“Why not?” Lance blurted.
“No one could figure that one out. Baldwin blamed himself. He went through the remainder of his life believing he had been a failure because of his inability to photograph the one thing he had planned for years to capture with his lens. It wasn’t until after his death ten years later in 1905, that certain other...anomalies were mentioned.”
“Anomalies? What does that mean?” Joel asked.
“Well, things happened during the appearance of the comet that couldn’t be explained.”
For a moment, the group stood silently, no one saying anything.
“Like what, Kody?” Lance asked, stepping closer. “What happened?”
Kody shook his head, biting his lip for a moment as if to stifle the words that threatened to spill out. “Just…different weird stuff. Stuff happened all over—where the comet passed by.”
“So, Baldwin wasn’t really a loser,” Anna mused. “Maybe his being unable to get a picture was—” she swallowed hard and looked around the group. “Maybe that was because there wasn’t supposed to be a picture.”
“What kind of weird things?” Lance asked again, obviously unable to leave it alone.
Kody spared Lance a quick look, then shook his head. “I’m not here to convince any of you. It’s all a matter of research. I know what I—what I read.”
“Look!” Joel exclaimed.
Jenni and the others followed Joel’s stare over the line of trees to the north. The April night sky had begun to lighten toward the northwest.
“Is this it?” Joel’s voice cracked.
Elizabeth buried her head in Kip’s shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her, but never took his gaze from the sky. Anna had moved closer to Kody, but neither of them looked at the other.
“Is it, Kody?” Anna spoke in a low voice. “Is this it?”
A smile lit his face, intense and expectant. “Yeah. This is it.”
The breeze that had blown all evening became more persistent, whipping into a blustery wind that didn’t let up. The sky showed shades of rose, then gold, in a long thin stripe. The entire group became silent.
Celestial fireworks lit the clearing where they stood. For a split second, the bright silver moonlight and the rosy gold of the passing comet warred with one another.
As the comet reached its apex directly above their heads, the ground beneath their feet shook slightly. Elizabeth clutched at Kip’s shirt.
Anna made a grab for Kody’s arm, and missed. She fell to her knees beside him, her dark hair whipping about her elfin face. Kody’s feet were planted wide apart as he battled to keep his balance. Joel and Lance had given up the struggle. Both were on all fours, their heads ducked in the wind.
Jenni bent into the gale, pulling her hair out of her eyes, only to have it yanked from her fingers as it danced across her face uncontrollably once more. She was suddenly aware that the temperature seemed to have dropped at least twenty degrees within a matter of seconds. She fell to her knees, then put her hands on the ground to steady herself.
She gritted her teeth and raised her head again to look at Kody, the only one who had managed to stay upright. Kip and Elizabeth were lying on the ground, Kip sheltering her with his body.
A pang of unvarnished envy went through Jenni. What would it feel like, she wondered, to have a man to protect her like that? With all Kip’s faults, at least he had that instinctive shred of decency inside him.
The tremors in the earth increased, and finally Kody knelt beside Anna, putting his hand out to her slowly. She grasped it as if she were drowning. A particularly hard tremor shook them at that moment. Kody lost his precarious balance, sprawling atop her. She made no effort to move from under him.
This was the longest five minutes she’d ever lived through, Jenni decided. Longer than when she’d been jilted by Larry Michaels on a spring night much like this one a year ago. Longer than when she’d sat across from Dean Andrew Rogers and been forced to decline her own coveted admission to the OU Graduate School of History—due to lack of funds. Longer even than the five minutes it had taken her mother to tell her that her new boyfriend didn’t like kids, and that she and Tori would be living at Grandma’s from now on.
Finally, it was over. The shaking of the ground subsided. The wind died down to the gentle breeze it had been just minutes earlier. But, Jenni noted, it was still cold.
She lifted her head, assuring herself that the rest of the group was all right. The boys got to their feet slowly, not trusting the ground to be still beneath them. Kody extended his hand to Anna, pulling her up carefully. Kip let Elizabeth get to her feet by herself. He appeared dazed for a moment as he looked around the clearing.
