River of Time

by Zoe Matthews

  River of Time

  Mail-Order Brides/Time Travel Romances: Book 2

  Written by Zoe Matthews

  and

  Jade Jensen

  Copyright © 2016

  All rights reserved

  No part of this publication may be copied or reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

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  Chapter 1

  Early July, 2005

  It was the day after Kimberly’s wedding, and Nicky finished putting the last of her belongings in her small bag. She was preparing herself to be taken back to her own time. Back to the future. She was glad she had had the opportunity to see Kimberly marry Patrick, even though it happened through unconventional means.

  A few months ago, Kimberly had answered an ad in the newspaper for a mail-order bride. Nicky distinctly remembered what the ad looked like. It had an old-fashioned look to it, and it looked out of place surrounded by the usual ads one would find in a newspaper printed in 2005. Nicky had jokingly dared Kimberly to answer the ad, and her friend had taken the challenge. What happened next changed Kimberly’s life. She met Victoria Hilton, who gave her a letter from Patrick Callaghan, a man who lived on a ranch deep in the Rocky Mountains. Kimberly was instantly curious about the man and decided she wanted to meet him. The problem was, the only way she could meet Patrick was by traveling back through time to the 1890’s. Kimberly decided to take the risk and used a key Victoria gave her to travel to Patrick’s time with the intent to meet him. What happened next was like a fairytale. Kimberly and Patrick fell in love, and they decided to marry.

  Nicky didn’t think she would ever see Kimberly again. However, her friend had wanted her to attend her wedding, so Victoria’s butler, Collins, used the key to bring Nicky to the wedding. She had enjoyed the last few days and was very grateful that she had been able to witness Kimberly’s wedding to Patrick. She could tell Kimberly loved Patrick very much and was more than willing to stay in his time for the rest of her life.

  The icing on the cake, no pun intended, was that Nicky met Patrick’s younger brother, Shaun, and was instantly intrigued with him. It seemed he felt the same towards her. They had agreed to write each other, sending their letters back and forth from her time to his. She was sure nothing would come of it and most likely they would probably only exchange a few letters before he grew tired of it, but Nicky thought it would be fun to be in contact with someone from the 1890’s, no matter how long it lasted. She would also be able to write Kimberly.

  Now that the wedding was over, Nicky needed to get back home. She heard a knock on the bedroom door she was using in Victoria’s home.

  “Come in,” she called, knowing that it was Collins.

  “Are you ready to leave?” the older man asked very formally. When she first met Collins, she was fascinated at how formal he was with other people. It was evident he took his role as a butler to Victoria very seriously. He reminded her of the butlers she would see in old movies.

  “Yes,” Nicky responded with a smile. “How will this work?”

  “The same as when I brought you here. I will hold your hand and we both will picture your home in your time. The key will do the rest.”

  She took a deep breath, as she grasped her bag in one hand. Briefly, she wondered what would happen if she told Collins she wanted to stick around for awhile, but she knew that she needed to get back before her brother, Justin, missed her. She belonged in 2005, not 1892.

  Nicky held out her hand, silently telling Collins she was ready. He took her hand in his, and they both closed their eyes. Almost instantly, they were standing in her living room. Nicky wondered if she would ever get used to the idea of time travel. The trip was quick but a bit violent. It was like there was a strong wind that pushed her through time. She wondered if the key ever stopped working properly and took someone to a time the person wasn’t intending to go. She opened her eyes and noticed that Collins looked a little pale.

  “Why don’t you come sit down for a moment?” Nicky invited him with concern. Collins hesitated.

  “You don’t look very well,” Nicky commented to him. She felt even more alarmed when Collins actually sat down on her tan couch. “Are you okay?”

  Collins gave her a slight smile. “Time travel can be tiring.”

  Nicky felt confused. Tiring? She actually felt more energetic than ever. Maybe time travel affected people in different ways.

  “It didn’t use to make me tired,” Collins continued in his formal way. “When I first started using the key, time travel didn’t affect me at all, but it seems, as I have grown older, it has started to make me feel very tired.”

  “Does this happen to Victoria?” Nicky questioned.

  Collins nodded. “She usually needs a few days to rest, when she makes a trip. She has started to avoid time travel, because of how drained she feels afterward.”

  Nicky scrunched her eyebrows, thinking about what Collins had told her. She mentally shook her head, deciding to think about this another time.

  “I’m not sure if it would be wise to go back to your time tonight,” Nicky commented. “Maybe you should stay here.”

