Blushing, she shook her head adamantly. A conversation on the mechanics of Victorian toilet paper was beyond Janelle’s endurance at this point.
“I’ll leave you to change and clean up, but I’ll wait right outside if you need me.”
“That’s not necessary. I’ll be just fine.”
“Janelle,” Aaron nudged her chin up with a crooked finger until she met his eyes. “You’re still not too steady on your feet. I’ll wait right outside.”
She nodded, murmuring, “Thank you. I won’t take too long.”
What else could she do but agree with him? She was dependent on him after all. These 19th century men were way too dictatorial, and it was going to take her some time to adjust to their domineering ways, if that were even possible.
“Good girl. It’s late, and you need more rest.”
With that final remark, he left, closing the door quietly behind him. She stood staring after him, wondering why this arrogant man did such odd things to her insides. One minute he was gentle and sweet, making her feel all warm and fuzzy, but the next he was stern, controlling, and threatening to spank her. He also insisted on calling her “good girl” when he was pleased with her behavior. That puzzled her even more because the modern woman inside her knew she should be annoyed, but at the same time, it made her feel all melty inside. All she knew for sure was that every time she was in his presence, she got a thrill of excitement in her belly and girly parts farther below.
She quickly washed her face with the linen cloth Aaron had set out for her. It was thin and coarse, not at all like the plush terry cloth kind she had back home. She picked up the toothbrush next, but with its three rows of stiff bristles it seemed more like a scrub brush. Unscrewing the jar of Colgate Dentifrice, she puzzled on how to get the paste out of the jar. Looking closer, she saw little bristle marks in the half-empty jar and figured they dipped the brush in. Grimacing, she used her clean finger to scoop some out, vowing to teach her hosts about how germs spread. Brushing gently with the hard bristled brush, she was rinsing when she heard a soft knock on the door.
“I’m almost done.”
Rushing, Janelle lifted the wooden lid to the old-fashioned toilet and used it while changing out of her clothes at the same time. She opened the packet of medicated toilet paper and was surprised to find it pre-moistened. Sniffing it, she found it had a mild chemical odor and each rectangular sheet was stamped with the company name. The nurse in her cringed over the dyes contained in the paper and the potential infections they could cause. The little packets sat right next to some newspaper and a Sears and Roebuck catalog. She’d bet money the pages weren’t used for reading. “Good God, it’s like being on a different planet.”
Once she was done she lowered the lid, pulled the chain, and lo and behold, it flushed. Shaking her head in disbelief, she went to the sink to wash her hands. Looking into the mirror, she noticed the bandage on her cut was loose, and she pulled it off. There were about eight small stitches, and it looked as though the doctor had used black thread. Sighing, she figured a scar was the least of her problems. She was brushing out her hair when Aaron called her name.
“I’m finished.” Giving her long blonde hair a final stroke, she went to the door and opened it. He was lounging with one big shoulder against the doorframe, arms crossed as he waited patiently.
“Ready for bed?”
“Yes.”
He stepped aside and let her precede him down the hall to her room. Before she lay down again, she noticed the sheets were clean, crisp, and sweet smelling, and the bed was neatly made once again. “Aaron,” she said softly as she climbed into bed. “I haven’t thanked you or your family for being so kind and taking me in like this. If you hadn’t, I—” Her voice broke with emotion, and she couldn’t continue. She’d probably still be puking in the jail cell if he hadn’t come in when he had.
“Thanks aren’t necessary. I just want to make sure you’re safe and cared for until we figure out what’s going on.” Pulling the sheet up around her shoulders, he tucked her in like a child and gave her a quick kiss on the nose.
“I feel silly for causing such a fuss.”
“None of that now, just try to get some sleep. Breakfast comes early on a ranch, and we have a family meeting after that.”
He headed out the door, turning back to say, “I’ll leave both our doors open just a bit. Holler out if you need me.
“Good night, Aaron. Thank you.”
He just nodded and in the next moment was gone.
