Chapter 4
Elle rose from her chair and began to pace, her blood rushing loudly in her ears.
”No. No, I can”t believe that. If there was a way here…which I”m not a thousand percent saying there is because this could still be all some kind of weird dream or hallucination or something…but if there was a way here, there has to be a way back.”
”We”ve scoured those woods. We”ve gone back to the twisted trees time and time again and found nothing. Whatever magic is there in the future, it’s simply…gone here.”
”Twisted trees?” Elle asked, jerking her head up and stopping her pacing for a moment.
Jocelyn nodded. ”When I was brought back, I felt a wave of energy just before I stepped between two trees that had grown and twisted together, like a doorway. Some ancient people carved symbols into the trunks. We think it has something to do with the magic that brings people back, but we can”t find much written in the histories—well, anything accurate, anyway. There are plenty of stories, but they are full of tales of fairies and bargains and cautioning children not to disobey their parents or leave their beds at night.”
Elle remembered the trees now, trailing her fingers over the symbols and muttering—oh fuck.
Please take me away. Anywhere but here.
That’s what she’d said, right? Jesus, it had been a joke! Not a fucking request! She pinched her forehead, a fierce pounding behind her temples and her chest feeling tight. She rubbed at the knot there, the one making it impossible for her to breathe.
”I…I just…I need a minute.”
”Of course, dear. Take as much time as you need, but just remember that you”re not in this alone.” Elle gave her a jerky nod, barely even hearing her, and Jocelyn quietly left the room. She stood motionless for endless moments, her heart pounding and her pulse racing.
”Breathe, breathe, breathe,” she whispered to herself. She had to breathe. She had to think. She couldn’t have a breakdown, not right now. Eventually she calmed herself enough to start searching the room. Elle explored every last inch of it, looking for any sign that Jocelyn was nuts, that this was all some strange set up. Wires, outlets, hell, even hidden cameras—there had to be something.
She found nothing.
She ran to the window, looking for cars, lawnmowers, cell towers in the distance. Nothing. She stared at the sky for what felt like hours, just waiting for a plane to fly overhead and, again, nothing. Despite all odds, despite part of her mind screaming that this was utter insanity, the evidence all pointed to the fact that this was…real.
She finally sighed, admitting defeat. She had gone full Marty McFly and was truly in the past.
“Except Marty had at least gone to a time when electricity and indoor plumbing were still a thing,” she muttered as she climbed back into bed and pulled the covers high over her head. She eventually fell into a deep sleep as the tears began to fall.
***
It was a full three days later that Elle finally accepted her fate—to an extent. She accepted that she had indeed somehow traveled to the past, but she refused to believe that there was no way back again. She would explore every inch of that forest herself before she gave up hope, but in the meantime, she decided that she couldn”t just sit around in bed. She decided to try and have a positive outlook—it was how she approached everything else in her life, so why not this? How many people got to see Regency England with their own eyes? She was going to look at this as the coolest, most epic vacation of all time.
Or try to, anyway. She’d always had the adapt and overcome mentality about most things in her life. Things happened, she took a minute to digest them and rage or cry or whatever the situation called for, and then she figured out how to deal with it. This was far beyond anything she’d ever been faced with before, but she was going to do her level best to stick with the plan. She’d had her minute to digest, this situation called for both raging and crying and she’d done a lot of both, and now it was time to deal with it.
Right on time, Lottie knocked lightly on the door before entering with a tray of food and tea.
”Oh!” she gasped to find Elle out of bed and waiting for her. The items on the tray slid and nearly toppled off the edge. ”You scared me, Miss Montgomery.”
”I”m sorry! Here, let me help.” Elle rushed forward to take the tray and set it on the table, leaving Lottie looking a little flustered. ”I”m sorry, I”ve been a little, uh, tired for the last few days,” she hedged. Elle knew that Jocelyn”s husband knew the truth and wouldn”t be phased by Elle”s predicament, but she wasn”t sure if anyone else in the house did.
”You”ve had quite a journey, I understand. It is quite understandable that you would need to rest.”
”Journey?”
”From America. Your aunt said you”d been traveling for weeks on end.” Aunt. Well, she supposed that was as good a cover as any. “I can’t imagine being on a ship out on the seas for such a long time.” She shuddered, her fair skin turning a bit green at the thought.
