Valerie was alive and well, living in the seventeenth century. She had cleverly inserted a clue into both paintings, probably hoping against hope that her art restorer sister might somehow come across her message from the past. The hideous cupid clock was in both paintings, set to the same time. 8:10 - 2010; the year that Valerie disappeared when she turned the hands of the clock in the antique shop while browsing for souvenirs. She couldn’t stand it when something was out of place and tried to set the clock to the right time. How could she have known that the Cupid clock was a time device, one that had already sent one young woman back into the past? It took Louisa some time to figure out Valerie’s message, but she had, and she traveled back to England to confront Mr. Taylor, an eccentric hermit posing as a shopkeeper in a small English village. He told her the truth then, and knowing that Valerie didn’t suffer some gruesome death had been a relief, if a minor one.
Louisa wiped the tears coursing down her face and continued her monologue. “I’m going to find Valerie. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be all right. I’ve been getting ready and I will not go unprepared like Valerie did. When I find her, I will give her your love.”
Louisa kissed the headstone and slowly raised herself up. Her flight to England was leaving in the late afternoon, and she still had to drive out to JFK, return her rented car, and check in. She wouldn’t have any luggage, just the few items she was bringing with her to the past. She wouldn’t need the rest of her possessions any longer.
“Goodbye.” Louisa turned away and briskly walked out of the cemetery. It was time to go.
Notes
The colony of Virginia wasn’t officially established until 1607, but I exercised creative license, as I wanted my characters to come to America. Virginia was mentioned as early as the sixteenth century by Queen Elizabeth and Walter Raleigh, who was granted a charter to start a colony. Although the first colony failed, there were several attempts to colonize the region, starting as early as 1587, when 150 colonists went out to establish a colony on Chesapeake Bay.
There was also trans-Atlantic trade between America and England in the seventeenth century, conducted mostly by the Virginia Company of London, which had been established in 1575.
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