Luke felt his jaw go slack. “I beg your pardon?” he said again.
“I have heard that you disapprove of Emily—and I suppose all our time travelers. Leigh and Katherine have no need of your approval, but I am concerned about your treatment of Emily.”
“I have never treated Emily with disrespect!” Luke snapped. “I cannot believe that Martha would claim such a thing! She has seen no evidence of it.”
“Martha did not say you had treated her with disrespect per se, only that you disliked our time travelers, so much so that you applied for positions elsewhere and plan to leave Kaskade soon. I think that is a good idea.”
Luke swallowed his anger.
“Yes, I did tell Martha that I sought employment elsewhere before I meant to do so, and of course, I would not have her hide that information from you, her brother. I would ask you not to disseminate it further though. I have not yet told the school or my students. I have not yet had an offer. There is nothing wrong with a man wanting to better himself!”
“Not at all,” Jefferson said. “I am sure any salary you receive in Tacoma will be higher. I shall say nothing on that score.”
“Further, I cannot believe Martha said that I ‘disliked’ the time travelers or that I acted upon such emotions. I may not feel warmly toward any of them at this point—or should I say, comfortable in their presence—but I have never treated them with less than courtesy. I regret the loss of my friendship with Katherine Ludlow. As far as Emily Alexander, I have never been rude to her. Did she say that I had?”
Jefferson stared at him but failed to answer.
“Emily said I had been rude to her?” Luke pressed.
“When do you think you might hear back on your application?”
“Applications,” Luke corrected automatically. “I cannot say. How are we to resolve this then? Do you intend to continually direct me when I am at the house? To control to whom I may or may not speak and how I may address them?”
“Not at all. I simply wish to be sure that Emily is not distressed any further by unkindness or intolerance.”
“I do not ‘distress’ Emily,” Luke barked. “Nor am I unkind or—” He stopped short.
“Intolerant?” Jefferson prompted.
“It has never been my intention to be unkind. I cannot help the way I feel about this mysterious force that kidnaps people and drags them into the past, but I have never been unkind. I sought only to...I seek only to distance myself from it—from Emily and Leigh and Katherine for that matter—so that my intolerance, as you call it, troubles no one but myself.”
Jefferson’s tight lips eased. “Sir, you do not have to feel that way! It hurts not only you but the people who are lost in time.”
“I do not wish to have this discussion with you, Jefferson. I have heard it all from your sister. I am so very pleased that you, Martha, Jeremiah, Mrs. Jackson, John Ludlow and whoever else is in the know are delighted with the incomprehensible joys of time travel, but I am not. I do not understand it. I do not wish to understand it. But I would be grateful if you would not attempt to shame me in public in the future.”
Jefferson nodded. “As long as you treat Emily with kindness and respect while she is working at the house.”
Luke exploded. He rarely felt such rage, but he simply erupted. “Do not presume to tell me how to treat Emily! It is not your place. If she has a complaint about me, she should speak to me directly!”
He turned and strode out the door, slamming it behind him. Shaking with anger, he clattered down the stairs and strode out into the road. The last place he wanted to go at that moment was the boardinghouse, and he turned away and walked toward the lake.
Chapter Thirteen
Emily left the Cooks’ house at 4:45 p.m. to head back to Martha’s boardinghouse. She had worked split shifts before, and she hadn’t enjoyed it, but the pace of life was slower in 1909 Kaskade than in 2019 Seattle, and she hoped she could manage. She thought she might. There was no television to watch, no children to care for, no errands to run, and she’d discovered in the week she’d been in Kaskade that she had plenty of spare time.
Since Leigh had been busy with the baby, Emily left early enough to take her time walking over to Martha’s boardinghouse. She strolled along Lakefront Lane, stopping to look at the lake. Stripped of surrounding trees as it was in 1909 and not as beautiful as it was in 2019, the lake nevertheless still had charm. Beyond the lake, Mount Rainier rose above the horizon, still snow covered in summer, as it was in the twenty-first century.
A two-seat carriage rolled by, and the couple within waved to her. She didn’t know them but had seen earlier in the day that people waved to each other in a friendly way on a regular basis. She assumed some of that was due to small-town living. Emily waved back, hoping she didn’t seem out of place. She certainly felt out of place, as if at any moment someone would notice that she walked or talked differently than other people.
She saw a solitary man come around the corner from the direction of town. Without looking in her direction, he turned up the lane in front, heading away from her. His long-legged stride seemed hurried. He had his head down, his shoulders hunched and his hands jammed in his charcoal-gray jacket pockets.
She recognized Luke, and she slowed to put distance between them. Her route to the boardinghouse required her to turn left onto the road from which Luke had just emerged, so she didn’t think he was on his way home.
Suddenly he stopped and turned to face the lake. He laced his hands behind his back and stared out at the water, seemingly lost in thought. Emily stopped moving in case he caught sight of her out of the corner of his eyes. When he continued to stare out over the lake, she sidestepped across the lane and turned up the road toward the town.
“Emily,” a voice called out to her.
