Once in a Blue Moon

by Kathryn Kelly

  Arabella smiled and stepped aside for Villars to push the cart into the room. He had the art of vagueness down to a science. He hadn’t said whether he or her father had thought to bring her food.

  He took the plate and pitcher from the cart, setting them on the little table. “Will you be needing anything else?”

  Arabella had her back to him, her attention on the dress.

  “Where did you find Miss Vaughn’s wedding dress?”

  “In the attic. You recognize it then?”

  “Of course.” Villars started to say more, but closed his mouth and waited.

  “Villars.” Arabella had searched the house and learned everything her father could tell her about her mother and great-grandmother and time travel. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. But Villars knew everything and saw everything that happened in this house. Here was an untapped resource standing in front of her.

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “What do you know about time travel?”

  Chapter 97

  Augustus walked through the woods behind the house he and his family had just moved into. He missed walking through the cotton fields back home. He’d discovered a long time ago that taking a walk in the fresh air cleared his mind. It was especially helpful when needed to sort something out.

  And right now he had some serious sorting to do.

  Allison’s words haunted him. Was he being an idiot?

  He’d thought he’d made the right choice in leaving Arabella.

  He’d been right to go to his family and get them to safety. He had no regrets there. But leaving Arabella the way he had, with no explanation other than a simple note… Perhaps that had been a bad decision.

  He’d made the choice in haste. He rarely did anything important without thinking it through first. And Arabella was important.

  He couldn’t stop thinking about her. And his heart ached from missing her. The thought of never seeing her again was making him physically ill.

  He’d heard of people dying from a broken heart, but as a physician he’d never put much stock in it. But now… he may be dying of a broken heart himself.

  And the whole thing was his doing.

  But it was so much more complicated than his sister could fathom. It wasn’t just a matter of telling her how he felt and living happily ever after. It was a matter of doing what was best for Arabella. What was best for the woman he loved.

  She was from a different time. A better time. A time where taking pills could cure a man’s infected limb so that an amputation wasn’t necessary.

  Augustus hadn’t realized he’d reached the Mississippi. He sat down on the bluff and watched the muddy water flowing past.

  The water snagged tiny pieces of silt as it flowed past, taking the silt with it. Just as seconds were carried away by minutes and minutes by hours. Seconds went unnoticed, but then so many passed that life was over.

  He looked downriver toward the Becquerel estate. He was so close to her, yet so far. What would she do if given the choice? Would she remain here with her parents in the middle of this ungodly war or would she go back to the future?

  If given a choice.

  Charles believed that love was the thing that had brought her here.

  Without Augustus, she was free to do whatever she wanted.

  She could travel back to the future where medicine could save lives and likenesses could be captured on a mirrored device. What wonders the future must hold.

  No. He’d made the right decision.

  She needed to be free to find a way home.

  Chapter 98

  Villars’ eyes widened and he took a step back. “Oh no, Miss. It ain’t fitting for me to be talking about such things with you.”

  Arabella’s heartbeat quickened. “Then you do know something.”

  “I can’t say anything. No ma’am.” He took a step back.

  Arabella put her hands on her hips. “Villars. You’re not afraid?”

  Villars froze and stood up straight. “Yes ma’am.” His chin quivered just a little.

  Arabella tilted her head to the side. “I understand. Come.” She gestured toward the little sitting area. “Let’s sit for a minute.”

  “Miss Arabella. It ain’t proper.”

  “Nonsense. You’ve been part of this family your whole life.”

  Villars took a step forward, his eyes wide.

  Arabella sat and patted the seat of the chair across from her. He didn’t move. “I need your help with something.”

  Using his cane for support, Villars sat across from her.

  “Thank you.” Arabella smiled.

  “It ain’t fitting, but I’d do anything for this family.”

  “I believe that.” She locked her hands together in her lap. She hadn’t considered that Villars would be reluctant to talk with her. “It must have been quite a shock for you to see me that first time.”

  “Oh yes ma’am. You was just a baby, but you’re the spitting image of Missus Ericka. I mean you look just like she did. It was like seeing her young again.”

  Arabella nodded. “You knew.”

  “I been expected you to come back but it’s been longer than anyone ever thought.”

  “It has been a long time.”

  Villars seemed a little more comfortable now. He took off his hat and balanced it on his knees. “What do you want to know?”

  “It seems random – the time travel. It seems to just happen without warning. What do you think makes it happen?”

  He kept his dark brown eyes trained on her as he seemed to consider. “You’re wanting to go back to your time.”

  “I might.” She admitted.

  “It will break Missus Ericka’s heart.”

  “I’m just trying to understand.”

  Villars slowly blew out his breath. “I don’t think nobody really knows.” He said softly.

  “But you do.”

  He nodded. “It happens when the sky splits. Just like the legend says.”

  “What do you mean the sky splits?”

  “It’s the thunderstorms.”

