Remembrance (The Transcend Time Saga) (18 page)

CHAPTER 29

“I wonder how long it’ll stay warm like this,” I asked, snuggling closer to Drew. The purple sweatshirt I wore was the only protection I needed against the abnormally warm weather, and it was nice to be able to go out with Drew on the boat and enjoy time away from the rest of the world.

He didn’t answer the rhetorical question. Silence was never awkward between the two of us, and it was a nice change from Jeremy, who felt the need to fill every second with conversation.

“Have you remembered anything more from … back then?” he asked, looking down at me in question.

“Not much,” I said with a sigh. “But I kind of remember drawing in a field, and you were there with me. We would spend time together like we do now, but outside in the sunlight. Not at night on a lake.”

He hugged me closer towards him. “This is something special in this lifetime,” he said, his breath warm against my cheek.

“And I love that.” I turned to look at him face-on. The light specks in his eyes stood out even more in the moonlight. “But I want to know more about ‘back then.’”

“It’s not as great as you think,” he mumbled.

“Tell me a little, and I’ll decide for myself.”

He smirked. “Well, you were just as stubborn.”

“But what were our lives like?” I asked, happy to be getting somewhere, even if it was only a small step. “How did we meet?”

“It was similar to how we met here,” he said after a small pause. “My family moved to Hampshire when I was 17, in what I’ve narrowed down to around 1814.”

“That was where Jane Austen lived,” I said, remembering what Alistair had told me a few weeks ago. “Did we know her?”

“No.” He shook his head, laughing. “She would have been about 15 years older than us. I think your parents knew her, but by the time we would have been able to meet her she stayed in her house most of the time. She rarely left until she died.”

“That would have been cool if we had known her,” I said, disappointed.

“I guess.” He shrugged, not finding it as exciting as I did. “Anyway, my family lived in London before moving, and at first we didn’t have much money. But my father was good at cards, and he spent years perfecting his methods. He created a team with a few of his friends—like those MIT students who beat Vegas—except using the card games of the time. When they were ready they took the gambling halls by storm, leaving as quickly as they arrived, but many times richer. They were already gone by the time people caught on, with more money than even they imagined they would make.”

“What does your dad do now?” I asked.

“He’s a lawyer.”

“Oh.” I laughed. “Funny.”

“Catherine was the first person I met when we moved,” he said, frowning. “Do you remember her? She was your closest friend.”

“I don’t remember anyone but you,” I admitted.

“I think that’s normal.” His eyes darkened, like he was thinking about something he would rather forget. “I didn’t start remembering anything apart from you until around a year after the trip to England.”

“I hope it doesn’t take me that long,” I said. “But what was Catherine like?”

“Catherine was a bit of a gold-digger,” he said with a laugh. “I didn’t care though. She was hot, so I decided to court her.”

I narrowed my eyes at him saying that about someone other than me.

“Not beautiful like you,” he covered. “It’s different. I didn’t care about who she was—looks were all I cared about before I met you. Then my parents decided to throw a ball to meet everyone in town, and I saw you talking with Catherine. She must have said something about me, because you turned around and looked at me. When ours eyes met, I forgot about Catherine, or anyone else at the party but you. I was devastated when I found out you were engaged.”

“Engaged?” I asked, sitting back in shock. “To who?”

“James.” He sneered at the name. “But he was insignificant to me. You danced with me once—as friends, of course—to ‘Minuet.’ I spent a lot of time with you after that day, mostly in the field behind your house. You were an artist, which is something you brought into this life, and you liked using me as a model for your drawings. It gave us a reason to be together for extended periods of time. James was more of the active type—he didn’t enjoy posing while you drew—and he was completely blind to what was going on. It was amusing.

“You tried teaching me how to draw, but I was never as good as you,” he continued. “Mechanics were more of my thing, and I still remember how happy you were the day you came outside to find the swing that I’d built on the old tree in front of your house.”

“I always did like swings,” I said, an image of an old rope swing hanging from a tree filling my mind. “I guess that explains why.”

“I tried to draw you on it once.” He laughed. “It didn’t turn out very well.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as you think.”

“It was.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “It always seemed like you were good at everything. You still are. Drawing, speaking French, playing the piano…”

“Only for the past month,” I pointed out. “At least with the piano and French.”

