“Amanda, why aren’t you at the office? I feared you’d taken ill.”
His scowl settled on Jack. Amanda clutched his arm with both hands.
“I-I…” Her face colored.
“I needed Amanda to help me,” Jack said.
Amanda stiffened beside him, as her gaze slid from him to Randolph.
“Help you with what?” Randolph demanded.
“Ah…” Jack glanced to Amanda for help.
“He’s still having trouble walking and needed some necessities from the mercantile.”
Jack nodded, his gaze locked on Randolph’s.
Randolph sneered. “You couldn’t have fetched the items for him? Or couldn’t anyone else in the household have? You do have household help, after all.”
“Mrs. O’Leary was busy with breakfast, and my father and brother had to be at work.” Amanda’s fingers moved up and down Jack’s coat sleeve, steadying her.
“As do you,” Randolph pointed out.
“I-I’m taking today off. Mother is busy today, and Jack needs me.”
Randolph stepped toward them. “Amanda, you should take your position on the paper seriously, not cater to a man’s whim.” His scowl rested on Jack.
“It’s not a whim. He was seriously injured.”
Randolph yanked off a glove. “And how, pray tell, did this injury happen?”
“He—”
Jack patted Amanda’s hand. She caught his warning glance. The last thing she needed was for Randolph to know they’d been trespassing in his house.
“Amanda, I’m feeling a bit dizzy. If we could go inside?” Jack inclined his head.
She grasped his arm tighter. “Of course. I have to take Jack inside. We’ll talk about this later.”
Randolph’s face reddened. “You won’t be in to the office?”
“No, Randolph. Not today.” She guided Jack past Randolph and through the front door.
Randolph stood his ground, but finally turned away with a final backward scowl. “I’ll expect you in early tomorrow, Amanda.”
She didn’t answer, closing the door. “Let me get you into the parlor where you can lie down.”
Jack raised a hand. “It’s all right. I’m fine.”
“But you said—” She frowned.
“I wanted to get away from Randolph. He was asking questions we don’t want to answer.”
She clasped a hand to her mouth, her eyes growing wide.
“We can’t tell him you found me in his house,” Jack said.
“Of course. I’m so glad you thought of it. Before I see him again, I’ll come up with another explanation.”
Jack clenched his fist. “I wish you didn’t have to work for the pompous ass.”
Amanda bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud at his earnestness. “He is that. But I need this job. My hope is to move on to one of the big Philadelphia papers.”
Jack frowned. “Does he know this?”
“Amanda!” Erin stepped into the foyer. “Where were you? Randolph was here looking for you. He said you never came to work.” She gestured toward the closed door. “He just left.”
“I know, Mother. We ran into him when we were coming back.”
Erin’s gaze shifted from Amanda to Jack. “Coming back from where?”
Jack stepped in front of Amanda. “We went to the house.”
Erin’s eyes widened. “Was anyone there?”
“Not at first, Mother.” Amanda stepped around Jack. “Some workmen arrived after we looked at the room.”
“The room where you found Jack?” Erin’s gaze fixed on him.
“We did. But I didn’t feel anything strange…any vibrations or…whatever sent me here in the first place.”
Erin nodded. “You must have had some kind of catalyst.” She paced between the parlor door and the base of the stairs. “Did you have anything on your person before you were hit with the beam?”
Jack shook his head. “Nothing out of the ordinary…” He tapped his lip with a fingertip. “Wait a second! I had a photo.” His gaze caught Amanda’s. “Your photo.”
She frowned. “You had it with you?”
Erin grasped Jack’s arm. “We have to talk. Alone.”
“Mother, whatever you have to say to Jack, you can tell me.” Amanda glared at her stepmother.
“No, Amanda. This must be between Jack and me.” She nodded at him. “We’ll explain everything to you later.”
Jack’s mouth opened. He glanced toward Amanda, apparently bothered by her stepmother’s dismissal.
“Can I speak to Amanda for a second?” Jack asked Erin.
