“What’s that? Having a beautiful gal cling to me?”
I loosen my grip, even though I’m flattered. “All right Sherlock, now what?”
Will keeps his arm around me. “I don’t know. I was hoping once we were up here, the answers would reveal themselves.” He glances at me and smiles. Here we are in a bat-infested bell tower in the middle of the night, and he’s as calm as if we were searching for four-leaf clovers in a park.
“What did you say to Frank earlier to get the keys?”
Will shrugs. “I told him I planned to get you up here and kiss you.”
“Oh?”
This would be a perfect time for him to do just that, and when he doesn’t, I’m a little disappointed.
Will releases me and tugs the canvas cover off the organ. He runs his hand across one of the wooden handles. “I thought it would be a keyboard, not a bunch of wooden knobs.”
I stare at this device that somehow has played a role in our time travels. “What if it started playing right now?”
Will runs the flashlight over each knob. “Do you think we’d travel?”
“And if we did, where would we end up?”
“All I know is, if it starts playing, I’m holding on to you,” Will says.
His words send a warm rush all over my body.
“Where you go, I go,” he adds softly.
He may not want to kiss me, but he wants to stay with me.
“Do you think other people hear the bells like we do on those nights?” he asks.
“I’ve wanted to ask someone, but because I end up in a different time, that’s been impossible.”
I hum the haunting melody that plays on the nights I travel. Will joins me in the tune, the low timber of his voice blending with mine.
Our eyes lock in that tiny room at the top of the tower, the moonlight casting a silver glow on us. We’re mesmerized as we hum the exact same melody. But when we reach the part where the melody goes off key, Will’s version is different. Where my song goes flat, his goes sharp.
“Oh my God. They’re different!” I say.
“What does that mean?” He seems as stunned by this revelation as I am.
“My version goes down, and yours up. Is that why… I go back and you go forward?”
“It’s a valid theory.”
“We may not have found a time machine in here, but at least we have one more clue. Let’s cover this back up.”
Together we lay the tarp over the wooden organ knobs. The sudden weight hits the keys, and bells gong so loud I scream again. It sends vibrations deep into my bones.
“Skedaddle!” Will grabs my hand and we scramble down the steps, the flashlight beam bouncing off the walls along with the reverberating gong.
The second we spill out the door, Walter and Ruby are there.
“You trying to wake the dead?” Walter exclaims.
“Sorry about that. Quick, lock the door before campus police show up.”
“Give me the flashlight. You take the gals back, and I’ll get the key and flashlight to Frank.”
Will hands over the flashlight. “Let’s go.” He leads Ruby and me alongside the woods so we can duck in if someone shows up. Back at Liz Waters, Ruby slips in the back door with a wink, leaving me alone with Will.
“That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Abbi, you are a fascinating girl.” He looks at me as if really seeing me for the first time.
CHAPTER 17
“Abigail, you can’t miss class again. You’ll be written up,” Mildred’s nagging voice insists in my ear.
“What time is it?” I mutter without opening my eyes.
“Eight-thirty. You’re going to miss breakfast.”
I groan. Staying awake all night is killing me. “I’m not hungry.”
Mildred harrumphs, slamming her desk drawer. “This isn’t right.”
It’s times like these that I long for modern conveniences like sound-blocking headphones. “Stop worrying about me. I couldn’t sleep last night.”
“I know you’ve been truant,” she snaps like it’s some great revelation.
“Please, just let me sleep.” I pull my pillow over my head, determined to be left alone.
Mildred mumbles something and closes the door. Thank God. I drift back to sleep.
It can’t be five minutes later when I’m startled back awake by someone pulling the pillow off my head.
“See, Miss Peabody. She refuses to get out of bed,” Mildred whines.
Oh no! She’s brought in the head resident. I bolt upright, pushing my messy hair out of my face.
Mildred glares at me with her arms crossed and hip hitched. “This is the second day in a row, and I know she’s not sick.”
“Why do you even care?” I snarl at Mildred.
“Abigail, what is this about?” Miss Peabody asks, tapping her foot.
I rub the sleep from my eyes. Miss Peabody towers over my bed. She’s exceptionally tall and skinny, resembling a stork. Her beaked nose doesn’t help the look either. “Lately I can’t sleep at night. I don’t know what it is. If I can sleep in, I’ll be fine the rest of the day.”
“This is not how the respectable young ladies of Elizabeth Waters present themselves. You are to get yourself up and dressed immediately and go to class. What is your first class of the day?” she asks with the efficiency of a drill sergeant.
“She has Eighteenth Century Literature,” Mildred pipes in.
I stare at Mildred, dumbstruck. “How do you even know that?” I sure don’t.
“Up with you,” Miss Peabody says. “You may consider today a warning. One more unexcused tardy, and you’ll receive a demerit. Oh, and do something proper with your hair. It’s an embarrassment.” She turns on her heel and leaves.
“Oh my God, you people are killing me.”
Mildred gives me the stink eye. “Then obey the rules.”
“I pity the man who marries you.”