He smirked. “Do you sing as well?”

“No.” I smiled, shaking my head. “Although if I did, I suppose I would fit Mr. Darcy’s qualifications for an ‘accomplished woman.’ He was very picky.”

“Those were just excuses,” Drew said lazily.

“Excuses?” I raised an eyebrow. “For what?”

“So that he could have a reason to stay single until he met the one he truly loved.”

I smiled, taking in what he’d said. “So, what happened next?” I asked, leaning forward, eager to hear the rest of the story. 

“We saw each other in secret for a while,” he continued. “Although we did dance together at the annual masked ball. It was only once—which didn’t imply anything more than friendship—but that was enough to irritate Catherine, since the entire town thought I planned to propose to her. Her family had lost a lot of their money, but they were of high social status. Mine had no name of any importance, but we were rich because of my dad’s schemes. To an outsider, we were the perfect match. But no one could ever compare to you.”

“But you were still seeing Catherine?” I asked in distaste.

“Yes.” He looked out towards the lake, guilt passing over his eyes. “My parents would never have supported you and me together, since it was more prestigious for my family to be connected with Catherine’s. You were also still engaged to James, and I didn’t take that too well.”

I thought about what I knew of the era. “It wasn’t easy to break engagements back then, was it?”

“You tried.” He turned his eyes toward me again. “Your parents wouldn’t allow it. Your family was middle class, and James’s was well regarded in town—both in money and name. They said you weren’t being sensible.”

I scrunched my nose. “Sensible is boring. If I were sensible, I would still be with Jeremy. And that wouldn’t be good.”

“No, it wouldn’t,” he agreed. “I’m glad you’re not sensible.”

“So what did we do?” I asked, wanting to return to the story of the past.

“You refused to see me.”

I jolted back in my seat. “What? Why?”

“I believe your words were that you ‘couldn’t handle the eminent doom of the relationship.’”

I tried not to laugh. “The ‘eminent doom?’ That doesn’t sound like me at all.”

“We’re not the exact same as we were then,” he explained. “I think it’s because we’ve also lived a new life here, and that incorporates into who we are. But it’s just a guess.”  

“So that was the end?” I asked.

“No,” he said, a mischievous smile forming across his face. “I told Catherine we couldn’t see each other anymore, and then I proposed to you.”

I widened my eyes and leaned forward, liking where this was going. “But I thought I was engaged to James?”

“You were,” he said. “Ours was a secret engagement. I still remember the ring—five garnets in a gold setting. It was simple, but it was perfect.”

I looked down at my hand, envisioning what the ring would look like on my finger. An image popped into my mind of the five garnets, all the same size, lined up in a half moon shape along the golden setting.

“It sounds beautiful,” I said, touching the part of my finger where the ring would have sat.

He reached down, brushing his finger against mine. “You remember it?”

“Yes.” I nodded, smiling. “I think I do.”

I waited for him to finish the story, figuring it didn’t end there. There had to be a reason why he questioned trying to fix things this time around, and I wanted to find out.

“So?” I prodded, since it seemed like he wasn’t going to continue without my encouragement. “Did the secret engagement work out?”

“No,” he said, lifting his hand off mine.

“Why not?”

His body stiffened, and he turned his head to look across the lake. “It gets hazy at that point,” he said, shrugging like it didn’t matter. “All I remember was you saying that you wished you’d never met me. You were so upset, and that’s why I thought it would be best to avoid all of those complications this time around.”

“Why would I say that?” I asked. “Did we cause too many problems for our families?”

“Perhaps,” he mused. “I only remember the pain in your voice. I knew I couldn’t do that to you again.”

“But everything’s different now,” I said, looking up at him in hope that he would agree. “We don’t have all those issues with our families. The only people who will be upset about us being together are Chelsea and Jeremy, but we’ll deal with that. It’ll be a lot easier this time around, I promise.”

He looked back down at me, his eyes shining with doubt. “You make it sound so easy.”

“Because it
is
easy,” I insisted, wishing he would understand. “Whatever problems we had back then don’t exist anymore. It’s why we have this second chance, and we can’t throw it away. Besides, you were the one who said we’re not exactly the same as we were back then. If we’re not the same, then things can turn out differently.”

He was silent for a moment. “I hope you’re right,” he said, although he still didn’t sound convinced. “I just hate thinking I could lose you all over again.”

