‘From what I know of housekeeping in your era, I’m sure they didn’t need to do any extra exercise. I, on the other hand, have a stressful job and I find going for a run in the morning helps clear my thoughts for the day.’
He shook his head as if the concept utterly defeated him. ‘Perhaps I will come for a run with you, just to see what magic there is about it that has eluded me thus far in my life?’
I padded barefoot into the kitchen.
‘You’re quite welcome but we will need to get you running gear--suitable clothes for running,’ I said as I busied myself with making coffee.
He followed me into the kitchen, and leaning against the kitchen bench, looked me up and down, taking in my black singlet and matching leggings.
‘They make clothes just for running?’ That now familiar smile curled the corner of his mouth ‘They suit you.’
I felt a different heat color my cheeks and changed the subject. ‘So you like my books? Are you only interested in books on science?’
He considered that question for a moment before replying. ‘Science? What is that?’
I cast around for another word. It never occurred to me that the word did not exist in 1645.
‘Knowledge.’
‘No, I like poetry too. Have you read the works of Dr. Donne?’
I set the kettle down with a thump. ‘I love Donne. I even took an extra subject at university to study poetry.’
‘So, perhaps we are not so very different?’ Nat straightened and came to stand behind me as I plunged the coffee. With his voice lowered, he quoted,
‘If thou be’st born to strange sights, Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights, Till age snow white hairs on thee, Thou, when thou return’st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,…’
No one had ever quoted Donne to me before my first coffee of the day.
He had a rich timbre to his voice and an unusual accent, neither local nor posh
Even without looking at him, his proximity and maleness overcame me and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. . By the standards of his day, he might have been considered tall but for me was just right. All I had to do was lean back and my head would rest against his shoulder… turn around and put my arms around him… look up at him and place my lips against his. At the last thought, an unfamiliar warmth ran through me as I realized that was exactly what I wanted to do.
The coffee spilled onto the bench.
‘Ouch.’ Hot coffee slopped on my bare foot and the moment passed.
I cooked bacon and eggs again.
‘This is the last time, Colonel Preston,’ I said, setting our breakfast plates down; his bacon and eggs and my muesli.
‘What is that hen’s feed you are eating?’ Nat peered into my bowl.
‘Muesli. I have to go back to work tomorrow and you will have to fend for yourself.’
He cast a glance at the stove. ‘Ah, then you will need to show me how to work your machines.’
At the mention of my ‘machines,’ a smile caught at the corner of his mouth and I was reminded of a youthful Alan intent on mischief. A sudden vision of the chaos that could meet me on return from work caused me to reconsider.
‘We’ll talk about it later,’ I said. ‘I think perhaps we should go shopping in Northampton today.’
‘Shopping?’
‘If you are going to be staying a while, you need some clothes and other necessities.’
He curled a lock of his hair around a finger. ‘I have been observing the men of this age and I think I should cut my hair. I thought at first they must all be poll heads but it seems to be the fashion of this day.’
‘Men wear their hair many lengths. You don’t need to cut it.’
‘But I think I will stand out less if I look much like other men, even if my speech betrays me.’
‘I like the way you speak,’ I said with a smile.
I jumped at a sharp rap at the door. ‘That’s probably Alan,’ I said, rising to my feet.
I threw open the door Alan’s name on my lips.
Mark loomed in the doorway. I stifled a gasp and took a step backward.
‘Hello, Jess.’ He leaned an arm against the door jamb and smiled at me. ‘I thought as we both had the day off, I’d see what you were up to.’
‘You could have rung. As it is I have plans, Mark.’ I said, conscious that Nat had moved up behind me.
‘Oh?’ Mark glanced at the man behind me.
He glanced at me expectantly and seemed to be waiting for me to introduce Nat but I couldn’t find the words.
‘I don’t think we’ve met. Mark Westmacott.’ Mark straightened and held out his hand.
Nat looked at the hand and then grasped it firmly. I had the pleasure of seeing Mark wince at the strength of Nat’s grip.
