“Again?” I asked, excited at the prospect. This time I was on top.
I lay on top of Eddie when we were done, tired but happy. His hands were up under my shirt, making lazy circles on my bare back, sometimes moving down to caress my still exposed buttocks.
“My butt is getting cold,” I finally said ruefully, pulling myself off of him and the pants back up.
“I can warm it up for you.” His eyes gleamed, and he slid a hand under the waistband and gave me a love tap. I giggled, and he removed his hand and put his own clothing back to rights. “Maybe later,” he promised.
“So, I think you were on to something with the lecherous thoughts,” I told him, settling back in next to him to cuddle.
“Oh, babe, I need a few minutes first,” he admitted.
“Not that,” I thwapped his chest. “The thoughts. What were you thinking before we went the first time?”
“Um,” he tried to focus his thoughts and remember. It was cute to see his forehead wrinkle while he contemplated. “I was thinking about who the ring was made for originally, and the silversmith who made it. You?”
“I was thinking about what might have been going on in England when the ring was made. And during Romeo, I was thinking about what Italy back in the day would have been like. I can be a bit of a history geek,” I told him.
“And I was thinking of, ah, well, the attactiveness of the dresses. You may be on to something here. We were both thinking of a similar time period and location to where – when -- we went. That's easy enough to test, I guess. Where would you like to visit?”
I bit my lip. “The town where we got married. Specifically, the barn.” Eddie's eyes gleamed, in opposition to his earlier statement. “Not that! Um, I couldn't find my shorts when I was getting dressed, and when we came back...”
Realization hit my new husband. “We left them. In the past.”
“Yeah. We need to get them, before someone finds them.”
Eddie reached his hands toward the ring, but I pulled away. “One more thing.” I did a fake-curtsy in the borrowed sweats. “While totally comfy, these are totally not period appropriate attire. Considering we're going back to right leaving future clothing in the past, do we really want to go like this?”
He held up a finger, and I paused in my rant. He disappeared into his closet, and came back out with a shopping bag that he handed to me. I opened it to find simple peasant's clothing, like what others in the town had been wearing.
“This afternoon I went to a costume store.”
“It's spring. I thought they were just open before Halloween?”
He gave me a look. “This is New York. There's a store for everything. Doesn't matter the season. Anyway, these are basic commoner outfits. They aren't exactly period authentic, but could probably pass first glance a lot better than what we normally wear.”
The simple brown wool trousers and white linen shirt for Eddie were similar to what we had seen the other men wearing in the town we got married. My outfit had more pieces, but was still ordinary in appearance – knee length socks that matched Eddie's, red skirt, off-white shirt, and a lace up corset for over the shirt.
“I don't know whether to be flattered or upset at the sizes you chose,” I admitted.
He had the good grace to be embarrassed. “I figure the working poor wore what clothes were available, regardless of fit, so the odds were in my favor that it'd work, at least for short term.”
I took a deep breath. “We're really going to do this? Intentionally try to time travel?”
“Why not?”
I had no good reason why not, and tons of reasons to give it a try.
Married though we may be, I couldn't bring myself to change in front of Eddie yet. I hightailed it into the bathroom to slip into the purchased clothes, which fit better than I expected.
Eddie looked mighty fine in his costume. Fine enough to give me pause. This man married me? And wants to stay with me?
“Ready to go?”
With a nod of my head, he took the ring I handed him, and slid it onto my finger.
* * *
The world spun, and next we knew, we were back in the barn where Eddie and I consummated our marriage. A quick glance around didn't turn up the missing bike shorts, so we proceeded to dig down deep into the hay.
While bigger than a needle, the shorts were not found in the haystack. Nor up in the loft, in case Eddie's throw was better than he thought. I flopped down onto the stiff straw.
“Now what?”
“It's likely it disappeared when we came through to our time. It's as good of a reason as any other,” he shrugged. “For now, we could take advantage of the hay again,” Eddie said with a smile, leaning up against a horse stall. “Seriously, though, why don't we take a walk through town? I'd say it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it's the third of hopefully many trips we can make through time. Shall we?” He pushed off of the wood, and reached a hand down to help me up.
“Let's shall,” I responded, allowing him to pull me up, and accepting his assistance in dusting off hay from my costume. He might have spent a little longer on various parts of my anatomy than needed, but I didn't mind.
The village was bigger than I had originally thought – probably more like a small town. Of course, it looked small in comparison to modern towns, but these folk didn't travel. It'd probably be a major event if any of them went to a city like London. Visitors like us...
“Um, Eddie?” I whispered, slipping my left hand in his right, and leaning in to speak softly in his ear. “Even with the clothes, we're standing out like sore thumbs.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, “this isn't working out like I thought.” He ducked into a small shop, and since we were still holding hands, I followed.
Eddie stepped inside a bakers shop, ducking slightly through the smaller door frame. “Pardon me,” he said to the baker as he pulled loaves of bread out of the simple oven. “I'm looking for someone to craft some jewelry for me. Whom in town can help me with that?”
The baker pointed, in a “that-a-way” direction. “Charles. He's the smith. Closest you'll get.” Not wordy, but the man communicated enough to get the point across.
