was a fleeting thing.
Like a dream.
I took a step to the right and dropped down on the bed, adjusting the voluminous skirts as I sat.
It felt so real.
The dress felt real.
But his kiss.
His kiss was most definitely real.
That was the one thing I was certain of.
CHAPTER 20
BEAU
Mon Dieu.
As I hurried down the hallway toward my father’s bedroom, I struggled to shake the haze from my head.
I’d felt an anger deep inside me at whatever had hurt her. The scar across her forehead wasn’t new, but it wasn’t all that old either.
Something had happened to her.
Madilynn was the most intriguing young woman I had ever met.
Her mesmerizing green eyes held so many unknowns. So many secrets.
Perhaps I saw a depth in her because I knew she was from the future.
What kinds of things did she know?
It was impossible for me to even think about.
And I didn’t even really care about that.
I didn’t need to know what the future held.
All I was concerned about was Madilynn.
I wanted to explore her.
But to do that, I had to keep her here.
My brother hadn’t been able to keep Briana here and he was married to her.
Same thing with Uncle Nathaniel.
Uncle Nathaniel and his time traveling wife, Aunt Vaughn, had a love that had gone down in history as being legendary.
Yet she, too, vanished through time.
My brother had possibly found the one solution.
He’d taken Briana and left here.
Perhaps that was the key.
Leaving here.
But this was something I’d have to ponder later.
I reached the open door to my father’s bedroom and stepped inside.
I’d been in his room more in the last few days than in my entire life.
As children and young adults, we’d known that our parents’ bedrooms were off-limits.
Father and Mother had separate bedrooms, but were connected by an interior door.
I never quite understood that.
When I married, I planned to sleep next to my wife every single night.
The thought of sleeping next to a wife brought back a flood of images that involved Madilynn.
Heavens.
She had me under her spell.
My sister came into the room right after me.
“What is it, Mother?” Bailey asked, rushing to our father’s bedside.
“I don’t know.” Mother dipped a cloth into a pan of water, squeezed it out, and placed it on Father’s forehead.
“He’s burning up,” she said.
Bailey looked pointedly at me.
“I thought Doc was coming.”
“He is,” I said. “He should be here any minute.”
“I’m not sure Doc can do anything for him,” Mother said.
I stood across from her and looked down at Father. I couldn’t say how many hours we’d spent together riding in the fields.
It was surreal seeing him here like this. Asleep or unconscious.
Either way, Mother was right. He was feverish. Flushed even.
I put the back of my hand on his cheek and jerked it back, looking at Mother.
“He’s on fire,” I said.
“I know,” Mother said. “I’ve seen this before.”
“When was that?” Bailey asked, dropping into a chair next to the bed. Though she didn’t touch Father, anxiety radiated from her.
Mother sat back. Inhaled deeply.
“It was when I was still living in New Orleans.”
I often forgot that Mother was born and raised in New Orleans. It was hard to picture her anywhere but here.
“The fever,” Bailey said on a hushed breath.
“Yes.” Mother nodded.
Though she never talked about it, I knew that Mother had a mild case of yellow fever as a child. Once a person had yellow fever, assuming they survived, they were allowed in certain social circles.
Social circles that excluded people who had never had the fever.
But I only knew all this because Father had told me.
Since Father had never had the yellow fever, he was forbidden from courting Mother.
But they had found a way to see each other despite Mother’s parents attempts to keep her away from him.
The story was that she had run away from Father in the night.
I suddenly saw such a parallel between them and my older brother Bradford and his wife that I stopped and studied my mother.
It was odd, really, that parallel.
But my mother was definitely a woman of this time.
Still. It made me stop and think.
“I think,” she said looking directly at me. “that we need to send a letter to Bradford.”
Her words froze my heart.
I looked down at Father.
Mother was suggesting that Father might not survive this fever.
“No,” I said. “It’s too soon. Doc will be here soon.”
Mother took the cloth from Father’s head. Dipped it in the cool water and put it back.
“If you don’t write the letter,” she said. “I’ll do it myself.”
CHAPTER 21
MADILYNN
Beau had asked me to stay in the guest room.
But after a few minutes of sitting alone on the bed, my curiosity had gotten the best of me.
First I wandered to one of the windows covered with emerald green velvet drapes and looked outside.
From here I had a perfect view of the Mississippi River. It looked pretty much the same as it always had, at least from here.
After that, I roamed the room. Besides the huge four-poster bed, there was a dresser and a wardrobe.
The wardrobe was empty other than an extra blanket. The dresser was empty, too.