“Hey! My car!” He ran unsteadily to the side of the road. “It’s gone.”
Jenni pivoted slowly. The other cars were gone, too. In fact, the entire road was gone, as was the fence along both sides of where the road had been. She looked at the woods surrounding them. They were the same, yet somehow altered. The trees encroached further into the clearing where they stood. They seemed taller—thicker. And pitch black, except for the dim light of the moon that was obscured intermittently by the scudding clouds. Clouds not there before.
“Miss Dalton, our—our cars are gone!” Kip yelled, as if he expected her to magically make them reappear.
Jenni turned to Kip, taking fleeting notice of the panic in his voice as he called her “Miss Dalton” without hesitation. He was scared now.
“My—My Mustang. It’s gone,” he murmured. He waved a hand toward the section of the road where the cars had been lined up.
That’s not all, she wanted to point out, noting the absence of his Rolex. “Yes. I see.” She nodded, more worried at the almost vacant look in his dark eyes than at the mysterious disappearance of their vehicles. “I’m sure there’s some explanation...” She broke off, realizing how stupid that sounded. She glanced at Kody quickly. “Isn’t there?”
He pushed the glasses up on the bridge of his nose, wrinkling his nostrils like a rabbit, then cleared his throat. “Well, uh, yeah. There’s—an explanation, all right.” He met Jenni’s eyes with his somber, unwinking stare. “But I’ve already given it to you, Miss Dalton—earlier. Remember?”
Jenni took a deep breath. She had suspected as much. “You mean—the strange things that happened the last time the comet passed over? Back in 1895?”
“Yeah. If I’m not mistaken, something pretty weird just happened here.”
“Holy shit, Kody,” Joel Todd grasped Kip’s arm. He raised his other hand slowly and pointed toward the edge of the woods. Two men sat astride their horses in the faltering moonlight. Silver shards of light glinted off the U. S. Marshal’s badge on the bigger man’s chest, gazing at the group from under his low-brimmed hat. “You’ve made a believer out of me.”
~*~
“I’ll handle this,” Jenni spoke quietly. She sensed the others drawing closer to her, and she would’ve smiled at the thought of Kip Silvanos and his cadre relinquishing their “tough guy” images so quickly at this first sign of danger—if she hadn’t been so worried herself.
The two riders came forward slowly, and stopped a few feet away. Jenni took a step toward them, her heart knocking in her chest. Her eyes fell on the butt of the .44 holstered against the Marshal’s powerful thigh.
She watched as he dismounted and came toward her the last few feet.
“Ma’am?” His black eyes disbelievingly circled the little group before coming to rest on her face once more. “Ma’am are you—are you all right?”
She gave him an uncertain smile and put her hand out. “U.S. Marshal,” the badge proclaimed. At least, they would be protected—unless— What if he was a re-enactor? They weren’t far from Yukon, and she knew the annual Chisholm Trail Festival was to take place either this weekend or the next. She would be cautious. Yet, there was something familiar about him; something that spoke of safety and strength, and dependability.
“Hello, Marshal. I
’m Jennifer—Jenni Dalton.”
“Miss Dalton. I’m glad to meet you. Rafe d’Angelico. What—”
But Jenni interrupted him before he could continue. She nodded at the badge on his shirt. “Is that real or—honorary?”
He looked baffled for a moment. “It’s real. I’m a federal marshal for the Indian Territory. You’re safe with me, Ma’am.”
“Oh. So you are a re-enactor.” Hope left her.
Rafe shook his head. “I’m not sure what you mean, ma’am. Like I said, the badge is real—”
Jenni’s smile was more forced this time. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Mr. d’Angelico.” She looked expectantly at the other man, who smiled and tipped his hat as he approached with a lantern.
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am. Name’s Beck Jansen.”
Jenni nodded pleasantly, then returned her gaze to the “marshal.”
“Ma’am, beggin’ your pardon, but what are y’all doing out here?”