  Collins shook his head, and Nicky immediately knew he wouldn’t agree to her suggestion, because she was a single woman and he was a single man. In his time, this would not be proper.

  “What if I drive you over to Victoria’s house?” she suggested, talking about the home that Victoria owned in Collins’ time, as well as in Nicky’s.

  Collins hesitated and then nodded. “I would appreciate that. I do think it would be wise to rest for awhile before heading back.”

  Nicky quickly grabbed her car keys. “I can take you now if you wish. Or you can rest for a few minutes.”

  Collins shook his head. “Now is fine.”

  Soon they both were in her small, compact car. She noticed that Collins climbed into the passenger side very slowly, as if he wasn’t sure he really wanted to get in.

  “Have you ridden in a car before?” Nicky asked him. When he shook his head, she continued, “You need to put your seatbelt on.” She showed him how it worked, and, after a few moments, he was able to click the seatbelt in place.

  “I promise I’m a good driver,” she told him, as she put her car in reverse and backed out of her parking space.

  “I’m…I’m sure you are,” Collins said with a hesitant smile.

  “It will take about 20 minutes to get to Victoria’s house,” Nicky told him. She smiled to herself, as he just nodded his head and leaned back against the seat with his eyes closed.

  Nicky decided to let him be and started the drive towards Victoria’s home, being more cautious than normal, so he didn’t get more nervous than he already was. She noticed that, as she drove, he gradually started to relax, and soon his eyes were open, and he was looking around at their surroundings.

  “It amazes me that no one c
rashes into each other,” Collins murmured, as she drove the car through a busy intersection.

  “We do have our share of car crashes,” Nicky told him with a chuckle, “although I can proudly say I have never been in an accident.”

  Collins didn’t say anything to her comment and continued to look out of the window.

  “The future is so different from my time,” he finally said.

  “Yes, it is. We have so many things that aren’t available to you,” Nicky agreed. “But sometimes I envy you.”

  “Why is that?”

  “I noticed when I was in your time, life is much slower. You seem to have no problem enjoying life. I noticed some of your neighbors talking to each other, not worrying that they were late to something, or needing to finish a chore or project. They enjoyed being together. I hardly know my neighbors. We might say hi to each other as we pass to our cars or apartments, but the only person I really talk to where I live is my brother.”

  Collins peered at her curiously. “It would be hard to picture the difference between your time and mine if I hadn’t witnessed it myself.” He settled himself against the seat and seemed to be less stiff. “You have a brother?”

  Nicky nodded, as she made a left-hand turn. She smiled to herself as Collins grabbed onto the side of the door. “Yes, Justin and his son, Garrett, live in the same complex I do.”

  “What is a complex?”

  “I live in a townhouse and there are about 50 others around mine. All 50 of them are called a complex.”

  Collins looked a bit confused but then shrugged his shoulders. The rest of the drive to Victoria’s home was silent, as he continued to watch as buildings, people, and cars whizzed by. She pulled up in front of Victoria’s home, marveling again at the beautiful wrap-around porch, and attached gazebo. The house did need some repair in this time; the paint was chipping, and the grass needed attention. Despite all that, it was easy to see the elegance of the Victorian home. Collins had his door open before she had a chance to open her own.

  “I can drive you anywhere you want, whenever you are here,” Nicky offered with a smile.

  Collins smiled back. “Thank you for bringing me here. I could have used the key, but it would have made me even more tired. I’ll have to think about your offer for another drive, though.”

  “I find it interesting that you can travel between two, time periods with no problem, but driving in a car worries you,” Nicky said, as she continued to smile.

  “Time travel isn’t dangerous,” Collins told her.

  Nicky wanted to argue with him about that comment, especially since he wasn’t feeling well with his last trip to her time. It obviously affected some people differently than others. Maybe extensive time travel did something to a person’s body, changed it somehow. It was something to think about.

  He started towards Victoria’s home, but he then stopped. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again. I’ll be back in a few weeks to pick up any letters you have for Kimberly and Shaun.”

  Nicky wanted to ask Collins if he really wanted to come back, especially because of how he was feeling, but she desperately and selfishly wanted to keep up the contact with Kimberly and Shaun, so she kept silent.

  After they said their goodbyes, Nicky climbed back into her car and waited until she saw Collins go inside the large, Victorian home. She noticed that he moved very slowly. As she drove away, she thought about what Collins had said about time travel not being dangerous, but driving in a car was. In her mind, in their own ways, they were both dangerous. Time travel seemed to suck the life out of a person, especially if it was used too much.