  Chapter 99

  Augustus sat next to the bed of a child burning with fever. He hadn’t decided what he wanted to do next, but his mother had told their new neighbors that he was a physician and they had told their friends and word had traveled.

  So here he sat. Helpless.

  The child was under a heap of wool blankets, but still shivered with a vengeance.

  Augustus had no quinine to alleviate her suffering. The girl was already delusional and didn’t even know her own mother.

  He was helpless. He could hear the girl’s mother in the other room, weeping. She’d lost her son at Bull Run from dysentery.

  Now she would lose her daughter. Both her children lost to disease.

  Augustus put a hand on the girl’s forehead. The heat nearly scorched his skin. What good was he as a doctor? He lost more patients than he helped. It’s the war.

  But this girl would die and she had nothing to do with the war.

  She’d die because he couldn’t help her.

  Perhaps there was a better place somewhere that he could practice medicine.

  Not a better place so much, but a better time.

  Chapter 100

  Arabella sat in her sitting room staring out the window. She’d slid the chair over and sat holding her cell phone. In the movie Somewhere in Time, Christopher Reeve had gone forward in time just by seeing a modern day coin. Maybe if she held her cell phone, the same would happen to her.

  It was just a movie.

  It was make believe. But this. This was real.

  And holding her cell phone, looking at picture of cars and airplanes didn’t change anything.

  Thunderstorms.

  Villars firmly believed that time travel occurred during thunderstorms. When the skies split open.

  Lightening, Arabella supposed was what he referred to as the sky splitting. As far-fetched as it sounded, there had been a thunderstor
m all three times she’d travelled through time. She’d hardly even noticed. But now, she wondered if he had it figured out.

  He hadn’t been able to further explain the legend he referred to, except something about a rip in time.

  She squinted against the sunlight streaming through the window. It was a cloudless summer day with no storms in sight.

  She had no weather channel to check.

  Discouraged, she took her phone back and hid it on a shelf in her wardrobe beneath a blue chiffon dress.

  If it had been storming every time Arabella had gone through time and Villars claimed that both Ericka and Vaughn travelled when it was storming, his belief was plausible.

  Yet… there was still that missing piece. Was it the house? Or the grandfather clock?

  She wandered downstairs and stood in front of the ticking clock. She’d been told it usually happened here. It had always happened right here for her – even as an infant being held in Vaughn’s arms.

  Perhaps it was a combination of things. She glanced outside at the glaring sunlight. Someone had left the door open to catch whatever stray breeze happened by. If thunder truly was required, it looked like it was going to be quite some time before she could test it out.

  She slapped a mosquito on her arm, smearing blood all over her hand.

  Chapter 101

  Augustus spurred the horse he now knew why he got at such good price for down the drive toward the Becquerel estate. The horse had done well, but the old fellow didn’t have much left in him.

  Now that Augustus had made his decision, he was ready to implement his plan.

  The house was quiet. It appeared to be deserted even. He dismounted in front of the house and sprinted up the stairs. Had something happened while he was gone? The Yankees perhaps? He rapped on the door. Waited. But no one answered. Gone were the days of butlers.

  He rapped on the door again, then went back down the front steps and picked his way around the house to the back. His soldiers had gone, leaving the grounds deserted.

  As he walked around the side of the house, he heard voices in a heated discussion. Slowing, he stopped at the back corner and listened.

  He recognized Charles’ voice, but not the other man.

  “You sent for them?”

  “Yes. I thought I was going to die.” Charles spoke quietly and calmly.

  “How did you expect them to make their way across the country in the middle of a damn war?”

  “I don’t know. I trusted Ericka to come if she could.”

  The other man scoffed. “Of course she would try. No matter if it was safe or not. And Camille would follow at her heels.”

  Camille. Ericka’s sister-in-law if Augustus remembered correctly. Then this must be Ericka’s brother, Bradley.

  Bradley was also from the future.

  “They didn’t come, so they must have decided it was best to stay put.” Charles said.

  “But you don’t know that. You said you haven’t heard from them.”

  “I have not.”

  “Not even a word.” Bradley bit out the words.

  Charles was silent.

  “I have to go find them.”

  “Find them how?”

  “How the hell should I know? I can’t just sit here. And do nothing.”

  “Go then.”

  Augustus heard the weariness in Charles’ voice.

  “I’ll leave first thing in the morning.” Footsteps. Then the door slammed.

  Augustus waited a beat, then went around the house so Charles could see him.

  “Augustus!” Charles cried “Thank God you’re here.”

  “What’s wrong?” Augustus felt his heart rate quicken at his friend’s troubled expression.

  “It’s Arabella.”

  Chapter 102

  Arabella shoved the blanket off of her.

  Again.

  She was shivering and someone kept covering her up. It would make sense, of course, except that she’d spent enough time in hospitals to know that it only made a fever worse. When she pointed this out to them, they shook their heads and called her addled.

