"She cooked better, but I cook easier," Emily admitted, grinning.
After the meal, they settled down in the front room. Emily wasn't quite sure how to broach the topic, but she decided finally that a direct approach was the best.
"I know a lot of things have happened awfully fast, but we're going to have to make some plans shortly. The night before you took Mary Ann to Benson, you asked me a question. Do you still want my answer?"
Zach darted a quick glance at her, then looked down at the floor. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, shifted in the chair and finally turned back to face her. His gaze sought hers, locked and held.
"Yes, I do. I have even less to offer you here and now than I did then, but I love you more than ever."
Emily got up from the chair she'd chosen and moved to his side. Putting one knee on the edge of the chair by his leg, she rested her hand on his shoulder, looking down at his serious face.
"I love you, too. I think you know that now, don't you? I mean I wouldn't have gone back after someone I didn't really care about...It got pretty scary." She gave a little laugh, suddenly ill at ease.
Zach reached up and caught her by the waist. He swung her around and drew her down onto his lap. That was a good sign. She settled against him, leaning her right shoulder into the hollow of his and tucking her head over against his neck. Snuggling had a calming effect, security flowing from the closeness of their bodies.
Emily turned her head to brush a kiss along his jaw. "I was going to tell you yes that night, when you got back. I'll say yes now, too. If I had any doubts about us belonging together, they've been swept away. I'm not afraid anymore of being torn away from you. Wherever we go, I think we can go together."
Releasing a ragged breath, Zach drew her closer, hugging her solidly against him. For a moment he stroked her hair in silence.
"I swear I'll cherish you for the rest of our lives. I know I promised that before and I had every intention of keeping it, except fate seemed to have other plans. But if you're ever torn away from me again, I'll rip up the universe to find you."
Emily felt weak with relief. "That's the way I feel, too. Good, that's settled, but there's more."
"More? What possible 'more' have we got to decide?"
Emily laughed, twisting in his grasp. She slipped her hand up his neck to the back of his head, bringing his face to hers for a kiss.
"Things like where are we going to settle and when? Here or back east, now or in 1889?"
Zach smiled. "Good questions. I'm going to have to learn a lot, but I think we should stay here, now. If there's some way to be sure Mary Ann got home safely, I'm perfectly willing to remain. I hate to think Mamma will never know what happened to me, but with Mary Ann home, she'll be all right. Can some of your modern wonders help us with that?"
Emily shifted again, drawing back a little from his embrace. "I think so. I can use my computer and then we can go back to Pennsylvania and do some more research. I bet we can find out. But after that, I'd like to come back to Arizona to live. Carol told me they're looking for a librarian at Cochise College. I could work there to support us while you start writing some books."
"You're a real twenty-first century lady, aren't you? I'm not sure I feel right about letting my wife support me, but maybe on a temporary basis...until we start a family."
Although her left arm was still stiff, Emily managed to lift her hand high enough to grab his ear. Grasping the other with her right hand she gave his head a playful shake. "Get used to it, bud, we're going to be equal partners."
She slid off his lap, crossing the room to put a tape in the stereo. As the mellow sounds of Phil Coulter filled the room, she returned, reaching down to grasp his hand. "Come on, don't you think it's time for bed?"
Zach stood, grinning down at her. "I think I can get used to this twenty-first century life pretty quick." He settled an arm around her waist as they started for the bedroom door.
Extracting herself from his embrace, Emily entered the bedroom first. She went to the dresser and reached under the folded clothes she'd put away earlier. When she turned back to Zach, she held both hands behind her. "Sit down on the bed and close your eyes. Then hold your hands out."
He eased down gingerly on the bed. "Am I going to like this?"
"Oh yes, it's a good surprise."
After a moment's hesitation, Zach extended both hands, palm up. Emily moved closer, standing between his knees. Very slowly, she put the small red book into his hands. "Okay, you can open your eyes now."
For an instant Zach stared at the little book, shock, joy and amazement painting his face. "My journal! Where did you get my journal?"
"I've had it since April of this year. When Carol and Tom bought an old trunk in Tombstone to make a toy box for Terry, this was tucked away in a corner. After Rich was killed in Germany, Carol sent it to me. I started reading about your adventure in Tombstone and-well, something in your words called to me, so strongly I had to answer."
Zach flipped the book open, leafing through the pages to reach to the last entry. "I need to finish the story. Do you mind?"
Emily hugged him, blinking back her sudden tears. "No, not at all." Handing him the pen she'd been holding, she sat down at Zach's side to watch as he began to write.
June 11, 1889. I rode this morning to meet Jake just east of Charleston. By now I was convinced that Emily is lost to me forever. Nothing could have surprised me more than to see her burst into view at the very instant Jake began to draw, but that is what happened. A bullet meant for me found her instead, but Someone was watching over us. Her wound was not fatal. She urged me to mount behind her, which I did, and we made the ride of a lifetime, from 1889 to 2000 in one wild run. If ever I doubted that we were meant to be together, the events of this day banished such doubt forever.