  When Nicky arrived home, she sat on her couch, allowing herself to think about what had happened the last few days. She was thrilled that she had been able to talk to Kimberly and see that she was doing fine. Kimberly was happy with her new life, even though it was in the 1890’s. Nicky could tell that she loved Patrick deeply, the type of love that transcended through time, a love that was going to keep Kimberly in the past for the rest of her life.

  Would I be willing to make a decision like that? Nicky wondered to herself. She wasn’t sure, although when she thought of Shaun, she noticed her heart skipping a beat. He was one of the most handsome men she had ever seen. His hair was longer than she would normally like for a man, but she loved the way it curled whenever he had his cowboy hat on, which was often. His blue eyes seemed to pierce right through her, as if he could read her thoughts. His normally strong jaw seemed ever more pronounced, since he seemed to be constantly clenching it when he was upset about one thing or another. She had never met a man who looked as he did. Was it because he had such a physical life? She knew he worked all day on his family’s ranch deep in the Rocky Mountains.

  She was excited about the idea of writing letters to Shaun. Even though she didn’t expect a relationship between them to go anywhere, it would be fun to write someone from the past. After all, he had a job he loved, and he also had Colleen, his nine-year-old daughter.

  She accepted the decision Kimberly had made to not return to the future, but she knew she couldn’t do that. She loved her life. She enjoyed teaching, and she knew she would miss Justin, Garrett, and her parents. Kimberly didn’t have a family to miss, although she considered Nicky’s family her own, because she had spent the last few years of high school as a foster child in Nicky’s home and had kept in touch with them throughout her college years.

  Nicky sighed and decided to find her phone and see if she had any messages. She hadn’t been allowed to take anything from the future, when she went to see Kimberly. Her phone wouldn’t have worked anyway. She walked towards her bedroom and glanced at the closed door that was Kimberly’s room. She suddenly didn’t want to open it, and she admitted to herself that, although she was happy for Kimberly, she was going to miss her very much. Kimberly had been part of her life for almost ten years, since they were both 16, and Nicky thought of Kimberly like a sister.

  Chapter 2

  Nicky found her phone and turned it on. She quickly saw that she had many missed calls, numerous text messages, and just as many voicemails. Most of them were from Justin, and her heart started to beat a little fast. Was something wrong? Justin never called her this many times. He would leave a message or text her and then wait until she returned his call. She hadn’t been gone very long, only a few days. Did something happen to their parents?

  She read through the texts first. After the first few, she realized Justin was just acting like a protective, older brother. He had wanted to bring Garrett over the night she had left. At first, he was concerned, but when Nicky never responded, the texts became more and concerned and then demanding.

  Where are you?

  Is everything okay?

  Why aren’t you answering my texts?

  I’ve left five, voice messages! Call me!

  And the last one, left only a few hours before she had returned, said he was going to contact their parents, if she didn’t call him ASAP!

  Nicky sighed and quickly sent off a text of her own.

  I’m fine. Don’t call our parents. I went on a trip. I will explain later.

  Satisfied that she had done her sisterly duty, she decided to take a quick shower and then run to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner. As she showered, she thought about all of the things Kimberly would be missing. How did someone keep clean in the 1890’s, especially in the middle of the mountains with no running water? She faintly remembered reading somewhere that people used to have to heat multiple buckets of water, when they wanted to take a bath, pouring them into a large metal tub, and that sometimes the entire family shared the bath water, which seemed very disgusting to Nicky. Was this what Kimberly would need to do? I’ll ask her in my next letter to her, Nicky promised herself.

  Her stomach growled hungrily, as she dressed and dried her hair. She was looking forward to eating some beef enchiladas, her favorite dish at the nearby, Mexican restaurant. It had been Kimberly’s, too. Would she miss not being
able to eat her favorite dishes? Nicky wondered if Kimberly really had thought about what she was giving up in order to marry Patrick.

  As she turned off her blow dryer, she heard loud pounding on her front door and knew it was her brother. He hadn’t wasted any time. She quickly opened the door to greet Justin who had an angry look on his face.

  “Where have you been?” he demanded, as he pushed past her and entered her townhouse.

  “I just went out of town for a few days,” Nicky told him. She wished she had asked Collins if she was allowed to tell Justin about the keys. How much should she tell her brother?

  “Where did you go? Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? You never go anywhere. First Kimberly disappears, and now you,” he yelled at her.

  Nicky placed a hand on his arm, trying to calm him. “I went to see Kimberly. She married Patrick yesterday.”

  Justin’s eyes lit up. “She did? Why didn’t she invite all of us?”