Under An English Moon (27 page)

The past few weeks had flown by. They had made it to the village on the night of their return, and Reggie awakened the innkeeper who rustled up a carriage and driver at the inn willing to transport them to the Sinclairs’ house. They had arrived almost at midnight, awakening Mattie and William, and telling them of their successful trip between the two times. Samuel had thankfully slept through the commotion of their arrival, and so they didn’t have to tell him about the time traveling...yet. Phoebe suspected he would find out someday. After all, even Lady Hamilton knew. Samuel and his father were the last to know.

The following morning, Reggie had the banns posted when he and William had gone out to arrange the ceremony at the church. Phoebe had driven into town with Mattie to visit Sarah Tollerton and collect the two dresses that were ready. She had commissioned a wedding dress, and Sarah had been grateful and awed by the commission, much to Phoebe’s discomfort.

“Oh, gosh, Sarah! It’s just a dress. Something simple, but elegant. Satin though. I do like shiny!” Phoebe had said. Both she and Mattie regarded Sarah with bright smiles in the secret knowledge that she was going to be their sister-in-law one day. Phoebe had shared what few details she knew of the future with Mattie.

Lady Hamilton had come by that afternoon ostensibly to visit Mia, but she asked to speak to Phoebe and Mattie in private before seeing her granddaughter.

“Uh oh,” Phoebe said. “I think it’s time for
the talk
. You know, the ‘are you a time traveler talk.’”

“Oh, boy,” Mattie said. “I really never get used to being alone with her...without William around. I wish he and Reggie would get back. I was hoping she wouldn’t be back so soon, but I should have known she couldn’t wait to find out about you.”

Phoebe straightened her hair in the mirror of her room and turned to grab Mattie’s hand before they went downstairs.

“We’ll be fine. She’s just one woman.”

“Hmmm...” Mattie muttered. They hurried down the stairs and entered the drawing room where Lady Hamilton awaited them.

“Hello, Lady Hamilton. Would you like some tea?” Mattie asked.

“Yes, that would be nice, thank you.”

Mattie turned and nodded to John to bring tea.

She sat down on the sofa opposite Lady Hamilton, and Phoebe sat next to her, waiting expectantly. Lady Hamilton smiled pleasantly and appeared to be waiting as well. A brief uncomfortable silence ensued.

“So, Lady Hamilton, how is Lord Hamilton? Is he better?” Mattie asked.

“He is, thank you,” she said. “He insists on eating foods that disagree with him, and when he is upset, his stomach pains him.”

Phoebe’s instinct was to say she was sorry to have been part of his upset, but she bit her tongue...and waited. She didn’t have long to wait though.

“Miss Warner. We have not had a chance to become acquainted,” Lady Hamilton said. “And yet you are already betrothed to my stepson. Such haste,” she murmured.

“Yes,” Phoebe said succinctly and without explanation. Lady Hamilton had said the same thing the day before. Phoebe suspected she should try to establish some kind of relationship with the woman, but she was irritated by the implied criticism.

Lady Hamilton quirked an eyebrow and waited, but Phoebe masked her face and stared back. Two faint pink spots appeared on Lady Hamilton’s cheeks, and she turned to Mattie.

“Mattie, may I ask if your cousin is from the America that you know?”

Just then John returned with the tea, and they were silenced for the moment until he left. Mattie poured tea.

“Phoebe?” she said. “Do you want to tell her or should I? We might as well.”

“Yes, Lady Hamilton. I am from the America that Mattie knows, though I lived in New York City, and I believe she lived in Seattle. But if you’re asking if I traveled in time from the twenty-first century, then yes.”

Lady Hamilton tightened her lips and nodded. She studied Phoebe curiously.

“How many of there are you?” she asked, looking at both of them.

Phoebe shrugged. “I think we’re the only two I know about. Are you worried that hordes of Americans will come over here from the twenty-first century and snatch up all your young men?”

“Phoebe!” Mattie gasped with a nervous chuckle.

To Phoebe’s surprise, Lady Hamilton didn’t get angry. “I have been thinking just that, Miss Warner,” she said with a wry smile.

“Well, just so you know, it will become fashionable—and necessary—for some of the men of the English aristocracy to marry American heiresses later on in the century. You know, money for the coffers. But not me. I’m not wealthy.”

