A short while later there was movement behind the curtain of the double glass doors and a woman’s voice asked, “Yes, can I help you?”
“Ah, yes, perhaps you can. I’m looking for anyone related to Jeanine Larsen.”
Suddenly the door flew open and an elderly lady with her pure white hair up in a bun and dressed in a plain, but expensive, black dress accented by fine pearls at her neck stood before him with her hands clasped in front of her chin. Her green eyes were wide as though she was looking at a ghost. She just stood there looking at him and finally put out her hand and said, “Please, Mister Gelardi, come in.”
Patty shook his head as he took her offered hand and said, “But how could you possibly know my name?”
She smiled and took him into a grand room decorated with Victorian furniture and well lit with Tiffany lamps, which had been converted from gas to electric.
“Please, sit, Mister Gelardi . . . it is Patty, am I correct?”
Patty just nodded and sat.
“I’ll be right back, Patty,” she said in a sweet voice.
She left the room and closed the two pocket doors behind her leaving him alone to wonder how she knew his name.
Less than two minutes later she returned with a beautiful, young, brown haired, green-eyed girl that made Patty rise slowly and offer his hand. She smiled as she took it and said, “Mister Gelardi. It is a pleasure to meet you. I’m Jeanine Larson and this is my mother. When mother told me you were here I thought she was having hallucinations, but seeing you myself, I know what she thought.” She motioned for him to sit and after he did she joined her mother on the leather couch facing him across a beautiful Victorian tea table.
“Forgive us for assuming that your real name is Patty Gelardi, as you are so well known in our family that I figure one of my uncles saw you and decided to play a joke on mother and me by hiring you. Am I correct, Mister . . . ?”
“Right down to the casualness of his hair,” added her mother.
Patty smiled and said, “First, I must say that you are a dead ringer for Miss Jeanine Larsen of 1888.”
“Well rehearsed, Mister, well, whoever you may be. You could have seen pictures of my Great-Great Grandmother in the various art newspapers.”
“Tell me,” asked Patty, “how is it that your uncles would know what Mister Gelardi looked like?”
Waving her mother to stay, she rose and said, “Follow me, sir.” She opened the double pocket doors and he followed her down a long hallway with beautiful oil painting lining both sides. At the end of the hall she grasped a doorknob and smiled as she swung open the door and flicked a light switch. The room was huge with lights illuminating each of the thirty-plus oil paintings. She stood in the center of the twenty-by-twenty foot room with a smile on her face as he looked about with his eyes and mouth wide open in awe.
Every painting in the room was of him. Some were of him standing, some sitting, some smiling, singing, laughing and simply gazing at the moon out of a ship’s open cabin door. But the largest painting was centered in the room giving it prominence. It was a composite painting of both Patty and her looking into each other’s eyes.
“T-This is amazing! She painted these?”
“By she, whom are you referring to, Mister X?”
“I mean your ancestor, Jeanine Larsen.”
She looked at the paintings and a look came into her eyes as she said, “My Great-great-grandmother was a woman among women. She painted, she sang, she organized women’s movements . . . “
Patty cut in with, “She started the ‘Women With A Future’ club.”
The young woman snapped her head towards him as she said in almost a whisper, “How did you know about that? We just found out ourselves no more than three weeks ago as we went through some of her forgotten journals. My uncles don’t even know about that yet. How did you know?”
Patty wanted to smile, but could only shake his head and match her whisper as they spoke of the great woman. “She and three other women: Jane Barlow, the daughter of a London butcher; Marilyn McGelroy, an American actress and Edwina Carter, an American clothing designer started the club. They admitted Mister Patty Gelardi as its first member aboard the ship, Servia. They were the founding-mothers so to speak of the original ‘women’s movement.’ They met by way of being in a Pen-Pal club when they were very young and decided to go to Europe together in 1888.”
She looked weak-kneed and put a hand on the wall to steady herself. “B-But, how do you know this? We are just now reading all that you just said?”
He put his index finger to his lips to hush her and went on. “Did she confide in her journal that she was once accosted by Jack the Ripper?”
The woman just stared at this mysterious man giving her information that she just found out herself after it had been lost since 1888.
“Does she say that Mister Patty Gelardi saved her from becoming victim number six on December 4, 1888 at 1 o’clock in the morning?”
She nodded and said, “Yes. And do you also know that she was in love with him and that he left and she never saw him again? All she could do was paint him from memory.”
Now it was Patty’s turn to lower his head. “No, I didn’t know that she loved him, but I do know that he loved her. He loved her so much that certain circumstances demanded that he had to let her go.”
“Let her go?” she asked with a start. But why?”
He shook his head sadly and answered, “Please believe me, I’m not really sure.”
She looked at one of the paintings and said with a sigh, “Knowing so much, you must be related to him.”
Patty nodded, “Yes, I am.” He looked up and with a soft smile asked, “Perhaps we can have dinner sometime and compare our journals on Patty Gelardi and Jeanine Larsen?”
She shrugged her slim shoulders and said with a smile, “Sort of, show me your journal and I’ll show you mine?”
“It could take a few dinners,” he said shrugging his shoulders.
“Oh, I’m still reading the new journal so it might even take longer than we both think. Would that bore you, Mister Gelardi or would you find that a certain circumstance demanded that you abandon your quest as your ancestor once did so long ago?”
She stood beneath the painting of Patty and Jeanine together and he knew right then and there that this time he couldn’t let the love of his life slip through his fingers. He felt that the twinkle in her eye said she felt the same as he answered, “I think that my ancestor let a wonderful woman slip away and that I would not allow that to happen.”
“Come,” she said taking his hand, “allow me to reintroduce you to my mother.”
End
Dear reader, I hope you enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed writing it and please do not mistake period talk as a typographical error. (There are probably enough typographical errors as it is.)
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
The end is usually very apparent in a story, be it a book or movie. However, in this case, although it is the end page-wise, it continues on in the 1800 Club. You see, The 1800 Club does exist in New York City, although, under a different name and address. I, Bill Scott, also exist as President and owner of the club, and the people I wrote of, all exist. Some of their names have been changed, as they do have a life outside of the club, and they, and the club, must be protected.
By now you are thinking, “This is a put-on, there is no club that can travel in time.” But, I ask you to look around. Isn’t history the same as you read it in your history books? Believe me, the club is working to keep it so. You the reader may ask, “Why is he admitting this?” To that I answer, “Why not?” Sometimes the best place to hide something is right out in plain sight. So, while admitting the club exists, the secret is as safe as saying it doesn’t exist.
I intended to continue this narrative and tell you about some of the other missions the club has worked on, however, I have to interrupt this book at this point because I’ve just been alerted that there is a problem goin
g on right now with the time stream. I do intend to document it, and others as they occur, in the next book, ‘Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club. Book 9.’
B.S.
Other books by Robert P. McAuley on Smashword:
Sky Ship
Aviation Facts & Rumors: Book 1
Aviation Facts & Rumors: Book 2
Romance in a Ghost Town
Vampire’s Bloodline
The Dripping Sands Of Time
A New Jersey Yankee In King Arthur’s Court
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book I: FREE!
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book II
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book III
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book IV
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book V
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book VI
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book VII
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book VIII
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book IX
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book X
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book XI
Time Travel Adventures of The 1800 Club: Book XII
Time Travel Adventures of the 1800 Club Book VIII Page 18