Yes, nothing in her life would ever be the same after this night.
She would know…
As she made her way through the narrow and dusty streets, ducking in and around people, the pungent aroma of liquor and cigar smoke that filled her senses almost made her choke. Saloons and cantinas flowed with men and women laughing and cajoling each other in drunken happiness. It certainly was a scene, with gay piano music tinkling a different tune from each bar she passed—and there seemed to be plenty in this small town, with the roaring cheers of gamblers inside each one. Sauntering cowboys in full regalia—shiny, clinking boot spurs, holsters with guns, and fringed chaps—tipped their hats with a "Howdy, ma'am" when she used them momentarily for cover along her way.
In her mind she began rationalizing the surrounding chaos by realizing television and movies hadn't yet been invented, so this was the way of leisure. Suddenly she was acutely reminded of the severity of it all when she heard a loud pop and instinctively hunkered against a wall. She watched as a crowd gathered along the sidewalk. An inebriated cowboy had shot off his pistol and was laughing, probably to express his merriment with the moment, but he was immediately subdued by the local law enforcement officers. The Santa Fe night life, circa 1878, she mentally mused. Yes, it was reality for her now, and the guns were really loaded.
Yet she would not be deterred from this quest. Her mysterious prey was not far ahead as she slipped from shadow to shadow, keeping a safe distance from him, his awareness, and his uncanny ability to sense her. Luke d'Séraphin was some guy to warrant her obsession, and she knew she was stalking him, but she just had to know what drew him out into the night. She needed to know everything she could about the man before she could ask him to father a child with her.
Slamming her back against an alley wall, she stood panting, and wondered if he'd seen her when he turned and looked behind him just before entering the bar. Okay, that was where she must be… the woman who had enchanted him, this incredible man who was… well, he wasn't of this earthly stuff, she had to admit to herself. He was heavenly, and that was one of the reasons she believed his genes would be the best other half in creating the child she wanted to mother. And this other woman who obviously had captured his attention, to the point of him leaving even his good friend Don Felipe and family, well, she must really be something. Casey resigned herself to the inevitable… It was now or never, and all her answers were just beyond the swinging sash doors of a bawdy saloon. Talk about your irony. She had to laugh.
Pulling the shawl tightly around her face again, she drew in her greatest breath of courage, quickly turned the corner of her hideaway, and stepped right into the chest of a young man. "Omph!" she exhaled, with the wind nearly knocked out of her. "I'm sorry… I mean, excuse me," she stammered.
Bursts of laughter resounded as she looked up to see the face of the young fellow.
"Pardon me, ma'am." He nodded and smiled a big-toothed grin.
"Billy, yer such a galoot," his friend chuckled as he picked up and brushed off the hat that was knocked off the young man's head when they collided.
"Yeah, Kid. Why don't you watch where yer goin'?" another voice snickered as the group moved on, still chortling about the incident.
"Sheesh," she said aloud, pulling herself back together. Wait a minute. She mentally and physically froze. Billy… the Kid? Naw. She shook the insane thought from her rattled brain. Okay, gather your wits again, girl, she silently commanded herself, and forced her feet to continue their walk toward the saloon doors and her destiny…
"Gracias, amigos!" Luke's voice suddenly called out as he made his way through the throngs of characters lining the sidewalk… and right toward her.
"Ohmahgawd," she blurted, and threw her gaze to the ground as she spun around. Deadlocked where she was, the moments felt like an eternity as he passed right behind her. Had he noticed her? Should she look up? Was he gone yet? Turning ever so slightly, she peeked one eye out from behind the shawl that shielded her, to see him stepping around the corner of the very alley where she'd been hiding minutes earlier. Jeez, she was beginning to think this whole scenario was a sitcom for the gods, and she was the starring clown. Gimme a break, she almost said aloud, looking up to the starry night sky. It really didn't matter if anybody was listening… Just the absolute absurdity of her situation seemed to blend quite well in the moment.
Okay, so what was going on now? He needed a quick drink first before going to… to her? Casey had talked herself into believing that it was a woman. He had passed by the rest of the bars, the gambling houses. What else was drawing him every night? It had to be a woman.
Nothing, not anything she could possibly imagine, could have prepared her for the answer she so desperately sought and thought she could handle.
The sitcom of her life continued…
Eleven
She watched from the shadows as Luke went into a rundown building and closed the door behind him. Puzzled, Casey kept taking deep breaths to calm down. What kind of woman was he meeting there, through an alley behind the big church? As bizarre as that sounded, it couldn't be much more bizarre than a time-traveling woman, in a barely settled western town, masquerading as a nun/Garboesque spy, running after a mysterious, time-traveling angel/man of the night, with whom she was considering having a child!
This was just not a normal life!
Was it that she had begun adapting to the times, or were there more serious issues at work here? Like insanity? She couldn't deal with answers right now, unless it was to find out what drove Luke into the darkness every night.
