Fugitives of Time: Sequel to Emperors of Time Page 10

  “Rose isn’t coming tonight. She wanted me to let you know, Tim, that she’s staying in intentionally and you don’t need to worry about her,” Julie stated. “Although she thinks you’re sweet.”

  “Yo!” Billy interjected. “I was worried, too!”

  “I’ll be sure to tell her,” Julie assured him. “But you have got to be a little bit better at keeping to 19th century vernacular.”

  “I’ve been doing well during the day,” Billy countered defensively.

  “Back to the business at hand, though,” prompted Tim, “you said you were able to talk to Rose today?”

  “Yes, I was,” Julie confirmed proudly. “In fact, I have a letter from her.”

  This was better than Tim had hoped. If she wasn’t able to be there in person, leave it to Rose to represent herself in some other way. Maybe she had made more progress than Tim had today and could tell them about it now.

  “Well, what does it say?” Billy asked anxiously.

  “Here,” Julie said, taking an envelope from the pocket of her jacket. “I had probably better let you two read it yourselves… She didn’t bother to limit herself to anything approaching 19th century vernacular, so I don’t really want to read it to you out loud.”

  “Sounds reasonable,” Tim said.

  Since Julie had already read the letter, Billy and Tim put the letter down on the table between them. Julie entertained herself by examining some of the Cooper’s boarding house’s best china and silverware.

  The first thing that struck Tim as he started reading the letter was that even though the girl who handed this letter to Julie would have looked like Joanna Curtis, the handwriting looked distinctly like Rose’s. Tim started to read.

  Dear Friends,

  Oh screw it, I’ve been having to talk like a 19th century school-teacher for the past day, and I don’t like it one bit, so you guys are getting unfiltered Rose. Don’t worry, it’s not fatal. At least in small doses.

  Anyway, sorry I couldn’t make it out last night. Have I told you that I have three younger siblings? I’ve got one younger sister, who’s a baby named Elizabeth, and two brothers. One is nine, named Jonathan, and one is six, named Randall. Well, lucky me, last night, around 8:30, our little Jonathan thought it would be appropriate to tell Randall a bedtime story. A freaking ghost-story, as it turns out.

  Well, as I found out yesterday, dealing with something like that falls squarely into the job-description of “big-sister,” so at 8:50, just as I’m scouting the feasibility of climbing out of my 2nd story bedroom window, little Randall knocks on my door and insists that he has to sleep in my bed. So… that happened. Of course, this morning, I read good old Jonathan the riot act, but the damage was done. I mean, I couldn’t very well leave with Randall snuggled up to me, so I decided to spend the night here.

  And, as the day has gone on (I’m writing this at noon on Monday, hoping one of you guys will be here soon to check on me), I’ve noticed that those two kids can’t really get along without me. I’m starting to think I’m not going to be able to come to ten o’ clock meetings of the 19th century Impostors’ Society.

  So, since I’m not going to be able to see you guys tonight, I figure I ought to update you on my progress. So far, I’ve seen the venerable Mr. Curtis for a total of, say, an hour. Although forty-five minutes of that was at dinner last night.

  I’ll tell you what: Let no one say that family dinner is not alive and well at the Curtis house. I was done with my meal after twenty minutes and sat there in silence for the next twenty-five listening to the grown-ups talk and watching Randall play with his food. I probably would have stayed there for another half hour, except that when Jonathan asked to be excused, I figured out that was something that you were actually allowed to do. I’m still not quite clear on why it took forty-five minutes for someone to do it. Maybe it’s only allowed in emergencies. Like, if you really need to pee, or it’s the only way to prevent yourself from dying of boredom. But that’s where I was at…

  Still, I found out at least one bit of useful information at dinner, from what Curtis said. Coincidentally, three congressmen are coming over tomorrow. Now, Benjamin Curtis, as I learned from my pre-trip reading, was appointed Chief Justice by Millard Fillmore, a Whig, so I assume that these guys are Whigs, but I don’t know much else about them. I mean, I know that the guy isn’t supposed to be involved in partisan politics now that he’s on the Supreme Court, but let’s be real about this. And besides, if he’s going to have congressmen over for an evening visit, you’d think they’d at least be guys he gets along with, i.e. Whigs. I assume.