Janelle lay awake for a few minutes before she remembered she hadn’t asked about his search tonight. Head throbbing, she resisted getting up and seeking him out. She’d already disrupted the entire household by being there and wasn’t about to disturb their sleep for a second time tonight. It’d just have to wait until morning. Then Janelle did something she hadn’t done in a very long time. She prayed.
Chapter Four
It was a few minutes before 7 o’clock when Aaron escorted her into the dining room. The rest of the family was all gathered, and Mrs. Jackson was bringing out a huge platter of biscuits.
“Good morning, Janelle. Did you sleep well after your little fright?”
“Yes, Mrs. Jackson. I’m sorry for—”
“Letty, please dear, and you have nothing to be sorry for. Now, what would you like to drink this morning?”
“I’d kill for a coke.”
Silence encompassed the room as all heads turned toward her. Uh-oh. She’d done it again. Okay, no Coca-Cola yet. Damn, how did they survive? “Orange juice?”
More silence. Aaron finally came to her rescue, leaning close from his seat beside her, speaking low in her ear. “Janelle, oranges are rather scarce in Wyoming. You may have coffee, tea, or milk.”
That oranges and juice weren’t readily available hadn’t even occurred to her. “I’ll have milk, please.”
After that, the conversation was mainly about ranch business. The family gave her sidelong, curious glances throughout the meal, which she tried to ignore. She was the 800-pound gorilla in the room, after all. It made her nervous, and she picked at the excellent meal that Aaron had placed on a plate in front of her. It was piled high with scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, and gravy. Ordinarily she would have wolfed it down, but she couldn’t overcome the butterflies fluttering in her stomach.
“Eat darlin’. You haven’t had enough to keep a bird alive since you arrived yesterday.”
“My stomach is still a little upset.” She whispered this although everyone had stopped talking and heard every word she said.
“Is your head still hurting?” He looked at her worriedly and angled her face up to his, examining her eyes closely and the exposed stitches over her brow where she had left off the bandage.
“Not so much. It’s eased off quite a bit.”
“Do you need to go back to bed, or are you up to our family meeting?”
“I’m okay, Aaron. I’m just not hungry.”
His answer was a grunt, clearly unhappy with her lack of appetite. Looking around, Janelle saw that his family had been watching their exchange with interest. Aaron must have noticed too, because he hurried them along. “Kindly finish up, so we can begin. I’d like Janelle to get back to bed soon.”
Popping his last bite of biscuit into his mouth, he stood up abruptly and left the room. Curiosity must have been eating at the others as they were busily stacking their empty plates, and Mrs. Jackson carried them out to the kitchen.
Aaron’s boots sounded on the wooden floorboards as he returned a moment later. He placed a leather bag on the table in front of him just as his mother returned.
“You found my purse, thank goodness.” Janelle reached for it, but Aaron shook his head.
“Patience darlin’, while I explain.” He looked around at his family and said point blank, “Janelle is from the future. The year 2013, in fact. We don’t know how or why this came to be, but she’s here now, and I’ve taken responsibility for her care and saf
ety.”
The family looked stunned, except for Heath, who looked fit to be tied. “What kind of game are you playing, young woman? You wouldn’t be the first woman who tried to worm her way into this family, hoping to land a wealthy husband. Aaron, I can’t believe you fell for this bullshit.”
Janelle was in shock. She hadn’t expected Aaron to simply blurt out her circumstances. Her eyes flew around the room taking in Aaron’s rigid stance and Heath’s equally angry response. Luke was moving quickly to stand between them, ready to intercede. It was obvious from his prompt reaction that these two had gotten into it before. Their mother, who had also risen, cried out in distress. “Heath Jackson! I will not tolerate such offensive behavior at my breakfast table.”
It was Henry Jackson whose cool tone penetrated the escalating emotions in the room as he calmly stood, directing his words toward his eldest. “Son, I don’t care if you are 32 years old, you will not take that tone and use that kind of language under my roof. If you can’t be civil with our guest, you better leave now.”