  She’d asked for mosquito netting, but none could be found. Apparently, the soldiers had somehow managed to take it with them. So she stayed under a sheet and did the best she could to avoid further mosquito bites.

  Charles had asked for quinine, but none of that could be found either.

  The war.

  The war left them with nothing.

  The fever made her cry. She always cried when she had a fever.

  She wished for a thunderstorm to take her home.

  But the rains had stopped leaving them in unbearable humid heat.

  She wished for Augustus.

  Yet she knew even he as a physician couldn’t help her.

  She longed for Augustus.

  But he’d broken her heart.

  Chapter 103

  Her hair was soaked with sweat.

  Augustus swept the hair off Arabella’s forehead.

  Minnie pulled the blanket around up to her neck. “Ever time I put these blankets over her, she throws them off. She keeps saying something about letting the fever breath.”

  “Do you have any quinine?”

  “No Sir. Them soldiers. They took everything.”

  He was one of those soldiers. He knew they used up the household supply of quinine long ago. If only they’d thought to tuck some back for themselves.

  Minnie pulled the curtains to and left the room.

  Augustus immediately went to the window, threw back the curtains, and opened the window. Arabella had convinced him that fresh air was one of the most important treatments for illness.

  He went back to stand next to the bed where she slept.

  “Why don’t you want the blankets, my dearest?”

  Arabella had told him that she worked in a hospital in her time. Even though she wasn’t a medical person, she listened and she learned.

  She had to have a reason.

  He pulled the blanket back off of her, leaving only the sheet.

  The child he’d been tending, the one with malaria, had died. That had been the final straw for Augustus. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do yet, but he’d known he need to get back to Arabella.

  And here Arabella was with malaria. And he had no quinine.

  Without quinine, her chances of survival decreased significantly.

  He sat next to the bed and held her hand.

  It was all he knew to do.

  Chapter 104

  Arabella woke in the darkness of night. She was so exhausted she could barely move.

  Yet she felt safe. Strong arms were wrapped around her.

  Augustus.

  She was dreaming, of course, as she had so many times before, but it didn’t matter. The sensation of being safe and loved was so strong, it pulled at her enough that it might as well be real.

  Chapter 105

  It was just after midnight when Augustus woke with renewed determination to do something – anything – to help Arabella.

  If Arabella knew of medicines to cure otherwise incurable maladies, then surely Bradley did, too. They came from the same time.

  He found Bradley in the study, writing a letter.

  “Bradley Becquerel?” He asked from the doorway.

  “Yes?” Bradley had more ink on his fingers than on the paper.

  “I’m Augustus Townsend.”

  “Ah.” Bradley leaned back in the chair. Contrary to what Augustus had overhead earlier in the day, Bradley appeared quite calm. “I heard about you, Dr. Townsend.”

  “Yes. Well, I’m here to ask for your help.”

  “In what way?” Bradley leaned forward.

  “Your niece, Arabella, is ill.”

  Bradley frowned. “I was told she was under the weather and I could meet her later.”

  “Of course.” Augustus wasn’t surprised. Southern propriety persisted in the oddest of moments. “Actually, I’m afraid it’s much mor
e dire than that.”

  Bradley stood up and came around the desk. “What do you mean?”

  “She has malaria.”

  “Oh God. The mosquitoes. Can you treat it?”

  “Mosquitoes?”

  Bradley shrugged. “What can you do?”

  “I could give her quinine, but we don’t have any. I was hoping you knew of some other treatment I don’t know about.”

  “I’m not a doctor.”

  “Of course. But you’re from Arabella’s time and… things are different. I know you have medicines. Perhaps you know of something that would help her that I don’t know about.”

  Bradley wiped his hands on a cloth, then pressed the back of his wrist against his forehead. Then he looked back at Augustus. “I personally don’t know how to treat it, but I may be able to find out.”

  Augustus felt his spirits lift for the first time since he’d arrived hours ago. “Anything,” he said. “Anything at all.”

  “We’ll need a lantern.”

  Chapter 106

  Augustus held the lantern while Bradley climbed several feet into a tree. They’d walked about a hundred yards into the woods, guided only the lantern. The full moon was completely obscured by a thick layer of clouds.

  He had no clue what they were doing out here, but Augustus was too desperate to ask questions.

  “Hand me the lantern.” Bradley reached down and Augustus handed the lantern up. Augustus watched as Bradley pulled a metal box out of a den hole in the tree. He handed the lantern back and Augustus set it down. Then he took the metal box and Bradley climbed back to the ground.

  “What is it?” The box was light.

  “It’s a treasure trove of knowledge.” Bradley dusted himself off and took the box from Augustus.

  “Let’s sit over here.” They sat on a fallen log and Bradley opened the box and unwrapped two plates – one metal and one glass. The glass one looked like what Arabella called her cell something-or-other, only bigger.