‘This is an old family friend, Nathaniel Preston. He’s just visiting for a few days,’ I managed.
‘Really?’ Mark sounded skeptical. Even though our relationship had ended months ago, at my behest after I caught him in bed--my bed--with one of the interns, he still exerted a proprietary air over me when he could.
‘He’s asked me to show him around,’ I added, conscious of Nat’s proximity and a protective hand resting on the small of my back. My skin jumped at his touch.
‘Well, I won’t bother you then. You clearly don’t need any additional company. I’ll see you at work tomorrow,’ Mark said with what I recognized as a false cheerfulness. ‘Good to meet you, Preston.’
As I closed the door behind my erstwhile lover, Nat regarded me with a quizzical look. ‘He seems to think he has some claim on your affections.’
‘Oh, was it that obvious? Well, he did for a while but it’s over, long over,’ I added.
Nat frowned and glanced at the door. ‘I’m not sure he feels quite the same way.’
I picked up a cushion and threw it at Nat. He ducked. ‘That is none of your business.’
‘I’m afraid, Mistress Shepherd, you have become my concern.’
He retrieved the cushion and threw it back at me. I caught it and restored it to the sofa, sitting down with a thump.
‘Mark and I were engaged to be married. I found out he had other women so I ended it. He’s one of those men who are too used to getting their own way, and he can’t seem to understand what he did wrong. It makes it awkward at work.’
Nat sat in the armchair. ‘He is a doctor too?’
I nodded. ‘A pediatric heart specialist. He is one of the best but there is a certain arrogance that goes with the title of surgeon.’
Nat nodded. ‘He is a doctor of the heart?’
‘Yes. He specializes in children.’
He smiled. ‘I fear your Doctor Westmacott does not truly understand the workings of the heart, to leave yours broken.’
I rose to my feet again and smiled. ‘The heart heals, Nat. It’s the memories that don’t go away. Come on, if we are going to beat the crowds we had better go now.’
~*~
We drove into Northampton, an old town that boasted a busy main street with all the shops I needed to outfit my cavalier.
Nat stared at the bustling modern streets. ‘I knew this town well.’
‘Different?’
‘Unrecognizable.’
A group of young girls in tight jeans and brief tops crossed in front of us at the lights. Nat cast a sideways glance at me. ‘I don’t think I will ever get used to the sight of women in breeches, although I will always treasure the memory of my first sight of you.’
‘I’m wearing a skirt today,’ I pointed out.
We parked, and I headed straight for Marks and Spencers. Nat strolled beside me, his gaze lingering a little too long on the pretty girls in their summery fashions. One of the more exotic lingerie shops particularly caught his attention. I caught his arm and wrested him away.
‘You men are all the same.’
He looked at me with wide, innocent eyes and a
half smile indicating he knew exactly what I meant.
‘Jessie.’ I turned at the sound of my name, my heart falling at the sight of Jenny Young, one of the young doctors from the hospital, pushing her way through the crowd to reach me.
Wasn’t anyone at work today?
Mark had been bad enough, but Jenny, sweet girl though she was, could be something of a gossip.
‘Hi, Jenny.’ I forced a smile and when she looked enquiringly at Nat, added, ‘Jenny, this is an old family friend, Nat Preston.’
To my mortification, Nat executed a courtly bow in the middle of High Street. Jenny’s eyes widened and she giggled.
‘Nice to meet you, Nat.’
‘Nat is one of Alan’s re-enactor friends. He likes to practice,’ I extemporized.
‘Oh, I did wonder,’ Jenny said. ‘Such fun. I’ve been thinking of joining, particularly,’ she added sotto voce to me, ‘if they all look like your friend.’
‘Trust me, they don’t,’ I said. ‘Jenny works with me at the hospital,’ I explained to Nat.
‘Are you a doctor?’ Nat inquired.