  Anyway, their names are Nathan Stratton, Charles Skelton, and Samuel Lilly. If you know anything about them, I’d like to know, so I know what to expect when I spy on them. Because I am definitely going to have to spy on them. I just gotta figure out how.

  Sorry if this letter got a little rambly, I have a lot of time on my hands. Apparently, I’m homeschooled. Now, I know that being home-schooled in our time can be very rigorous, but from what I’m seeing, in 1854, what it means is that my mother has given me a stack of books to read and I’m supposed to be working through them. But I’m definitely not doing that right now, hence the long letter.

  Missing you guys and a house without two tiny boy-children and one crying baby-girl,

  -Rose

  “Do you know who those congressmen are?” Billy asked, when he was done reading.

  “No, I don’t, not off the top of my head,” Tim admitted, reluctantly.

  “Ah, good. Gives me a chance to be useful,” Billy said, hopping quickly out of his chair. “I’ll be right back with the summary Hopkins gave us. I think it’ll at least tell us where they’re from and how they voted.”

  “How was your day?” Tim asked Julie as Billy ran up the stairs to the second floor.

  “Ah, pretty boring. Aside from talking to Rose, I basically read Widow Macphearson’s diary all day long. She gossips a lot about the love-life of various congressmen and senators. Who’s having an affair with whom, whether it’s a secret, and who knows that secret if it is. It reads like my grandmother’s soap operas, which I’ve always found to be pointlessly tedious.”

  “That’s annoying. Although information like that might be worth a lot to some people in this town. Which is maybe why she was keeping track of it in the first place,” Tim pointed out.

  “On the bright side, I have some leads I’m thinking of chasing. She knew a couple of congressmen who I could talk to starting tomorrow and see what happens. Actually, there’s one Representative who lives next door to me. Felix Zollicoffer. I remember, because he has about the best last name ever.”

  “Oh, wait, yes, he does!” Tim said. “I remember that name… Not just from the notes Hopkins gave us… Although I remember he was one of the Southern Whigs who voted for the bill, so he went against his party. But, anyway… fun fact: He was a general in the Civil War, and he’s… wait, it’s something like… Yeah, he was the first Confederate General to die in the Western Theater in the Civil War.”

  Julie frowned slightly at this, and again, the expression looked just like Julie. Tim had a strangely strong desire to kiss those lips. Which was confusing, because it looked like they belonged to the Widow MacPhearson.

  “How do you know all these things?” Julie asked, a mixture of admiration and humor in her voice.

  Tim shrugged. “I don’t know, it was in a book I read once.”

  Billy loped back down the stairs in a way that Tim doubted Cooper had ever done himself, carrying Hopkins’ notebook. “What are you two talking about?”

  “Apparently, I’m planning a social call on the first Confederate General to die in the Western part of the Civil War. Or something like that,” Julie answered.

  “The… what?” Billy asked.

  “Nevermind. He’s a member of Congress who lives next door to me. Tim just told me that he voted for the bill in the original timeline, so now I know what to watch for.”

  �
�Are you actually going to ask him how he’s going to vote?” Billy asked.

  “I might... Why?” asked Julie.

  “Only...” Billy said cautiously. “I don’t mean anything personal by this, but remember that we’re living in a time when women can’t even vote. Wouldn’t it look weird that you’re asking a congressman how he’s going to vote in a matter of high political importance?”

  “Well… you’d think so,” Julie said, with an air of amusement in her voice. “But after reading this woman’s diaries, Macphearson doesn’t seem like she was exactly one to follow typical gender roles.”

  “Whatever you think, then,” Billy said. “At least, I’m on board. Should we vote on it?”