“Thank you kindly!” I said, dragging Eddie out of the shop with me. Give me a Renaissance Festival any day – rushes under foot smelled. Badly. And I wasn't sure what was slimy under my right foot, and didn't want to look too closely to see.
We found the smith, which was coincidentally (or maybe not) right next to the barn that we had just left. The smith was in a covered outdoor area, kind of like a lean-to on the side of his shop. The worker kept pounding at red-hot metal as we approached.
“You do the talking, since I have no idea what we're doing here,” I whispered to my husband. Seriously, I was starting to get nervous. I thought we were just going to take in the sights of this town, and see what life was really like “back in the day”.
“I want to thank the man that gave me my wife,” he whispered back. Awww. How sweet. I was glad knowing that I could take off the ring in case I got too worried about interacting with the locals.
Eddie readjusted our hand-holding, interlacing our fingers, making it more difficult for me to let go. Dang it. I was more stuck now. I wanted to trust him that he knew what he was doing, but really, how could he? It's not like he, or anyone else for that matter, had experience in time traveling.
“Excuse me, are you Charles?”
The smith put down the hot metal, but hefted his hammer and set it over his shoulder. Gulp. He assessed us with a squint, probably trying to figure out what term of address he needed to use. Since we weren't in noble clothing, that was most likely easy – none. “Who wants to know?”
Eddie continued, undeterred. “You may have made the ring my wife has, and we wanted to thank you.”
That definitely got the smith's attention. He squinted a bit more, in a “we don't have glasses in this time period” way, not in a “I'm pissed and will use this hammer on yo
u, just you wait” manner. Eddie lifted our joined hands to show the man the magic ring. Charles almost dropped the hammer at the sight, and I stepped behind my husband. Having Eddie be large and muscular was a nice thing.
“Let's go inside,” the smith grunted.
Eddie shrugged at me, and we followed the smith into the attached timber framework shop. A quick glance around showed simple stairs leading upstairs, where he most likely lived with his family. I didn't see a wife or children, or even grandchildren, since the man looked to be in his fifties. Charles gestured to a chair and stool, and took a seat on the hearth.
“That's my ring,” he said quietly. “You must give it back to me. I have to save my son.”
Now I remembered the voice yelling after us as we traveled back to the future the last few times. Coming back here was a mistake. I reached for my left hand, intending on removing the ring, but Eddie grabbed my hand again from his spot on the stool to prevent me from doing so.
“Why do you think this ring would save your son?” Eddie asked, curious.
Charles looked at us like we were morons. “You're from the future. You've gotten the ring to work. I found your...” he hesitated, probably trying to figure out how – and which one of us – wore the missing bike shorts.
“Breeches,” Eddie prompted. I breathed a sigh of relief. Calling them bloomers was probably pushing my luck, so breeches was safer.
“Aye,” Charles said, still a bit unsure. “I burned them – no one else will see them. So, I did you a favor. I must insist you give me the ring, so I can go back and save my son.”
“We can't do that,” Eddie said emphatically.
A forceful look crossed Charles' face, and I hurried to speak. “We literally can't – if I take it off, we go into the future with it.”
Frustration warred with grief, and grief won. He rubbed a filthy hand across his face, leaving more ash there than there was before.
“Tell us what happened,” my husband said. “Maybe we can help you.”
I shot a glare his way. Was he crazy?
I settled back into the rickety chair as Charles told his tale. His wife had died giving birth to their second child, leaving him alone to raise both his older son and the new little girl. Sadly, the girl had died from the plague at the age of seven, leaving him alone with his son Henry. The boy had grown up assisting the smith, and learning the trade. When he came of age, Henry left to travel to London, to make his business there. Twenty years ago Charles received word that Henry died laboring to help build the Globe Theater, leaving Charles alone in the world. For the last twenty years Charles had been working steadily in the evenings to make a ring to control the power of time, so that he could turn it back and prevent his son from getting killed.
It was a sad story that the smith told, and I did feel for the man. The time period was tough, and death hit every family hard. But if we helped Charles, where would it end? There were a zillion tales of woe, and I didn't know if we could even change time. I have to admit, I was being a bit selfish – I'd rather travel in time as a visitor, and not as a do-gooder hero.
Apparently my husband came from hero stock. He promised the man we would take care of it for him, since we couldn't give Charles back the ring.
“I'm sorry, but no,” I interrupted. “I don't want to get your hopes up. We can't promise this.”
Eddie was upset at my refusal, and Charles looked irritated at my interruption. Nonetheless, I continued. “London is a big place – in our time as well as yours. Finding one man, that we don't know, at an unspecified time, to save him from getting killed...that's ridiculous. There's no way.”
Charles gave Eddie a steady gaze. “Are you going to let your woman get away with that? Telling you what to do?”
I clamped my mouth shut. Different times, different norms. As much as Charles seemed to get that we came from a different time, he was steadfast in his way, and didn't get that women had a place in the world, that was above that of servant. A glance over at Eddie told me he was considering his options, and before I knew it, he had pulled me face down over his lap.
“Eddie! No!” I protested, but knew it would be no good.
