Vincent had moved on from the British military after World War I and was credited for his part in preparing American troops to engage in trench warfare. Briefly, he returned to Britain to be honored there for his service during the war and for his discharge ceremony. Afterwards, he returned to Washington where he became a legal American citizen and since he was well versed in history, became a top advisor for Libby.
“Even if you had little value at all,” Libby joked, “I would have found some way to make you a top advisor.”
In the years following the war, Libby invited Woodrow Wilson to the White House many times. She found that since he had not served as the President of the United States, his health was good and as his stress level was not influenced by serving as the Commander in Chief, his stroke never happened. Libby invited his wife as well and she allowed them to come as often as they liked. She felt some guilt – not that it was her fault or Vincent’s. She did not understand how or why they had been placed in the same dream; or how or why that dream had become reality. But the fact was that throughout her entire life, Woodrow Wilson had been the President during World War I and now he would never even serve as the President of the United States. So the guilt remained.
Through it all, their lives continued on. Neither Libby nor Vincent completely gave up hope that everything they were experiencing was some sort of unique drawn-out dream but as the years went by, those thoughts faded. They did not totally disappear but they were reserved for late nights alone in their own beds.
Libby missed her husband and sons severely at first and fell into a deep depression. But she finally came to the realization that she may never see them again. She could seek her husband out but even so, he would not be born for many more years. She would be quite elderly before he was even born, if she lived that long. She knew with an unending sadness that her sons would never be born.
In early 1921, she made the decision to move on. She decided that if this was all a dream, she would return to her husband and could chalk everything that happened up to the fact that it was a dream. She felt shame in this but didn’t know what else to do. She wasn’t sure she could live the rest of her life focused on a life that may never exist again.
1921 was year that Vincent and she became romantically involved. That summer they were married.
That was also the summer that Jack showed up.
It was the photo in the American newspaper that gave Vincent away. The German read the article titled American President Weds and in the picture of the President’s new husband, he saw that man that had killed Adolf Hitler.
And Jack was not alone in this revelation.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Washington, D.C. – November 1921
Jack knew the man who killed Hitler did not belong in this time any more than he did. What he didn’t know was how the man had come to this time. He also knew the President of the United States, the man’s new wife, was not from this time. The President should have been Woodrow Wilson.
Jack often wondered why he couldn’t let this go. He had a quiet life in 1897 in South Carolina. He traveled and murdered without concern and knew he could continue that life uninterrupted until his own death consumed him. But he couldn’t get the man out of his mind. How did it happen? Who was he really? Jack had to find out.
Jack was also curious to what end had Vincent Shakespeare and his wife President Libby Williams (she of course kept her maiden name) changed history? He didn’t really care it if was for the better or not. It was changed. He knew enough about how time worked to know that however well-intentioned the change, there were always consequences.
Jack was one of the consequences for Vincent and Libby.
As he stood in front of the White House plotting his next move, Jack noticed a car pull up and enter the gates. The man who exited the car was a man he knew and not just from the history books. The man, the man who should have been President of the United States, was Woodrow Wilson.
Jack smiled as he watched Wilson enter the White House. Wilson was a man he knew very well. They had history of their own together. Woodrow Wilson and Jack shared a secret. I wonder how President Williams would react if she learned Wilson’s secret? Jack smiled to himself. Then, he couldn’t help it: the irony was too much and he laughed out loud.
As Jack stood outside, Vincent walked into the Blue Room of the White House and saw Woodrow Wilson sitting at the marble-topped table that was the centerpiece of the room. The table had originally been purchased by James Monroe in 1817.
The year was 1921 and in another life, Woodrow Wilson would have only earlier that year finished up his second term as President of the United States. In this life, however, he was the long-serving President of Princeton University. He was in his mid-sixties but Vincent couldn’t help but notice the strength of the man. He had seen some photos of Wilson towards the end of his life (in