Jenni laughed nervously. “I know this must look crazy to you, but—these are my students and we were watching a comet—” she broke off at the quizzical look on his darkly handsome face. “Well, didn’t you see it? It passed over right before you two got here. Didn’t you feel how the wind got up and—” She stopped, then shivered, hugging herself against the chill. As her hands reached for the material of her fleece jacket, she realized she wasn’t wearing fleece any longer. Instead she wore a thin cotton blouse.
Shocked, she glanced down to see she was garbed in an ankle length calico skirt. She stopped herself from lifting the hem of the skirt to see the high button shoes she could feel on her feet, replacing her Reebok running shoes. She could not keep the dismayed expression from crossing her face, and she knew the man had seen it by the concern in his obsidian eyes. He reached for her arms to steady her, then put one arm around her shoulders as he took the lantern from his companion.
“Let’s find you a place to sit down, ma’am.” His voice was firm and comforting, with a bare trace of a Spanish accent.
~*~
A fallen log lay a few yards away, and Rafe guided her toward it.
It was just as he’d thought. She was unsteady on her legs, though she tried not to let him know it. She had been putting up a front for those youngsters, too. He figured it all had something to do with this comet she’d mentioned before.
As they neared the fallen log, Jenni sank down gratefully. She bit her lip, and Rafe bent to put the lantern nearby on the ground, then knelt in front of her, taking her hands in his. As she met his eyes, his breath caught and held.
His dream. That long-ago dream from the night he’d died. He let his breath out slowly, cursing himself for a fool. Could she be real? Or was it wishful thinking on his part? He was holding on to his dream. She was real. He stole a glance at her lips, and the memory—of that long ago night on the train, of the dream he’d woken from to go meet his death—re-formed as clearly as if it had just happened. In the lantern light, her eyes were the very shade that he remembered, complete with the shadows and determination that had been there before. Tendrils of her hair lay across his hand, as soft and silky as they’d felt then. And her lips— He forced his thoughts away from that other time in the past, trying to focus on what was happening here, now. That dream was in another lifetime. But, he still remembered the way her kiss had felt, even after all these years.
She’s so damn beautiful. The thought raked through him, and he tried unsuccessfully to thrust it aside. When he allowed himself to look into her eyes, it arrowed through him once more. Something was amiss here. He’d seen the surprise in her face as she’d looked down at her own clothing. Those kids—most of them looked shaken and afraid, as well.
Rafe chafed Jenni’s hands and wrists. “Suppose you tell me what happened out here tonight, Miss Dalton?”
She looked up at him quickly, as if she was only just aware of him once more. She shook her head in mute answer. A too-bright smile flashed briefly. He knew she was trying desperately to keep the wall up between them that had already started to crumble. He sighed. She couldn’t trust him yet, and dammit, he couldn’t read thoughts like Beck could...Beck!
Rafe stood up slowly. “Beck!” he called, not taking his eyes off Jenni. He risked a quick glance over his shoulder, not wanting to startle this green-eyed beauty. “Beck!”
His voice echoed back to him in the stillness of the night. He turned around fully to see everything as he had left it only minutes earlier with one exception. His own horse stood alone.
Becket Jansen, it seemed, had disappeared as quickly as he had come. There was no trace he’d ever been there.
CHAPTER 5
“Wish we knew what the hell’s going on here,” Cash muttered.
Kody gave him a measuring stare. “I think we do know what’s going on, if we dare to admit the facts, don’t we?”
Cash snorted. “I ain’t admitting jack shit! Something weird happened, all right, but it doesn’t mean anything. We’re still here. We’re alive, and I say we head back into town. We can thumb a ride and—”
“How’re we gonna do that?” Lance snapped, turning to face Cash. “There’s not even a road anymore, Cash. Have you even heard a car engine?” Without waiting for an answer, he continued. “No, I didn’t think so. Nothing’s like it was before—before that damn comet went over.”