She prefers to stay in 2000. Since I am finding the wonders of her time an incomparable adventure, I am more than willing to agree. To me, where we live and when is of no matter, only that we stay together. Soul mates, we will be partners until the end of time. Today and forever, I pledge my life and love to Emily Dennison, soon to be Emily Tremaine, my dearest beloved wife.
Tears blurred Emily's sight as she read Zach's words. She sniffled, which drew his attention away from his writing. He closed the book gently and laid it aside. Then he gathered her in his embrace and lay down beside her.
"I meant every word of that," he whispered. "You are mine and I will never let you escape from me again."
After he kissed away her tears, he began to undress her with the tender care she had grown to expect. He rained kisses on each bit of skin he exposed and paused frequently to gaze down at her with such glowing adoration that her heart almost burst with joy.
This was not the time, but someday soon she'd have to tell Zach-Rich might have been her first love, but Zach was her last and forever love, the real love of her life. She'd brought him back to tomorrow so they could spend a lifetime together as they were meant to be.
EPILOGUE
August 10, 2000
Zach held Emily's hand tightly in his as they walked down the long ramp to board the jet. Their matching gold rings gleamed in the fluorescent lights, still showcase shiny, only three days old.
Emily shot him a quick grin. "Come on, Mr. Tremaine. Today you'll travel father and faster than ever before. We'll be in Philadelphia by mid-afternoon."
"By train and stage coach it took me two weeks."
Zach could hardly pull his gaze from the small window as they soared across America. The landscape below looked like a crazy quilt of patterns, textures and colors, every imaginable shade of green, brown and gold.
Emily let him use her laptop to start writing his impressions of their trip. The keyboard was similar to those of the old Remington typewriters in the Chronicle newsroom, so he was picking up the basic typing part quickly.
She still had to remind him of the commands to save his work and to make changes without having to do it all
over, but he was catching on rapidly. He could even drive a car now, although he'd already decided to defer to Emily to negotiate the city traffic once they landed in Philly. When they'd scouted the route on a map, she'd said it wouldn't be hard to find their way out to Green Hill, the little town where he'd grown up. Using the Internet, they'd found some Tremaines still lived in the area. Since Zach had no brothers, those had to be descendants of his cousins, Uncle Jeramiah's three boys. There were also some Spears, just possibly the descendants of Mary Ann and Robbie. Zach could hardly contain his eagerness to get there, to look for the family he'd lost.
The plane descended through layers of wooly clouds. Looking at them from this side, they looked solid enough to walk on. Zach mentioned that to Emily. She laughed.
"I don't think so, but for people who can travel through time, maybe anything is possible."
They were still laughing about what was and was not possible when they headed their rental car out of the airport to the freeway. Although Zach had grown more accustomed to the rush of traffic, the hurrying vehicles still made him think of an anthill, especially one where a mischievous boy had stuck a stick down the hole. Such mad activity almost defied understanding.
They reached Green Hill near dusk. The town had grown, and although some of the buildings looked familiar, many more of them seemed completely strange. Zach turned his head from side to side, looking anxiously for landmarks and remembered sights.
Emily reached across and touched his hand. "Let's check in to our motel and get some rest. We can start our real search tomorrow."
Reluctantly, Zach agreed, on the condition they start out early the next morning to resume their search.
Over breakfast in the Pennsylvania Dutch motif coffee shop, Emily suggested they first drive by Zach's old house-at least the address where it had been, and then go on to the town cemetery.
At eight in the morning, the town seemed sleepy and placid. The vivid green looked peculiar after days of viewing the dusty tan, beige and rust of Arizona landscapes. With Emily at the wheel and Zach navigating, they soon found Penn Avenue and followed it a short distance to where Valley Road intersected it.
"Turn right here," Zach instructed. A block later, they came to the old house. It had been remodeled a bit, but the basic structure still existed. His throat tight, Zach stared at the neat frame house, freshly painted white with blue trim. The two rose bushes on either side of the small porch were new, the huge Elm tree in the back yard was gone, but two smaller trees would soon be large enough to shade the area in which he'd played as a child.
As they watched from the car, a couple of young boys burst out of a door on the side of the house. A floppy eared dog came bounding to greet them and the three began to tussle, rolling in the grass. Both the lads sported rusty red hair and a liberal dusting of freckles. Looking at them, Zach could almost envision Robbie Spears as he had known him, so long ago.
Just then, a woman stepped out on the front porch and looked at them. She hesitated a moment and then walked down the sidewalk to the curb.
