The Bibliophile (The Librarian Chronicles Book 3) Page 8

  The whistle happened again this time without the rough sound of the wind against the door.

  “What in heaven’s name is that sound?” I asked myself. The wind had never made a sound like that before, but I had heard it somewhere. Putting my needle down and keeping the warm blanket around me, I rose to look out the window. Was it my parents? If so, I’d run to them and wrap my arms around their necks and never let go. My longing for them drove my days, even when I thought them dead. I still held onto hope that they’d survive this trip, going almost mad thinking about what on earth could be holding them from me for so long.

  I often thought that Indians had killed them both and I would be alone here without them. But I never pictured them dead, just gone.

  Looking out my window I searched the white mountain top for a sign of that noise when far out in the woods, I saw something move.

  Could have been a deer, or a mountain lion, but that wasn’t it. If it were my parents they wouldn’t be in the woods, they’d walk the path instead.

  The figure stopped, and then the whistle came again, this time much fainter.

  “It’s a person,” I said, to myself. Braving the snow, I took off my blanket and replaced them with furs. Covering my head, I walked out to see just who was making such racket in this storm.

  Twenty

  Adam 1765

  The only way to make noise during a snowstorm is to whistle as loudly as I could, so I did. I only hoped Rose, or someone who knew her, would hear me. I’d walked miles, my feet frozen stiff. Fear set in about an hour before of frostbite and I thought I’d kill myself if I lost my feet, but I could spare a few toes. Funny how your mind plays tricks on you when you’re freezing to death in the middle of a snowstorm.

  I got to a point to where I just couldn’t walk anymore and stopped. I sat down in a snowbank and just breathed. The icy air filled my tired lungs as I thought about where I would sleep for the night.

  How did the book pull you back again? Did we go over that? I didn’t think so.

  Were there magic words that I had to say? Last time I was just pulled back to my time. I hadn’t done anything different than before. One minute I was there and the next I was gone.

  I’d give my big toe to go back now at this moment. Finding Rose was proving impossible. I’d gone from thinking of her each step of the way—how her hair smelled or how she would taste if I ever got to kiss her—to thinking of giving up.

  Closing my eyes, I rested my tired and cold body for just one moment. When I heard a sound in the distance I looked up. Bracing myself for a wild animal, all I saw was a wild looking person covered in furs from head-to-toe.

  Placing my hands up in the air I said, “I won’t hurt you, I was just resting here for a moment.”

  “Were you making that noise?” they asked, their face almost completely covered in a furlike mask. I couldn’t make out if it was a girl or a young boy over the sound of the harsh wind, but the voice was soft. The blood flowed through my veins making my tired heart pump faster. Not sure what I’d do if this person hadn’t come to my rescue, I was suddenly grateful to them.

  I nodded in answer. “Sorry, I’m trying to find someone.”

  “On this mountain? Who?”

  Standing slowly, I said, “Rose Bennett. She lives somewhere up here and—”

  “Adam? Adam is that you?” The furs came off her face and I saw that it was her, the girl that had haunted my thoughts for the whole journey. She looked ridiculous in all that fur.

  “You’re covered in snow, Adam. What… what are you doing out here? Are you mad, or do you just wish for death?”

  “I came back for you,” I said honestly.

  She stepped back and then squinted. “Came back for me all the way from New York?”

  I sighed. How did I explain I was a time traveler, and was it possible that she would believe me? Fumbling for words, I ran my fingers over my pant legs.

  “In order to tell you where I came from, it’s important to tell you where I just visited. Can we… go somewhere warmer first?”

  She laughed at my chattering teeth, nodded, and pulled the fur back over her face. “This way,” she said, arcing her head toward the direction in which we were headed. Following blindly, I shielded my face from the onslaught of snow. The warmth of being in her presence thrilled me so much that for the first time since I landed here, I was happy. She was wild, thrilling, and beautiful, even wrapped in the fur of dead animals.

  ***

  Rose 1765

  The snow pelted our bodies for the short walk back so fiercely that it didn’t set in that he was truly here until I opened the door and got us inside. Once in the warm house I pushed Adam toward the small fire and threw two logs on. He was stiff as a log himself as he slowly fell to the ground.

  “My feet,” he said chattering his teeth loudly. Taking notice of his snow-covered boots; I pulled them off exposing his almost blue toes.

  “Get them near the fire,” I told him, as I pulled his wet jacket off. “Where in God’s Name are your furs? What possesses a man to travel through the wild Georgia mountains without proper clothes and what—” Stopping short I realized I recognized the trousers he was wearing. I’d seen them before.

  “I think I may have made these.” I touched the fabric and ran my fingers over the familiar stitching. The bad lines and horrible shaky way that they ran down the inseam was what caught my attention.

  “It’s possible,” he said through clenched teeth. “They’re not mine to begin with. They came from the Winthorp’s house.”