”Oh, yes. Long journey indeed.” About four thousand miles…and two hundred years. ”Um, could you help me draw a bath by chance?”
”Of course, Miss Montgomery.” Elle devoured the food, ravenous after not eating anything for days, as several other maids filled the tub with steaming water. Elle felt a twinge of guilt for their hard work on her behalf, but knew that it was just how things were done here and she’d have to deal with it. ”I”ll fetch you some clothes as well. Lady MacTavish said that all of your things were lost on the voyage.” She”d ask Jocelyn about that later, but for now, Elle just nodded.
”Thank you. Will you ask my aunt if she can meet with me once I”ve finished my bath?”
”Yes, of course. I’ll be back to help you dress.”
“Oh,” Elle said, blinking. “Um, that’s alright, I think I can manage.” Hopefully. Were they big on corsets right now? Elle was admittedly not a history buff by any means and her only real knowledge of this era came from movies like Pride and Prejudice. Elle frowned inwardly as she realized that she wasn’t even sure if that was the correct time period, wishing desperately that she’d paid more attention or been more of a fan of classic literature. Lottie let it go, promising to wait for Elle outside whenever she was ready to be escorted to the drawing room.
The bath was quite possibly the most amazing one Elle had ever taken. It wasn”t particularly special or glamorous in the strictest sense of the word—just a simple copper tub, no fancy bath oils or bubbles—but it soothed and warmed her to her soul, and the soap smelled like roses. As she soaked, she tried to wrap her mind around time travel and recall everything she knew about it, which admittedly wasn’t much and mostly came from eighties movies. Probably not great.
She had heard of wormholes and tachyons, but didn’t know (or understand) nearly enough about those to be at all helpful. Would her remaining here tear a hole in the space-time continuum and destroy the world somehow? Or had she created an entirely new, alternate timeline now, the other one still existing as-is? If she stepped on a butterfly, would it lead to the apocalypse?
“Ugh, my brain hurts,” she whined, throwing her hands over her face. Since there was really nothing she could do about being here and about her path forward, she decided there was no use worrying about it. If the future was altered, then it was altered. If she ended up destroying the universe, well…oops. My bad. Not like she did it on purpose.
Once she decided not to worry about that part of this exceedingly complex problem, she felt a tiny bit better. She soaked until the water grew chilly, finally reluctantly dragging herself out. She dressed quickly in a sky-blue gown of soft silk. A corset-type garment had been left too, and though it thankfully didn”t fit with what Elle had always understood a corset to be (corsets in her mind were synonymous to Elizabeth Swann getting squeezed into one and fainting in Pirates of the Caribbean), she instead donned her own black push-up bra again. The dress was a bit tight in the chest, but other than that, fit great. Though she longed for her Chucks, Elle put on the soft slippers that had been left for her and headed out into the hallway where, as promised, Lottie was waiting to guide her through the mansion. Manor? Castle?
The drawing room was large and boasted two separate seating areas, a beautiful piano and harp at one end, and an ornate fireplace at the other. Jocelyn stood when Elle entered, giving her a cautiously bright smile.
“I’m feeling much better, Aunt Jocelyn,” Elle said with an arch of her brow and a small curl of her own lips.
“Well, I thought you being our niece was a bit more plausible than you being a random stranger we found wandering the woods,” she replied with a smirk. “We’ve told the staff that you’re my estranged sister”s daughter, come to live with us from America.”
“A good a cover story as any, I guess. And it at least explains the accent—it would be a disaster if I was expected to put on a British one at all times.”
Jocelyn laughed. “I was lucky in that regard, having lived in England long enough before I…made the trip, that I was already picking up bits of it here and there anyway.” They sat down on one of the sofas. “How are you doing?” Jocelyn asked.
“I’m…alright. I’ve decided to just go with the flow.”
“Go with the flow? Just that easy. Seriously?”
Elle shrugged. “There’s not much I can do about the situation. Being angry or upset about it won’t help, so, I might as well just soak in the experience, right?”
“You’re handling it much better than I did, that’s for sure.” Jocelyn shook her head with a laugh. “So, I’m sure you have more questions now that you’ve had a bit of time to digest things.”