Her face pales. “What a horrible thing to say!”
Someone laughs. Ruby is at the door, already in her coat, ready for the day.
“And what do you want?” Mildred snaps.
“I’m certainly not here to see you,” Ruby says and saunters in.
“Fine. I’m going to class like a responsible person.” Mildred gathers her books and stomps off.
Ruby closes the door. “She’s a nasty one. Watch your step around her. If you don’t do things her way—”
“It’s the highway?” I offer.
“That’s a good one. What was Miss Peabody doing here?”
“Just making sure I never get a decent amount of sleep.” I yawn. “Do you think there’s any chance I could switch my morning classes to afternoon ones?”
“It never hurts to try.” Ruby sits on Mildred’s neatly made bed and grins. “Last night was terrific fun.”
Memories flash of me clinging to Will in the bell tower while he held me tight. “It sure was,” I agree.
“I can’t believe you went up in that dark tower with Will. Dish! Did he kiss you?”
“No… but he’s kind of shy,” I say, which is totally not the case.
“Horsefeathers. We need to give him a little push. I’ll have Walter tell him to invite you to the spring dance.” She lights up with excitement.
“Please, don’t do that. We’re just friends.” Friends who need to support each other in this time-travel nightmare. I get up and my feet hit the cold floor. Why doesn’t anyone put a rug in here?
“But you make such a handsome couple,” Ruby says in a dreamy sort of way.
“Look at you, playing matchmaker. What about you and Walter? You seem pretty serious.” I seize my opportunity to ask some nosy questions. Unless she’s already had the mystery baby, Walter must be the father. I search through my dress
er drawer for a pair of warm socks.
“He’s wonderful. We’re going to get married.”
I startle and look at her, beaming with happiness. “Ruby, that’s great. Congratulations!” So maybe Grandma’s birth certificate was wrong after all?
“But we’re going to elope. You see, my father would never give his blessing.”
Standing on one foot, I pull on a sock, then switch and hop while I put on the other. “Why not? Walter seems great.”
“It’s my stepmother. Father listens to whatever she says.” Ruby picks up a throw pillow from Mildred’s bed and punches it. “She’s the meanest woman on this Earth!”
I climb back on my bed. “Why should she care who you marry?”
“Because Father loved my mother first, so my stepmother disapproves of everything that has to do with her… which includes me.”
“She sounds awful.”
“She’s been pushing a bookkeeper from town on me for two years. He’s a weaselly little man who works for his father’s firm. He’s boring as all get-out, and I wouldn’t marry him in a million years.”
“You definitely belong with Walter.”
Ruby beams at me. “I think so too.” She tosses the pillow and heads for the door. “I must get on to class, but I’ll see you later tonight?”
“Absolutely.”
* * *
After struggling to give my hair a slight bit of thirties wave, I toss the archaic iron on the floor and pull my hair into a low bun. It may not be the exact style of the day, but it’s the best I can do. I can’t imagine how these girls get the wave in their hair every day. Who’s got that kind of time? I’ll have to ask Ruby for tips.
Rather than go to class, I march straight to the registrar’s office to change my schedule. Who knows how long I’ll be here, but if I’m going to make it, I might as well try to stay out of trouble.
A stuffy-looking man wearing a droopy bow tie sits behind a massive desk. He doesn’t want to make the change. But when I mention my monthly curse and tear up over my inability to get a full night’s sleep due to hormonal changes, he turns red and scribbles his signature on the change slip as fast as he can before dismissing me. I’m officially transferred out of all classes beginning before noon, but now my afternoons are packed.
Elated, I race to find Will at the meeting place we picked last night—the Abe Lincoln statue at the top of Bascom Hill.
He pulls a cigarette from his lips. “You look quite satisfied with yourself.”
“My class schedule now begins at noon,” I announce proudly. “I can officially sleep in and get Mildred the snitch off my back.”
“Brilliant idea. I’ll have to look into that myself.” He takes a puff from the cigarette.
“Will, you really need to quit those nasty things.” I frown.
“I’m not hurting anyone.” He grins at me and flicks gray ash into the grass.
“Trust me. You don’t want lung cancer. Please try again to give them up.” This time I say it nicely and flutter my lashes.
He shakes his head but tosses the cigarette and snuffs it out with his shoe. “How’s that? Just for you.” He gives me that devilishly sweet smile that lights up his eyes and shows off his dimples.
“Thank you,” I say, getting that warm feeling again. A thought pops into my head. “And the next time you get the urge for a cigarette, try chewing gum, or…” I look around and pull a long blade of grass growing next to the statue. “Try this!”
Will stares at the blade of grass. “You want me to chew on grass?”
I laugh. If only he knew. “It’s worth a try.”
He accepts the blade and slips it between his teeth. “Oh yes, this is much more enjoyable than a smoke. If I start to moo and give milk, please say you’ll let me smoke again.”
“Deal. Now that I’ve switched my schedule, I have a class in a few minutes. It seems such a waste of time when I know I’m only here for a while, but I don’t want to get expelled again.”
