Chapter 1
Kim
As the cart finally pulls to a halt, I stare up at the house before me.
It looks like it could have been plucked straight from some historical drama from the nineteenth century about life out on the prairie – the uneven, sloping roof, the wooden door with the heavy iron knocker, the extensions that have clearly been tacked on by whoever’s been living here at any given moment.
If I had to guess, I’d say that it’s not exactly up to building regulations, but I sense that it doesn’t matter much to the people who live here.
We had to pass through a small town nearby to get to this house, and Lucy, in amongst her good-natured chatter, asked if there was anywhere I wanted to be dropped off.
I was too gobsmacked to come out with anything in response – the town was pretty much a perfect historical reenactment, people bustling back and forth from a couple of small shops and chatting in the midst of a dirt road that served as the main street.
It seems like Lucy and Cade aren’t the only ones living their lives as though it’s another era entirely – no, everyone here is doing the exact same thing.
And that has me starting to worry. As in, starting to really worry. That this isn’t just some weird game that they’re playing, and that there might be more to this than I am willing to accept.
When I told Lucy that I had nowhere in particular to go, she had offered up a room in their house – told me that they weren’t using it anyway, and that it would do them good to have a little life in the place.
I could have sworn that I saw Cade’s shoulders tense when he heard her say that, but he didn’t so much as turn around to look at me, as though willing this to be over sooner rather than later.
I don’t have much choice but to accept, really, so I went along with her offer, and now we’re at their place and I’m staring at the house as everything starts to click into place.
My head spins. Whatever is going on here, it’s not as simple as some people playing at times past. No, there’s something far more serious going on, and I don’t know if I can make sense of it.
As Cade unpacks some of the packages from the back of the cart, I stand there, too stunned to move. Lucy makes her way to the door of the house and glances back at me, her eyebrow cocked.
"Is everything alright?"
I swallow hard. I don’t know how to put this into words without sounding completely and utterly insane. I feel as though they will think I’m crazy if I so much as breathe a word of what is on my mind right now, but I can’t just go along with this as though there is nothing off.
"Lucy," I murmur to her, as I close the distance between us quickly. "What...what year is it?"
Lucy doesn’t seem entirely surprised by the question – Cade brushes past us without a word, hefting a bag over his shoulder as he makes his way inside.
"It’s 1857," she replies, cocking her head to the side with clear intrigue. "Why?”
I glance down at my clothes – a little tee and a pair of shorts fit for a roadtrip, not for a fucking journey through time. My knees grow weak, and I have to lean against the door to keep from them giving out from under me entirely as I try to wrap my head around what she is saying to me.
"1857," I repeat after her, my voice weak, threatening to crack at any second. She nods once more.
"Yes..."
"Oh, my God..."
My hand flies to my mouth and tears prick my eyes as the sheer, unrelenting shock coursing through me so intensely it feels as though the ground might give out right under my feet.
The blood drains from my face, and nausea twists in my stomach as Lucy stares back at me, her brows knitted together in a sympathetic expression.
"Here, come inside," she suggests, as she goes to put an arm around me and steer me into the house. But I shrug her off at once, pulling back as though I can undo this.
"Don’t - don’t touch me," I protest, my voice cracking as I force the words out. "You’re lying to me! I don’t know why, but you’re lying to me..."
"I’m not lying, hon," she promises me, and she seems to be taking this with surprising ease. "I’m telling you the truth. Why don’t you come inside, and we can-"
"No!” I exclaim once more. "No, you can’t just – you can’t just talk like this is normal. I was in the twenty-first century two hours ago, and now..."
"Hey!”
A voice cuts across my protests, and I look up in time to see Cade striding towards us, his face twisted into a mask of anger.
"Don’t talk to my sister like that," he growls to me, stepping in between us. All at once, a flush of panic moves through me – this man is strong, there’s no doubt about it, and if he decides that he doesn’t like me, he could have me out on my ass in a matter of seconds.
And here I am, railing against his sister like I’ve got anywhere else to go, like there’s anywhere else in the world I could belong in the face of all of this madness.
For a moment, I consider standing up to him, telling him that I’m not going to indulge his sister’s madness any more than I want to go along with whatever else the people of this town seem to have pulled together.
But, as he glares down at me, his brow furrowed, his gray eyes piercing straight through me, his jaw clenched – I know I’d be stupid to put up a fight.
I don’t know what is going on here. I don’t know how the hell I am going to be able to fix it, if there’s any way to put it right at all. But what I do know is that these people might be the only thing I have in the way of allies in this moment, and I’d be the worst kind of stupid to ignore that.
"I – I'm sorry," I mutter, lowering my gaze to the ground. Lucy, pressing her lips together, brushes her brother aside and takes my arm.
"It’s okay," she promises me. "Come on in, we’ll get you something to eat. Won’t we, Cade?”
I look back to her brother – but the way he is looking at me, I get the feeling that he is still not entirely convinced that he wants me around at all.
Shit, that makes two of us.