“Only about a thousand,” Elle said with a laugh. “I don’t really know much about this time, so I guess I’ll need a bit of a crash course so I don’t say or do the wrong thing.”
“We’re happy tae assist with that, lass,” a rumbling Scottish brogue sounded from the doorway. Elle’s eyes flew wide as she took in who must be Callum. He was just over six feet tall with broad shoulders and laugh lines fanning out from his sky-blue eyes. His deep red hair was a bit on the longer side, his jaw square with a scar running across the length of it, and he had an intense, rugged handsomeness about him, though he held himself like a nobleman. He looked like he would fit in just fine entertaining royalty or roaming the highlands in a kilt.
Elle leaned towards Jocelyn and muttered, “And where can I pick up my Hot Scot Welcome Package, please?”
Jocelyn snorted into her tea as Callum came closer. He leaned down to kiss her on the forehead before nodding to Elle and taking a seat across from them.
“I’m Callum MacTavish.”
“Eleanor. Elle,” she amended, finding that it was nearly impossible not to smile at him.
“So, Jocy tells me that you are…no’ from here,” he said with a pointed look.
“Not even close,” she said with a laugh.
”I cannae imagine what that must be like, but know that we are here tae help you, however you may need.”
”Thank you, I…I don”t know what I would do if I were trying to deal with all of this alone.” Jocelyn reached over and placed a hand on Elle”s forearm, giving her a reassuring squeeze.
“Well, the good news is that we’re fairly isolated out here. There’s one estate that borders ours, but Lord Kentworth rarely ventures out these days. Other than that, there’s no one, so you won’t have to worry about getting all the ins and outs of society correct very often, at least not right away,” Jocelyn said, Callum nodding in agreement.
“Oh, that’s a relief then.”
“You are welcome tae stay here as long as you’d like. We’ve told everyone that you are Jocy’s niece and our home is your home for as long as you want it tae be.” Elle nodded, a knot in her throat at their kindness.
They talked for hours more, Elle telling them a bit about her life and what the world looked like in 2020, and Callum and Jocelyn trying to explain this new—or old?—world to her.
”Do you think I”m a missing person?” Elle asked later that afternoon. ”That they”re combing the woods for me now? Or for my body?” She thought about Officer Slack, about her telling him how she needed to get away from Ashton. If Ashton did report her missing, surely Officer Slack would learn of it and tell everyone how she”d been trying to get away from him. ”God, I bet Ashton is suspect number one in my probable murder.” Elle rubbed her head. Sure, she was mad at him and things were most definitely over between them, even without the time-traveling factor, but she didn”t want his life ruined. She sighed heavily. Not much she could do about it now. She took solace in the fact that his family had really great lawyers on retainer, so if Ash were somehow arrested in connection with her disappearance, he wouldn’t stay that way for long.
Elle tried her best to update Jocelyn on everything she”d missed in the last nearly two decades, but she”d barely touched the surface of the status of boy bands when a soft knock drew their attention to the door. After a moment, a young girl entered. She was tall and lithe, with the same deep red hair as Callum and greenish-gold eyes. A small smattering of freckles covered her nose and she was graceful as she moved, like a dancer. She was absolutely stunning.
“Come in, dear, come in. I’d like you to meet your…uh, cousin, Eleanor—Elle. Elle, this is our daughter, Rose.” Elle quirked a brow in Jocelyn”s direction. Rose wasn’t a popular name choice in this day and age, was it? Jocy muttered under her breath, ”I was very, very into Titanic, alright?” Elle stifled a giggle and looked back at Rose.
Rose inclined her head and Elle gave her a smile and a wave in return.
“It is so nice to meet you, cousin.” Her accent was British, but with a hint of her father’s brogue, though not as thick.
“You too. You are gorgeous, by the way. My God, I would kill for your hair.” As Elle studied it, she found that there were subtle streaks of gold woven into the red, most likely from days spent in the sun. Her skin was more tanned, like Callum”s—despite Cullen-level pasty being all the rage apparently—and Elle imagined the two of them riding the countryside together. Like I used to do with my dad.
