Page 74 of The Girl Out of Time
In the end, her parents were right. She didn’t know better. She didn’t know how to make good choices. But she’d wanted tomakea choice, at least.
And now her only choice was the one that didn’t leave a scandal in its wake.
She opened her mouth to object to the priest, but he’d already moved on with the vows. She gripped her bouquet tighter, even as her legs trembled and her feet itched. Daniel was a good man, but he wasn’t hers. Maria hadn’t wanted him, but Emmeline didn’t deserve him.
She clenched her teeth to prevent tears unleashing from her eyes. She needed to get out of here. If she claimed nervousness, a bridal emergency, they could perhaps avoid the biggest scandal.
“… in sickness and in health, so long as you both shall live?”
A fleeting shadow passed Daniel’s eyes. “I will.”
The priest repeated the vows to Emmeline and waited for her response.
“I …”
The door to the church slammed open as if a hurricane raged outside. The morning light outlined a figure of a man in a top hat as he marched down the aisle. “Stop! Stop the ceremony!”
Guests gasped and whispered, a wave of shock spreading down the pews toward Emmeline as if the man himself was leading it.
“Sir, the time for objections—” the priest started.
“I don’t care.” The man came closer, revealing a furious face with dark, bushy sideburns. He was around fifty or so, well-dressed underneath his traveling coat—and completely unfamiliar. He stopped a few feet away from Emmeline and Daniel.
“This man and woman cannot marry,” he said, “becausethiswoman is not my daughter. She is not Maria Grey.” His eyes, burning in anger, met Emmeline’s. “She’s an impostor.”
Part 3
Twenty to Midnight
Chapter 18
“What do you mean, the ship is going to sink tonight?” Will said.
Emily had to put down the tablet projecting her friend’s confused face as she hid her own face in her hands.
This couldn’t be happening.
Will wasn’t on theTitanic, right? There had to be another ship with the same name. Or she’d heard the name wrong. Or her knowledge of history sucked—nothing new there—and theTitanicdidn’t sink on her first voyage, but some other one, and Will and his family would be fine.
“Emily? Talk to me,” Will’s voice prompted her.
She ran her hands through her hair and picked the tablet back up. “Are you absolutely sure your ship is theTitanic?”
“Yes,” Will said, a good deal of confusion still coloring his voice. “What is this talk about sinking? If this is one of your pranks—”
“You think I’d joke about it?”
“I don’t knowwhatexactly we’re talking about!”
“Okay.Okay.” She breathed out, trying to calm herself. No need to panic. Will’s time was running out, butshehad all the time at her disposal to figure out a solution.Something.She would get Will out of this.
“TheTitanicis a pretty famous ship over here, by which I mean, my time,” she started. “Because she sank on”—she checked the web article open on her laptop to make sure she had all the correct information—“April 15, 1912, in the early morning hours. She struck an iceberg on its starboard side just before midnight that night.”
For the longest time, Will stared at her. She thought the tablet glitched again, and she shook it, but then he blinked. “That can’t be.”
“Everyone over here would agree to disagree. Well, except for this person who had the theory she was switched with her sister ship …” She squinted at the article.
“Emily!”