I held my gaze with his. “I know I’m right.”

He pulled me closer, and the next thing I knew his lips were on mine, and I had a feeling that everything would work out. I leaned into him, our bodies pressed against each other, and it was like everything he said swirled together in my mind. I was everywhere at once—in the ballroom seeing him for the first time, sitting in school on that first day when he walked into the classroom, at the Halloween dance when we were together for that one song, and on the lake with the gentle waves rocking the boat back and forth on the water.

“When will you tell Chelsea about us?” he asked, his breath warm against my cheek. “I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up at school. I hate not being able to be near you, stuck watching Jeremy leering over you like he owns you.”

“I don’t like it, either,” I said, leaning back to look at him. “But Chelsea’s a mess. I’ve never seen her like this after any breakup, and she’s had a lot of them. You broke her heart.”

“And I feel bad about that,” he said. “But it’s you I love, not her. You believe me, right? Always and forever.”

“Of course I believe you,” I promised. “I’ll tell her by the end of the week. She just needs a little more time.”

He nodded. “Alright.”

A light flicked off in the corner of my eye, and I looked over at a house almost as large as Drew’s. I didn’t know how late it was, but most of the lights were off in the neighborhood, minus the one shining from Drew’s room. I glanced down at my watch, amazed by how much time had passed.

“It’s getting late,” he said, checking the time on his watch. “I should take you home.”

Despite wanting to stay on the lake longer, I knew he was right. Plus, my mom would be awake soon, and I didn’t want to get in trouble. The moonlight glimmered off his dark hair as he moved towards the captain’s seat, and I replayed the events of the past few months in my mind, amazed by how much my life had changed in such a short amount of time.

Still, it was impossible to be completely happy knowing that every day I didn’t tell Chelsea about Drew and me being together was a day closer she came to finding out from someone else.

CHAPTER 30

“My parents are going out of town this weekend, so I’m having a party at my house tomorrow night,” Shannon announced that Thursday at lunch.

I nodded in acknowledgment, trying to keep my eyes open after the exhaustion of sneaking out every night. It felt like heavy weights hung from my eyelashes, and if I could have used toothpicks to prop up my lids without risking poking myself in the eye, I would have done it in an instant. I almost fell asleep in history that morning, and Chelsea had to hit me on the arm when I started to doze off.

“Lizzie.” Chelsea snapped her fingers in front of my face, causing me to jump in my chair.

“Yeah?” I asked, turning my head to look at her, surprised by the annoyed look on her face.

“You’re coming to Shannon’s party tomorrow night, right?”

I wanted to say no, but the entire table went quiet, waiting for my answer. Chelsea watched me, her eyes begging me to say yes.

“Sure,” I agreed, knowing I owed it to her. “It’ll be fun.”

“It will be now since you’re coming,” Jeremy said from his seat all the way on the other end of the table.

Amber leaned closer to Jeremy, shooting a death stare in my direction. I looked away, not wanting her to think I was trying to get in the way of whatever was going on between the two of them. If he wanted to be with her, then that was his decision.

“Thanks for agreeing to come,” Chelsea whispered after everyone resumed their conversation. “You’ve been such a great friend these past few days.”

“No problem,” I said, forcing a small smile. “I want to go. It’s been a stressful week.”

She took a sip of her soda and placed it back on the table. “I bet it has.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused by her sudden change of tone.

“Just the whole thing with Jeremy and Amber.” She moved her head closer to mine to make sure he couldn’t overhear. “I know you broke up with him, but it still must be hard to watch.”

“I’m fine.” I shrugged, knowing that there was only a small bit of truth in her statement. It wasn’t so much that Jeremy seemed to be moving on that bothered me as much as the fact that it was with Amber, although I tried to not make a big deal about it. “He can do what he wants.”

“I guess he can,” she agreed. “But even though he’s spending a lot of time with her, I still don’t think he’s over you.”

I glanced at where he sat talking with Amber. “He looks pretty over it to me,” I said, watching her lean closer to him and whisper something in his ear. “Besides, we broke up for a reason. It wasn’t working between the two of us.”

“Just checking,” she said, resting her elbows on the table. “You’re always so quiet about these things, and I wanted to make sure you weren’t keeping things to yourself because you were worried about upsetting me after the whole thing with Drew. You’ve just been so nice since our breakup, and I really do appreciate it.”

