This is a work of fiction any similarities between the characters, events, or locations in this story and actual locations, events, or people are purely coincidental.
© 2004 Warlord
I quickly looked to Krista to save me from Gabrielle, or at least what she seemed to be suggesting. But Krista was no help to me as she said:
“Yes, William my love, what shall we do or can we possibly offer to prevail on you to liberate the lovely Jacinthe from her exile in Cheyenne?”
Gabrielle was delighted with her new ally as she laughingly said, “Yes, William. What can WE do?”
I put up my hands in a surrender gesture as I said to both of them. “Ladies, I haven’t exactly been offered any kind of stagecoach job. If it comes to pass, Krista, Dan, and Jan will help me make the right decisions.”
Somehow it was a correct thing to say as Gabrielle launched herself into my arms, kissing me thoroughly. She ended up on my lap with her arms around my neck. I looked over at smiling Krista. Krista leaned forward to kiss me, then she kissed Gabrielle.
Krista settled back in our loveseat with her snifter of brandy. Her fingers were playing in the hair at my shirt collar, in a delightful and distracting way. I put an arm around Krista, pulling her closer, as I put my other arm around Gabrielle.
As I sat on that loveseat, an errant thought ricocheted through my head. I wondered how many times this scene in the parlor had played out. Once? Twice? Ten times? Did it matter? I didn’t know the answer to that. I wished I did.
I looked over to see Jan snuggling into Dan’s lap. They had also kicked back in this relaxing parlor. It’s always up to me to be the bad guy as I said, “Emma, I feel I must tell you this. We four have wide ranging business interests. It may well be necessary for us to travel all together far from here. I’m not sure how we will keep you safe in our absences.”
I got far less reaction than I expected. Emma said, “That is not unexpected. Once you establish your presence and protection of us, the bullies and drunks will quickly cease their challenges and testing. After this, you can be absent for varying times without anyone even noticing. This house’s construction and location is ideally suited for such a ruse. Even after ‘they’ notice your absence, they often will not provoke retaliation on your return by their actions while you are away.”
I nodded, thinking. I was quite lost in thought, ignoring the nearly naked girl on my lap and the girl I loved next to me. To their credit, neither one felt compelled to distract me.
I finally said, “Emma, I have a very rude request. I hope you will forgive me. The four of us do need to talk over some of that business right now. Can you provide us with a bit of privacy for a few moments?”
Emma laughed. “That is not rude. I quite understand.”
She clapped her hands, herding her ladies out the parlor room door. She slid the doors closed, saying, “Take as long as you need.”
I tugged on Krista’s hand, pulling her to J and D on their loveseat. I knelt on the floor with K beside me. J and D leaned forward so we could converse in very soft whispers. I led off. “We have to leave right now, and go back through the portal.”
I expected protests instead I received quiet attention as I explained, “Change of plan. We have to be right here for a while until the bullies tire of their tests. Otherwise, we leave Emma and her girls far worse off.”
Krista nodded, as just as softly she said, “We go back, get supplies for an extended stay, and come right back.”
I nodded as I said, “We need to leave now and be back before next nightfall. I don’t think the bullies will strike in daylight. The sooner we’re back the better.”
The four of us nodded assent. We stood up together. I walked ahead to rap on the sliding door. Emma opened it. She looked a little apprehensive. I tried to put her mind at ease as I said, “Emma, we have some supplies that we need to pick up, now that we have a place to stay. We’ll get those things now, tonight, and bring them here. Will that be satisfactory?”
Now she smiled, as she told me that would be quite satisfactory. Emma would, in the meantime, get our rooms in order for us.
We walked out into the kitchen, to find cleaned boots for all of us. We stamped into our boots with help from Emma’s delightful kitchen sprites. We were soon at the hitching post. Dan reminded the girls to tighten their saddle cinches. We quickly mounted up, and headed for ‘our’ livery stable.
Luckily, it was deserted. I backed the buckboard in as Jan moved to the stable office. The rest were on the floor, holding bridles, surrounding the wagon. She whistled to get our attention, holding up her ‘modern’ sliver dollar. She counted down; “Five, four, three, two, one, drop.”
Jan dropped the dollar. It hit the counter. The barn spun and lurched the opposite way. We were once again in the dilapidated ‘modern’ structure.
I stepped down off the wagon, tying the reins to the whip socket. I petted Francis as I went by. Krista followed me out to my truck. She asked, “How long were we gone?”
I answered, “Not long. The courtesy lights are still on in the cab. They shut off after fifteen minutes.”
She exclaimed, “No shit?”
I answered, “K, we show seven minutes on the clock.”
She asked, “Do you think if we stay twice as long it will be fourteen?”
I was musing, thinking aloud. “I don’t know, K. I don’t think so. Seven minutes is about how long it took to walk in, disappear, re-appear, and walk out.”
Krista exclaimed, ”That would mean NO time elapsed. That would be so cool!”
I said, “Probably some fractions of seconds ticked off to prevent us from meeting ourselves in the barn, but otherwise, as a practical matter, no time passed on this side of the portal.”
By this time, J and D had joined us catching up on the conversation. Jan offered an insight. “This seems like chess timers.”
Jan’s passion was chess. One of her passions at least. She had started a chess club in Deadwood and was chess coach at the High School. She continued, “Chess timers are individual, linked clocks. They clock the elapsed time for each competitor. The part that seems to apply to this situation is that the time runs for ‘black’ only after ‘white’ takes a turn and hits the button.”
I asked, “You think that since time never moved on this ‘modern’ side of the portal that time is static waiting for us on the ‘frontier’ end?”
Krista said, “Maybe it’s not waiting -- perhaps the portal will throw us back into the time stream at the same point when we left. I guess that amounts to the same thing.”
I said, “Enough Temporal Physics, my head hurts. We have work to do before we go back, and it needs to be done quickly.”
With quick nods, we grabbed our mounts, locked up the barn, and headed for the B&B.