Cash’s lip curled. “So—what? We’re in a time warp? We’re ’Lost in Space‘ like those reruns of the Robinson family? What?” He turned to Kody. “You know so damn much, Everett, what’s the story on our little adventure tonight?”
“Well, you could say we might somehow be—trapped here.”
“Where’s ‘here’ Kody?” Anna asked, her tone filled with true curiosity.
“In this time; this—place. Wherever we are.”
“You mean you don’t know? The ‘brain’ doesn’t know something?” Joel came to his feet and started toward Kody but was stopped by the cool silver gaze; the smug, knowing grin.
“Oh, yeah, Joel. I know. But if you want your questions answered, some things are going to change. I know a helluva lot, but I’ll choose what I want to share.” He looked around the small group, his mercurial gaze blazing with suppressed anger. “I’m the geek. I’m the nerd, the brain—until you all want something.” He glanced toward Kip, who sat staring into space. “Look at Kip—how blank he looks. I’d say whatever it was did something to his mind. ’Course, it’s kinda hard to tell, except his mouth’s not running—”
“You prick!” Cash grabbed a fistful of Kody’s shirt, drew back to deliver a punch. But Kody just smirked.
“Go ahead, Cash.” He taunted. “Do something even more stupid than usual. Fuck with me, you’ll never get back to—” he stopped, looking around at the expectant, eager expressions, then finished, “where we were...from where we are.”
Cash slowly lowered his hand, his breath coming in great heaving gasps.
~*~
A rough hand shoved each of them apart. The smugness left Kody’s thin face as Rafe d’Angelico inserted himself between the two boys, looking from one to the other. “What the hell’s goin’ on here?”
Cash shrugged and looked down.
“Just setting things straight, sir,” Kody answered.
He’s recovered his confidence, Rafe thought, as the boy met his eyes unflinchingly, a hint of challenge in the gray depths.
Rafe turned to him squarely, crossing his arms. “Is that right?”
Kody nodded, a sudden glimmer of uncertainty in his expression. “Y—Yes sir.” Rafe looked at him a long moment, and he glanced down.
“No more of that, boys,” Rafe instructed gruffly. “It’s not gonna help anything for y’all to tie into each other. Did...Beck say where he was going?”
“Said he had an errand,” Lance answered. He swallowed hard, then added, “Sir.”
An errand. He had an errand. Rafe gritted his teeth, anger vibrating through him. There were still too many questions he wanted
to ask, too many explanations Beck held the key to. For now, it looked like he was just going to have to make do on his own. Here in the middle of 1895 Indian Territory with a passel of spoiled brats from the future and their too-pretty-for-her-own-damn-good school marm.
He looked at Anna. “Suppose you take your friend here and go sit with Miss...Dalton.” He nodded toward the fallen log where he’d left Jenni.
Anna nodded, as she tightened her grip on Elizabeth and began to steer her in that direction.
Rafe turned back to Lance. “Can a couple of you boys help get him up?” He motioned toward Kip, and before the words were out of his mouth, Lance and Joel had moved to comply. They each took an arm and pulled Kip to his feet.
Rafe needed some answers. And Beck, damn his soul, had managed to stick tight as a tick in a dog’s ear until this mess. Now, there was no sign of him.
He rubbed a hand over his moustache, making his way over to where the women sat. He lowered his imposing six-foot four-inch frame to the ground as he hunkered down beside Miss Dalton. Jenni. He met her worried green gaze.
Incredibly, she asked, “Are you all right?”
He expected the sudden lurch of his heart as he noted the sweep of her burnished hair about her face, her chin uptilted in spite of everything, the overall concern etched into her features—
He’d forgotten. He didn’t own a heart anymore. He was dead. He could tell by the sudden surprise in her eyes that she hadn’t meant to ask that at all. It had just slipped out. Are you all right? The first words of compassion—of caring—anyone had expressed in...well, a very long time. Sixteen years, at least, according to Beck.
He nodded slowly. He was putting too much stock in her simple polite question, but was unable to help it, even knowing it. “Yeah—I’m all right, Miss Dalton. And you?”
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