“I’ll walk with you.” He takes my books and curls them under his arm. I’m beginning to understand why in the old days women used to swoon over men.
Will adjusts his stride to my pace. “Abbi, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and I really hope you don’t… leave.”
There’s a definite comfort hearing him say those words, but there’s only so much I can do to try to stay.
“Before you arrived, the only good thing left in my life was rowing.”
“You really like crew?”
“I do. It reminds me of home. I lived on the water, and sometimes the only escape from my father was to row.”
“Your father was… difficult?”
Will takes the blade of grass from his mouth, looks at the chewed end, and frowns. “I could never please him. He was terribly strict, and he insisted I farm the land with him, but I wanted so much more out of life. I guess I don’t really have anything tying me to my time anymore.” He slips the grass back into the corner of his mouth.
“Well, I’m glad you have crew now. Did I tell you that the professor, when he was a freshman, gave me an old yearbook from 1930 that has your picture in it? It’s how I knew for sure you were here. I didn’t know if the days overlapped, but I really hoped they did.”
“I look forward to meeting the good professor. When did you say that happens?”
“He said you meet during his sophomore year, so that would be around 1949, but don’t judge him too harshly that first time.” I picture the nervous, pimply-faced student and smile. “He’s not the all-wise and brilliant man you’re going to expect. He’s still finding his way.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
We walk for a bit and I wonder what he’s thinking, and then he speaks again. “I must say, Abbi, last night was great fun. Your great-grandparents are swell.”
“They are. A couple weeks ago I didn’t even know their names, and now I’m hanging out with them. It’s wild.”
We stop in front of the Social Sciences Building. “Here’s my class.”
He leans against the light pole, still holding my books. “So, when will I see you again?” he asks, peeking from behind his long eyelashes.
“When would you like to?” We aren’t dating or anything, but it sort of feels that way.
“Would you like to meet at the library later to study?” He smirks.
I wrinkle my nose. “Sure. Maybe some of your smarts will rub off on me.”
* * *
After sitting through two lectures, I head back to the dorm. As I approach Liz Waters, Walter runs up to me, panic flashing in his eyes.
“Abbi, you’ve got to help me find Ruby. It’s an emergency.” He’s out of breath and flushed.
“Of course. What’s wrong?”
“My father’s had a terrible accident. I have to go home, but I can’t find Ruby to tell her.” He wrings his cap in his hands. “They’ve buzzed her room, but she’s not there. I don’t know if she’s at class or where she could be, but I must speak to her.”
He paces before me. “What am I to do? I can’t miss the bus to Sheboygan. There isn’t another one for three days, but I can’t leave Ruby like this. We had plans. Important plans.”
My heart goes out to him. “Ruby told me of your plans to get married.”
He looks at me in surprise and nods.
“What do you want to tell her? I’ll give her your message.”
“That I’ll be back as quick as I can. Hopefully no more than a few days. My father has an ice delivery company. If someone isn’t there to deliver the blocks of ice, he’ll lose everything. My brothers are only ten and twelve, so they’re too young to drive the truck.”
“I’m so sorry, Walter.”
His face is etched with pain. “Tell her I’ll write as soon as I arrive and explain everything.”
; “I will. Good luck, Walter!”
He rushes to a taxi waiting by the curb.
* * *
Two hours later, Ruby is crying on my bed. When she finally arrived back to the dorm, I broke the news about Walter.
“Oh, Abbi, I can’t wait for much longer.” Her head is in her hands and she’s mopping up tears with an embroidered hanky.
“What will a couple of weeks matter?” I say, trying to cheer her up. But she looks at me sadly and opens her coat.
CHAPTER 18
“Oh, Ruby…”
“Please swear you won’t tell a soul,” Ruby begs, hugging her pregnant belly, her eyes wide with fear.
“Of course I won’t. I promise.” I sit next to her and hold her hand. My mind is racing. I have found the mystery baby! And yet, all that matters right now is that Ruby is terrified and needs my help. “Does anyone know?”
She keeps her hand protectively on her baby bump. “Only Walter.”
“How have you kept it a secret from your roommate? You look pretty far along…”
“My nightgown and robe keep it covered fairly well. I’ve had some close calls, and it’s getting more difficult now that the weather is warmer. It looks suspicious if I wear my coat so much.”
I can’t take my eyes off her round belly. “What are you going to do?”
Her expression changes to determination. “I will wait for Walter. We’ve been wanting to marry sooner, but there’s so many problems we have to work around.”
“It can’t be that hard.” I immediately regret my words. I have to remember that things like this are much more complicated in 1930 than in my day. The last thing she needs from me is judgment.
“Neither of us have any money. Our school expenses are paid by our fathers, but if we marry, we’re on our own. Walter wanted to graduate before the wedding so he could get a job to provide for us. I need to hide my pregnancy for a little longer. Except now he’s gone. Oh my gosh, Abbi, what am I to do?”
“Ruby, I’ll help you. Together we’ll find a way to hide it as long as it takes. I wish you and Walter would have snuck off to a justice of the peace before now.”
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