Rose blushed but smiled shyly, absently running a hand over the locks. Was she self-conscious of her hair? People paid good money to have their hair look like that back home. Elle herself had shelled out a pretty penny to give red a try for a few months sophomore year of college, but she couldn’t pull it off like Rose.
Rose looked to be about sixteen, maybe seventeen, so she’d been born not too long after Jocy’s time traveling adventure. It seemed to Elle that Jocelyn”s life had fallen perfectly into place when she got sucked back to this time—meeting the love of her life, having a child, living in this beautiful home. Elle didn’t see herself being so lucky.
***
The next couple of weeks flew by as Elle tried to adjust to her new life. She still hadn’t accepted that it was going to be her life forever, but she was trying her best to settle in and enjoy it as best she could for now. The food was a bit strange to her seriously unrefined palate, but she could tell that it was all very five-star-restaurant quality for the eighteen hundreds. The clothes were both frustrating and amazing. She longed for the ease of leggings and a comfy t-shirt, but she couldn’t deny the fun of dressing up in the beautiful dresses. Jocelyn had several of her old gowns altered to fit Elle since her chest was admittedly a bit bigger, and they were planning a shopping trip soon to get Elle some things of her own. Life without electricity or modern plumbing was…different to say the least. It showed Elle just how spoiled she was, and she vowed to never take hot water from the tap or a flushing toilet for granted if she were ever given the chance to have them again.
But despite all the difficulties, she was slowly managing, learning something new each day. Jocelyn had thankfully kept all of her belongings, but warned her to keep them hidden.
“I still have the clothes I was wearing when I arrived and everything from my purse, even after all these years. It’s like my little piece of home, a tiny reminder of who I used to be,” Jocelyn said as she handed Elle’s things to her. “I couldn”t take that same comfort from you. All of the clothes have been cleaned and dried—I did it myself, don’t worry. Most of the staff have come to…expect the unexpected here. Most of them come from families who believe in magic and folklore, so they”re a bit more understanding about anything strange than most. Plus, we”ve got you being American on our side. You”re a bit of a mystery to everyone anyway.” She smiled. ”Still, try to keep most of this hidden away, especially the electronics.”
As she handed the tablet over to Elle, she shook her head. “I still can’t believe that is a computer of sorts. When I left, everyone had those candy-colored Macs that looked like bubbles. Or wanted them anyway.”
Elle chuckled. “I know. Even I’m still shocked by how slim they’re making them these days. Or those days,” she said, scrunching her nose. “You know what I mean. But here, I can show you some of my work if you want. No internet needed for that.”
“Oh yes, please. I’d love that.”
Elle powered the tablet on and pulled up some of her pieces. Jocy gasped.
“You…drew these? On the computer?” Elle nodded, smiling proudly. “But…my goodness, they look like photographs almost.” She reached out and actually stroked her finger across the screen. “Oh!” she laughed when the picture changed, before doing it again, fascinated by the touch screen. Elle found it endearing.
“What are they for?”
“They’re mostly characters from books. I started out just doing them for me, just for fun, but the more I shared them, the more I had people requesting that I do this character or that, or if I could create things for them from scratch.” Elle shrugged. “It just became a thing. So, I started a company and now I literally get paid to do what I love. Or, I did. Not much call for digital artists in this century, I suppose.” Elle tried to ignore the pang in her chest as she stowed the tablet in her bag and put it with everything else into the oversized trunk at the end of the bed. She piled a few blankets on top, just to be safe, and closed the lid.
***
“See, nothing,” Jocelyn said as Elle walked around the twisted trees, studying them like a detective on crime shows studied bodies. “The magic or energy or whatever you want to call it, it’s gone.”
Elle willed herself to feel it, opening her mind and trying to keep her body relaxed, welcoming whatever the hell had found her before. Take me back. Take me home. Please…She sighed in frustration. Jocy was right: there was nothing here.
“But how could it just be gone? How is it here one day and gone the next?” Elle kicked the trunk of one of the trees, hopping up and down as pain radiated up her leg. Callum laughed but attempted to cover it with a cough.
“I think that the magic finds those who need it, when they need it,” he said thoughtfully after a few moments, eyeing the symbol on the trunk that Elle hadn’t assaulted.
