"And maybe with a bride?" Mary Ann asked slyly.
Zach felt himself grinning. "I'm not sure yet, but I have hopes," he admitted. "If Emily will have me, yes."
Mary Ann laughed. "I'd love to have Emily for a sister. She's a wonderful person, and I'm pretty sure she loves you, even if she may be reluctant to admit it just yet. Maybe she doesn't yet know it herself."
"There are-well, some problems to work out. But I...we'll just have to wait and see. Take care, Sis, and give Mamma my love."
He pushed her gently forward, where the porter took her arm and helped her up the step into the coach. When she found her seat, she pressed her face to the window and waved as long as he could see her. Zach watched, waving back, until the train disappeared around the long curve to the east. Then he untied the team, climbed into the buggy, rounded up the two miners, and started back to Tombstone.
Another storm began to sweep across the valley from the Rincons as they started south. It passed to the west of them and then seemed to move just ahead of them all the way down the valley. Zach allowed the horses to take their time now, not eager to catch up to the storm, which appeared to be particularly strong and violent. At one point, he swore he saw a funnel cloud, dipping from one dark-bellied cloud mass, but rain soon obscured the view so he could not be sure. Were there tornados in Arizona? He really didn't know and had no desire to find out, at least not at close range.
Hearing the thunder, he thought of Emily. He hoped the storm would miss Tombstone so she would not have to brave such fury alone. Stay safe inside, Em, and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can.
Although Zach finally urged the horses to a brisker pace, after the storm had moved off toward Bisbee, they did not reach Tombstone until dusk had fallen. He returned the team and buggy to their owner, checked to be sure Rusty was all right, and then slogged through the mud and water back to Nellie's.
One whale of a storm had clearly hit the town. Several trees had branches torn from them and pieces of more than one tin roof lay crumpled against fences or trees. He picked up his pace, pulled by a sudden urgency to get to Nellie's and see for himself that Emily was all right.
At least the outside of the building appeared undamaged, which seemed a good sign. Zach let himself in through the back door, surprised to find the kitchen dark and empty. Hearing muted voices in Nellie's rooms, he moved to the doorway and knocked softly.
"Who's there?"
"It's me, Zach."
"Come in."
The door stood slightly ajar and swung inward at his gentle push. He stopped, just inside. "What is wrong? Why is..."
Nellie sat in her rocker, Angelina huddled at her feet. The girl had clearly been weeping and struggled now to wipe her eyes with one of Nellie's serviceably large handkerchiefs.
She sniffled. "It's all my fault. The lightening scared me so bad, but Emily came to get me. Then the horse came running, and she pushed me ahead, out of the way. I stumbled and fell in the mud. When I got up and looked back, she was gone."
Zach stopped himself short of striding across to grab her up and shake her. His mind demanded to hear each and every detail, while his heart tried to deny the images her words created.
Jake, it had to be Jake. He clenched his fists until the nails bit into his palms while he shook with rage and helpless anguish. No! It can't be happening all over again.
"Everyone we could gather is out searching," Nellie said. "Deputy Drake deputized several of the townsmen and they've got posses heading off in every direction. The rain may have washed out the tracks, but they'll comb the country."
Shaking her skirts out as she stood, Nellie came to Zach's side. She reached out and caught his hands in hers, stroking her thumbs down the backs of his fists.
"Don't blame yourself or Angelina or anyone, Zach. We took every precaution we could. If it was McEuen who grabbed her, we'll find him. We must keep faith that she'll be unharmed and we'll find her soon."
Zach nodded, at first not daring to try to speak. Finally he managed to croak a few words. "Mary Ann is off on the train. That went without a hitch."
He shook his head, exhaling in a painful sigh. "I know Emily wanted to go along but she felt you needed her here. I didn't encourage her to come, thinking she'd be safer here. I should have known..."
"I don't know what to tell you," Nellie admitted, "except that I'm sorry and I wish I'd been watching more closely. I'm not sure I could have done anything, but perhaps if I'd seen which way they went or even who it was."