‘A very new one,’ Jenny replied. ‘I’ve just finished my rotation through pediatrics. Jessie’s a terrific role model and fabulous with kids.’
Nat gave me one of those glances I now recognized as betraying a break down in language.
‘‘Well, thank you for that vote of confidence.’ I took Nat’s arm and gave him an engaging smile. ‘If you’ll excuse us, we have quite a long shopping list. See you tomorrow, Jenny.’
‘Great,’ I muttered to myself as we walked away.
‘What’s the matter?’
‘It’ll be all over the hospital in the morning.’
‘What will be?’
I smiled and thought of Mark. Maybe a bit of gossip wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Nat went silent before looking at me with a frown. ‘You look after goats?’ ‘What?’
‘Mistress Young said you were fabulous with kids.’
I sighed. ‘Children. Kids is another word for children. Ah, Marks and Spencer.’
I had forgotten how tedious shopping with men can be, but fortunately Nat seemed content to let me do the choosing. Good choices too, if I say so myself.
He looked at the shopping bags. ‘How long do you think I will be staying?’ he asked. ‘There are more clothes here than I have owned in my entire life.’
I hated to admit that I had enjoyed shopping for him, even when he jibbed at the endless ‘trying on’ and left me to guess suitable sizes. It wasn’t hard. Nathaniel Preston had the sort of build that would make a garbage bag look like a million dollars.
We managed to find a hairdresser open for business. Nat tugged the rubber band from his hair and regarded it curiously, stretching it experimentally with his fingers as we waited for the girl to finish with her last client.
‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ I asked.
He nodded. ‘I feel like I am standing with a foot in two worlds at the moment. And if you are going to keep making me take baths every day, trust me, a polled head would be a great advantage.’
I was hardly going to suggest the judicious use of a shower cap so I let the barber have her way and the centuries fell to the floor at her feet.
The result took my breath away. If I’d thought him an attractive man before, the transformation of barbered chin and freshly cut hair only served to highlight those stunning gray green eyes. No wonder Jenny had been reduced to a giggling mess.
‘It’s a little early, but there is a lovely little restaurant by the river we could go to for lunch.’ The heat rose to my face, like a schoolgirl asking a boy to go to the movies. ‘But it’s a little early yet.’
‘Ah, the river. I recall it well.’ A lazy half smile curled his lips and he looked past my shoulder as if he seeing that time so long past. Bringing his attention back to me, he said, ‘Shall we go for a walk along its banks?’
‘Are you in the habit of taking strolls along the banks of the Nene?’ I asked
‘Maybe once or twice, and always in the company of a pretty maid.’
‘I think you may find it changed,’ I warned.
The River Nene flows through Chesham but downstream where it flows through Northampton it is not a pretty river. Modern buildings crowd the riverbanks and although the canal boats pulled up to the quays relieve the drabness it is not my favorite place to walk. I steered us in the direction of Becket’s Park, a patch of greenery among the dull modern buildings.
He took my hand. Strong, calloused fingers tightened on mine and I shivered, thinking of the contrast with Mark’s almost delicate surgeon’s hands. Mark took better care of his hands than I did.
‘And where do you end up?’ I laughed as I extricated my hand.
He turned wide, guileless eyes on me. ‘Mistress Shepherd, I am a gentleman. May I not be permitted to hold your hand?’
‘It depends on your intentions, good sir,’ I said with a laugh and held out my right hand as I imagined a seventeenth-century lady of quality would have done.
He took it in his fingers and regarded it for a moment. ‘I see you are no gentlewoman. This hand has seen rough work.’
‘What it has seen is too much hospital disinfectant.’
He turned it over and raised it to his lips, kissed each finger in turn. My knees weakened and my breathing became ragged.
He looked up at me and I saw the now familiar twinkle in his eye. ‘You have never been courted?’
‘Not like this,’ I conceded. ‘Video and a takeaway curry was Mark’s idea of romance.’
‘Then I am pleased there are some things I can teach you,’
He enclosed my hand in his and we resumed our stroll along the willow-lined path.