More curious than ever, Casey waited until she saw through a window the dim glow of lamplight before she stepped out of the shadow for a closer look. Creeping stealthily across the alley to the small window, she found it was higher than she'd anticipated and she could barely get a peek on her tiptoes. What was going on in there? She needed something to stand on for a clearer view to satisfy her ardent curiosity. Walking as quietly as she could back toward the street from the alley, she passed a horse. Thinking twice, she literally shook her head no, better not try it… that could unleash too much comedy. She didn't need any more of that tonight, and truly, she was becoming tenaciously serious about this whole affair. As a matter of fact, she was beyond frustration, she was beginning to panic.
She did her best to blend in to the ancient town while moving around the front of the building to find another window or door. With each step that she took, she felt her heart pounding even harder against her breast, while the sound of her own pulse raced in her ears. She caught the material of the shawl and clutched it to her chest, as if the action would slow it down. Stay calm and breathe, she commanded herself once more. In just a few moments she would know all that she needed. She simply had to know, and as the inevitable approached, Casey felt dizzy.
Making her way around to the other side of the building, she kept her feet moving, commanding them to cross the distance and end her torture. She flattened her back to the wall of the building and listened. There was no sound. No voices. Was he waiting… ?
Taking a deep, steadying breath for courage, she pushed herself away from the wall and stood on her toes to peek inside another small window. She could only cling to the rough adobe for support as she blinked in disbelief.
Luke was unbuttoning his shirt. Even though she knew this was highly personal, she couldn't turn away from looking. What woman could? A nun? Well, this temptation proved she could never have been one!
He was disrobing in what looked like some kind of workshop. Whom would he be meeting here? She couldn't see anyone else. His back was to her, and just as he was about to pull his arms out of his shirt, Casey dropped to the balls of her feet and pressed her forehead against the adobe building wall.
What was she doing, spying on this man?
Had she gone over the edge? Did she so desperately want a child that she would humiliate herself like this? Damn, she owed Luke an apology.
And then her mind began
playing with her, reminding her that beyond the wall this man was undressing for a reason. He was about to do something… and she would be able to find out something about him. He was so evasive about himself. What if, when he undressed, he wasn't normal? What if he really was from another planet? At any other time in her life, that question would be cause for admittance into a locked ward, but this wasn't like any other time in her life or anyone else's life either. He said he wasn't from Venus, but there were seven other planets. He could be from Jupiter, or Mars, or Uranus… or she could just be certifiable!
Too curious now, she pushed back up on her toes and was astonished to see him changing into a loose white shirt and baggy pants. What in the world… ?
While buttoning his shirt, he walked to a huge mound covered with a large rough cloth. Pulling the drape back, he revealed two big tubs with one long, curled wooden beam resting in them. He slowly, gently, almost reverently ran his palm over an exposed smooth curve and then stood with his hands on his hips to stare at it.
Casey's toes were aching from holding up her weight and she sank to her heels again. He'd left the house every night to work with wood? She felt as if she'd just been popped in the back of the head with a fly ball.
He may be the strangest man she'd ever known in her entire life, but she could now safely say she was falling in love with this incredibly strange man. He wasn't meeting a woman… he just needed some masculine Tool Time!
She rested her forehead against the adobe wall again. Her breath was ragged as she tried to process what was happening inside of her. Okay, Luke was working, making a wood something. He wasn't meeting anyone else. Her plans were still on… but did she really, in the deepest core of her being, intend to go through with this? Could she live with the definitive consequences? Could she take possible disappointment and yet be graceful about it? Could she stand that much happiness if he somehow agreed?
She felt as though her entire being were literally on a huge scale in that moment. It was truly a life-altering choice she was about to make, shifting the balance completely one way or the other. She mentally weighed it all. Okay, playing it safe had brought her to being thirty-one years old and working in the accounting department of a soap manufacturer. She didn't have a partner. She didn't even have a cat. Playing it safe also had every single serious relationship ending because the man couldn't make a commitment. How could she now ask for any kind of commitment from a man she'd just met and… when she didn't even know what century she would wake up in from one morning to the next? It was mind-boggling.
If she did what Luke said, stayed right here, where she found herself, she'd realize there wasn't all that much safety outside of the present moment. And after everything she'd already been through, she owed it to herself to know one way or the other. Just then the truth of the entire matter slammed into her consciousness with the force of a freight train. It felt like the most important decision she had ever made in her life. She had to stop time-traveling into fear, wondering if she could find the courage to risk it all. She had to stop and trust herself to follow her heart, instead of her head, and walk through that door. Regardless of what he said about sharing his gene pool, she still wanted Luke.
In a flash, memories of their time together raced through her mind… the desert meeting, the birth of Angel, dancing lessons… Oh yes, she admitted, she wanted him.
And now she had to be willing to risk everything to find out if he also wanted her.
Fear assaulted her, but she quickly recognized it and shook her head. This time she wouldn't allow it. For once in her life, she wasn't going to play it safe. If she backed away from this because of fear, she knew she would always wonder what if…
She'd had enough what ifs to last two lifetimes, she thought, and pushed herself away from the wall. Hearing a man's distant yell from the direction of the plaza, she rearranged her shawl and pulled it more tightly around her. She couldn't just remain here. She had to follow through on her decision.
