Once in a Blue Moon

by Kathryn Kelly

  Bradley pressed a button on the glass one that looked like a mirror and it lit up, just like her smaller one had. Seconds later he touched the screen, changing the image. He swiped his finger along the screen and pictures scrolled up the screen.

  He touched one of the images and a book appeared. Just by swiping his finger, the pages moved like magic.

  “There’s a book in there?” Augustus asked, looked beneath the plate. How could that be?

  Bradley grinned. “Sort of. Malaria, right?”

  “Yes.” Augustus kept his eyes on the screen and watched in amazement as Bradley touched the screen with his fingers and pages moved.

  Then a page appeared titled malaria. Together they read the text.

  “Malaria comes from mosquitoes,” Augustus said. “That makes perfect sense why it’s so prevalent here and not up north.”

  Bradley glanced at him. “No one knows that yet.”

  “Well I do now! And don’t think I won’t save lives with this knowledge.”

  Bradley chuckled and they kept reading.

  “Whiskey.” They said at the same time.

  Bradley turned off the… thing and wrapped it back up. “I’m gonna need to get this in the sun before long.”

  “The sun gives it energy?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’d like to read that book.”

  “Sure. After I find my wife and sister and after this war is over, you can do that. You’ll be the best damn doctor of the century.”

  “Speaking of, I’ve got to get some whiskey in Arabella.”

  Help me get this back in the tree and we’ll go.”

  Augustus was in awe at the little machines that they’d brought from the future. Whole books in one little device. A little device that was so incomprehensively valuable that it had to remain hidden in metal box in a tree.

  And now he had a chance of saving Arabella’s life.

  Chapter 107

  Arabella sat in her bed propped against a stack of pillows, eating a bowl of soup. Minnie puttered about the room, picking up clothes, towels, and straightening in general.

  “That Doctor Augustus, he done brought you back from the dead.” Minnie picked up a cloth from the floor, draped it over her arm. “I don’t know how he did it, but he nursed you back to health.”

  Arabella sipped the tomato soup. Augustus. He was back then. She thought she’d imagined it. Her face flushed at where some of her imaginative thoughts had taken her.

  Minnie continued to chatter as she moved about the room.

  “He came back then,” Arabella said out loud.

  “Oh yes ma’am. He came back and he didn’t give up on you. He stayed right here ‘til that fever broke.”

  “Where is he now?”

  Minnie stopped and looked at her, hands on her hips. “Nobody knows.”

  Arabella set down her spoon. “When did he leave?”

  “This morning.” Minnie said. “He told me to stay right here and watch over you. I told him I’ll watch over you like a mother hen.”

  Arabella tuned her out and finished her soup. If Augustus was here, taking care of her, why did he leave before she woke and where had he gone?

  She wanted a bath, but she was just too tired to go through the ordeal of having hot water hauled up. Maybe after a nap, she would ask Minnie to bring up some water.

  Her eyes drifted closed.

  Augustus. Here.

  As she drifted asleep, only one thought played in her head.

  Augustus had come back.

  Chapter 108

  Augustus sat at the foot of the hollow tree holding the glass device that had a half eaten apple with the word iPad on the back.

  He’d imitated Bradley’s behavior and had spent the morning reading about the future.

  The iPad contained an entire set of encyclopedias. He’d read about automobiles, airplanes, and computers. There was so much information. So much had changed in the past one hundred fifty years. The entire world was different. He’d read a few things about medicine, but most of what he read required machinery to implement.

  He had just found a chapter on the American Civil War when the iPad went blank. It was perplexing because he’d been sitting in the sunlight specifically to make sure it had enough power.

  Since Bradley hadn’t explained anything about the other device, Augustus left it alone. He carefully wrapped the iPad back in the cloth and returned it to the tree.

  There would be hell to pay if he’d broken it. And rightly so. A device that held all the knowledge from 2018 back had no price and could never be replaced.

  But now Augustus had validated his decision. He would do whatever it took to be with Arabella, even if it meant going with her to the future.

  He’d been surprised she was still here. He’d thought that if he left her, she would be free of his love and free to return to her own time.

  But he hadn’t been able to stay away from her.

  Perhaps merely being apart hadn’t been enough to break their bond. Even with him under the pretense of never coming back.

  Perhaps fate knew better.

  Now all he had to do was to convince Arabella that he’d walked away from her in order to save her.

  He scoffed at himself.

  His sister was right. Men could be idiots.

  Chapter 109

  Arabella went downstairs and found her father in the study.

  He jumped up and drew her into a hug when he saw her standing in the doorway. “Arabella. I thought I had lost you again.”

  “What happened?”

  “You took ill with malaria and we had no quinine to give you.”

  “I could have died.”

  “Yes, but Augustus gave you whiskey until the fever broke.”

  She put a hand over her eyes. “That explains the headache. Where is he?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “So he left again.”

  “I don’t know ma petite cherie.”