She frowned, but nodded. “I’ll be waiting outside your room. Make it quick.” With a final glance at Amanda, Erin left the parlor.
Jack grasped Amanda’s shoulder. “I don’t know why she doesn’t want you there, but—trust me—I’ll tell you everything she said later.”
Amanda crossed her arms over her chest. “She thinks she can keep me in the dark.”
Jack shook his head. “I think she’s trying to protect you.”
“From what?” She threw up her arms. “I already know where you came from.”
“Let me see what she wants to tell me, then I’ll find you.” He grasped her hand. “I love you, Amanda, and I won’t do anything without consulting you first.”
She drew in a deep breath. “If my stepmother’s found a way to send you back, she won’t allow me to go with you.”
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves.” Jack lifted a palm. “I may have to spend the rest of my life here.” He grinned. “Would that be so bad?”
Amanda sighed. The prospect of Jack staying here, instead of the other way around had occurred to her. “I suppose not.” Her gaze lifted to his.
“I didn’t think so.” He glanced toward the open parlor door. “I’ll be right back. Wait for me here.”
She nodded and gathered her skirts taking a seat on the settee. She’d wait for now.
****
Erin stood outside Jack’s closed door. She motioned him to silence.
He pushed the door open and allowed her to precede him, then stepped in, checking to be sure no other household member saw them before shutting the door.
“Amanda’s upset that you didn’t include her.”
Erin pursed her lips and folded her arms across her chest. “I know. I hate to leave her in the dark, but Will and I agreed we’d raise her without telling her the whole story of where I’d come from.”
Jack motioned Erin to sit in the chair by the window. He sat on the bed.
“She said you’d told her stories about the future.”
Erin waved a hand. “That’s all they were supposed to be. Stories to entertain a young girl. I am a writer, after all.”
“I understand. Knowing where you came from, she’d talk to other people. Raise suspicions about you.”
“Yes.” Erin quirked a brow. “I’m thought of as a bit eccentric and forward thinking, nothing more. That’s how we plan to keep it. I can’t pretend to be what I’m not.” She held Jack’s gaze.
“But you do think there’s a way to send me back?”
“I can’t say for sure, but since you told me about the photo…”
Jack’s face heated. “I don’t have the photo. It was in the pocket of my sweat jacket. The one I was wearing in the present before I was hit by the beam.” He sighed. “When Amanda found me I was wearing those old workmen’s clothes.”
Erin nodded. “Exactly what happened to me. I had the brooch in my car when it crashed, but woke up in the army camp wearing a long gown. They’d taken me to the hospital tent.” Her lips curved up a bit. “And my hair had grown long.” She fingered the tendrils that had slipped from her knot.
“No shit!” Jack’s face heated. “Sorry.”
She smiled. “No harm done.” Raising a finger, she added, “But watch it around Amanda. When she was little, I taught her some words that well…got me into a bit of trouble.”
“I bet.” Jack crossed his arms and hunched over his thighs. “How’d you end up in the hospital tent? Did you just appear there?”
She shook her head. “The way it was told to me, I’d fallen off a horse, and it was Will, my husband, who brought me to the tent. He and the doctor were there when I woke up.” She laughed. “I thought I was at a Civil War reenactment.”
“But you were on a horse?”
“Well, not me exactly, but my former self who’d lived during the Civil War.”
Jack frowned. “It’s hard to make sense of it.” He clenched his hand. “I woke up in the very house I was in before I moved through time.”
“You said the photo of Amanda was in the house.” Erin stood and paced the room.
“Yeah. So, is that why the house sent me here?”
Erin turned and eyed him. “The house? Interesting theory. The house belongs to Randolph.” She paced again and shook her head. “And you woke up in workman’s clothes.” She snapped her fingers. “You must have lived before as a workman and the beam hit him—I mean your former self—just as the beam hit you in the present.”
Jack scratched his head. “Sort of makes sense. But who was I in this time?”
“We should be able to find out. Someone may be looking for you right now.”
