Immortal (The Trelawneys of Williamsburg Book 2)

by Meredith, Anne

  “I’m so glad to hear that. Truly my life improved the moment he, with his conscience and kindness, entered it.”

  “But what about the Millers and Malcolm?” Bronson asked, steering the conversation back.

  “Yes, well. Malcolm explained to me that the scope of the time-travel instability was marked in time from the date Gideon and Sarita traveled back in time to the date of their destination. Thus, between 1753 and 1953, intentional time travel exists as a precarious thread throughout the lineage of the Millers—and, now, the Adamses as well.”

  “Say what?” Ray asked—his first interruption.

  “Your mother was implicated for some reason with Rachel. That, you see, is an example of the instability. Mary and Malcolm have within their power the ability to allow others this method of experiencing other times. Malcolm has apparently allowed it liberally with the Millers. Still, I am grateful he found a place where Gideon and Sarita could abide peacefully, although even in this time period, where they were safer, they were not allowed to marry—legally, at least—for another fifteen years.

  “I always worried about their children. Mixed-race children often had trouble finding acceptance from either community in my era, and mixed couples were certainly not allowed to marry—at least in church weddings.”

  “Uh-huh. Imagine that.” Rashall looked from Grey to Marley.

  “Perhaps now. It’s not that way in the twenty-first century,” Marley said. “That era has its own ridiculous set of problems.”

  Grey nodded. “’Tis true.”

  “You know, it’s interesting how your accent is still colonial.”

  “Because of my work as an interpreter.”

  Bronson grew short. “Please! Can we let him continue with his story? I wish to hear his plan before he vanishes again into the atmosphere.”

  “’Tis simple. Malcolm Henderson allowed Gideon and Sarita in 1753 to travel to 1953.”

  “That’s the same year Nan put Juliana through the portal.”

  “Juliana? Went back to 1753?”

  Marley cast her husband an apologetic glance and hurried to summarize. “Yes. After our parents were killed. Nan put us both back there, to keep us safe, but I followed her back into the twentieth century before the portal closed. Nan—our grandmother, our mother’s mother, raised me. And she was at least culpable for the murders, in that she explained to Manning how to use the portal.”

  “I don’t understand. James Manning? What does he have to do with it?”

  “The men who call themselves Sheppard—they’re James Manning’s sons. The younger one is a lunatic. The older one dotes on his brother and is quite intelligent.”

  “That explains their missing history. The first documentation of their existence appears on July 4, 1976 in Boston when the younger accosted a woman. They grew up with the help of state aid and the man now called Max Sheppard—”

  “Formerly Maxwell Sheppard Manning. And 1976 was the date of my father’s Phi Beta Kappa key.”

  “Sheppard has the sort of wealth to make Solomon blush.”

  “He’s a computer genius. I remember his name.”

  “Marley!” Bronson exclaimed.

  “I don’t think I can stop interrupting.” She sent him a nervous look.

  “That’s all right, I’m almost finished. What got me thinking, you see, was Rachel talking about Camisha. She told me that Helen, Camisha’s mother, came to work for Max Sheppard only a few weeks before Rachel came to live there. It struck me as curious, because by then I knew that both Camisha and Rachel were in fact from the Richmond area as children. And yet they both wound up in Texas, with Max Sheppard? It struck me as quite an odd coincidence. So we were visiting Helen one day, and she mentioned that her husband’s beat had been out there in the area near Stonefield. That in fact at one time they’d lived in the house nearest the Millers. Oh—Rashall, do you know what your grandfather did for a living?”

  “He was a sheriff of some sort, Mother said.”

  “Yes, he was a Richmond police officer. And he was killed at home one night only a few weeks before the Millers, when Camisha and her mother went to visit Helen’s mother in Yorktown.

  “And at the visitation before his funeral, Helen met a man who came to pay his respects, telling her how her husband was an old friend of his. He learned she was obsessed to find the drug addict who’d robbed and killed her husband for no more than a few hundred dollars.”

  “But that wasn’t why he was killed, of course! Jack came there to kill Camisha. That’s what Manning had told him to do. He’d thought Camisha was in another time,” Bronson said. He glanced at his wife then gave her a double-take, noticing her satisfied smirk at his own interruption.

  “Exactly,” Grey exclaimed. “Jack was in fact quite drug-addled, though, and perhaps he found ‘Cameron Manning’ in the phone book—don’t ask, men—and grew confused about his mission there.

  “At any rate, in that moment, there at the visitation, Helen told us, the man—Max Sheppard—offered her a well-paying job for very little work, just helping out around the house. She was persuaded that it would help her daughter have a better life.

  “So I began wondering—why would a man come all the way from Texas to do that? And I looked at the facts surrounding Cameron Carlyle’s death, and they were quite similar to the facts surrounding the Millers’ deaths. What they now call a home invasion occurred—someone attacking people who are in a house. The attacks were both unthinkably violent, and the killer used a knife in both crimes.