  She collapsed into one of the two large chairs in his office. This trip downstairs had been more difficult than she expected. She was weak from the malaria. And the afternoon heat didn’t help.

  “Your uncle was here.” Charles sat in the chair next to hers.

  “Uncle?” Her brain was still foggy.

  “Bradley. But he left to search for Camille and your mother.”

  “Oh. Good.” She wasn’t sure what the implications of this were. Right now she was more concerned about Augustus swooping in to treat her malaria, then disappearing again. “Why was Augustus here?”

  Charles scrunched his eyebrows. “He didn’t say.”

  “It’s odd, don’t you think?”

  “A little. But men do odd things for the women they love.”

  She scoffed. “Those things don’t usually involve running off with no explanation.”

  “You’re right.”

  Arabella froze. And turned her eyes toward the door. Augustus stood there, a half smile on his face.

  “I’d like the opportunity to explain.”

  She glanced at her father.

  “I’ll leave you two alone.”

  “No.” Augustus stepped forward. “I’d like you to understand, too.” He went to Arabella and knelt in front of her. He took her hand in his and kissed her palm.

  “I love you.”

  She inhaled sharply. Words she had longed to hear for so long.

  He glanced at Charles. “Sir, I’m in love with your daughter.”

  Charles watched him in silence. He turned back to her.

  “Arabella, I didn’t want to take you from the life you were accustomed to. If I was the one keeping you here, I wanted you to be safe. So you could return to a time when there were medicines that could actually save lives.”

  She shook her head. What was he saying? That he loved her so he was setting her free? She’d always thought that saying was nonsense. Relationships should be easy. If they weren’t easy, move on. What was the point?
r />   Of course, that’s what had gotten her in trouble with Matthew. It had been easy and she had simply let it slide.

  But right now wasn’t about the past. Right now was about Augustus kneeling in front of her declaring his love.

  “Augustus…”

  “Wait. I apologize for leaving you the way I did. I was hoping that you would be able to return to your own time and I also thought that I could stay away from you.” He took her other hand and held both her hands in his. “But I couldn’t. I couldn’t stay away from you.”

  Arabella blinked back the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks.

  “Sir. May I have permission to ask for your daughter’s hand. I’ll understand if-”

  “Yes.”

  Augustus smiled. “Arabella. It matters not to me whether we’re in this time or your time. I only want to be with you. If you’re happier in the future, I’ll go there with you.”

  She couldn’t stop the tears. “I don’t think it works that way.” Her breath hitched.

  “However it works, I want to live the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”

  “Yes,” she breathed, glancing at her father. “But only if you agree to stay here in this time. Here with my family.”

  He pulled her in his arms. Kissed her forehead, her eyelids, the tears from her cheeks. “Wherever you are, that’s where I’ll be happy.”

  “This calls for a whiskey,” Charles said.

  Arabella groaned. “Please. No more whiskey.”

  Epilogue

  Six Months Later

  Arabella lay with her head in Augustus’ lap on the porch swing. He gently rocked the swing and toyed with the ends of her hair. She was pleasantly exhausted from a day of chores – today they had made candles. Dipping the wicks into the hot wax had required a lot of tedious repetition.

  Her father and Augustus had spent the day chopping wood and repairing a chicken coop.

  She looked over at her father, Charles Becquerel. He was sitting a few feet away in a chair, smoking a cigar. He held the book he’d been reading until the dusk took away the light. It still felt surreal to think she was here with her father. The father she thought had died when she was an infant. And in all truthfulness, Vaughn hadn’t lied to her. When Vaughn had brought her through time, her parents had been dead to her.

  Though Charles had written his wife, Ericka, several times, he hadn’t heard back from her. There was no way to know if she had even gotten the letters. Travel was dangerous and the mail was erratic as the war waged around them. Even after Bradley went in search of them, they’d had no word from any of them.

  Augustus had requested permission to resign from the Confederate army and it had been granted on the grounds that he was needed as a physician on the home front. His fear of being found treasonous had been unfounded. Ironically, even as he had resigned, he still served. Their reputation as an unofficial hospital continued and wounded men still flocked to their doorstep on a regular basis.

  The air had a chill, but Arabella didn’t mind. It was nearing Christmas-time and Arabella was with Augustus, the man she had fallen in love with. He spoke of visiting with his family after the war, but assured her that he would not be leaving the Becquerel estate again without her. Arabella had yet to determine what that meant for her, but she was content.

  Arabella had developed an ear for anyone coming down their driveway. She leaned up and stared down the road and just as she had anticipated, they had a visitor.

  She watched as a horse and buggy came into view. The horse was ragged and bony, but that was to be expected. The whole south was ragged and bony.

  What was unexpected was that two women were in the buggy. The men followed her gaze and the three of them watched as they came closer.

  Charles stood up silently, his eyes glued to the road, and went to the edge of the porch. Arabella sat up, watching her father as much as she watched the buggy coming down the road. She had no more than discerned that the buggy held females, than Charles had bolted down the front steps.