"Don't blame yourself..." Hearing himself echo Nellie's earlier words back to her, Zach stopped. There was nothing to be said that would have any meaning. He'd saved Mary Ann and lost Emily. What a horrible, unthinkable exchange. Marshal Cooper for Jake McEuen, Emily for Mary Ann. No! That was not something he could endure to think about-Emily brutalized as the marshal had been.
"I'll go to Charleston," he said, dully. "That's the only place I know to start."
Angelina struggled to her feet and hobbled over to his side. She grabbed his arm in sudden urgency.
"No, they did not go that way! I am sure. The horse was headed east. He came past the Courthouse and crossed Allen Street. I saw the back of it disappear in the rain, running very fast. But I think it was not the black horse of Jake McEuen. The beast did not look that dark, more like a buckskin or a gray, just dark from the rain but not black."
"I've got to do something. If everyone else available is out riding, searching, I can't just sit here and wait. Emily must be out there somewhere, cold, wet and scared. If I just go, maybe something will lead me to her. I told her I would hang on to her and keep her safe. I can't fail her now."
Zach swept a glance past both Nellie and Angelina. They shook their heads, both their faces tight with anguish and regret.
He ignored their pained and pitying expressions, jammed his hat back on his head and ran out into the mud. Taking Rusty away from his evening feed to saddle him, Zach mounted and started off east across Allen Street, the direction Angelina said the mysterious horseman had gone. Although every act seemed futile and hopeless, he had to take some action or go mad.
~*~
Sierra Vista, Arizona
May 29, 2000
Awareness built in slow degrees, sounds first and then sensation. Muted voices, whispering, just beyond the range of her understanding. The mechanical hum of air conditioning, plus a variety of clunks, clatters and other noises she could not identify.
Solid support beneath her body, something over part of her face, and pain-all over. Every bone and muscle in her body hurt. She didn't seem to be able to move, either. Experimentally, she tried to lift her eyelids. One flickered, letting in a sliver of light. Too bright. The lid slammed shut against the glare.
She tried again. This time she managed to get both eyes open. Maybe it wasn't as bright as she had first thought. Although the combination of fluorescent bulbs overhead and sun streaming in the window did provide an awful lot of light.
"Emily? Emily, are you waking up?"
She knew that voice, recognized the name spoken as her own, but she could not put a name or face with the sound at first. Why did the speaker sound so anxious? Aunt Faith? Yes, Aunt Faith, for sure.
Slowly, Emily turned her head. That slight movement took great effort, but she managed. Aunt Faith stood by her bedside, bending down to peer at her, an expression both anxious and full of hope on her narrow face.
Behind her, Carol and Tom Hodges stood in the doorway. Was Carol wearing a nightgown and a robe? How very strange.
"Oh, thank God, she's waking up!"
That was Carol's voice. Carol stepped forward into the room, coming to the bedside and looking down at Emily, tears spilling from her eyes.
"You're back with us! Oh, Em, it's like a miracle. We've been so scared. Nobody could understand...you were missing for almost a month and then yesterday, all at once, right in the middle of one of the gunfight skits, you were just there."
Carol stopped f
or breath, sank to her knees at Emily's side, and buried her face against the bedding. After a moment's silence, she lifted her head and continued.
"You were dressed in a period costume, sopping wet, and you had a bundle of wet sheets in your arms! Witnesses said you looked around blankly for a moment and then collapsed in a heap. Someone had seen the missing person fliers we'd put out and recognized you from the picture. Everything stopped while they waited for the ambulance, and the EMTs almost lost you on the way to the hospital. Shock, the doctor said, as if you'd been-oh, hit by lightning or a downed electric wire. But there were no burn marks or anything. It was totally weird."
Aunt Faith reached down and took one of Emily's hands. "Don't trouble yourself now over what happened, dear. You're back with us, that's all that matters now. You need to rest. We can sort everything out later. Right now I've got to go call your father. He's been worried sick." She squeezed Emily's hand gently, releasing it as she backed away.