  “I’ve come to believe that Jack Sheppard—Manning, I suppose—killed Camisha’s father, and that his brother knew it and protected him. He certainly was never even arrested for the murder of the Millers; it’s still unsolved, and there had to have been DNA at the scene. I also believe that had he been discovered, or even arrested, he would not have killed the Millers. Only after their murder did Sheppard finally institutionalize him.”

  Bronson waited.

  Grey glanced at his pocket watch. “I need your help. I cannot do it alone.”

  “Do what?”

  “As dangerous as this time may be for you in terms of disease, my family live in a time where the man who killed Rachel’s parents still lives and has at his disposal someone who protects him. Both of them with a great deal of money to bribe authorities for freedom.

  “Malcolm has agreed to let me go to that night—the night Camisha’s father died—and defend Carlyle against his killer—to the death. And to convince him that he must remain in Richmond, at the home near Stonefield. This, I believe, will help ensure that the good aspects of consequences from that unholy night will still occur.”

  “I will help however I can,” Bronson said.

  “Do not give your promise in haste, for its consequences are sweeping. You and I will have but 24 hours in that time to do what we need to do and to get out—otherwise we both shall remain in that time—as did the Mannings. I shall be an old man and Rachel but six. You, a man of nearly thirty, and Marley a child of three.”

  “I am not yet certain I understand all of these events.”

  “I think I do,” Marley said. At Bronson’s glance, she shrugged. “Well, that’s what happens when you ask questions. But I do wonder one more thing—and it’s a big one. What makes you believe that things will still fall into place as they have already—if my husband helps you? If my parents live, why will Juliana be in this era?”

  “Why are you, now?”

  “Only to love my husband. And perhaps to find my sister. Unlike you, I should never wish to leave this time.”

  He hesitated, misgiving plain on his face. “It is as the grace that flowed down from heaven and saved my own life, my very soul. I have no cause for belief—only belief. I have seen the miracles from my faith in my own life. I have seen the death that history assigned to me become life and freedom for two hundred men and women and all the many thousands and tens of thousands of the children who were their descendants. You must have see
n that firsthand in your time there—along with the good that Camisha surely does, being the woman she is.

  “Marley, I trust in goodness that I have seen come to pass. I don’t believe goodness is repaid with heartache and evil.

  “Bronson, I shall return at the right time. When I come, I will have but an hour to stay here with you and plan, if you will join me. Rashall, I see in your face an uncertainty, a crisis of faith perhaps equal to that of my own when God first blessed me with Rachel. I urge you: simply look up, recognize God’s blessings raining down on you, and accept them. Marley, I send you my dear wife’s deepest affection and hope for that day when we’re all back together in Glory. ‘And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.’

  “Tonight, I bid you all adieu and fair sailing.”

  On his way out of his old cabin, he stopped and touched the wall, gliding his hand lightly along the glassy surface of the polished teak. He inhaled deeply and turned, observing the others. He opened the door and walked to the ladder leading to the quarterdeck, and vanished above deck.

  The three exchanged looks, and then Rashall silently followed Grey Trelawney up the ladder. They heard him pacing the quarterdeck overhead, and Bronson closed the door.

  “So,” he said, looking at his watch. “Midnight approaches—and with it my thirtieth birthday.”

  Marley stubbornly slipped her fingertips inside his open collar and withdrew the cross and dove. She kissed the symbols, and then her husband’s chest. She lay her head there, listening to the steady beat of his heart.

  “My darling, you know I am a Miller.”

  He rested his cheek against the top of her head, rubbing his face contentedly against her hair. “You are a Trelawney. But I recall your family, yes.”

  “And you know in the first moments you knew me, you, the son of a Dandridge woman, saved my life.”

  He crushed her hard against him, as if recalling that moment. “I know I thank God each day that I was there.”

  “In that moment, my dearest friend, the curse was broken. In this moment, I shatter it again and consider it conquered. If I must do this each night to reassure you, it is a task I will do gladly. Come and lie with me in our bed and let us ring in a new life together. A new world, free of curses.”

  And they did. Later, as they drifted to sleep, he whispered—not wishing to awaken her lest she slept, not wishing to mislead her lest she didn’t. “You know I must help my brother.”

  The words drew her from her slumber, and she inhaled deeply. “You know I have a habit of walking through time portals when people try to leave me behind.”

  “You will not.”

  She laughed softly. “I will consider your feelings, but I am not fond of the idea of you wandering into a befuddled era, where anarchy and unbridled lust are confused with freedom.”

  “Unbridled lust? How so?”

  “‘If it feels good, do it.’ That’s the slogan of their time.”