She stopped and spun around. Luke had seen her and turned in her direction. He didn’t cross the street but stayed still, and she didn’t know if he was calling her to approach him or just calling out to say hello. She waved but didn’t move. He didn’t wave back, and she was just on the point of rotating to leave when he called out again.
“Emily, may I speak with you?”
Emily looked up and down the road, but they were alone.
“What about?” she called out. “I’m on my way to the boardinghouse.”
“Good!” he said. “May I accompany you?”
“Sure,” she said loud enough for him to hear across the road.
He crossed over, and Emily couldn’t help but admire his long legs and trim torso accentuated by a black vest under his open jacket. Broad shoulders looked as if they could handle anything, but she supposed that was just a silly idea. The shape of a person’s body parts really didn’t reflect character traits. In Luke’s case, the forthright chin and wide shoulders didn’t really mesh with his inability to cope with unexpected changes, with her. He had run from her as soon as he discovered that she had traveled through time. Though she had excused him to Martha, she really didn’t think she could forgive his rejection of her.
Once Luke reached her side, she turned toward the boardinghouse and resumed walking.
“Just getting out of school?” she asked.
“Yes, not too long ago.”
“You seemed to be in a hurry,” she prompted.
“I did not realize that you saw me.”
Emily nodded. “I did.”
“I was angry,” he said, shoving his hands back in his jacket pockets.
“I didn’t do anything,” she said, holding her hands up in a teasing gesture.
“No, of course not. I never said that you did. I would not say that.”
Emily paused and looked at Luke. His firm jaw did look as if he was holding some strong emotion in.
“Wait! I was kidding!”
“Oh!” he exclaimed. “I did not realize that.”
Emily turned and started walking again. “So should I ask what you were angry about?”
“I would rather that you d
id not.”
“Okay.” She didn’t like the troubled frown between his dark eyebrows and the feeling that it had something to do with her.
They walked on in silence for a few minutes, passing through the small downtown area. People nodded in greeting or said hello, and Emily responded in kind, but Luke seemed not to notice.
“I think I will tell you after all,” Luke pronounced.
“Tell me what?” Emily stalled. She really didn’t want to know.
“You will remember that there was a tense exchange between Jefferson Lundrum and myself in the kitchen this morning. I stopped by his office to see what that was about.”
Emily swallowed hard. She knew for certain that she was the source of Luke’s anger.
“How did that go?” she quipped nervously.
“Not very well. I lost my temper.”
“You didn’t beat him up, did you?”
“Of course not!” Luke snapped.
“Ummm...just kidding again, Luke.”
“I seem to have lost my sense of humor. I begin to wonder if I ever had one.”
Emily had wondered that as well, but she chose not to fan the flames of the glowering schoolteacher with the “kind and thoughtful” reputation.
“Jefferson took the opportunity to berate me for what he claims is my intolerance to you, to the time travelers. He was not specific but suggested that someone had complained that my treatment of you has been rude.”
“I didn’t—” Emily began.
Luke cut her off. “I would not blame you if you had complained. My treatment of you has been impolite...and intolerant...but I do not wish to hear that from Jefferson. I do not feel it is any of his business. It seems though that since you are employed in his boardinghouse, he has set himself up to champion you. As I said, I lost my temper, not only at his arrogance but perhaps more at myself for my boorish treatment of you. I apologize. I truly do.”
“Wait! I didn’t talk to Jefferson about you. I don’t know who did. Maybe Martha, but I don’t think I complained about you to her either. At any rate, if I want you to know something, I’ll tell you.” Emily shrugged before continuing. That probably wasn’t true, but it sounded good. “I just think you’re entitled to your feelings about me, about the time traveling. Truthfully, they do feel a little harsh, but you can’t change how you feel just because I want you to.”
She turned her head and pressed her lips together. She hadn’t meant to say the last few words.
“Well anyway, like I said, you didn’t ask for this, and this is really my thing, not yours,” she continued. “I don’t blame you. Okay, well, deep down I do blame you for your reactions, but that’s something I have to work on. I’m trying.”
Emily felt Luke’s hand on her arm. She hadn’t noticed, but they had left the business area and were within view of the boardinghouse. He stayed her, and she looked up into his face.
His beautiful coffee-colored eyes glittered as he stared at her. Emily drew in a sharp breath when he ran his thumb gently down her cheek.
“Are you trying to take responsibility for my faults?” he asked with a faint smile.
“No,” she protested breathlessly. “I’m just trying to be fair...and honest.”
“You are both of those things, Emily.” He dropped his hand. “I could learn much from you.”
“Pshaw!” Emily said, her lips curving into a smile as she tried to ease the intensity of the intimate moment.
Luke responded to her with a brief flash of even, white teeth. “I am trying.”
Emily’s heart skipped several beats, and she resumed walking. They reached the boardinghouse just as Jefferson approached on foot from a different direction.
Jefferson searched Emily’s face as if looking for something, then he seemed to relax. The only evidence he and Luke had an argument was their failure to speak to or look at each other.
“Hello, Emily!” Jefferson said with a friendly smile for her. “You are back for dinner!”
“I am,” she said shyly. “For the dinner shift.” She thought she should clarify, though everyone knew she was employed.