Taking a deep breath, Casey willed her feet to move toward the door.
She could do this. She didn't have to blurt out the question. It could be days before she worked up the nerve to actually ask him about considering fatherhood, but she did need to let Luke know she had followed him tonight. It was the only honorable thing to do. Somehow she felt very strongly about being honest now. If anything beyond friendship developed and he found out later, he might think she had deceived him. Instinct was telling her this was way too important to screw up.
She stood in front of the door and brought her hand up. Her knuckles remained motionless inches from the rough wood. Courage. She just needed courage from someplace. Her mind replayed scenes of how she had handled the adventure so far, and then she realized she was a pretty courageous woman. She'd had a brief moment of distress, but she hadn't completely fallen apart. She was functioning fairly well for a woman who had time-traveled 122 years and who found herself, as far as she was concerned, with the most incredible man on the face of the planet, perhaps in the entire universe.
She had courage.
Knocking on the door, she inhaled deeply and waited.
The old wood creaked and, through the small opening and the light beyond, Casey was able to see Luke's silhouette. She was stunned as the light behind him seemed to spread out from the back of his body.
"Casey…" He said her name without too much surprise. What seemed like an eternal silence fell between them as her voice went mute.
"Well, are you just going to stand there, or are you going to tell me why you're here?"
She blinked a few times while swallowing in an attempt to bring moisture into her dry mouth. "Yes," she muttered. "I mean, I'm going to tell you."
More rowdy shouts were heard in the distance and Luke opened the door wider. "Perhaps it would be best if you came inside."
She nodded, grateful for the admittance. Now that she was here, in this makeshift workshop, how was she to begin? Looking down at the dirt floor, Casey whispered, "I followed you."
"I can see that."
She heard the door close. "I want to apologize to you. I… I don't know why…" Her words trailed off when she realized she had just vowed to be honest with the man and she was already straying from the truth. "Yes, I do know why I followed you," she said to fill the silence. "I wanted to know where you went every night."
She heard him pause and exhale. "And you never thought to just ask me?"
She quickly looked up at him and answered, "I thought if you wanted me to know, you would have told me. So I guess I'm apologizing for not respecting that."
He nodded and slowly walked away from the door. "Thank you." Heading for one of those long troughs of water, he added, "Since you're here, you might as well see what all the mystery is about. You may be disappointed. It isn't very exciting."
She didn't say anything as she crossed the room, careful to step over any pieces of wood on the ground. She was in his space now and she had already trespassed upon his privacy. Standing before the strange wood soaking in some liquid, she whispered, "What is it?"
He turned briefly and smiled. "I'm hoping it's going to be a staircase."
She glanced at him. "A staircase? Who are you building it for?"
"The sisters at the Loretto Chapel. They need one for access to their choir loft."
She remembered Rosa telling them about it during her first meal with the d'Montoyas. "How… ? I mean, do they know you're doing this?" Casey allowed the shawl to drop to her shoulders and she let go of the material. Leaning forward for a closer look, she saw the wood had taken a graceful, swirling form. A staircase?
He again turned to her and grinned as he lifted his finger to his lips. "Shh… it's a surprise. That's why I'm doing it at night. Sister Bernardina has been sworn to secrecy." He paused for a moment, staring into her eyes as though he was reading her confused thoughts. "Since space is so limited in the tiny chapel, I'm making a spiral staircase."
"Wow…" She truly meant it. This
man had all sorts of hidden talents. "How did you come up with this idea?"
He brushed past her to a makeshift table on two sawhorses. When she saw him pick up a long piece of paper, Casey crossed the short distance.
"Here is what I'm hoping it will look like."
She saw a rough sketch of a beautiful, flowing spiral staircase. "How lovely," she murmured, before gazing up into his eyes again. "You can do this?"
He grinned. "Yes. Does that surprise you?"
She couldn't help it, she started to laugh with nervousness. "Well, yeah… everything about you, Luke d' Séraphin, surprises me! I keep wondering who you really are."
"I told you—"
"I know," she interrupted with a grin of her own. "You're a time traveler, just like me."
"So what did you think I was doing, Casey? Afraid I would beam up without you and leave you here to face a quinceñera alone?"
She relaxed and smiled even more. "Beam up, huh?"
"It's an expression I thought you would appreciate."
"Hey, remember, I'm learning a little bit more each day to trust you, but as I already told you, I'm still looking over my shoulder."
"So you did," he said with a chuckle, and turned back to his soaking wood. "Now, answer my question. What did you really think I was doing at night?" he inquired again, as he began rolling up his sleeve.
Oh jeez… This was the part she was dreading. Wasn't there any way not to answer that question with the whole truth? "I just wondered what drew you every night away from the house. I thought it must be something very important to you."
"It is."
"I can see that. It's quite impressive," she said, hoping her tone would help to change the subject.
"I'm not doing this to impress anyone, Casey," he stated with a laugh as he rolled up his other sleeve. He looked back at her and added, "It's my wish that no one ever finds out who built it. Much more fun that way."
"You not only are a mystery. You love it, don't you?"
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