“Miss Warner,” Lady Hamilton began. “You
do
know that it is vulgar to discuss money, do you not?” Her hand shook a little as she sipped her tea, but she appeared to be holding back a laugh.

“I do,” Phoebe smiled. “And yet still I do it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Mattie broke out into laughter. “Oh, Phoebe, I’m so glad you’re here,” she said as she reached to pat Phoebe’s hand.

Lady Hamilton sobered. “I think perhaps I am glad you are here as well, Miss Warner. My daughter-in-law has not had a proper female companion since my own daughter left for America, and she has been lonely for a friend.” She looked to Mattie whose face reddened. “Long ago, I expressed my fears to Mattie that she would take my son away from England and from his inheritance—to the future, but that has not come to pass, and it appears my fears were groundless. I have been hard on Mattie, and she does not know how pleased I am to have her as a daughter-in-law. She has become a fine wife to William and a good mother to her daughter. I dare say that I am quite proud of her.” She lowered her eyes to sip her tea again as if she’d said nothing.

Phoebe turned to Mattie who stared at Lady Hamilton with rounded eyes.

“Thank you,” Mattie choked out.

“Yes, well, perhaps Miss Warner could tell me a bit about herself,” Lady Hamilton cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Are you truly cousins?”

Phoebe, delighting in the way Mattie seemed to relax in her mother-in-law’s company, spent the next hour discussing her own background and arrival. She deliberately omitted any comments regarding Mattie’s novels or the fact that Reggie and Phoebe had traveled back to the future only the night before. She suspected Lady Hamilton would argue Mattie’s scandalous vocation, and that she would worry about Reggie disappearing and leaving his inheritance behind. She also skipped over the part where Reggie spent the night in her bedroom, albeit passed out on the ottoman at the foot of her bed.

“So, that’s about it!” Phoebe said. “And just to reassure you, Reggie and I intend to stay here in England.”

“Lord Hamilton does not know about the time travel, and I think it best he does not. But I feel I could speak for him were he to know, and say that he would be utterly happy to hear the news. I did make it clear to him that, in purchasing a house in England, Reggie has clearly abandoned his desire to relocate to America for an extended period.”

“I wouldn’t mind visiting the United States, but I’m happy here,” she said. “And I have a new friend.” She reached for Mattie’s hand.

“And family,” Lady Hamilton added. “I may have lost a daughter to America, but I have since gained two daughters-in-law, albeit one by marriage.”

“Oh, good! Can we call you Mom?” Phoebe chuckled.

“Mom?” Lady Hamilton repeated faintly. “Certainly not!” Mattie burst out laughing, and even Lady Sinclair laughed.

It was to this laughter that Reggie and William walked in. The men stopped short and stared at the odd sight.

“Come in, gentleman,” Mattie said with a broad smile. “How did it go?”

“Very well,” Reggie said. “The wedding is set for Tuesday fortnight.” He came around the sofa to stand behind Phoebe and lay a hand on her shoulder. Phoebe realized he did it as if to protect her from his stepmother.

“Lady Hamilton has just been inviting us to call her mom,” Phoebe said with a mischievous grin.

“Miss Warner jests, gentlemen.” Lady Hamilton rose. “I think my daughter-in-law and future daughter-in-law might address me as Lucy if they were of a mind to, but not
mom!
” She inclined her head and nodded. “I am so pleased to hear that preparations for the wedding progress. Please let me know if there is any way in which I may assist. Now, may I see my granddaughter?”

Mattie sent for Mia who ran to her grandmother when Jane brought her in.

“Grandma!” she cried out happily as Lady Hamilton picked her up.

“A walk in the garden, my pet?” Lady Hamilton asked. “We will return directly.” She carried Mia out and Jane followed, leaving the men staring at her back in some disbelief.

“What has possessed my mother?” William said.

“I don’t know,” Mattie said, “but I like it. Did you hear Mia call her grandma? Your mother didn’t blink an eye.”

“Lady Hamilton seems to have softened,” Reggie said in a voice of wonder.

“I think she’s realized that we’re not all going to disappear on them. You know, take off for the Colonies,” Mattie said. “She seems pretty tickled to hear that Reggie isn’t leaving either, or maybe his father is.”