  Though his limp was evident, he moved quickly and stopped the buggy before it touched the circle drive. Then one of the women was out of the buggy and in his arms. They held each other as the seconds ticked past.

  Then the woman said something to the other one who then whipped the reins and continued toward the house. Charles held the woman’s hands and after talking briefly, they started walking toward the house, still hand in hand.

  Augustus went out to meet the woman driving the buggy. Arabella followed.

  The woman secured the reins and allowed Augustus to lift her from the buggy. Her dress was torn and soiled, but of obvious good quality. She wore a hoop skirt in similar size to Arabella’s. Even though she looked tired, it was obvious that she was stunningly beautiful.

  Safely on the ground, she turned to them. “Hello. I’m Camille Becquerel.”

  Arabella and Augustus looked at each other. Arabella grinned and went to hug her. “You’re Uncle Bradley’s wife.”

  “Yes. How did you know?”

  “I’ve heard Charles speak of you.”

  “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage.”

  Arabella took a deep breath. “I’m Arabella.”

  Camille gasped and stared at her. She put a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide with obvious surprise. “The missing baby.”

  Arabella smiled. “It’s seems I’ve been found.”

  “I can’t believe it. I was holding you. And then I handed you over to Vaughn and then you were both… just vanished. Ericka never admitted to blaming me, but I always felt it was my fault.”

  “It was no one’s fault. It just happened.”

  “But… you’re here.” She looked from Arabella to Augustus and back again.

  Arabella turned just as she heard someone running toward them.

  The woman stopped a few feet from her. Arabella blinked.

  And she looked into the eyes of an older version of herself.

  Another Epilogue

  May 1865

  Arabella ran a hand along her swollen belly. The end of the war had come. Finally. But nothing had changed for them. Except maybe higher taxes, but somehow the men were managing.

  The women stayed busy managing the household. Camille’s daughter, Becca, had returned home after her husband was killed in the war. And she brought her own infant with her.

  Arabella’s heart broke every time she thought about Becca’s story. They had been newlyweds when the war started. Last year, her husband had returned home for three days. Three whole days and now Becca was a single mom. Or as Camille said, a widow.

  Arabella was thankful that Augustus remained on the home front. Together they took care of those wounded, physically and mentally.

  He’d shown her the iPad that Bradley had hidden in the tree and she’d shown him how to charge it with the solar panel. They’d spent hours reading together and talking about the information stored on it.

  Arabella and Ericka were outside hanging clothes on a line strung between two trees. Camille sat at a tub, scrubbing clothes on a washboard. Over the past few months, she’d grown quiet and carried a sadness with her. She didn’t say it, but everyone knew that she feared the worst for Bradley and mourned his absence.

  “What do you miss the most about home?” Ericka asked. They’d tacitly agreed to refer to the future as home. “Right now for me it’s got to be the washer and dryer.”

  Arabella laughed. “That’s easy. For me it’s my cell phone.”

  “The cell phone does everything now, doesn’t it?”

  “You have no idea. I even had an app to tell me if I was brushing my teeth right.”

  Ericka paused and stared at her. “Seriously?”

  “I’m not kidding.” Arabella froze and watched when she saw a soldier coming out of the woods. There was a path that led directly to the river from here, but not too many people knew about it. He was a ragged looking soldier – his clothes were tattered and he was
barefoot.

  Ericka followed her gaze. “Another one…”

  But Arabella heard something in her voice that sounded different…

  She dropped the shirt she was holding back into the basket and took a step forward. Then she glanced toward Camille, but Camille’s eyes were focused on washboard where she scrubbed a shirt.

  The soldier kept coming toward them.

  Camille looked in their direction, doubtless alerted by their sudden silence. She then turned around and followed their gaze.

  Ericka’s hand flew to her mouth. “It’s Bradley,” she whispered.

  Arabella watched as recognition dawned on Camille’s face a second later. She sat very still and watched as Bradley neared.

  She sat still as a statue until Bradley stood directly in front of her. Then she was in his arms.

  “Come on,” Ericka said. “Come meet your uncle.”

  Augustus and Charles came out the back door.

  “Hey,” Charles said. “It’s time to….”

  “Let’s go finish the washing up for them.” Augustus said before he saw Bradley.

  Then all four of them were standing around Camille and Bradley. Tears were streaming down Camille’s face and Bradley grinned and swept her off her feet in a circle.

  Augustus took Arabella’s hand and pulled her against him. “Uncle Bradley made it home,” he whispered into her ear.

  “I think you’re right. I told you he wasn’t on the list.”

  They’d searched Civil War records on the iPad books, but hadn’t located Bradley’s name anywhere. Of course, having internet would have helped.

  Bradley hugged his sister and was introduced to his niece, Arabella.

  Arabella soon found herself in a huge bear hug. Bradley may have looked a little ragged from a distance, but he still had his strength.

  “Careful,” Augustus warned. “The baby.”

  “I’m always careful,” Bradley said, releasing Arabella back to her doting husband’s care.