“Doesn’t exactly make me feel better.”
Erin paced again. “But Amanda’s photo was hanging in the house.” She seemed to be speaking to herself.
Jack’s gaze followed her motions. Her finger tapped her lips, then she turned to face him.
“Does it mean Amanda marries Randolph?”
Jack’s blood heated. He stood. “I sure hope not.”
Erin stepped to the window and gazed out. “I’m trying like hell to prevent the bastard from getting his hooks into Amanda. I raised her to be her own woman, and from what I’ve seen of Randolph, the man’s a control freak, like a lot of men in this century.”
“But not your husband.”
Erin turned to face Jack and smiled. “No. It’s what attracted me to him in the first place.” She waved a hand. “Oh, he acted the hard-assed officer at first, but I quickly saw through him to find a Southern gentleman who’d been hurt badly.” She held Jack’s gaze. “By the death of his first wife, Amanda’s mother.”
“So, you came to his aid as he did yours.” Jack grinned.
She sighed. “We helped each other until I found myself back home. But I couldn’t go back to my old life without him.
“Once I returned, I decided then and there I could never leave him, even for the future conveniences and luxuries I still miss. What I wouldn’t give for a cheese pizza!” She lifted a finger. “But being with Will makes the sacrifice worthwhile. I can’t live without him.”
“I sort of feel the same about Amanda…from the first moment I woke and saw her face. I even dreamed about her before I came here.”
Erin’s smile wilted into a frown. “Jack, if I can find a way to send you home, what about Amanda?”
“If it’s possible to send me home, I’d like to take her with me.”
Erin stepped to the chair and plopped down, her face drained of color.
“Are you okay?” Jack strode to her side.
“I-I don’t think it’s possible, Jack. From what I believe one can only move back into the past to a former life. You have to have another life to inhabit, and Amanda doesn’t have one in the future. Her father would never allow her to try it, anyway.”
“And what about you?” Jack focused on her face, afraid of her answer.
She shook her head. “I can’t allow Amanda to go to the future. We’d never see her again.” She wrinkled her brow, her eyes dull.
“But I can’t go without her. She wants to go.”
Erin nodded. “Of course she’d want to go, but she doesn’t understand that it means leaving her family and everything she knows forever.”
Jack’s pulse raced out of control at the idea of leaving Amanda and never seeing her again. “I promised Amanda I’d at least try to take her with me.”
“Jack, you must promise me if I help you, you won’t attempt to take Amanda back. I must insist on this. You have to discourage her, even if it means telling her you don’t want her.”
Jack swallowed, but nodded. What right did he have to deprive this woman and her husband of their daughter? He’d have to break the news to Amanda and hope she believed him.
Chapter Eleven
Amanda paced the length of her room. What was taking Jack so long? She’d waited in the parlor, but her father and brother arrived and took up residence there while waiting for Mrs. O’Leary to prepare supper.
She quickly left to avoid any questions her father had about her stepmother and Jack. She could hardly tell them they were together in his room discussing…well, whatever she’d wanted to talk to him about. Amanda ached to know and couldn’t even engage in polite conversation about their day at the bank.
So, she’d begged off saying she had to work on a story, and retreated to her room. Jack’s door was closed, and she didn’t dare try eavesdropping again. She’d vowed to wait until she heard a door open, but the suspense ate her alive.
A creak and muffled voices drew her to the door. She had to catch Jack before he went to the parlor and found only the men there.
She took a breath, then cracked her door. She spied her stepmother’s back as she strode toward the top of the stairway. Jack stood in his open doorway.
She pulled the door a bit further and hissed to get his attention.
His brows raised, and his head swiveled in her direction. She motioned for him to come into her room.
He dashed over, and she pulled him in, closing the door as quietly as possible. “I don’t want my stepmother to hear,” she explained.
He swallowed, glancing around the room. “So, this is your room.”
She smiled. “Yes, Jack.”
“But you said you’d be waiting for me in the parlor.”