  “How did you come to wear them?” The way his head tilted to the side, and the look in his eyes gave me a fright. Something was wrong, terribly so. “You’re scaring me, Adam.”

  He rested his hand on mine, and pulled me down toward the floor gently. The way his lips cast downward and the tears in his eyes, I knew something awful had happened to my friends.

  “I came here looking for you. I just… couldn’t get over you. I know that sounds desperate but whatever. Better to be honest, right?”

  I shrugged, trying to keep up. “What… ever.”

  He laughed slightly, as if something were funny. “There’s was the first house I found. So, I knocked and no one answered. I went inside, hoping that maybe they were just out or something. But… but I found Arthur first. And it was bad.”

  I nodded, understanding what he was saying, or trying to say. My friend was dead.

  “And the others?”

  He shook his head but kept his eyes on me. “There was no saving them. From the looks of them it was like they’d been dead for days. They suffered, too. I hated to see such nice people in that state.”

  “How can you tell?” I asked, not sure what sign would show him of their suffering. I could only imagine the horror he witnessed. They were nice people and they didn’t deserve to have such a horrific death. “And what was it that took them?”

  Death on Raven’s Ridge was not uncommon. We had lost many when we first settled. Mother told me of a nice young family who died in a house fire. We helped bury them after Father pulled their charred bodies from the house. We often times found bodies of people in the woods while on hunting trips, and it always left me wondering how they died.

  “I really don’t know what killed them, Rose. Only that it was a horrible way to go.” He shuddered. “I hated taking Mr. Winthorp’s clothes but I was freezing my balls off.”

  My mouth fell open in shock. What did he just say?

  “Excuse me?” I said, pulling away from him. I thought him changed but he was still crude. He reached his arm across the space between us and said, “It just came out. I didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just an expression from where I come from. It doesn’t mean anything bad. It just means I was cold.”

  Lifting my eyebrows, I tried to imag
ine how this was a common term. “Freezing my balls off. Huh. I suppose it’s not so bad, I just don’t have balls, do I?” I laughed, trying to loosen the tension that held thickly in the air. The truth was, Adam was different from me. He was different from anyone I’d ever met. Arthur, bless his soul, would never say such things, though I was sure some men would. They just weren’t accustomed to saying such things in the presence of a woman.

  “When the snow stops, I want to go to their house. Clean them up and bury them. They deserve that at least.”

  Adam smiled at me in a way that made the horrible news of my friends’ death disperse for just a moment. In his eyes I saw hope.

  “The thing is, I wonder if it’s contagious,” Adam said. “I’d hate to see you get it.”

  “You mean you think it’s catching? Then do you have it?”

  He merely shook his head and smiled. “I don’t think I do, because I didn’t touch them. And I have protection against sicknesses in your time, er, place.”

  The way he spoke was always so peculiar, he made me question the way I was raised. Were people in New York more educated than I was?

  “I don’t see how touching them makes a difference.”

  “Well, if you touch them, you can get the sickness. If you stay away, you’re safer. It’s hard to tell you, because I didn’t really pay much attention in science class. But I can bring you a book that will explain it all, if you want.”

  “Books?” I asked, longing to read a different book than the two I had. “You can get books?”

  “I own a bookstore. I can bring you any book you desire.”

  The thought of having a book in my hands made me smile outright. The last book I’d seen here was owned by Arthur and he wouldn’t share it.

  “There’s so much I have to tell you, Rose. And I’m not sure how you’re going to take it, but it has to be said anyway.”

  He was frightening me but I told him he must tell me anyway, despite this fear.

  Twenty-One

  Adam 1765

  By the way she looked at me, I thought for sure she was going to grab her spear and kill me right there on her floor. Instead she opened her mouth to speak and no words came out. I had just spilled all the secrets of time travelling, as I knew them, to a woman in colonial America. What did I expect her reaction to be?

  “I know it’s a lot to take in,” I said, shaking my head but never breaking eye contact with her. “But I’m not lying to you. It’s the truth, all of it. And I can prove it to you.” After just having explained the laws of time travel as I knew it, and I was no expert, I was giddy with excitement at telling someone my secret. Even though I was not to do so, I did anyway. My mom would be so disappointed in me. Sorry Mom.

  “How?”

  “I can show you this.” Desperately I pulled out my wallet and handed it to her. She felt the leather, running her fingers over it as it fell open, revealing my ID. She looked at it, and then tossed it.

  “Okay, then. I guess you didn’t like that?” How would I prove to her I was from the future without scaring the shit out of her? No one of this time knew how these things worked. Formulas and scientists would just sound like babble to her. I felt the immense need to prove myself to her and to not scare her at the same time.

  “I don’t want your proof,” she said, putting her hand on mine. The heat from the fire warming me was nothing compared to the warmth from her hands. She was so beautiful that seeing her up close made me tingle. I’d been with girls before, just none like her.

  “How is it possible to travel like you said? And what is that?” she asked, pointing to my ID.