  “Well, there’s only three of us here,” Tim said. “We already know that you’re okay with it, and I imagine Julie is, too, since she’s the one who just proposed the plan.”

  “Well, there’s Rose,” Julie said. Then she smiled, “But of course she’s always in favor of my reckless plans, ever since we were growing up together. So, she’s in.”

  “Wait, how is it reckless?” Tim asked cautiously.

  “It’s not, really. I’ll be careful. But I think I will ask him how he’s leaning, then report back.”

  “And you can go visit Rose again, tomorrow?” asked Billy.

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t leave her alone without normal-person contact for more than a day. Although it doesn’t sound like she’s going to have any more information for us, given that her father’s not entertaining visitors until tomorrow evening,” Julie said.

  “Right, but we might as well check in,” Tim opined.

  “And we need to tell her about the people coming to see her,” said Billy holding up the book. He leafed quickly through it, apparently knowing the page he was looking for. “Okay… here’s Stratton. He’s a… Democrat from New Jersey. Okay, and so are the other two, Skellton and Lilly. Although this is kind of weird. It looks like in the original timeline, Skellton and Stratton voted against the bill and Lilly voted for it.”

  “That is strange,” Tim agreed. “But at least it’ll give us something to watch for when Rose tells us about it. It’s also kind of weird that they’re Democrats and not Whigs like the Justice himself. But they could be talking about something completely different. For all we know, they could be having a debate about which is the better state, New Jersey or New York.”

  “Right. Best to wait to see what Rose says about it before jumping to any conclusions” Julie agreed. “Did either of the two of you find out anything worth sharing?”

  “I haven’t really been able to do anything more than putting names to faces,” Tim said, a little embarrassed.

  “That’s all right, you’re just the wealth of information, anyway, knowing which guys are going to become Confederate Generals and all that,” Julie pointed out.

  “I have three boarders who are in the House,” said Billy. “Moses MacDonald, Samuel Mayall, and Thomas Fuller. All three of them are Democrats from Maine, and I found out from Hopkins’ notes that MacDonald votes for the law and the other two vote against, so they’ll be good folks to watch.”

  Tim nodded, as did Julie. After that, nobody really had anything substantive to add. After they chatted for a bit, Tim walked Julie home, not minding at all that it took him so far out of his way.

  Chapter 13

  A Sleepless Night

  The next night, after he met Julie and Billy on Tuesday evening, Tim lay awake in bed, sweating and wishing that they could have chased the Emperors to a time when air-conditioning had already been invented.

  The heat was only about half of what was keeping him awake, though. Tuesday night’s meeting of the Impostors’ Society, as Rose had dubbed it, had given him a lot to think about.

  Julie had sounded out her neighbor, Felix Zollicoffer.

  “So what did our future general friend say?” Tim had asked.

  “Just enough to make me curious,” Julie said. “Something is definitely going on, but I don’t know what.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Billy.

  “Well, when I brought up the topic of the Act, he was evasive at first, but then he said he’d had a change of heart. Something about the preservation of the Union being worth more than deciding whether new states could have slaves,” Julie said.

  “That’s definitely a weird thing for a future Confederate general to say,” observed Tim. “Do you think he’s one of the ones who is being controlled?”

  Julie had shaken her head. “I don’t think so. It sounded like he didn’t really know all the details of the plan himself, not just that he wasn’t going to tell me. And I guess that could be a sign that he was being manipulated, but it just didn’t feel that way to me. Besides, at one point, accidentally, he let slip something about how the Northern Democrats were willing to compromise now.”

  “But Zollicoffer’s a Southern Whig,” said Tim.

  “Right,” said Julie. “So it sounds like we have some kind of secret compromise in the works.”

  “Well, it’s not much, but it’s more than I found out today,” admitted Billy.

  “Yes, me too. What about Rose, any news from her?” asked Tim.

  “I visited her twice today. The second time was this evening, right before coming over here,” said Julie. “She was able to write a brief note about the dinner company Curtis had tonight.”