Sure enough, a solid whack sounded as he brought his hand sharply against my backside. A moment later, the heat seared my bottom, and I started squirming in earnest. My husband was intent to prove to Charles that Eddie was in charge of me, and my rear end paid the price. Over and over again his heavy, calloused hand made contact with my butt. Thank goodness I was wearing period clothing – the several skirts were thick enough to provide a bit of padding, but not much. In what seemed like forever later, but was probably only a minute or two, Eddie let me up, and sat me down firmly on the chair.
I winced, both from the pain of sitting and the humiliation of being spanked in front of Charles. I had learned my lesson – I would no longer talk freely. Around Charles, at least.
“Sir, I believe we can help you, and we will do our best to ensure Henry's safety,” Eddie said. I studiously kept my face from smirking; despite my spanking, Eddie did backtrack from the promise. Take that, Charles!
The menfolk shook hands, and I curtsied, sure the ringmaker wouldn't shake my hand. Eddie nodded towards my ring, and I removed it to go back to the future.
“Gahh,” I groaned, and rolled off the couch. I ran for the bathroom, barely getting the toilet seat up before losing my dinner. I could hear Eddie throwing up in the kitchen, and it set me off again.
A pale and shaky Eddie came into the bathroom and grabbed his toothbrush. I regained my feet.
“Have another toothbrush?” I asked, and he searched through the vanity drawers one-handed before finding me one. I joined him in brushing the nasty taste out of my mouth, then followed him out of the bathroom.
“I think I'm done for the night.” I looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand, which read after midnight.
“What time is your flight tomorrow?” My face and mood fell at the reminder that I had to go back home the next day.
“Three. I have to check out by eleven, though.” I looked longingly at Eddie's bed; not that I wanted sex right now, but the bed was so close. And it didn't involve going outside and getting wet again.
“We'll set the alarm for ten, then.” He did so, and I crawled in the large bed gratefully. He turned the lights off and made sure the door was securely locked, then took off his jeans and joined me. I had removed the sweatshirt so I didn't get too warm overnight, and was glad for that when Eddie came over to spoon, warming me up instantly. I fell asleep wrapped up in his arms.
I woke a couple of hours later, Eddie still sprawled across me. The emotions from the long day finally caught up with me, and I started crying. The sniffles woke him.
“Hey, what's wrong, sweetheart?”
“What are we going to do?” I asked softly.
“About...?”
“The elephant hiding under your kitchen table. What do you think it's about? Being suddenly married. Which isn't normally something that 'suddenly' is attached to.”
“We could tell people we eloped.”
I snorted and wiggled closer. Eddie tightened his arms around me. “That's not going to fly with my family. We have to do the whole church wedding thing. Which we already have, but they would never believe that was a real wedding. Heck, I still don't know if I believe it was real.”
“You don't think we're married?”
I paused. “I've known you for three days. You're investigating my IT department.”
“Non sequitor. Did you think you were dreaming? When you said yes?”
“No. Yes. Maybe. I'm not sure.”
“What were you thinking when you pulled me towards the priest?”
“I wasn't.” I shifted in his arms to face him. “I was just going with the flow. I had liked spending time with you, and you were attractive, and I liked you. We were getting along well. We were there, and the priest was there, and we had the opportunity. I was being spontaneous, I guess, for on
ce in my life.”
His face was expressionless. “Did you mean your vows?”
“Yes. I don't believe in divorce, same as I don't believe in pre-marital sex. When I said the vows, I would have been perfectly happy spending the rest of my life with you. Now that I've gotten to know you a bit more, and know you,” I reached a hand down to say hello, “I'm still happy.”
I thought about it for another minute. “So, yes. Even if I thought it was a dream at the time, I'm perfectly willing to make the same vows in the light of day. I just hope you are as well.” I dropped my gaze from his eyes, and buried my head in his shoulder.
“Schroeder, look at me.” I did, and his hazel eyes were serious. “I didn't think it was a dream. I said yes, and I'm saying yes now. And I will continue to say yes every day until the end of time.” He gave me a quick minty kiss on the lips. “You're mine.”
“Possessive, much?” I teased, and rolled back over, wiggling into him.
“Mmm-hmm. Mine,” he said, squeezing my shoulder. “Mine.” His hand moved to a breast, and I giggled. “No giggling. Mine.” He moved to my rump. I gave a sharp intake of breath as he took cool fingers inside my waistband and moved them some place to warm them up. “Mine,” he whispered in my ear and I shuddered with sensation.
“Umm.”
“Yes?”
“Me, umm, you...”
“I've gotten my enjoyment several times today, and you haven't. I was rudely interrupted in London. I intend to finish what I've started.” Eddie pulled the sweats down to my knees and entered me from behind. I gave up any semblance of talking as he played with my clit while moving in and out at the same time. I moved my hips to change his angle, and that worked, and I bucked against him as I rode my passions and tried not to pass out.
Several minutes later I regained awareness. “Thank you,” I breathed in amazement, finding his cheek for a quick kiss. Wow. I'd been missing out big time. I could get very used to being married.
Eddie chuckled. “Any time.”
I closed my eyes. “Ugh. No traveling right now.”
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