I nodded, dropping my fork on my plate, my food not looking appetizing anymore. At least there were only two more periods to go until the end of the school day.

* * *

“Any idea why Chelsea told me about Shannon’s party tomorrow night?” Drew leaned against the locker next to mine as I packed my bag to go home, casting a shadow over the pile of books in my hand.

My first instinct was to look around the hallway to make sure Chelsea, Jeremy, or even worse—Shannon—weren’t in the area. After seeing that no one from our close group of friends was around, I allowed myself to breathe normally. My muscles relaxed when I looked back at Drew and I smiled at my slight bit of paranoia. Refocusing, I allowed what he said to sink in.

“Chelsea invited you?” I asked, making sure I’d heard right.

“In chemistry today.” He cocked his head to the side, curious to see my reaction. "I believe she said something about how you and Jeremy were going, and how it would be fun for all of us to be friends again."

"We weren't exactly all friends to begin with,” I said in confusion, trying to figure out what Chelsea was up to.

“It was weird,” he agreed. “I said I had plans already, since I’m guessing being around Chelsea and Jeremy isn’t on the top of our ‘fun things we want to do’ list.”

I put my books into my bag and shut my locker. “I did tell her I’d go,” I said, wincing as I spoke, still annoyed at myself for agreeing. “Everyone was talking about it at lunch, and she guilted me into it.”

“I guess that means you’re waiting until Saturday to tell her about us?” He leaned his back against the locker, crossing his arms over his chest.

“We said I should wait until the end of the week.” I shrugged. “Saturday’s still the end of the week. So I’m sticking with the plan to tell her by then.”

He leaned closer to me, reaching forward and stopping himself a moment later. “I just don’t want this to be even worse because you kept it from her for so long,” he said. “On that day in class—when we had to read what we wrote about the most important moment in our lives—it was obvious how much your friendship means to both of you.”

“I’ll talk to her on Saturday,” I said, knowing he was right. “I just don’t want to ruin her entire weekend.

He nodded once, locking his eyes on mine and resisting moving any closer. “The lake tonight?” he said softly, making sure no one else would hear.

“I want to,” I said, running my hands through my hair. “But I need sleep. And I haven’t even started studying for my genetics test tomorrow, which I need to do so I don’t fail.”

“You won’t fail,” he said, edging his hand towards mine until I felt his fingers graze my palm. A warm tingling sensation traveled up my arm, and I didn’t move my hand away. “I think I’ll go to the party tomorrow night. I heard Shannon’s parties are wild, and I’m curious to see how it compares to the ones in the City.”

“You do know that Manhattan isn’t the only city in the world, right?” I joked.

“Sorry.” He laughed. “But if you’re not having fun tomorrow night, let me know and I’ll take you home. Alright?”

“I’m going to try to have fun,” I said, hoping it would be possible. “But if it’s that awful, of course I’ll let you know.”

“Good.” He drew his hand back, satisfied with my answer. “I just want you to know you can trust me.”

“Of course I trust you,” I said, smiling. “What we have is strong enough to transcend time. I’ve never trusted anything more in my life.”

His eyes shone with sadness, and I wondered what I’d said wrong.

“Is everything okay?” I asked, momentarily forgetting about trying to keep our relationship secret.

“Yeah,” he said, relaxing his face into a smile. “But it’ll be better next week in school when we can finally stop hiding the fact that we’re together.”

“It will,” I agreed. “Just be patient.”

“You know I’m not the patient type.”

I laughed. “I know. But two days isn’t that long.”

“Compared to how long we waited to be together, I guess you have a point,” he said, smirking.

“So I’ll see you tomorrow then,” I said, upset that we wouldn’t be going to the lake that night. It was a good decision though. All those nights sneaking out meant I barely got any studying done. Or sleep.

“I guess you will.” He leaned closer to me until there were only inches between us. “I love you, Elizabeth.”

“Always and forever,” I repeated the same words he spoke earlier that week on the boat. It was impossible to imagine being without him. The roots of our relationship were deeper than anyone could ever understand, and they were wound so tightly together that they were impossible to break apart.

If we were strong enough to make it this far, then one party wouldn’t be a big deal at all.