  The note read:

  Skelton, Lilly, and Stratton, were here today, as planned. As I’d pessimistically expected, though, I wasn’t actually invited to the dinner. Me and the two little boys ate beforehand, so that we wouldn’t have to pester the adults while they were eating. The men and their wives got here around 6:30.

  I was expected to take care of the baby while they all ate dinner, but I managed to get her down for a nap before too long. Better yet, I got the boys to play hide-and-go-seek so I’d have an excuse to be skulking around the house and looking all weird. It sounded like mostly small-talk until about 7:15 when the men went over to the parlor to smoke cigars. I mean, you hear about things like that happening in the olden days, but honestly!

  Anyway, I’m afraid I’m not too great at eavesdropping. That’s mostly because, as it turns out, I’m not as good at hiding as I’d expected. I had to pick the room just upstairs from the parlor, because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to hear. But see, I’m listening for two minutes before Jonathan comes and finds me, like, immediately after he’s done counting. I figured he’d at least find Randall first because Randall usually hides in the hallway behind the one piece of furniture there. But no, he comes almost straight into the room I picked.

  Basically, all I got from listening in was that the Jersey Democrats told Curtis he wouldn’t have to worry about whether the constitutionality of the bill now in Congress would ever come before the Supreme Court because it wasn’t likely to even be passed.

  They mentioned something about how a compromise was in the works, but they didn’t mention whether they had anything to do with it, or at least, if they did, it was after Jonathan came romping on in and found me hiding under the desk with my ear pressed against the floor. By the time we’d found Randall together (he picked this one time to actually have a proper hiding place, inside one of the travelling chests in Curtis’ bedroom) and I got the chance to be the seeker next, the men were done with their cigars and had resumed their stupid chitchat over tea in the kitchen. So that’s what I know.

  “Well, there’s definitely something going on, then” said Billy, after he had finished reading the letter from Rose.

  “Well, we knew that,” Julie said. “We wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t something going on.”

  “But it seems like they’ve already gotten started on things. They’re forming alliances, making compromises. Do you two think we even really have time to change things back to the way they were supposed to be? Or if we stop the mind-control now, will the people who changed their mind because of it still think the compromise is a pretty swell ide
a and keep going with it? They’re American Congressmen after all. If they see a way to avoid conflict between the states, shouldn’t they take it?” Billy asked.

  “Well, we’ve still got to try, regardless,” said Julie, but her shoulders were slumped like she really didn’t think it was worthwhile anymore.

  “These guys’ minds are being controlled right now, right?” Tim asked.

  “Yes, that’s the point,” Billy answered slowly.

  “But if we destroy the machines, then that will stop pretty soon, right?” Tim continued.

  “I’m still following, but the point I was making still stands,” Billy said.

  “Well, what would you do if you woke up one morning and realized you’d been planning something for several days that wasn’t your idea and you didn’t want to even happen a week before?” Tim asked.

  “Ah… I’d probably go back to doing what I wanted to do in the first place,” Billy conceded after a moment.

  “Well, that or you’d think you were certifiably crazy. Either way, I’d imagine you’re not going to fight for the idea anymore. So, on the balance, they’re probably not going to be supporting the compromise. Maybe they’d just be no-votes,” said Tim.

  “That’s an awful lot of maybe’s and probably’s,” said Julie.

  “Sure, it’s no guarantee,” agreed Tim, “but it’s better than just throwing up our hands and saying we’re defeated. Besides, without the leaders, the whole compromise is likely to derail. After all, the plan is going to lose credibility if the leaders jump ship. And, what, figure there were four or five people who were going to lead the compromise who instead are no-votes… That would make the vote something like 108-100, and that would be good enough.”

  “So there’s still hope,” Julie concluded, half-heartedly.

  And now, laying in bed, covered in sweat, Tim was debating that same question in his own mind. They knew of four congressmen who had been heard of the compromise. They figured that Zollicoffer was probably not the one who started it, but they didn’t know whether the New Jersey Democrats had started it or were just giving secondhand information to Curtis.