‘Have you ever been in love?’ I asked.
He paused before answering. ‘Many times. My first love was the stable hand’s daughter.’
‘Hardly suitable for the son of the house.’
‘Hardly,’ he agreed. ‘My mother sent her away.’
‘Your second love?’
His face softened. ‘In Italy. I lived there for nearly a year.’
‘What happened?’
He shrugged. ‘I knew I had to marry Anne, so at the end of my time I came home, but I think of her often.’
‘And Anne?’
The corners of his mouth tightened. ‘I’ve told you. Ours was not a love match. I liked her well enough, and perhaps in time we would have come to love each other, but God took her before her time.’
What a contradiction this man was, I thought--the soldier and scientist with the heart of a poet. If I had met him at a party in an ordinary course of my life, I could quite easily let myself fall for him.
What did I mean?
I had already set myself on that slippery slope. I was strolling along the river bank on a beautiful summer’s day with my hand in his. I could forget that he would die in a few short days...that he was already dead and had been for over three hundred years.
I released my hand and stopped.
‘Did I say something to offend you?’ he inquired.
‘No, not at all. I was just thinking...your stay here is transient. I don’t want to...’
Don’t want to do what, Jessie? Let yourself fall in love with this man? Too late.
‘I just don’t have time for love or romance or any of that nonsense.’ I said.
‘Master Westmacott has much to answer for.’
I closed my eyes to fight back the tears and sensed, rather than saw him draw near. He folded me into his arms and I found I couldn’t resist leaning my head against his chest. He smelled of my soap and something else, spicy and foreign.
His lips brushed my hair. ‘Jessie, my witch,’ he whispered.
‘I’m such a fool.’ I sniffed. ‘I only met you two days ago and you don’t even belong here. You could be whisked away at any moment and then where will that leave me?’
His chest rose and fell beneath my cheek as h
e sighed and his breath whispered past my cheek as he replied, ‘I do not know the answer to that question, Jessie. I’m here for a reason. It was not some momentary lapse in God’s concentration that sent me over your wall.’
‘A reason? What reason? How--’
He laid a finger against my lips. ‘Later.’ He stroked the hair back from my face and smiled down at me.
The blood coursed through my veins in a way that would have given Dr. Harvey pause. Whatever had brought him here didn’t matter, not for this moment.
He continued. ‘You are right, Jessica. I know I must go back to my death. That is my fate and cannot be changed. I would rather die in the knowledge that, for a few brief moments, I had some happiness with a woman who intrigues me beyond measure.’ He smiled and tugged gently at a lock of my hair.
‘That is the corniest pick up line I have heard,’ I muttered as his lips touched mine, stifling my objections.
It may have been corny but it was effective. I would have given myself to him there and then on the bridle path.
I closed my eyes and parted my lips, devouring the taste of him. In my carefully ordered life, the pattern of time had not only been disrupted, but had given me the opportunity to forget for a while that I was a sensible, responsible doctor. For a fleeting moment I could just be a woman; a woman responding to a man in a way she had never experienced before.
I stood poised on the edge of a cliff from which I might never return. He could be gone tomorrow, tonight even, and I would be left forever wondering what it would be like to lie in his arms. We parted and I leaned my head against his chest. He rested his head on mine, engulfing me in his strength and solidity. I closed my eyes listening to the steady rhythm of his heart against my cheek.
I don’t know how long we just stood there in the middle of the path, lost in each other. He straightened and looked down the path we had just walked. As we parted, I fought to restore my breathing to normality, and saw what he had seen, a pair of lovers, arms entwined around each other, walking toward us.
‘The restaurant is just along here,’ I said, my voice quavering with emotion. He looked down at me and smiled. ‘Do they serve a good meat or a pie? I fear you are starving me, Mistress Shepherd.’
‘They do an excellent steak,’ I replied with a smile.
Secrets in Time: Time Travel Romance Page 5