Two days later, Ted and several of his friends helped her move into the carriage house. When she was settled, she opened the envelope Mr. Sanders had handed her that morning, after she’d signed the papers. It had taken all of her will power to wait until she was moved. “Okay, Ted, I’m opening it.” She patted the sofa cushion beside her.
She carefully opened the package and poured the items into her hand—Birdie’s silver star and the amethyst brooch. “My God, Birdie had these on her when she disappeared. I don’t understand what’s going on here.”
Ted patted her shoulder. “I don’t understand it either, but let’s take a look at that letter before we jump to conclusions.”
Patty carefully unfolded the fine stationary.
June 1, 1920,
Dear Aunt Patty,
No, you’re not crazy. It took me a while to figure out I wasn’t. Something strange happened on the Brazos Belle. The locket warmed, there was some lightening and then someone hit me on the head and tossed me overboard. Thaddeus Lockhart pulled me from the water. The year was 1890. It took me a long time to believe I had traveled back in time, but when I accepted the fact, my main goal was to get Birdie’s Nest built by the end of 1892.
The brooch was lost in the river. On our wedding day, Tad gave me one that I believe is the same—it was just new in 1891. I’ve never worn it because I feared it had something to do with my time travel. I didn’t want to take a chance of being separated from my new family.
Please give my star to Captain Smith or Ted Weaver. They’ll know what todo with it.
Love to you always,
Birdie
Epilogue
July 22, 1920
Birdie sat beside Tad in the glider on the front veranda. A cooling breeze blew in from the Brazos and the hand fan she waved back and forth in her hand helped. They needed to get ceiling fans installed out here. She pulled the gauzy dress away from her legs. At least the clothes in 1920 were more bearable and nylons hadn’t become a required accessory yet.
Tad slipped his arm around her shoulders and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “Happy, sweetheart?”
“Yeah, I am. How about you?”
“I couldn’t be happier. The kids are all settled and happy, you’ve gotten the future of Birdie’s Nest settled.” He nipped her ear and whispered. “I think we should take a trip. Fly somewhere on one of those new-fangled air planes.”
She giggled. “You’re a brave man. I’m not sure I want to risk my life.”
He sat up straight and looked out across the lawn. “Do you recognize the car stopped out front?”
Birdie stood and walked across the width of the porch, shaded her eyes with her hand and tried to get a better look. It was a Ford Model T. “No, I don’t.” A woman got out of the back seat. She turned and said something to the driver before turning and walking across the lawn to the house. The dress she wore was slightly shorter than the one Birdie had on, and she wore a large straw sunhat, one most women wouldn’t wear away from their back garden. Curious, Birdie left the porch and walked across the lawn to meet her. Something about her hair…the way she walked… Could it be?
“Aunt Patty?” Birdie yelled as she broke into a run. “Aunt Patty!"
Birdie caught Aunt Patty to her in a hug, and held on tight, afraid if she let her go she’d disappear. She sobbed, “I can’t believe it! You’re here, you’re really here!” She struggled to stop crying.
“Turn me loose, young lady, so I can look at you.” They stood arm’s distance apart. Except for a few additional worry lines on her face, Aunt Patty appeared as she had the day Birdie disappeared. “My God, Birdie, you’re almost as old as me.”
Birdie giggled and choked out, “Well, it has been thirty years.”
“Maybe for you. It’s been a month and a half for me.” She shook her head and touched Birdie’s face, wiping away the moisture. “No tears, now.” Her aunt ran her fingers over her face, touched her hair and looked her up and down. “I can’t believe it. Thirty years.” She smiled and shook her head. “You are still beautiful.”
“Why don’t you ladies come in out of the sun?” Tad had joined them and slipped an arm around each of their shoulders. He steered them toward the porch. “Sarah is bringing a pitcher of sweet tea.”
“Aunt Patty, this is my husband, Tad.”
She looked up at him. “You found a good-looking one, didn’t you, dear? Tall too.”
“Yes, ma’am, I did. Tad, as you know this is my Aunt Patty.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you at last. Birdie has missed you every day she’s been here.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Are you happy, sweetheart?”
“Ecstatic.”
Tad pulled chairs closer together so they could visit. Sarah poured tea and passed glasses around.
“Aunt Patty, this is Sarah. She was Nathan’s—you’ll meet him later—wet nurse until he was weaned. She married one of the wranglers at the ranch and decided to stay with us.”
“Hello, Miss Braxton. I feel as if I know you. Birdie talked about you so much.”
“Well, I hope it was good. And you call me Aunt Patty, just like everyone else.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Sarah, will you call all of the kids and tell them we need them tomorrow? Don’t tell them why... just say we need to discuss something with them. Oh, and include Bethany and her family.” Birdie picked up a plate of teacakes and passed it around.
Aunt Patty took a bite and her face lit up. “These are very good. I’ll have to compare recipes with your cook.”
“Actually, I made these.”
“No!”
“Yes. I swore I wouldn’t be doing all that womanly stuff but somewhere along the way, I picked it up. I actually enjoy cooking on occasion.”
