Willow grabbed the two pails and followed them. Even though she was not close enough to hear his reply, she sensed his bewilderment. A change came over him when they stepped into the clearing. Maybe now he remembered what was acceptable and what was not in the modern times of 1860 Georgia.
* * *
“Anders should have told me.” The brunette steered him inside the one room cabin. “I would have had something more than collard greens and hot water cornbread prepared. Maybe we can get one of those chickens to fry.”
Wide-eyed and staring, he mumbled, “Don’t go to any trouble for me, ma’am. I’m fine.”
“Call me Eva.” Fluttering about, the pregnant woman talked up a storm.
He tuned her out, just the essentials registering. He mumbled, smiled, and nodded in all the right places, which seemed to please her while his brain tried to make sense of his surroundings.
Despite the extra foliage along the way—there were more trees than he ever remembered seeing, and all sorts of flowers and plants everywhere—the trail had been the same distance from the creek to the cabin. He was damn sure about that! But the cabin…wasn’t the same.
The changes were startling. The family sanctuary now consisted of one moderately sized room. A solid-looking wall hid the hallway, leading to the three bedrooms and the very important bathroom. The sofa, easy chair, and television were gone, too. The fireplace consisted of the same multi-colored stone blocks and the numerous family pictures on the mantel had vanished, leaving only one framed photograph. He moved slowly to get a closer look.
“That’s Anders and me on our wedding day.” Eva glowed with love and devotion. “I told him it was too extravagant, but he was determined. You know how you Magnusen men are when you get your mind set on something; just about as stubborn as a mule.”
Thor offered a polite chuckle. Her close proximity forced him to maintain a calm, cool façade. Deep down, unease threw him off kilter. He breathed a sigh of relief when Eva moved away from him to speak to Willow. The feminine voices played like a soft melody in the background while his eardrums pulsated with an erratic beat. Something strange, peculiar, and just not right was happening here.
His gaze strayed to the photo again. Staring intently at the image, recognition dawned on him.
I know that picture!
The image hung prominently in the cabin. Gramps often used the photograph to emphasize stories about…their great-great-grandfather Anders and his wife, Eva…
Anders and Eva?
Oh,God
. His hand began to tremble.
This can’t be happening
. Cal, ever the practical jokester, was playing a dirty trick on him. That was it! While Thor napped, Cal and Pop hired a couple of actresses and rearranged the furniture to shock him into getting his head back on straight. That had to be it.
His world felt safe again. He breathed deeply and set the framed picture back on the mantel. Smiling, he looked at the women. Their conversation was over, and Willow stood a step or two closer to him. His gaze connected with her dark, searching eyes. He winked broadly at her to let her know he was in on the game, but her reaction surprised him. Instead of admitting defeat with a wink of her own, she gasped and whirled away.
The cool heat of Eva’s stare as she witnessed the minuscule interaction baffled him. He was flirting; big deal. Willow was a beautiful woman, even if she took her acting performance to heart. Besides, he had the strongest suspicion that the attraction was mutual. Trick or not, he aimed to explore it, thoroughly.
“You didn’t say if you were passing through,” Eva murmured in a chilly tone, “or thinking to stay for a spell. And since Anders didn’t mention you were coming…well, we don’t have much room to spare.”
Now both females were really letting the ruse go to their heads. Eva actually had the disapproving stare down to a science. Thor came close to applauding their performance but thought better of it. Being a jock, he had never acted in a play during his school years, but he could ham it up with the best of them.
“I haven’t decided, yet. Depends on how delicious dessert turns out to be.” He aimed a wolfish grin in Willow’s direction and turned to his left.
The bathroom was just down the hallway.
The façade Pop and Cal rigged is a neat trick, but no matter how much they want to shake me up, they wouldn’t get rid of the toilet.
Thor pressed his hand against the wall and pushed. In that instant, his world shifted completely off its axis.
The hallway, leading to the bathroom, was nothing more than a wall with a rifle rack. The cabin truly consisted of only one, solitary room. Maybe he really did suffer from too many hard tackles on the football field.
The room wavered before his eyes. Dizziness washed over him. His eyes closed to ward off the worst of it. Then, a pair of arms wrapped around his waist, preventing him from falling.
“Just lean on me.” Willow’s voice came clear and sweet at his side.
Gratitude flowed through him at her unsolicited assistance. Thor willingly followed her advice. Her warm and comforting body brushed against his and provided the stability he needed. She guided him across the room and into a rocking chair. A cry locked in his chest when she took her soothing touch away. Slowly, he released the air from his lung. Before he opened his eyes, he realized another truth. The rocking chair was the exact same chair his father rocked him in when he was a little boy, except this chair held no scratches and scars from generations of use. No, this one was brand new!
Eva stood before him with a tall glass of water in her hand. The disapproval in her eyes warmed to concern. He gladly accepted her offering, sighing as the cool liquid refreshed his parched throat.
“Thank you, ma’am.” He showed his appreciation for both women with a faint smile.
“When was the last time you ate?” Eva questioned. After he drained the glass, she took the empty glass from him. “You seem faint. Are you sick? I have to be careful, considering I am with child. I don’t mean any disrespect, but if you are ill…”
“No, ma’am, I’m well. Physically, that is. I’m not sure what’s going on with my head.”
“Would you like more water?”
“I’m fine, Willow, but thank you. I’m sorry for interrupting your day like this. I wasn’t expecting this… I…um…I’m feeling a little confused about some things. Maybe you could help me. Either of you, I suppose.”
Willow went to the center of the room and pulled two chairs from the wooden table, setting one near Eva and claiming the other for herself. Her dark gaze peered into his eyes. The obvious interest in his plight mesmerized him. If they weren’t playacting and Eva really was his great-great-grandmother, he was in a heap of trouble.