She nodded. “My father and brother came home. I couldn’t wait for you there. We’d have had no privacy to talk.”
His tongue slid over his upper lip. “I don’t think me being caught in your room is such a good idea.”
“We won’t get caught,” she assured him. “Have a seat.” She motioned him to a chair by the window and plopped on her bed.
His gaze swept over her. She liked the way he looked at her. When Randolph’s gaze followed her, she had the urge to scrub herself clean, but Jack’s gaze made her want to lie back and allow him to have his way with her.
“I can’t stay here long, Amanda.” His gaze shifted to the door.
“Are you afraid of my father?”
“No, I’m afraid of myself. If we stay in this room much longer…there’s no telling what I might do.”
Desire glowed in his half-closed eyes. Amanda reveled in the feeling of pure abandon, but they couldn’t indulge, not here.
She slid forward on the bed, her elbows on her thighs. “I’ll tell you what. You can take me on a picnic.”
“A picnic?” Jack frowned.
“Yes. I’ll have Mrs. O’Leary pack us a basket, and we’ll have our dinner by the pond. We can speak privately there.”
Jack wove his fingers together. “The pond? Sounds like an adventure.”
She laughed. “Yes. I’ll speak to Mrs. O’Leary and when the basket’s ready, I’ll let you know.”
****
Jack paced his room waiting for Amanda’s knock. This was a big mistake, especially after promising Erin he’d discourage her stepdaughter. But Amanda hardly gave him a chance to protest. He thought of going downstairs to wait, but knowing her father was home, he didn’t feel much like making polite conversation. He’d already feared the man would throw him out if he showed the slightest interest in his daughter. But he did know Jack was a time traveler with no place to go. And although the man seemed a bit stern regarding Amanda, he didn’t appear to be heartless. Erin had assured him he wasn’t, in a
ny case.
When the soft knock came, Jack was ready. He grabbed his jacket. Amanda had told him men—even those in the working class—didn’t go outside the house without their coats and hats.
He opened the door. She stood outside, her cheeks pink. She seemed out of breath.
He grasped her arm. “You okay?”
She smiled. “Of course. I was just getting everything prepared. The others are sitting down at the table, but our basket is all packed.”
“Your cook sounds like Wonder Woman!” Jack exclaimed.
Amanda quirked a brow. “Well, yes, she is a wonder. It’s the reason Father hired her.”
He laughed and took her hand. “I can see I have a lot to teach you.” His thumb brushed her palm.
She let out a tiny gasp and lowered her lashes. When she returned his gaze, he read desire in those blue eyes. A picnic, away from the rest of her family, might just be the ideal place for them to talk…or do other things.
****
Jack unfolded the tablecloth Amanda handed him and spread it over the blanket she’d brought for them to sit on. A slight breeze off the pond might have made the day chilly, but brilliant sunshine in a clear blue sky warmed the day enough to make being outside pleasant.
“Jack, look.” Amanda pointed to the other side of the pond where a small group of children frolicked with a mother duck and her chicks. As the birds gobbled up the crusts they threw out to them, the boys and a girl laughed and giggled.
Jack grinned. “Looks like they’re having fun.”
Amanda gathered her skirts and settled on the edge of the blanket, then beckoned for Jack to join her.
He sat then leaned toward the basket. “Just what did the multi-talented Mrs. O’Leary send us?” He lifted the lid off the basket and inhaled. “Mmmm. Chicken and it’s still warm.”
Amanda laughed. “You say the strangest things, Jack.” She lifted two plates and set them out, but Jack couldn’t wait. He grabbed a chicken leg and bit into it.
Amanda pursed her lips, but soon a smile lit up her face. “You are so outrageous, sir.”
“What?” Jack took another bite. “I’m hungry and the smell of this food is driving me nuts!”
Amanda shook her head. She lifted out a piece of chicken and set it on her plate, then riffled through the basket. “We have red potatoes, too, and green beans.”
Thoroughly Modern Amanda Page 8