“What do you mean?”
“Jocelyn was fleeing for her life,” his fist seemed to clench unconsciously at the idea of anyone threatening his wife, even almost twenty-years ago, “Carol was injured and needed help. Renaldo was desperate tae find a way out of a terrible situation.” He didn’t mention Elle, but he obviously thought that she fell into the same category. “Tae me, it seems as if the magic gave each of you what you needed at the time. You all needed an escape in one form or another. Maybe…maybe the magic not only takes you from where you don’t want tae be, but takes you where you’re meant tae go, tae what you need tae find.”
Elle thought it over and supposed it made a sort of sense. Jocelyn was obviously meant to be here, Renaldo was off being a captain of the high seas and living his best life, Carol had died, but she hadn’t died alone…
But Elle didn’t belong here. She had a great life back in 2020. A good life. She was happy…mostly. She scowled inwardly. Ok, so she could admit that she’d been in a bit of a rut lately, not feeling quite…right no matter how hard she tried, but that didn’t mean that she needed to be rescued by a meddling, magical fucking time machine!
“I still think there has to be a way back. I’m not giving up hope,” Elle said determinately, walking away from the trees and back to the waiting horses.
***
A few days later, Jocy bounded into the garden where Elle was enjoying a rare, cloudless day.
“I have a surprise for you,” she said, the excitement in her eyes making her look younger. It was easy in moments like this for Elle to see the eighteen-year-old who had traveled through the twisted trees, the one who had had dreams and a family and an unhealthy obsession with Titanic.
”A surprise?” Elle asked, intrigued. Jocy nodded eagerly and dragged her from the garden and towards the stables.
One of the (surprisingly) many things Elle was loving about this strange little vacation was riding again. She’d forgotten how much she loved the freedom of it, the wind in her face, the connection she had with the beautiful animals, the respect for their strength and beauty. She rode nearly every day, often with Rose and Callum, and the three of them usually ended up galloping through the gates laughing so hard their stomachs ached by the end of it. It was strange that Elle wasn’t having her typical reaction to letting people get close to her. The walls weren’t going up, she didn’t feel the need to distance herself or pull away. It was the opposite. She leaned in, wanting to be around them as often as possible, feeling a sense of family again in a way she hadn’t had since her parents had died.
She decided not to read anything into that at all, especially after Callum’s little declaration in the woods about travelers finding what they were meant to and blah blah blah. She didn’t belong in the 1800s, she just didn’t. End of story.
But she would enjoy it for the time she was here, and if that meant her heart breaking a little when she left Jocelyn and Callum and Rosie, then she would deal with it. The thought sent an unnerving pang through her chest, the idea of leaving them feeling so wrong that it made her eyes sting with tears. She blinked rapidly, forcing the thoughts away with the tears, and focused on happier things.
She and Jocelyn rode through the grounds towards the small lake on the opposite side of the property from the cursed forest, and Elle was struck all over again by the sheer size of the place. It had to be at least a hundred acres, maybe more. The lake was surrounded by trees, and tucked within them, just on the side of the water, was what looked like an enclosed gazebo in a small clearing. A miniature barn sat just off to the side and they tied their horses up inside. Elle’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Callum built this for me ages ago so I’d have a place to come and…be myself when it all became a bit much. I used to come out here and listen to my CD player. I couldn’t afford an iPod, so I was still in the Discman days. I must have listened to that burned mix at least a thousand times at the beginning, until the batteries finally died.” She smiled a bit sadly, but fondly, and Elle wished so badly that she had spare batteries in her bag somewhere. She did have plenty of 90s and early 2000s music on her phone though and, thankfully, had solar-powered chargers for all of her devices tucked away in her trunk. She’d bring them out here to charge them in secret and make Jocy her own playlist.
“Anyway, I came out here so much that I insisted he build the barn for my horse so he didn’t have to stand out in the sun or rain.”
“I would have done the same thing,” Elle said, stroking Joey’s nose lovingly—Jocelyn’s horse was Pacey. Elle had grinned at the names, having done a binge of Dawson’s Creek herself not that long ago. Elle had been delighted to break the news to Jocy that Pacey and Joey did, in fact, end up together. She’d been brought back before the finale had aired and she’d wondered for nearly twenty years what happened in the end.
