Page 147 of The Girl Out of Time
Emmeline swallowed the painful lump in her throat, blinking repeatedly, asking every force in the world for it to be true. And as moments passed and he was still there, she finally allowed herself to believe it. She had no idea how—and frankly, it didn’t matter—but Father was alive and well.
Finally, her brothers unglued themselves from him, and with the last slew of kisses, Mother also detached herself from his embrace. Father looked at Emmeline and smiled, and all of her doubts and fears of him still hating her were forgotten. She ran and wrapped her arms around him.
“Emmeline,” he whispered into her hair. “My darling.”
“Oh, Papa. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She squeezed him tighter. “I’m sorry for what I said. What I did. I didn’t want to—”
“Hush, now,” he said. “It’s all right. I’m sorry, too. I overreacted.”
“No,Ioverreacted. I love you. I was angry. I didn’t mean all those things …”
“See, it only takes one disaster to make rebellious teenagers and overprotective fathers reasonable,” Aunt Emily said.
Emmeline raised her head from Father’s shoulder and beamed at her. “Auntie! How are you here? I thought you couldn’t leave the house.”
“Let’s say I got better,” Emily said with a mischievous grin. “It’s a long story—which I will have to tell at some point because your, uh,powersare involved as well—but we’ll talk about that later.”
“Oh, yes,” Father said. “We have plenty to talk about.”
Emmeline shook her head. Did they know? How? “I still don’t understand. How are you two … Papa, how did you get to New York before us? And how did you get off the ship?”
Father shot a side glance at her aunt. “Emily saved me.”
“Well, you also saved me,” Emily said back. “It was a mutual saving.”
“But I couldn’t have saved you if you didn’t save me first—”
“You know, technically, it all started because of Emmeline, so we could sayshesaved us …”
Mother looked at Emily. “You came to the ship. You saved him?”
Emily waved her hand. “We were literally just discussing—” She was cut short as Mother hugged her and, based on Emily’s gasp, nearly knocked the wind out of her. Emily patted her back. “There, there, Lady.”
A polite cough came from behind them. Emmeline glanced over her shoulder at Theo, hanging back and observing the reunion. He made a vague motion with his hand. “I guess I’ll … I should probably go.”
“Wait.” Father stepped to him, and Emmeline’s breath caught. For her, it had been months of shared history with Theo. For Father, he was still the young man sneaking around with his daughter for five days.
Theo contorted his face in worry, but maintained a straight posture.
Father extended a hand. “Will Marshall. Pleased to meet you.”
Theo shook it. “Leon Royer—but, well, everyone calls me Theo.”
Emily, newly freed from Mother’s grasp, nudged Emmeline. “Yeah, he’s not blond, but I see it.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “I see it. Glad he made it out, though.”
Emmeline frowned. “What?”
“Tell me you jumped off a lifeboat to stay with himat leastonce.”
“I did, but—”
“See,” Emily said loudly, and to no one in particular. “This girl understands the importance of reenacting movies.”
“Emily.” Father looked back at her. “She has no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, well. I can explain everything. I will explain everything. We’ve got plenty of time.” She nodded her head at Will and Theo. “Gramps, you should invite the boy to dinner.”
“You know it’sourhouse, right?” Mother said to her.
