Read The Christmas Eve Letter: A Time Travel Novel Online
Authors: Elyse Douglas
Tags: #Christmas romance, #Christmas book, #Christmas story, #Christmas novel, #General Fiction
Yours,
John Allister Harringshaw
Newport, Rhode Island, December 24, 1930
Eve reached for a tissue and blotted her eyes. She handed the letter to Patrick and he read it quietly, while Mr. Wallingford patiently waited, reaching over several times to rub Georgy Boy’s head, who lay contentedly at the man’s feet
.
Eve and Patrick sat erect and still, as Mr. Wallingford read the total amount of the trust.
“After taxes, and with interest accrued over a period of eighty-six years, the total amount, which will be deposited into your account, comes to five million, six hundred and fifty-four thousand, two hundred and twenty-one dollars.”
Mr. Wallingford looked up into Eve’s and Patrick’s faces, which were blank with shock.
After Mr. Wallingford left, Eve called Joni and told her that she and Patrick might be late for dinner. They wanted to play in the snow with Georgy Boy. She didn’t tell Joni about the sudden windfall. Eve and Patrick needed time alone together to regain their composure and to discuss their future plans now that everything had changed, yet again.
And then Joni said something that froze Eve in place.
“Oh, by the way, Eve. I forgot to tell you that I have the lantern you bought at that antique shop. It was on the park bench next to your purse and cell phone. I thought you might want it back. Should I bring it over tonight?”
Eve had pushed the lantern completely from her mind. She’d thought about it, for sure, but she’d assumed it had vanished. She hadn’t asked Joni about it because she didn’t want to know. Out of sight, out of mind. The idea of it made her jumpy and confused.
“Joni, you said the police called you because you were on my cell phone contact list.”
“Yes.”
“And when you met with the police, you showed them my last text to you, and you told them that, most likely, you were the last person I’d contacted before I disappeared? And you told them you had Georgy Boy?”
“Yes. All of that. I told you that.”
Eve’s jaw clenched and then released. “Joni, the man who found my purse, my cell phone and the lantern, did he report finding anything else?”
“No. Nothing else.”
“He didn’t report finding an old letter?”
“No. There was no letter.”
“Okay, Joni, thanks,” Eve said, uneasily.
“You sound funny,” Joni said.
“It’s nothing. Yes, bring the lantern tonight. Yes, I’d like to have it.” And then as an afterthought. “At least, I think I’d like to have it.”
After hanging up, Eve stood, lost in thought. Of course there was no original Christmas Eve letter, because John Allister had never written it. The letter never existed, so it was never placed in the lantern. The letter wasn’t written because Eve had gone back in time and changed history. Evelyn Sharland had survived. John Allister and Evelyn Sharland were surely together on Christmas Eve 1885. There was no need to write that sad Christmas Eve letter.
Eve stood mystified. But
she
had the memory of finding the letter and the memory of reading it. What did that mean? The letter is what had originally touched her, and helped to send her back in time. If there was no original letter, then was Eve now living in an altered world, remembering yet another?
The Christmas Eve Letter was now the letter John Harringshaw had written to her in 1930. So what was this world Eve was living in now? Georgy Boy was a different color. She was living in a different apartment. As the days went by, would Eve become aware of other differences and subtle events that were not part of her original life before she embarked on her journey to 1885?
Eve felt a jab of fear. In her own small way, she had changed the course of history. In this world—the world she was now living—Eve had never found John Allister’s letter in Granny Gilbert’s antique store, because it didn’t exist.
So then what about the lantern? Did it hold any power in this time? Was it still a beacon—a conduit that could somehow connect the old world with the new world? Okay. Then which old world? Which new world? More importantly, should she destroy the lantern or should she take it back to Central Park, light it and see what happens?
Patrick came in from the kitchen. “Everything okay?”
Eve nodded, lost in her own stare. “Yeah, yes, I think so.”
“Ready for our Christmas Eve walk, Miss Kennedy/Sharland?” he asked coming up to her with a playful grin. He leaned down and kissed her longingly.
Eve kissed him back, pressing herself into him and whispering her love for him. She stroked his cheek, feeling the day-old beard. “Yes, Mr. Detective, let’s go.”
Patrick struggled into his black overcoat, hat and gloves, and then fastened Georgy Boy’s leash, while Eve swung into her black wool coat, red woolen cap and gloves. Eve switched off the Christmas tree lights and, before she left the apartment, she paused a moment to glance around, to remember the first night she’d read John Allister’s letter; the night she had been so touched by it; the night she had felt so terribly lonely.
She smiled with calm satisfaction. What did it matter what world or what time it was? What did any of it matter? She loved her new world. She loved Patrick Gantly, with all her heart, and whatever the challenges—whatever the surprises or the hardships—they’d face them all together, as husband and wife. That’s all that mattered now.
“Coming, Eve?” Patrick called from downstairs.
Outside, Eve paused to look up at her brownstone, as large lacy snowflakes drifted down. She thought of John Allister and she stamped about in the snow until she figured she was standing on the same spot he had stood in 1930, just before he’d written the Christmas Eve letter to her. She smiled at the thought, and she wished Mr. and Mrs. John Allister Harringshaw a Merry Christmas, wherever they were.
Eve, Patrick and Georgy Boy ambled over to Riverside Park. It was a magical snowy night, with a soft wind and heavy gray moving clouds. In the distance they heard carolers singing
Silent Night
, and the sound of it warmed them and brought them closer.
Kids pulling sleds and red plastic toboggans hurried by, pointing to a far hill, where the best sledding was. Eve heard the children’s shouts and high laughter. Maybe later, she and Patrick would swing by and watch them or, better yet, maybe they’d join in and make some runs down the snowy slopes in an old wooden sled.
Georgy Boy sniffed at the ground and then snorted, picking up a scent even in the snow. Eve and Patrick took hands and roamed aimlessly along the snowy carriage path, their breath puffing out white clouds. They stopped once, looked at each other lovingly, and then kissed under an amber park lamp.
And then Patrick said something, but the whistling wind covered his voice.
When he leaned toward her and repeated it, Eve laughed, went to tip toes and kissed him. She grabbed his hand and tugged him and Georgy Boy off into a hazy curtain of falling snow.
The End
Thank you for taking the time to read
The Christmas Eve Letter
. If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a short review. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and it is much appreciated.
Thank you,
Elyse Douglas
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