A quintessential guest room.
Beau had left the door open, so I could hear their voices coming from down the hall.
Beau and what sounded like two women.
That would be his mother and sister.
I didn’t want to eavesdrop on their conversation, so I went in the opposite direction, toward the stairs.
Unlike earlier, when Beau had led me up here, I took the time to look around.
There were sconces with burning candles on the wall. This was obviously a time when sconces were more than just decorative.
As I started down the stairs, heading toward the landing, the clock began to chime the hour.
I stopped and stood perfectly still, one hand on the banister.
The sound of the clock reminded me that I had somehow fallen back through time.
I couldn’t think of anything I’d done to cause it.
As far as I could tell, it had simply happened.
I wondered what was happening in the future now.
Was Jerry trying to find me?
Had I gone missing just as Briana had?
Or did I cease to exist in that time period?
I made my way to the bottom of the stairs and went to stand in front of the clock.
But no more than a few seconds passed before someone knocked on the front door.
I didn’t know what to do.
So I waited.
Waited for someone to come downstairs and answer the door.
But no one came and the man knocked again.
I went to the door and opened it.
An middle-aged bearded man stood on the other side. He was dressed in black. Black pants. Black cloak. A black hat.
He carried what was obviously a medicine bag. He could have walked straight out of a movie.
“Good morning,” he said, looking a little perplexed.
“Hello,” I said, trying to keep a smile on my face. “You’re Doc.”
“That’s right,” he said. “I don’t believe I’ve made your acquaintance.”
“Oh. I’m Madilynn.”
“Well, Madilynn, do you have a last name?”
“Of course. It’s Sinclair.”
“Sinclair…” Doc said. “I knew some Sinclairs.”
“I doubt I’m related.”
“Well, we’ll sort it all out later. I’m here to see Mr. Becquerel.”
“Right. Of course.” I stepped back and opened the door to let Doc inside.
He took off his hat and handed it to me.
I didn’t know what to do with it, so I just held it as he walked toward the stairs.
He stopped. Just before setting a foot on the stairs and looked back at me over his shoulder.
“I remember now. Sinclair.”
CHAPTER 22
BEAU
It didn’t take Doc long to confirm what we all suspected.
Father had the yellow fever.
I walked Doc out.
We stopped at the foot of the stairs and Doc looked at me.
“I have to be frank with you, Beau,” he said.
All the fear for my father coalesced in my stomach and I thought I might be sick.
“It’s not good is it?” I asked.
Doc ran a hand over his beard.
“I wish I could say different. But the thing about the fever is, there’s no way to know. Has he been around anybody that might have it?”
I shook my head. We hadn’t had any guests lately. Father hadn’t even gone into town lately. I’d been doing it myself. Even before he went down with the fever.
“Not that I know of.”
“Well,” Doc said. “It’s in God’s hands now.”
“My mother will do everything she can.”
“Your mother.” Doc shot a quick glance upstairs and lowered his voice even more. “She’s had the fever?”
“I think so. When she was a child.”
“Good. But you and your sister. No?”
“No.”
“I would suggest you two stay away from him.” He held up a hand. “But I know you won’t.”
“I can’t,” I said. “And my sister won’t. She dotes on Father.”
“What about the other girl? Madilynn?”
“Madilynn? How do you know about her?”
“She was here. As a matter of fact, she took my hat.”
I turned and looked around. Doc’s hat was sitting on the little table.
I picked it up and handed it to him.
“Well…” Doc put his hat on. “I’ll be back in a couple of days. We should know one way or the other by then.”
I thanked Doc for coming out and watched him ride off.
Father would be alright. He had to be. He was a big strong man. He would pull through.
But by the time Doc disappeared around the curve in the road, I wasn’t thinking about Father or Doc.
I was thinking about Madilynn.
She obviously hadn’t stayed in her room. Now I had to find her.
Since I was fairly certain she would still be downstairs, I started my search in the parlor.
After not finding her in the parlor, any of the studies, or the library, I went out the back door.
She was sitting in one of the rocking chairs on the veranda.
I was struck again by heartbreakingly beautiful she was.
Since she hadn’t heard me come outside, her expression was unguarded.
She looked so sad.
I wondered if it was because she was here, lost in time.
Or if something else had happened to her.
I had to tell her.
I had to tell her that she was a time traveler.
It wasn’t right to keep her here without telling her what I knew.
She must have sensed me there. Watching her.
She turned sharply and sat forward. She reminded me of a wild animal. Ready to bolt at any sign of danger.
I smiled, trying to set her at ease, and went over to sit in the chair next to hers.