“She’s quite good, especially with desserts. Makes a mean pecan pie, just like my mother’s.” Birdie had learned shortly before Olivia’s health started to decline in 1909.
“Well, will wonders never cease!” Aunt Patty reached over and patted Birdie’s leg. “I’m proud of you.” She sniffed and wiped at the corners of her eyes. “I’ve gotten so maudlin in my old age.” She coughed to clear her throat. “I can’t tell you how horrifying it was to think you’d drowned in the river.”
Birdie stifled a snort. “More like Samuelson tried to murder me. And of course, I can imagine how distraught you were. I’m sorry for the pain you had to suffer. Now that I look back on it all, I’d probably still have time-traveled anyway, but he hit me in the head and tossed me over, right into that eddy.”
“Harrumph, he didn’t get off Scott free, young lady. The police and your Ranger friends bugged him for weeks. Because of the suspicion, his financial investors backed out of the building deal.”
“Ha-ha, served him right. I’m glad. Do Captain Smith and Ted Weaver know what happened to me?”
“Yes, indeed. Saw them both several times after the Baylor lawyer came to call. And both rangers will know what’s happened to me now that I’ve disappeared.” She winked. “That Ted checked on me often. I really think he was after my teacakes, but I did enjoy having him around.”
Tad reached for another teacake. “Ladies, I’m enjoying the conversation, but let’s get to the meat of the situation here. Tell us how your time travel occurred, Aunt Patty.”
“Birdie, you know those beautiful yellow roses you love so?” Birdie glanced across the lawn to the rose garden in the center. A variety of colors were planted around a recycling water fountain. Yellow “Sulphur” roses surrounded the assortment. Fortunately, through hybridization they now had a much more pleasing aroma.
“Yes, I remember.”
“This morning, wearing the brooch, I went out to the garden and cut the prettiest bloom I could find. Then, I grabbed my handbag and my hat and walked to the suspension bridge.” She patted her hip. “Oh, and I was afraid to leave your letter behind so stuck it in my pocket. Standing in the center I looked down, day-dreaming about the many times we’d walked the bridge and enjoyed the spring weather, when I saw an eddy flowing toward the bridge with the current, getting deeper the closer it got. It was odd—frightening.” She shivered. “As I tried to think up a few fitting words to say in your memory, this dang brooch became alive... it got warm and vibrated. I accidently dropped the rose into the eddy at the same time as a bolt of lightening shot from the sky. It knocked me to the ground. I thought I was dead.”
She drew in a deep breath. “Until that old Model T sounded ‘ah-ooo-gah‘ and the screech of the brakes halted the contraption not two feet from my body.”
“Good grief, you could have been killed!”
“Scared me, I tell you.” She placed her hands over her heart. “Thought for a minute there I’d had a heart attack. The driver of the Model T helped me up and fussed over me. Of course, I was confused. I knew you’d said you’d time-traveled, Birdie, but had no idea that I would. It wasn’t until I was on my feet and looking around that I realized what had happened.” Her expression turned dreamy. “There in the distance sat Birdie’s Nest looking like a regal lady, with no wide boulevard running parallel with the river, no apartment complexes down the road and no Cameron Park.”
She tried to smile but her chin trembled and sobs shook her frame. “I knew at that moment... I’d come home... to my Birdie.”
Birdie stood and folded her arms around the woman who’d raised her. Choked up, she begged, “Please don’t cry, Aunt Patty.” She sniffed and pulled one of the darned handkerchiefs she’d finally gotten used to from a pocket and blew her nose.
Tad stood beside Birdie with one arm around her, the other on the older woman’s shoulder. “Birdie’s right. This is a happy time—one to celebrate.”
“Aunt Patty, Tad and my family have been my life these past thirty years. Only one thing could have made me happier—to have you here with us.
“Welcome home, Aunt Patty!”
The End
Other Books by Linda LaRoque
Contemporary Westerns
Forever Faithful
Investment of the Heart
When the Ocotillo Bloom
Futuristic
Born in Ice
Time Travel
The Turquoise Legacy
My Heart Will Find Yours
and
Flames on the Sky
A Way Back
Desires of the Heart
A Law of Her Own
A Marshal of Her Own
A Love of Her Own
Birdie’s Nest
Linda’s Bio
Linda LaRoque is a Texas girl, but the first time she got on a horse, it tossed her in the road dislocating her right shoulder. Forty years passed before she got on another, but it was older, slower, and she was wiser. Plus, her students looked on and it was important to save face.
A retired teacher who loves West Texas, its flora and fauna, and its people, Linda’s stories paint pictures of life, love, and learning set against the raw landscape of ranches and rural communities in Texas and the Midwest. She is a member of RWA, her local chapter of HOTRWA, NTRWA and Texas Mountain Trail Writers.
Linda writes contemporary western romances, time travel romances and futuristic romances.
Visit Linda at these locations.
http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot.com
https://www.facebook.com/linda.laroque