"Can I help you folks?" She had dark hair, big blue eyes, and a wide, friendly smile in spite of the small shadow of concern and wariness that marked her expression. Even here, no one quite trusted strangers anymore.
"Some relatives of mine used to live here," Zach said. "I just wanted to see the house. It looks loved and well cared for."
"Oh yes, my husband grew up in this house, and from what he's told me, it's been in the family for a long time. In fact, I think his great-grandmother was raised in it."
"Would your name be Spears?"
The woman's smile widened. "Yes, my married name, that is. I'm Susan Spears."
"I thought it might be. I'm-well, a descendent of Mary Ann Tremaine Spears's brother Zachary."
"Oh my! The story was that he disappeared out west, back before the turn of the century, the last century. My husband will be happy to know he survived long enough to have a family! Why don't you come back and have dinner with us this evening? Rob will be home from work around five thirty and we eat about six. He'd hate to miss talking with you."
"Thank you, Mrs. Spears, you're very kind to invite us, strangers as we are." Zach glanced at Emily. "Is that okay with you?"
"Of course! This is what we came for, isn't it?"
He wanted to cover her glowing face with kisses right then and there, but he didn't think he'd better. Instead he turned back to his newfound relative and returned her warm smile.
"We'll be here with bells on. I wish there was some way to show you how much we appreciate the opportunity to visit with you and your family. By the way, I'm Zachary Tremaine and this is my wife Emily. We flew in from Arizona yesterday and wanted to spend a couple of days looking around. We thought we'd go out to the cemetery next, maybe find where some ancestors are laid to rest."
Susan nodded. "There's a lot of family out there. The Tremaine and Spears's family plots are in the northwest corner, turn to the left as soon as you go through the main gate and go almost to the end of that road."
Emily smiled across the car at Susan. "Thanks, that will save us some time to know where to go."
After they left the Spear residence, they drove to the town cemetery, Peaceful Vale. Again, Zach was stuck by the greenery, the contrast between this site and Tombstone's Boot Hill, a rocky white hillside where the graves had to be blasted out of the stone.
Emily drove to the end of the road and stopped. They got out and walked slowly across the close clipped grass. They separated to look at different stones until they found those they sought.
Emily called to Zach. "Here, I think this is your mom."
He hurried over to a gravesite with a beautiful marble stone. Mary Lucille Trumbull Tremaine, 1845-1916.
"Yes, that is she. I see Mary Ann and Robbie didn't put her beside Papa. I can hardly blame them for that. They would have had a hard time forgiving him for all he'd done."
"We should come back later or tomorrow with flowers," Emily said. "It doesn't feel right not to leave something for them."
Some intuition led Zach to a nearby double plot, surrounded by a neat wrought iron fence painted white. He circled the fence to a spot where he could read the stone: Robert Lewis Spears 1869-1934; Mary Ann Tremaine Spears 1871-1940 "Beloved parents and grandparents, united in love forever."
Emily tiptoed up to Zach's side and slipped her hand into his. "So she did get home, and she married Robbie. I'm so glad. And obviously they had children. Their story had a happy ending, too."
Zach bowed his head, shutting his eyes against the sting of emotion. He uttered a silent prayer before he finally backed away. "United in love forever," he murmured. "What more could anyone ask?"
Emily squeezed his hand before she moved closer and slipped her arm around his waist. "As we are," she said, "and I would never think to ask for more."
~The End~
About the author of Back to Tomorrow...
Raised in Arizona, Gwynn Morgan finds endless inspiration in the exciting history, diverse natural beauty and rich and varied cultural heritage of the Southwest. She discovered the twin wonders of reading and writing in early childhood and recognized immediately the truth seen by her Celtic ancestors a millennia or two earlier, that in words lay the most powerful and potent of magic!
After a career with the U.S. Government as a civilian employee of the U.S. Army and Air Force, she settled into a second career centering around writing. She lives in a rustic little house in Arizona's Cochise County, an area rich in history and legend. The house is crammed full of books and shared with her personal hero, a former Marine and cop who also writes, and their two canine 'kids', Butch and Sadie.
When she's not writing, she can be found bird watching, star gazing, working on sewing and craft projects, picking up rocks, taking pictures of flowers, sunsets, birds and scenery, listening to folk/ethnic music, or reading a book-romance, fantasy and history are her favorites.
Back to Tomorrow is Gwynn's second
book from NBI following The Man in Black, released in October 2002. She also has Andy vs The Colonel and Powerful Medicine with Awe-Struck E-Books/Earthling Press and a book with Treble Hearts Books, Healing Hearts, released in June 2002. Gwynn calls her novels "romantic adventures" and manages to slip some paranormal or ethnic elements into most of them.
Gwynn loves to hear from readers. Email her at [email protected] or visit her website: www.gwynnmorgan.com.
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