“Come on,” Jocelyn said enthusiastically, tugging Elle up the stairs. She gripped the handles of the double glass doors. Elle couldn’t see inside as the glass panels were covered in light curtains, but she was dying to know what was within. “Drumroll please…”
Elle laughed and obediently did a horrible drumroll sound with her tongue. Jocelyn threw open the doors with a wide smile and Elle’s mouth popped open.
“It’s…it’s beautiful,” she breathed as she stepped inside and spun in place, taking in the room. It wasn’t huge, but it was big enough that there was a sofa, a desk, some shelves, and a large easel with a blank canvas sitting on it. A pillowed stool sat before it and a thick fur rug covered the middle of the space. More blankets and a few pillows were stacked in one corner. The curtains were a soft blue and a large chandelier hung in the middle of the ceiling, candles in the tapers with thick rivers of hardened wax down their sides. Several small lanterns were mounted to the walls on either side of each set of two tall windows.
“I thought you could use a space to be yourself, too.” She gestured at the easel. “I know it’s not the same as drawing on your computer—or tablet, you called it—but I thought maybe this would be close? You’ve got pencils and charcoal and paint. If there are other things you’d like, I’m sure we can track them down. Or you said you like to do yoga, so you could do that here as well. I”d like to try that too maybe. I thought it was only for old hippies before, but apparently that”s not the case.” Elle huffed out a laugh as she turned back to Jocelyn. Elle was already completely in platonic love with Jocelyn. She was a friend-slash-big-sister-slash-mother figure, one that Elle could admit she desperately needed.
“I thought the blue was beautiful, but we can change anything you want, it won’t hurt my feelings, I promise.” Jocelyn continued, biting her lip, looking nervous. “Do you like it?”
“Like it?” Elle shook her head, at a loss for words for a second. “I more than like it, but it’s too much, Jocy. You didn’t have to do all this.” Elle trailed her fingers along the canvas, then across the charcoal and paints and brushes lining the desk. “Why are you doing all this for me? This,” she said gesturing to the gazebo around them, ”letting me stay with you, pretending I”m family—all of it.”
Jocelyn held Elle”s gaze. ”I was lucky enough to find Callum when I got here. I’ll be damned if someone goes through this alone. We may not be blood, but we are bonded. We are family now, for as long as you want us to be.”
Elle lunged forward and threw her arms around Jocy, tears stinging her eyes.
“Thank you,” Elle whispered, squeezing her fiercely. Jocy stroked her hair with one hand and hugged her tightly with the other.
“You’re welcome. I’m sorry that this happened to you, but I won’t deny that it’s so damned nice having someone here who understands. Really understands. Who I can talk about home with.”
And so they began talking almost every night, often into the wee hours. Sometimes in the drawing room, sometimes out in the gazebo as Elle drew or they listened to music. It took a little bit of practice to get back into sketching again with actual pencils instead of on the tablet, but she realized how much she’d missed it. It was almost like therapy, letting her emotions come out through lead and charcoal and paint.
Sometimes the conversations were full of laughter, like when Elle explained fashion trends and lamented the return of the mullet; sometimes they were full of wonder, like when she explained smartphones and streaming services; others, they were somber, like when Elle told her about September 11 and the myriad tragedies that had shaken the world since.
Sometimes Callum joined them, just as fascinated by the future as he seemed to be by his wife. The way he stared at Jocy when she wasn”t looking, so much adoration in his eyes it made Elle look away, the way he instinctively moved towards her without even seeming to realize it, the way he would absently stroke her cheek or touch her shoulder as he walked by…God, I want that. I don”t think I ever had that with Ashton.
On one such evening, with Callum settled on the sofa beside Jocy, Elle announced, “I’d like to contribute something, uh, monetarily.”
“You will do no such thing,” Callum scoffed. “You may no” truly be my niece by blood, but I’ve already come tae think of you as such. You are family, it is as simple as that.”
“We’re happy to do it, Elle,” Jocelyn added. “Truly. We have more than enough.”