Nineteenth-century Georgia had no tolerance for sincere affection between the races. With electricity charging him whenever Willow was near, he sizzled enough to cause a blackout. That was if Edison had discovered the current’s many uses, yet.
“What’s gotten you confused?” Willow ignored a sharp look from Eva. “I thought something was amiss back at the creek.”
By the demure lowering of her eyes, he recognized her meaning immediately. She referred to his cockiness on the trail. God, if this was the eighteen hundreds, he was lucky she hadn’t bolted from him on sight. The looks he gave her were far from chaste and bent more toward downright suggestive. If she feared all he wanted was a roll in the hay or would demand that from her…
Oh, damn!
Blood pounded a tempestuous beat at his temples. Everything confused him and didn’t make a lick of sense! He couldn’t just assume it was the eighteen hundreds. Maybe he hiked further away from the cabin than he previously thought. Maybe the lack of sleep had muddled his thinking and sent him on a different path.
Caught up in his internal debate, he forgot about the women and searched his brain for alternate possibilities.
Unfortunately, there were none. No other cabin in the world had that framed photograph, and the Eva in front of him looked too damned much like the Eva in the picture to be a fake. She was the real deal, which meant that the impossible had happened as he sat in the current home of his great-great-grandparents.
“Miss Eva, didn’t Doc Sully leave some laudanum on his last visit? Maybe he could use some for whatever’s ailing him.”
Thor shook his head, vigorously refusing the drug. He needed his mind clear if he hoped to make any kind of sense of his present situation. “Really, I’m fine now. I haven’t eaten in a while. I didn’t realize that ’til just now.”
Eva gave him an understanding smile and nodded. When she moved to stand, Willow patted her hand and said, “You should rest. I can fix him a plate.”
“Wait!” Thor said quickly. Both women regarded him with puzzled expressions. He understood that sentiment all too well. His soft words reassured them. “I can do that myself, Willow, but first…well, what’s the date? I’ve been traveling so long that I’ve plumb forgotten it.”
“Why, it’s October twelfth,” Eva answered.
“And the year?”
“1860,” Willow supplied when Eva’s mouth dropped open. “I think I’d better fix you that plate now.”
“Thanks.”
Willow spun on her boot heels and headed for the kitchen area. Once or twice, she glanced over her shoulder in his direction. Their gazes connected. Thor sensed that she was worried about him. Her concern touched him.
“How can you forget the year?” A stunned expression remained frozen on Eva’s face. “I apologize for that,” she added quickly. “Of course, an empty stomach can make a body forget many things. I suppose you have not forgotten how you are related to Anders? I know he doesn’t have any brothers, but you look so much like him. . .” She stirred uneasily on the chair. Her head lowered and she glanced away for a brief moment. “You see, he doesn’t talk about his family. Just that save for me and our little one,” she said, patting her swollen abdomen with a mother’s pride, “we’re his only family in the world, but here you are.”
“I’m a distant relative.”
About a century away
,
give or take a couple of years
.
“I noticed the resemblance right off. I imagine Willow did, too.”
“Yes, she did,” he murmured softly. The mouth-watering aroma of home-cooked collards and hot water cornbread drifted toward him. A hearty growl erupted from his stomach. Heat flooded his cheeks. “Excuse me, ma’am.”
“Anders’s roars like that, too.” She dismissed his embarrassment with a wave. “We have fresh water from the creek and lye soap. You can wash up over there.” A chamber set rested on the nearby chest o’ drawers. “Clean towels are in the top drawer.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“Please, call me Eva. We are family.”
Returning her smile, he rose from the chair then made quick work of washing and drying his hands. When he faced the women again, he found that the table had been set for three. Each plate held a heaping portion of greens with the fragrant hot water cornbread on the side. Thor briskly rubbed his hands. He couldn’t wait to dig in, but he wasn’t about to forget his manners.
Going first to Eva, he pulled out a chair. She thanked him with a smile. He moved around the table to do the same for Willow. Surprise glittered in her black orbs for only a moment before she too sat.
In a husky tone, she murmured her gratitude. “Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure.” He claimed the empty space beside her.
Eva bowed her head once everyone settled. She thanked God for their meal and for the latest addition to the family. The prayer ended with a request for Anders’s safe return home. “Amen.”
“Would you like coffee?” Eva asked.
“No, thank you. I’m fine with the water.”
Thor shoveled in a few forkfuls of collard greens and broken pieces of bread. His taste buds exploded with delight. He expected the food to be bland, but it was far from it. Salted pork and smoky bacon were flavorful in the greens, and the hot water cornbread was moist and delicious. The meal reminded him of Sunday dinners with his grandparents. Although he was concerned about the change in century, the feeling of being at home comforted him.
“This is delicious!” He paused to look at the quiet woman to his right and his great-great-grandmother who faced him. “I haven’t had good food like this in a long time.”
“I wish I could take the credit, but Willow deserves the honor. She is a godsend for me while Anders is away.”
He wanted to bestow more praise onto Willow, but her demeanor changed. Instead of being comfortable and relaxed, her back was now rigid and straight. Her luscious full lips thinned into a straight line. Tension oozed from her and he wondered if he was the cause.
Their earlier conversation came to mind. The modern times of 1860 were nothing like his own. His flirting could have meant something more to Willow, something unkind and violent.
In this time, white men often took what they wanted, including women, without fear of repercussion. Bondage often sealed the fate of non-white women. Judging by the size of the cabin and its furnishings, he doubted if his ancestors had the money to afford slaves, but looks could be deceiving.