Emily shook her head as if such movement could clear the webs of confusion from her mind. Even that slight effort made her feel weak and dizzy. Her brain was wooly and it hurt to try to think. The lights were too bright, the sounds too loud, and the pressure of her body on the bed seemed to chafe her skin and compress her flesh. She'd never felt so very ill.
It took all her effort to force herself to speak but Carol's anxious face demanded some response. "I-I had the craziest adventure. I don't understand it, but as soon as I can, I'll tell you all about it. Right now, I'm just too tired."
Someone, perhaps Tom, had summoned a nurse. The charge nurse bustled in, took one quick look at Emily and flew out again, returning soon with the duty doctor. They shooed everyone else out before they made a production of checking Emily's vital signs and studied the monitor to which she was wired, all the while talking softly in medical jargon she could not wholly understand.
No doubt about it, this was 2000 and she was back again. Had all of her adventure been a dream? A hallucination? Did she ache now from being hit by the stagecoach? But Carol said I've been missing for almost a month. I had to be somewhere.
Carol didn't look pregnant any more, although she seemed to be wearing a nightgown under a robe, as if she too were a patient. Nothing made any sense. And trying to think about it hurt too much. But there was something she needed to do, an urgent task she hadn't yet completed...
When Emily began to toss and twitch in distress, the nurse slipped in to give her an injection. After a moment, she slid back into the peaceful, painless darkness.
The next time Emily awoke, a more natural and ordinary sort of awakening, she felt stronger and more like herself. Still, the jumble of her memories refused to sort themselves into any semblance of rational, reasonable events. Certainly something had happened to her, something very strange and inexplicable, but exactly what she could not begin to say.
Carol appeared while Emily was eating dinner, her first meal since arriving at the hospital the previous afternoon, according to what she'd been told.
Carol smiled, although a remnant of anxiety lingered in her eyes. "Hi. You're looking much better. Are you ready to talk?"
Emily gave her a wry smile. "I'm not sure I have much to say yet. But looking at you, I'd say you've got some news to share."
Carol grinned broadly. "Yep, we've got a son. Tom is tickled to death. Thomas Terrence Hodges made his appearance three days ago, about four p.m. They had to do a caesarean after I was in labor for almost twenty-four hours. He was breech and they just couldn't get him turned around, but we're both fine. I'll be going home tomorrow and he's only still here because I am."
Seeing how Carol simply glowed with her happiness, relief washed over Emily. Mother and baby were fine-no ill effects due to Emily's sudden disappearance. "That's wonderful. I-well, my disappearance didn't cause you any problems did it?"
"I was worried silly, of course, but no, I'm sure that had no effect on either my condition or Terry's. He was just turned wrong and there wasn't much anyone could do about that. I only hope he doesn't insist on going through life butt first now!" Carol giggled.
Carol's face and tone turned serious. "You were gone for weeks, Em. Can you remember anything about where you were, what happened?"
"Well," Emily hesitated. "I don't think there's any way I can prove it, but I remember being in Tombstone and Bisbee in 1889..."
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Carol gasped. "No! And I suppose you were with the guy who wrote the journal!"
Emily nodded. "Yes, with Zach." She gave a heavy sigh. "We got to be friends, more than friends, really. Now he's going to be terribly worried because I vanished, just as I did from 2000. And I'm sure the lightening did it-somehow the lightening did it..." Her words trailed away as she caught the expression of pity and disbelief on Carol's face. Plainer than words it said: "Oh my God, she's lost it, totally lost it."
"But there wasn't a storm yesterday."
The disbelief in Carol's tone cut, but Emily could not blame her for that doubt.
"Maybe not in 2000 but there was a heck of a storm in 1889. When I ran out to get Angelina, a stampeding horse sort of ran over me. And I woke up back here. When I went back to 1889, it was the other way, just a freaky little thunderstorm here and now, which caused the stagecoach team to spook, but in 1889 the weather was clear and dry."