I looked away, toward the rose bushes.
“Your father?” she asked.
“We should know in a couple of days.”
“Should know… what?”
“We should know if he’s going to make it,” I said, adjusting my collar.
“Oh,” she said. “Does Doc know what’s wrong with him?”
“It’s the fever.” Though I said the words matter of factly, as though I was talking about someone else, I had to force them past my throat that constricted on the words.
“He has a fever?”
“Yes.” Did she not know about the yellow fever? How could she not know about it? “He has the yellow fever.”
“Yellow fever,” she said.
I turned and met her confused gaze.
“I thought…” she dropped the thought, whatever it was.
Perhaps there was no yellow fever in the future.
“Have you heard about it?” I asked.
“Of course,” she said.
I wasn’t sure I believed her. But it didn’t matter one way or the other.
“There’s no cure for it,” I said.
“What about quinine?” she asked.
I wasn’t even sure what that was.
“There’s nothing,” I said. “except to wait and see.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Doc wants us to stay away from him so we don’t catch it, but somebody has to take care of him. Mother can’t do it all.”
She nodded slowly. “What are you doing for him?”
“He’s in his bed. Staying quiet.”
“I see.” She looked away. And I couldn’t help but wonder what she knew that she wasn’t saying.
Surely medicine in the future was far more advanced than what was available now.
“You know something?” I asked, unable to help myself. If there was any way to help Father, I would do it.
But she just shook her head.
“Not really.”
CHAPTER 23
MADILYNN
There was one thing I did know about yellow fever. It wasn’t contagious. It was transmitted by mosquitoes.
And unfortunately, mosquitos were prevalent in the hot sultry south.
I ran my hands over my arms.
That would be too ironic. For me to go back in time and die from a disease that been all but eradicated, at least in America.
“Have you had it?” Beau asked.
“No,” I said, shaking my head.
“Then you definitely need to stay away from Father’s room.”
“Okay.” He wouldn’t get an argument from me. Since I’d never traveled out of the country, I’d never been given the vaccine.
So even though I knew I couldn’t catch it directly from Mr. Becquerel, I was pretty sure I could catch it if I were to be bitten by the same mosquitoes.
Beau looked at me for a moment, then looked away again.
“There’s a story, a legend really, about this place,” he said.
“What kind of story?”
He sat back in the chair and put his boots on the porch rail.
“They say that there was a girl. A really long time ago. A girl named Vaughn Dupre who traveled from France. She traveled here for a better life. To marry a man of some means.
“That was in the 1700s. But before she could make it to Natchez to marry the man, her traveling party was attacked by Indians.”
I sat forward, hanging on Beau’s words. I had a feeling he was about to tell me something of some significance.
“But an old Indian chief saved her life.” Beau turned and looked into my eyes. A little shiver ran down my spine.
“How?” I asked.
“He made a rip in time. And he warned her that the rip may never heal. That she may continue to fall through this rip. And not just her, but those of her blood.”
“What does that mean?” I swallowed.
“It means that anyone who carries Vaughn’s blood in their veins may travel through the rip in time.”
That explained it then. It explained how Briana had disappeared. Rachel had said that Briana was a distant cousin.
But it didn’t explain my time travel.
As far as I knew, I wasn’t related to the Becquerels.
“Have you ever… known anyone who traveled through time?” I asked, watching him carefully.
“Yes,” he said. “Vaughn married my Great Great Uncle Nathaniel.”
“You met her?”
“Not that I know of. But I was young.”
I blew out a small breath of relief. It was still possible that it was only a legend. That it wasn’t true.
“And,” Beau continued, watching me now. “My brother married a girl who by all accounts was from the future.”
My breath hitched again.
“What was her name?”
“Briana,” he said.
I gasped.
“You know her?”
“Yes. I actually met her. She seemed…”
She had seemed a little bit crazy. And Rachel had seen it, too.
But I didn’t want to tell Beau that.
“She seemed… distracted.”
Briana was more than distracted, but if she’d gone back in time and somehow returned, then she had every right to be distracted.
Did that mean she’d gone through time more than once?
If so, that meant I could return home.
Home to the place that no longer seemed like home.
CHAPTER 24
BEAU
Beau sat up, then sat back again.
If Madilynn knew Briana, it was just one more nail in the coffin of reality that time travel was real.
In some deeply buried part of me, I’d hoped that my brother had been wrong.
That Briana wasn’t from the future.
But here was another piece of evidence that she was.
It was also a possible way for me to tell Madilynn that she was in the past without completely shocking her.