“I know, and I appreciate it, but please. I need to do this. Where I’m from, when I’m from…well, I ran my own business, made my own money, took care of myself. I miss that. I know that the actual money I have with me is useless, but what about jewels?” Jocy studied her for a long minute but seemed to completely understand.
“If you’re insistent on it, then yes, Callum can get coin in exchange for jewels.”
“And if they aren’t the typical pieces you’d find in this time?...”
“No’ tae worry,” Callum assured her, knowing where her thoughts were headed, “my cousin is a jeweler and does no’ ask questions of anything I need of him.”
Elle rubbed her fingers over the diamond on her left hand. Things with Ash were over on so many levels, but still, she had to take a deep, settling breath before she slid it off her finger. She held the rock out to Callum, pinching the band between her thumb and forefinger. It was four-carats, pear cut, flawless. Worth a small fortune. Well, at least back home it was, she wasn’t sure what it might fetch here, but it had to be worth something, right?
“Well, you can start with this.”
“Are…are you sure, Elle?” Jocy asked softly as she eyed the diamond with both appreciation and concern. Elle had told her all the gory details about Ashton and the epic end to their relationship, and she appreciated her new friend”s concern about this big step.
Elle nodded. ”I am, and I’ve got more upstairs.” Ashton had a thing for showering her with gifts that almost exclusively consisted of jewelry. The kicker was that Elle didn’t even particularly like jewelry. She barely even wore earrings unless it was a special occasion, but Ashton kept it coming. Every holiday, every special occasion, every make up after a fight, jewelry was his answer. She probably should have just come out and told him that she would have preferred something that was more personal, something that showed that he actually knew her or cared about what she liked versus what was just the go-to gift, but she hadn’t wanted to hurt his feelings or seem ungrateful.
It probably didn’t help that she always made sure to bring a handful of things with her when she visited, so he could see her wearing them. Even on this short surprise visit she’d been sure to bring the diamond tennis bracelet he’d gotten her for their anniversary the year before, the birthday necklace that had a ruby pendant the size of a grape dangling from a cluster of smaller ones, an emerald ring that was honestly so big it looked fake (though she was certain it wasn’t), and two sets of diamond studs, two carats each.
She really didn’t mean to sound ungrateful, and she knew part of it was her own fault, but being away from it all was letting her step back and really analyze her relationship with Ash.
And hindsight was indeed 20/20.
***
A week later, Elle was getting her first real taste of civilization in the 1800s: they were traveling to a nearby town to purchase some new dresses. Though a bit nervous, Elle was beyond excited. She’d decided to embrace this strange trip and by God, she was ready to embrace it with open arms. Though she loved Chestwick Hall, and had already come to think of it as her home away from home, she was dying to see, well, anything else. And now that she truly had her ”own” money again, she was excited to finally do some retail therapy.
They traveled by carriage, an honest to God horse-drawn carriage, and though it was a bit bumpy, the ride was overall pleasant. She could tell the carriage was expensive and well made, with thick, cushioned benches covered in soft, embroidered velvet and luxurious curtains lining the walls and covering the windows. She couldn’t help but feel a little like Cinderella.
The town was quaint and Elle wanted to go into every single shop she saw, regardless of what they were selling—pastries, fabric, weapons. Didn’t matter to Elle, she was enthralled by every single thing she saw. Jocy laughed but indulged her.
“Have you never been shopping before, Elle?” Rose asked with an amused smile.
“Not like this,” Elle told her honestly. The clothes, the sights, the smells. It was all a bit overwhelming, but Elle was loving the adventure of it all.
They eventually made their way to the dress shop—or modiste as Jocy called it—and Elle roamed around, admiring all the beautiful gowns while Rose tried something on and Jocy spoke with the seamstress in the back. They’d already made several selections for Elle and, to her surprise, she was told that the dresses would be made for her within the next few days. Made. By hand and from scratch specifically for her. It was wild.
“Hello there,” a high-pitched, falsely sweet voice said from behind her. Elle whirled to find a short, stout woman eyeing her oddly, almost like a cat eyeing a tasty-looking mouse. Her eyes were the color of mud, her hair only a shade lighter and piled high on her head in the same style that Jocelyn often wore, but this woman didn’t look nearly as elegant.
“Um, hello,” Elle said, inclining her head to the older woman.