“I look forward to dinner then,” Jefferson said, holding the door of the house open for her.
Emily scooted in, feeling four eyes on her back, although for all she knew, they could have been looking daggers at each other. She suspected Jefferson’s heart was in the right place, and it seemed likely that either Martha or Leigh had told him about Luke’s unhappiness with the concept of time travel—and subsequently her—but she didn’t blame them. It was a small town, and the group who knew about Kaskade’s quirk was even smaller still—a bit like a family.
An only child of a controlling mother whose husband had died early, Emily’s experience with family had been limited to just one person—her mother. Soon after her mother’s passing, Carl had sort of taken over, literally. She had watched the antics of the Greek family who owned the restaurant where she worked, but once Carl had come along, he ensured that the family kept their distance.
Kaskade’s exclusive time traveling social club was small, and they certainly cared about each other. Emily enjoyed the sense of belonging to a group larger than herself with a common history, a shared secret. Jefferson was certainly part of that group. Luke was not, and he bucked at efforts to initiate him into the club.
Emily headed for the kitchen, leaving the men to go upstairs or whatever it was that twentieth-century men did at the end of their workday. She hoped that neither man came into the kitchen, because she didn’t think she could take the stress of their constant presence.
Martha chopped onions at the kitchen table and looked up when Emily entered.
“Hello, Emily!” she said with a welcoming smile.
“Hi there,” Emily said, removing her hat and hanging it on one of the hooks on the kitchen door. She pulled down the apron Martha had given her and wrapped it around her dress.
“What do you need me to do?” Emily asked.
“Could you chop up the rest of these vegetables and stick them in that pot of water on the stove? I am going to roll out these biscuits. I am running behind.”
Emily took over the vegetables.
“Mrs. Woodhouse would like to have dinner in her room tonight, apparently since she has already met you, so she states,” Martha said. “I am sorry that you appear to be on display here. Kaskade is a small town, and while men come and go from the logging camps, the arrival of a beautiful young woman is cause for ogling.” Martha’s expression seemed sympathetic.
Emily gave her a crooked grin. “Well, thank you for the compliment! I understand Mrs. Woodhouse wanted to check me out. I didn’t take offense.”
“How did you feel about this morning? Did I overwork you? Do you think you will stay?” Martha scattered some flour over the flattened dough.
“Yes, of course!” Emily said. “I appreciate you giving me a job, Martha.”
“Thank goodness!” Martha said. “I did not realize how much I longed for an extra hand until you helped me this morning.”
Emily smiled and refocused her attention on the vegetables.
“Truthfully, I was worried that you might not want to come back,” Martha said in a hushed voice. “Jefferson was quite out of line this morning. You must have been mortified.”
Emily had hoped she could avoid the subject, but realistically, she had suspected Martha might say something.
“I’m not sure what’s going on between Jefferson and Luke, but I guess you’ll hear sooner or later,” Emily said. “It seems they had some sort of argument at Jefferson’s office this afternoon. I heard about it from Luke.”
Martha stopped what she was doing and looked up, her fair eyebrows raised in surprise.
“An argument?” she repeated. “What happened?”
“As I understand it, Luke went to Jefferson’s office, and they had words. I think Jefferson accused Luke of treating me rudely, though I’m not sure who told him that. Jefferson wouldn’t have known that.
”
“Not I!” Martha exclaimed. “I have not had an opportunity to speak to my brother on any subjects today. If so, I would have chastised him for his behavior this morning.”
“Well, it probably doesn’t matter. It could have been Leigh. I know she thinks Luke has a problem with me, with all the time travelers.”
Martha resumed rolling and cutting the dough.
“Has a problem with you?”
“You know. We’ve talked about it. That he can’t stand the thought of us, the idea of us, I guess I should say.”
Martha paused again and looked up. “Oh dear, I did tell Jefferson yesterday that Luke was struggling with the notion of time travel. Jefferson should not have said anything to him.”
Emily shrugged. “I don’t suppose it matters. It’s a small group of people who know, and I suppose it’s like any family that squabbles.”
Martha smiled. “Perhaps you are right, but do you truly believe Jefferson and Luke’s ‘squabble’ is simply over Luke’s treatment of you, Emily?”
Emily shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. Have they had a history of arguing?”
“Not at all,” Martha replied. “They are normally very cordial to each other. I suspect there is an element of jealousy involved.”
Emily, carrying the board holding the vegetables to the pot, stopped and turned. “Jealousy?”
Martha tilted her head. “You do not see it?”
Emily’s cheeks reddened, and she turned and dumped the vegetables into the pot of boiling water. She faced Martha.
“Do you mean me? I’m not jealous of anyone.”
Martha chuckled. “Not you, silly. I meant Luke and Jefferson, although probably more on Luke’s part since Jefferson only recently met you. Still, I see a light in my brother’s eyes when he looks at you.”
“Oh no!” Emily said with a sheepish laugh. “From what I understood, Jefferson was ‘berating’ Luke for his treatment of us—all the time travelers—now that he knows about us. That’s all. I’m just the latest arrival. I doubt if the squabble was about me personally.”
Finding Your Love Page 11