Carol sank onto the orange upholstered chair by the window. She took a couple of slow breaths, as if framing her thoughts with special care. "It's not that I doubt you, Em, but this is just so amazing, like something from the X Files." She shook her head. "You should be able to sell your story for a million or two!"
Emily frowned. "I'm not about to appear on the cover of National Curiosity alongside the space alien's abductee and the three hundred pound baby or the ET that endorses some candidate for President! It's probably just a hallucination or something. But then, where was I for over four weeks?"
"We may never know," Carol said gently. "I guess what's important is that you're back and everything is going to be all right now." She glanced at her wristwatch. "'Scuse me, but I've got to go feed Bubba. That kid eats like a fullback already. I'll see you tomorrow before I go home. I'm sure they'll let you go soon, and of course you'll come back and finish our visit."
Emily watched her friend leave, struggling not to envy Carol's joy. She herself felt empty and hollow, bereft of purpose and even more lonely than she'd been when she realized Rich was not ever going to be coming home to her, that their wedding would never take place.
Hadn't she known all along, in the back of her mind? Her sojourn in 1889 was temporary. She had told herself she was not going to fall in love with Zach, but all her good intentions had gone for naught. She had fallen, and now he was lost to her as irrevocably as Rich had been. In spite of her efforts to blink them back, tears began to seep from her eyes and trickle down her face.
What must Zach be thinking? He had to believe she'd deserted and betrayed him, played him for a fool, lied in the plans they had begun to make. Or else he'd think Jake McEuen had somehow abducted her again and he'd go searching for the gambler, probably winding up dead. Both options seemed unbearable.
The experiences she and Zach shared had deviated more and more from those she'd read in his journal. Had her brief presence changed the course of events? Certainly, but to what end? Mary Ann had been rescued and saved, sent on her way home, but many other issues remained unresolved.
Yet here she was, back in 2000, unable to do a thing to see all those loose ends tied up in proper fashion. Would Marshal Cooper recover and resume his duties? Would the mystery of the missing money from the bank robbery be solved? Would Jake McEuen finally be brought to justice? Had Angelina made it safely back into the boarding house?
The beeps reminded her-she was still hooked up to a monitor since the doctor remained mystified as to what had caused her heart to stop briefly and put her into a twelve-hour coma. If she did not calm down, the nurse would return to give her another injection, put
ting her in an artificial sleep once more.
As anguishing as her thoughts might be, she did not want to escape from them until she resolved some of her confusion. And to do that, she had to think about all that had occurred as dispassionately as she could. Somewhere, there was an answer, something to verify what her memory told her as either false or true.
If it were true, she had to get back into the past once more, at least long enough to let Zach know she was all right, to tell him she did love him, whether or not they could ever again be together, and perhaps to reclaim the modern objects she'd left behind.
~*~
Tombstone, Arizona Territory
May 29, 1889
Zach rode all night. For the first hour or two, he simply let Rusty pick his own way, as if by some arcane method the gelding could trail the brother equine that had carried Emily away. They squelched across gullies still draining run-off, struggled up and down mud-slick slopes and pushed through drenching thickets of wet mesquite.
By midnight the clouds cleared enough to give the moon, three days past full, a chance to illuminate the countryside.
His eyes now well accustomed to the darkness, Zach could see clearly in the moonlight, although the light revealed little the darkness had hidden. The pounding rain had obliterated any trace of tracks. There was simply no way to know where the mysterious horse had gone. The rider might even have doubled back almost at once and gone west instead of east.
Holding Rusty to a walk while he searched in a continuous scan, Zach traveled almost to the foot of the Dragoon Mountains. From there he turned south to the pass through the hills to Gleeson, and finally back west toward Tombstone as dawn touched the sky. By then, Rusty stumbled with weariness and Zach sat swaying in his saddle, almost too exhausted to hold himself erect.
Fighting the leaden drag of despair, Zach reluctantly gave up his search for the time being. Perhaps some of the other searchers would have news. Maybe someone had located Emily and she waited now at Nellie's, anxious about him.
Back to Tomorrow Page 23