  He chuckled softly, then gave a lecherous, “Aha!” Softening, he said, “Well, the slogan of my time is worshipping thee with my body. I will look forward to doing that 24 hours after I leave. I cannot promise what will happen then, but I will promise you this. Nothing—no moon, no stars, no ship of fools—can make me forget all the blessings that came my way the day I found you. Nor will I allow any of them to keep me from returning to my beloved. God has blessed us, Marley, and we owe Him the celebration of those blessings.”

  She heard the quiet chime of a clock at the captain’s table.

  “Happy birthday, my darling.”

  And with that, they celebrated with a good night’s sleep, as a few dozen men, hundreds of miles away—a few of them good friends of theirs—and in a land they both loved, prepared to affix their names to a treasonous document that called into account those who would deny others freedom.

  While overhead, their dearest brother paced in the silent July night, seeking himself God’s will.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Crispus Attucks is treated as a footnote in history—possibly because, like most of us who have few buildings named after us, little is known about him. The details included in the prologue about his family are fictitious, written to help humanize him as the heroic figure I believe him to have been, based on the actions we do know. That he was hardworking is known, for he was believed to be a sailor for many years. That he loved freedom is beyond question, for he was thought to be an escaped slave, the son of a mixed union—an enslaved father and a mother from the Massachusetts tribe, evangelized and known as “Natick Praying Indians.”

  And we know that he was a man of courage. He didn’t show up that night to be a hero of a new nation. He simply stood up to a group of heavily armed men to defend a wigmaker’s apprentice attempting to collect payment for his master. He didn’t have to take a stand. He was headed back out to the freedom of the sea and a life he loved. His act was a matchless opening to the American Revolution, and I hope this story encourages you to learn more about the real heroes of that time period who came to be part of the American story.

  I also hope it encourages us all to be courageous in our own lives, in these sometimes troubling times.

  Anne Meredith is a native Texan and the author of Love’s Timeless Hope, Love Across Time, and Tender (The Trelawneys of Williamsburg, Book One). Contact her via Twitter @_AnneMeredith or at annemeredithbooks@gmail.com. Reviews of this book are welcome on Amazon and Goodreads.

  For more information: www.amazon.com/author/annemeredith

  Look for FOREVER (The Trelawneys of Williamsburg, Book Three) due out in Spring 2017

  Major Characters in The Trelawneys of Williamsburg (spoiler free)

  In alphabetical order

  Ashanti Adams (Series). Husband of Camisha and a leader for freedom for blacks.

  Bronson Trelawney (Series). Thomas’s son, sea captain, hero of Immortal.

  Camisha Carlyle (Series). Rachel’s fabulous lifelong friend and champion as well as her conscience—an attorney.

  Cassandra Miller (Series). Mother of Rachel, Marley, and Juliana Miller.

  Dan Freeman Trelawney (Series). Married to Ruth, the pastor and leader of the Trelawney extended family.

  Emily Trelawney (Series). Daughter of Grey Trelawney, said to haunt the Trelawney home in modern-day Colonial Williamsburg.

  Godfrey Hastings (Series). Second in command to Grey Trelawney, Hastings manages Rosalie.

  Grey Trelawney (Series). The son of Thomas Trelawney, hero of Tender, undergoing a conscience of crisis.

  Hannah “Nan” Hastings (Immortal). Grandmother of Rachel, Marley, and Juliana Miller. Cassandra Miller’s mother, once married to Godfrey Hastings’ son, William.

  James Manning (Series). Overseer at Rosalie, later a successful sea merchant.

  Jennie Dandridge Trelawney (Tender). Wife of Thomas, mother of Bronson.

  Jim “Jimmy” Bainbridge (Immortal). Nan’s abusive, long-term partner, the man who traumatized Marley.

  Juliana Miller (Series). Rachel and Marley’s sister, Hastings’ great-granddaughter.

  Malcolm Henderson, Mary Van Kirk (Series). Guides for those who travel in time.

  Max Sheppard (Series). Adopted father of Rachel, and the wealthy owner of a computer empire.

  Merrilea “Marley” Hastings (Immortal). Heroine of Immortal, younger sister of Rachel. An archaeologist and historian at Colonial Williamsburg.

  Rachel Sheppard (Series). Camisha Carlyle’s best friend and the heroine of Tender—a marketing director.

  Rashall Adams (Immortal, Forever). Camisha and Ashanti’s son, a sea captain.

  Robert Miller (Series). Father of Rachel, Marley, and Juliana Miller. A William & Mary history professor.

  Ruth Freeman Trelawney (Series). Enslaved on Rosalie, a good friend to the Miller sisters, the Trelawney’s schoolmistress and the chronicler of The Trelaw
neys of Williamsburg.

  Thomas Trelawney (Series). Patriarch of the Trelawney clan, civic leader, and father of Grey and Bronson.