“Yes, she did mention that your father assumes you’ll stay in England since you’re buying a house here.”

“I believe that is our wish, is it not, Phoebe?” Reggie looked down at her.

“Your wish is my command,” Phoebe couldn’t resist saying with a grin.

“Never a command, my dear one,” he said, bending and speaking near her ear. A delicious shiver ran up her spine.

“I’d say get a room, but don’t,” Mattie chuckled. She rose. “Come on, William. I think we’d better leave these two alone and go see if your mother really does chase after Mia.” William smiled broadly, and they left the drawing room.

Phoebe pulled Reggie down and kissed his lips. “It’s an old saying, Reggie. You know I don’t mean that.”

“A lord can only hope that his commands will be obeyed,” Reggie whispered against her lips.

“Oh, puhleeezz,” she breathed. “Try wishing for that on the moon.”

Epilogue

Annie thanked the bank clerk and stared at the safety deposit box. So, Phoebe really had gotten a safety deposit box. Would anything be in there? Phoebe had only been gone for a couple of months. It wasn’t like Annie missed hearing Phoebe’s voice every day since she and her cousin had often gone for months without talking on the phone or seeing each other. But knowing that she might never see Phoebe again felt like death, and Annie had come to London to see if Phoebe had bought a safety deposit box as she’d promised.

Annie found it hard to think in terms of the time travel. If Phoebe had only been gone for a few months, had she had time to find anything to put in the box? With a wedding to plan? And a house to move into?

Yet in reality, Phoebe had actually been gone almost two hundred years, plenty of time to make memories and include them in the box. Annie felt nauseous, as she always did, at the thought that Phoebe had already lived her life and died. She had seen the date of Phoebe’s death when she looked at the computer that night in her apartment months ago. Phoebe had lived a long life, but it didn’t change the fact that she was now dead.

And Annie was now without family—and without Johan, the flake. She had no idea what she had been doing with him anyway. He was nothing like her. He shared none of her interests really, not even a common culture, and she hated skiing. The high mountains scared the dickens out of her. He had been the proverbial fish out of water in Hawaii. She had said goodbye to him in Hawaii after only two days.

Annie hadn’t wanted to admit it to Mouse at the time, but the thought of going to Hawaii, knowing she was saying goodbye to her cousin forever, had been too much to handle. She had gone but could not forget Phoebe, and she felt she had left something behind, something unresolved.

When she returned to New York, the apartment seemed empty but filled with Phoebe’s things. She had packed them up and stored them, unwilling to get rid of anything—just in case Phoebe was able to come back or had to come back. It was possible that things had gone wrong, that Phoebe couldn’t abide life in 1827—no matter what the Internet showed. Since Annie hadn’t looked at Phoebe’s information during the past two months, she didn’t know if it had changed. Maybe the past did change by the actions of those in the future.

She sat down on the stool in the vault and stared at the box. Well, clearly, Phoebe had made it back to England because here was a safety deposit box in Annie’s name and in Lady Phoebe Hamilton’s name. The bank clerk had informed her that other relatives of Lady Hamilton’s had also been authorized to access the box, and Annie worried they had taken things out of it meant for her—letters, photographs.

With a shaking hand, she inserted the key into the old-fashioned steel box and opened the lid.

The box was filled almost to the brim in an untidy mess of papers and photographs. Photographs!

Annie pulled out the pictures on top and examined them, surprised to see them in color. Various groups of people posed on a lawn in the first picture—almost as if it were a picture of several generations of a family. A summer photo—some wore jeans or shorts, a few wore dresses and suits, especially the older ones. Small children sat cross-legged in the front. She turned the picture over.

The Hamiltons, Summer 2010, Bedfordshire

Summer 2010? Had Phoebe come back to the present but stayed in England? She scanned the picture for Phoebe’s face but didn’t recognize anyone who looked like Phoebe.

The next picture, also in color, looked much like the first but was dated 2000. Other pictures in earlier decades with the same composition showed the family group changing—new people showed up, some disappeared.

She dug further into the box, pulling out black and white photographs. The clothing changed in the 1960s and 1950s, as it did in the 1940s and 1930s. The quality of the photography changed as well as did the background. Occasionally, a large imposing house could be seen in the background. In others, family members posed on a terrace of some sort with a river visible in the background.