  “Oh,” I said, picking it up and showing her it was harmless. “It’s my identification. It shows you my address, my eye color, and my… my date of birth.”

  Her eyes grew wide as she grabbed it from my hands, suddenly no longer afraid.

  “You were born in April of—oh my heavens!”

  I smiled at my proof in her hands. “Yes. And if you look here you can see New York is my state, I just didn’t tell you when exactly.”

  “What’s this date?” she asked.

  I looked at it and saw the expiration date. “That date is when this ID is no longer valid and I have to get a new one.”

  “So that date hasn’t happened yet? How do you even say it?”

  Trying hard not to laugh I said, “Two thousand twenty-five. And the date when I left my house to come here was two thousand nineteen. It’s far into the future but not that different from now.”

  “I doubt that. You’re just trying to spare me a fright.”

  She was smart, because she was correct. I felt if I told her all that had changed it would intimidate her or she would fear the future; her future. I should have known better than to underestimate her and what she could handle. After all, she had just heard about the death of the only family on this ridge and she handled that just fine. There were no tears, or screams, just a calm understanding that death happened. She handled it better than I could have.

  “Can I ask you a question?” she requested. I nodded and she bit her lip, which drove me crazy. There was something incredibly sexy about her doing this, and I tried hard not to think impure thoughts about someone I really respected. She wasn’t just some girl I met a club, she was Rose. She was to be treated with care.

  “Why are you in Raven’s Ridge? Of all the places you can be in the world beyond, why here?”

  This was the one thing I was told not to do, to mess with the history of another. Mom had told me that I could completely screw up Rose’s timeline if I did so, and I wouldn’t do that. Telling her my secrets was one thing but screwing with her future was another.

  Instead I said, “I don’t get to choose where I go but for the record, I am glad I am here. With you.”

  The look on her face changed immensely, going from panic to surprise in a moment. Then, as if a blessing occurred, she smiled.

  “You have a fantastic smile, you know that?”

  Looking down she tried to hide it. “You talk strangely.”

  I laughed. “Oh geez, thanks. No ‘you have a nice smile too, Adam?’”

  Flirting with her felt normal and I didn’t want it to stop. Was I treading on dangerous ground? Possibly, but it felt so good to be able to communicate with a girl like her.

  “I am certain you know you have a nice smile. You hear it daily, I am sure. No doubt women are vying for your attentions and longing to hear a proposal from you.”

  Chuckling I said, “Well, I had a girlfriend for a while and I thought she was the one, you know?” To this she cocked her head but didn’t reply. “The one for me. But she left me in the middle of the night and it took me a while to get over her.”

  Seeming to understand now she raised her head and nodded, as if she could somehow get where I was coming from.

  “Where did this girlfriend go?” she asked, looking sad. “You said she left you, did that mean that you intended to marry her and something awful happened to her?”

  How did I explain this without sounding like a scoundrel to Rose? If anything, she’d find that me living with a woman was horrible and wrong, so I treaded lightly.

  “We were courting, you could call it, and we thought we loved each other. But we were young. Hell, we still are. I see now why she left even though it gutted me. She chose to leave me and not be with me anymore.”

  She sucked in a breath and rested her hand on my knee, touching me lightly but giving me chills in doing so. I wanted nothing more than to grip her and kiss her. To taste her lips and yank her woolen dress down. To kiss more than just her lips.

  I didn’t doubt that she would stab me if I did so, so I only imagined it.

  “Rose, being alone out here, isn’t that dangerous?”

  She nodded and then shrugged.<
br />
  “I suppose so. Having learned that my only company has died, I am more lonesome than ever before.” She bit her lip and then said, “I could go live with my mother’s tribe. They’ve made their intentions quite clear.”

  “And what are they?”

  She smiled and pulled her hand away. “For me to marry one of the men of the tribe. I do hope Mother and Father come home. I pray that they’re alive.”

  Her eyes searched the snowy mountain pass, as if looking for ghosts.

  “What do you think about marrying someone you don’t know?” Trying to keep her mind off of her missing parents, I decided to talk about the one and only thing that bothered me about her statement. I was selfish. Not wanting the best for her was awful of me. What could I possibly give to Rose that a man from her mothers’ tribe couldn’t? I wasn’t from this time but the thought of her marrying someone else made me sick to my stomach.

  Her gaze stayed put as she said, “I will not marry someone I do not love.”

  I laughed, as a giddy excitement overcame me. Should I be this happy that Rose was smart and not ready to marry some stranger? If I could take her with me, to my time, I would’ve. Right then and there I would pull her back with me. But I didn’t really know her. And she said so herself, she would only marry for love. She didn’t date men. Not like the average girl did.

  “I like you,” I confessed. It came out of nowhere. Honestly, I didn’t care. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I don’t want you to marry for any other reason than if you love a guy. I worry about you here, all alone. I want to know, if it’s okay if I keep coming back, to you know, check on you. Until your parent’s come back?”