Janelle felt Heath’s stare upon her. His eyes were the same deep brown as Aaron’s, but his were harder, more cynical. She wondered at the flicker of pain she saw there and remembered his scorn-filled words. Had he been the one who’d been subjected to a woman “worming” into his good graces. Had she broken his heart? Maybe that’s why he was so aggressively defensive.
Strong fingers gripping her own made her realize that sometime during the discord, she had instinctively grasped Aaron’s hand. Heath’s intense gaze lowered to their tightly clasped hands for a moment, before meeting his brother’s in what seemed like some kind of silent sibling communication.
“Sorry, Pa. Pardon me, ma’am, and you too, Ma. I’ll reserve further judgment until I hear what you have to say, Aaron.”
“I don’t have to say another word. I’ll let this speak for itself.” With a flourish, he dumped the entire contents of Janelle’s purse onto the table.
“Aaron,” Janelle protested. “Those are my things.” She made a move to gather up her belongings, but he tugged on her hand, keeping her in her seat.
“Let them look. We need their support.”
She turned to him and saw the determination in his gaze. He was resolved to protect her, and to do that, he had to make his family fully aware of the situation. It seemed to Janelle that the use of such melodramatic measures was unnecessary, but he clearly meant to get his point across. She remained silent, observing the family’s response to the odd collection of futuristic items scattered across the table before them.
“I don’t even know what half of this is,” Luke’s voice reflected his amazement as he spoke for the first time.
When she looked over, she saw he was holding up a plastic wrapped tampon in question. She immediately grabbed it and stuffed it in the pocket of her borrowed skirt. “Never mind about that.”
She spied the other tampons on the table and reached for them, too. Avoiding Aaron’s hand this time, she scooped up the embarrassing items along with the single maxi-pad. Hiding them in her lap, she answered Aaron’s silent inquiry. “They’re… uh, feminine things. I’ll explain to your mother, later.”
His eyes searched hers for a moment and seeing no deception, nodded.
Looking around the table, Janelle watched the family examining the objects that were so common to her but so alien to them.
Mr. Jackson held her wallet, staring in wonder at the bills and coins. “These are dated over 100 years in the future—impossible.”
Mrs. Jackson was holding two prescription bottles and a bottle of Motrin. Unable to pronounce the names, she sounded them out phonetically. “What’s a-mox-i-cill-in and su-ma-trip-tan?”
“That’s my prescription medicine for a respiratory infection I had, and the other two are for headaches.”
Leticia looked at her blankly, not knowing any more than she knew before Janelle answered.
“You don’t have penicillin yet, do you? Do you know about germs?” Janelle tried to pose the question so it didn’t sound like she was speaking down to Aaron’s mother.
She smiled kindly, apparently too shocked by this bizarre story to be offended as she twisted the childproof caps on the plastic prescription bottles in futility. Giving up, she put them back on the table and answered Janelle’s question. “We have known the importance of hygiene and cleanliness for a long time, dear. We are not so backward here.”
“I meant no offense,” Janelle tried to apologize, but the men were holding up different items, demanding explanations for a ballpoint pen, her debit card, mascara, a manicure kit…
“What’s this black thing?” Heath held up the item in question.
“My iPhone!” She raced around the table and took it from him before rushing back to Aaron. “You won’t believe this.”
“Are you telling me that’s a telephone? Where are the wires? How can it possibly work?”
“In my time, we don’t need wires. We have towers and satellites orbiting the earth that relay the signals from place to place, almost instantaneously. I could be in Cheyenne and talk to someone in England if I wanted. But of course, it won’t work here.” Pressing the touchscreen, she pulled up the app she wanted just as a thought occurred to her. “Hey! I can still show you the camera.”
She pulled up the camera function and quickly took a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson who sat in shocked silence on the other side of the table. Touching an icon, she turned the screen to Aaron and showed him.
