Page 149 of The Girl Out of Time
“The choice was either this or wait until the baby was born,” Emily said. “And since it’s a dinner, I’d rather do it now when I’m hungry all the time than later when I might plop my face straight into the soup from exhaustion.”
“If you say so.”
“Oh, don’t worry about me.” Emily caressed her belly and gave Emmeline a quick double wink—a signal that their agreement was still on. Emmeline winked back and moved on, heading around the table to Father and Theo.
“… transmitted by pulses of radio,” Father was saying. “But there’d been new tests with amplitude modulation—”
“Really, Papa?” She paused beside them. “At dinner?”
“It hasn’t started yet,” Father said. “And besides, he asked.”
“I did.” Theo smiled at her, his eyes soft and gentle. “Radio is fascinating. It’s unfathomable to be able to get a message across the ocean so quickly.”
This is what she got, for choosing a man just like her father. Once it’s been decided Theo would stay in this time—as he said, if she was here, he didn’t want to go anywhere else—her parents graciously provided him with accommodations until he got his life in order. Father helped him get a job at a newspaper, and Theo went on to absorb all the knowledge of this newfound era like a sponge. He wanted to know everything: from automobiles to communications, from new architectural styles to developments in natural sciences, and Emmeline was more than happy to help him along.
What she was slightly less happy about was that since they came back to New York, they’d scarcely had any alone time together. Her parents had accepted Theo, but that didn’t mean they suddenly became all loosey-goosey with the rules.
And just on cue, as if she somehow knew what Emmeline was thinking about, Emily let out a yelp. “Oh, the baby!”
In an instant, everyone rushed to her side; everyone except for Emmeline, who grabbed Theo’s hand and led him out of the dining room and up the stairs to the hallway.
“Your aunt—shouldn’t we—”
She shushed him with a finger to his lip. “It’s fine. She’s only pretending.”
“She is? Why?”
“So I can do this,” she said, and kissed him.
After a moment of surprise, Theo relaxed and kissed her back. Based on his lips hungrily seeking hers and drinking her in, he’d felt deprived these past few months, too. He pressed her against the wall and peppered a trail past her jawline, down her throat, and across her collarbone, as she sunk her fingers into his silky hair and arched up into him. Oh, how she wished to be like this, with him, forever—but tonight, time was short, and they could only afford a few stolen kisses. So steal them, she did, and she giggled as his breath tickled her skin, and slid her fingers down his neck, and back up. He trailed her spine over the delicate beading of her dress, and—
“Don’t you think she’s been pretending for a while?” he said.
Emmeline blinked, trying to think clearly through her desire-muddled thoughts. Right—her aunt! “Maybe.”
“Should we go check?”
It was probably for the best. She didn’t want to risk getting caught, and Emily could only pretend for so long. As they returned downstairs, voices from the dining room grew louder. Emmeline frowned at Theo, who frowned back, and they hurried inside. Everyone was gathered on one side of the table, but their backs covered a clear view of what was going on.
“Going back might not be safe in this condition,” James said.
“I’m not having the baby in 1912! You don’t even have anesthesia!” Emily growled.
Emmeline made her way around the table, still holding Theo’s hand. Emily was leaning on the table’s edge, panting and holding her belly, and—she’d spilled a drink on the floor?
Emmeline met her eyes.
“Oh, hey, Blue,” Emily said. “So, turns out I wasn’t faking.”
Epilogue
London, March 1816
… or sometime between theTitanicsinking and Will and Emily turning up in New York …
“So what you’re saying is that”—Sebastian sat on the sofa across from Louisa—“your brother, London’s most eligible bachelor, has secretly been in love with Lady Cassiopeia, London’s most desired debutante, all this time?”
“Well, I don’t know about most eligible bachelor; that comes down to taste.” Louisa winked at him. “But yes, it appears so.”