“Are you a relation to Lady MacTavish, dear?”
“Oh, yes,” Elle said with a bright smile. “She’s my aunt. I’ve come from America to live with her and my uncle.” Elle had memorized their cover story, but this was the first time she was really trying it out. She felt like an undercover cop or something, pretending to be someone completely new and different. It was a little fun, actually.
The woman eyed her, raking her eyes down Elle’s body and back up again, her attention snagging on her hand.
“Are you unmarried?”
Elle blinked at her. Was that a normal question to ask someone you met exactly thirty-seven seconds ago? Maybe in this time it was.
“Yes,” Elle answered, a bit uncertainly. “I’m…unattached.”
“And how old are you, dear?”
”I’m twenty-six,” Elle said defensively, though she wasn’t really sure why. Something in the woman’s tone when she’d asked the question had Elle’s hackles rising. She didn’t like this woman at all.
”How very interesting,” the woman said with a strange smile. And what the hell was so interesting about it?
Jocelyn hurried forward then and looped her arm through Elle’s.
“Eleanor, dear, there you are. Lady Wilshire,” Jocy said to the short woman in greeting. It was polite enough, but it was clipped and there was a coolness beneath the words that Elle had never heard from Jocy before. Elle looked between the two women and could practically see the tension and agitation between them. Cause baby now we got bad blood, Elle sang silently to herself.
“Lady MacTavish, your lovely niece here was just telling me that she is unwed. She is well of age, but I haven’t seen her announced for the season. Surely now that she’s under your care…” The Wilshire woman arched a bushy brow in some strange challenge. Elle looked between the two women again, obviously missing something important.
“Of course she”ll be presented,” Jocy all but snapped, annoyance clear in her voice. “She only just arrived, but we are announcing it later this week, in fact.”
“Wonderful. It would look so dreadful on the great MacTavish family if she didn’t…” There was some kind of strange threat in her words that Elle didn’t quite get, but absolutely didn’t like. She balled her hands into fists at her sides.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head about the MacTavish family, Matilda,” Jocy said with the most venom Elle had ever heard her use, throwing etiquette out the window, apparently. ”Now, we must be going if you’ll excuse us.” Matilda looked like she wanted to do something very unladylike, but Jocy was already turning away.
Rose had trailed up at the end of the conversation and Elle met her gaze, giving her a what gives look. Rose gave her a small shake of her head in an I’ll tell you later gesture. The three of them quickly headed out of the shop and back to the carriage, handing off packages to the driver to stow away somewhere. Once they were safely inside, Jocy collapsed back against the bench seat.
“Ok, who was that? And what is the deal with you two? And what the hell was she talking about?” Thankfully, Rose had grown used to Elle’s “strange way of speaking,” so she’d allowed herself to be a little more lax around the girl.
“She shouldn’t have even been here,” Jocy muttered to herself. “They must be visiting her husband’s family.” She met Elle’s gaze and sighed. “That is the dreadful woman who is convinced that I stole Callum from her. It was almost twenty years ago, you would think she’d have moved on by now. Especially since she’s married and has four children of her own.” She rolled her eyes. “And I never stole him. She fancied him and had begged her father to offer up their entire fortune to Callum in an effort to get him to marry her, but he had never even considered it. Since then, she”s been hellbent on tarnishing the MacTavish name one way or another, just itching for our place in the Ton to be tainted.”
Elle had come to understand that The Ton was the elite of British society, and the MacTavishs were very much a part of it, though they didn’t seem to necessarily enjoy it.
“Ok, well, I officially don’t like her, but what was all that season and presented talk? Why did she care so much that I’m not married? Which by the way, I almost was, so it’s not like I’m some spinster cat lady or something—which, also, what is so wrong with being a spinster cat lady?” she added in a huff, not sure why she was defending herself against a woman who wasn’t even there.
“Cat lady?” Rose asked a little ruefully.
“Oh, uh, in America unwed women often acquire a number of cats for companionship. Or, that’s the stereotype anyway,” she added under her breath. “Anyway, Aunt Jocy—answer the question. What was she talking about?”
Jocy sighed heavily. “Congratulations, Eleanor Montgomery. It appears that you will be coming out to London society this social season.”