Without a word, he turned the screen toward his parents and in turn to each brother. Janelle grabbed it back. “Look. I have pictures in here of my mom and dad.” Sliding her finger across the screen, she tugged on Aaron’s sleeve. “Watch.”
The rest of the family rushed around the table and stood behind them, bending and twisting to see the small screen. As she scrolled through, she explained a little about each picture. “Here is another one of my parents. This is my cat, Cleo. I hope my roommate feeds and takes care of her while I’m gone. Oh, and this is my car. Rather it was my car. I bet it was totaled,” she said wistfully before looking up. “You don’t have automobiles yet, do you?”
“We don’t here on the ranch. But there are some steam powered automobiles about, mostly back East.” Aaron was fascinated by the images and nudged her to move on to the next one.
“My car is gas powered. You probably don’t have gas yet. What about petroleum? Do you have oil?”
“Yes, they find new uses for it every day. We use kerosene and oil in our lamps mostly.” Absently, Henry pointed to the large oil lamp in the middle of the table and walked slowly back to his seat. “To travel through time… How is this possible?”
“The nightmare I had last night was about my accident.” Pointing to the car on her screen, she explained, “I was in this car, driving to Salt Lake City. It was raining, and there was a lot of standing water on the road. I started to hydroplane, that means my tires… my wheels were kind of sliding across the surface of the water on the road. It spun around and flipped over, and I was thrown out. I guess like an ice skater hitting a patch of dirt or grass, does that make sense? I saw a lot of bright lights for a moment just before I blacked out. That’s all I remember.”
“Until you woke up in my jail.” Aaron clasped her hand. “I went back to the woods where Jeremy found you. I only found your satchel here, no portal or doors. And some blood spatters.”
Heath spoke up softly. “I guess you’re stuck with us, Janelle Prescott, born March 28, 1990.” He turned the card he was holding and showed everyone her driver’s license. “I’m sorry for doubting your claim and acting like an ass—uh, sorry, an idiot before.”
She gave him a small smile stating, “If I’d been in your shoes, I wouldn’t have believed me either. I’m waiting to wake up any moment and find I’ve been dreaming.”
Heath still looked like he felt guilty about what he’d said and apologized to his brother. “Sorry, Aaron.”
“You think
that was bad? I held her down and let Doc knock her out with ether.” Squeezing her hand, he looked at her warmly. “But I think you’ve forgiven me, haven’t you, darlin’?”
Her face flamed when all eyes turned to her expectantly, and she shyly lowered her gaze to their joined hands. “I forgive you, Aaron.”
“Thank you, sweet pea.” Lifting her hand in his, he kissed the back of it before continuing. “Right now, we have to figure out what to do.”
“She’ll stay here, of course,” Letty declared adamantly. “We’ll just tell folks she’s family.”
“Ma,” Luke said, an amused twinkle in his Jackson brown eyes. “Have you seen them looking at each other? People are going to think it’s rather odd that Aaron is spooning with a long lost sister, or our cousin.”
“Yes, Letty, and after what we saw last night, I’m expecting that we’ll have to keep an eye on these two.” Henry smiled at Janelle’s fiery face. “You’ll be the daughter of a friend who is staying with us while he is travelling.”
“And how do we explain finding her in the woods, half dressed?” Letty brought this up, knowing townsfolk would gossip.
“She had a fever and wandered off, fell, and hit her head. If we all keep to the same tale, no one will be the wiser.” Henry was pleased with the story and looked at Aaron and Janelle for approval.
“What if I can’t get home?” Janelle asked this question in a voice so forlorn that even Heath’s heart melted a bit.
“We’ll be your family, honey.” Heath squeezed her shoulder, and she looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “You won’t be alone in this.”
“Thank you.” She looked at the rest of the family. They were kind, caring people, and if she had to end up in this place, at this time, she was lucky to have found them.
Aaron cleared his throat. “Let’s get you back to your room to rest, sweetheart.”
“I’ll pack up your things for you, dear, and bring them to your room,” Letty told her.
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