Page 1 of The Girl Out of Time
Part 1
The Voyage of Dreams
Chapter 1
Dorset, England, 1912
“Ithink he’s wonderful.” Emmeline absentmindedly smoothed her braid as she gazed upon the grayish-blue sea and its curling waves, foaming as they hit the beach. “He retrieved the scarf from the ocean. He likes music. He always listens.”
She could almost see it: her shawl blowing away in the breeze; him, fearlessly trudging into the waves to retrieve it amidst the scandalous gasps and whispers of an imaginary audience of beachgoers. Anything for a lady to not get wet, of course.
With the vision disappearing, she lowered her eyes to the picture frame showing her aunt, which she’d carefully positioned on the low wooden portable table her family had brought to their outing.
“Just to be clear,” Aunt Emily’s voice came from the picture frame, “this is still about a fictional man, right?”
“Yes, we’re talking about Raoul.”
Emily blew through her mouth. “Personally, I’m team Phantom. He’s got a sexy lair.”
Emmeline glanced around in alarm. Her mother, luckily, was out of earshot, scrunched up under a parasol in her full, buttoned-up-to-the-neck day dress. The day was as sunny as Emmeline had come to expect a spring day in England to be—not at all. “You can’t say that word!” she whispered to her aunt.
“It just means attractive.”
“In Connecticut, maybe.” Emmeline wasn’t sure how, but a lot of words were different in Emily’s neighborhood. It seemed innocuous enough, but when Emmeline said Mr. Parrish—Father’s young apprentice—was “sexy,” her parents threw a fit and prohibited her from going to any balls for three months.
And to ever visit Father at work again.
“Plus,” Emily continued, “he’s tall, dark, and handsome.”
Right—the Phantom. “But you wouldn’t want to marry him, would you?”
“I wouldn’t marry anyone except your uncle,” Emily said matter-of-factly.
“I know that.” Emmeline leaned back, digging her hands into the sand. “I suppose there is an argument for the tortured, mysterious hero.”
“How come every time we talk, I get dragged into a literary discussion?”
“We could talk about different things if you … Well …” Emmeline tugged on her braid. It wasn’t fair to complain that Emily had nothing else to talk about when she was too sick to leave the house. Perhaps one day, they’d make motion picture devices people could have at home. Perhaps Father could invent one. He was the smartest person Emmeline knew, and if he could invent this picture frame—a telephone-like tablet that allowed Emmeline not only to speak with, but also to see her aunt across the ocean—well, then not even the ocean was the limit.
However, Father didn’t patent the tablet, and forbade Emmeline from talking about it to others. It didn’t look that strange; like a miniature motion picture screen wrapped in intricate metal pieces, with a clock-like dial used to make calls, which Father always handled. But perhaps, it was secret technology. Perhaps, it was all a part of a grand conspiracy. Perhaps …
Perhaps she was getting carried away again.
“I know, Blue.” Emily gave her a sad, empathetic smile. “We’ll see each other in person one day, I promise. And then I’ll take you to the movies.”
Emmeline took the tablet into her hands—the only way she could be closer to her aunt. “All right. I can’t wait.”
“That being said, that Raoul guy is a wimp—”
A crash near Emmeline sent the fine beach sand spraying in a wide arc, ending up partially on top of the tablet, but mostly in Emmeline’s hair and face. She spat and shook her head, clearing the grains off her eyes. “Tristan!”
Her youngest brother lay in the sand, clutching a small leather ball. Ignoring Emmeline, he stumbled to his feet and raised the ball, looking down the beach. “Got it! I win!”
“Foul!” Brendon called from a hundred feet away.
“You didn’t say there were rules!” Tristan stomped off, sand slipping off his dark hair.
“There are always rules. You just didn’t read them.”
