Would it be best to just let Jesse go?
* * *
Diamond sent Ari a note asking if she could visit. Two days later she sat in the elegant parlor at the Poole home, a cup of tea and a plate of cookies at her elbow.
“How is your marriage working out?” Ari asked.
“Fine, I guess. Jesse has been away most of the time.”
“And now the Yanks have taken him prisoner?”
“Yes. I was hoping Bryce could use his influence to get him paroled. Or exchanged. I would prefer parole, but I don’t want him sent to a prisoner of war camp. We both know how dreadful they can be.”
“Bryce has friends in high places but has no authority with the military. Still, he will join us later and you can ask him then. I thought we would get reacquainted first.”
Diamond shifted position. “I’m sorry for the way I pursued you in the twenty-first century. I have a good instinct as a reporter and knew Bryce was hiding something but didn’t consider the damage I might cause by exposing him.”
“I get it. Your job was to uncover the truth.”
“Uncovering the truth is important. I haven’t changed my mind about that, but I no longer believe it’s worth any cost. Perhaps I never really did. Was covering the war in Afghanistan worth my dad’s life? Not to me.” The warm weight of Ari’s sympathetic gaze eased some of her tension. While it still seemed strange for Ari to be an old woman, the years had only added to her serenity.
“I didn’t realize you had lost your father to war. It must be difficult arriving here during the Civil War.”
“Anyone from my era would struggle in this time period, but the war makes everything worse.”
“I’m sorry we no longer have the necklace, but can’t ask Hannah to risk returning, even if it were possible. There’s no way to guarantee she would get my message. And she may have built a good life for herself. She was born in the twenty-first century and missed the wonders she had known in her childhood.”
“I’m not asking you to bring her back. Not anymore. I’m resigned to living the rest of my life here.” Diamond heard the truth in her own words as she spoke them. Though she still missed modern-day conveniences, she no longer felt a burning desire to return. Hard as life was here, she would prefer to stay with Jesse than go back to her old life. When she had first heard Victoria’s story she had thought the woman crazy to give up the Internet, electricity, indoor plumbing, modern medicine, women’s’ rights, air conditioning and all the other things technology provided. Now she understood. She wasn’t sure she would make the same choice if the necklace were to reappear, but she understood.
“Sometimes I think the crystal takes you where you need to go,” Ari said.
“For you. Perhaps even for Victoria. But not for me. I got caught up in your vortex. Fate never meant for me to come along on your trip to the past.” Diamond raised a hand when she saw Ari frown. “Don’t worry. I’m not blaming you again. I played a part in ruining my life.”
“Is your life ruined? Jesse seems like a good man.”
Diamond shrugged. She refused to withdraw into depression as she had upon first learning she could never return home. She would make something of her life with or without Jesse. But she desperately wanted to make her marriage work. However, when she recalled how distant Jesse had seemed when she visited him, she questioned whether they could ever make a life together. “Jesse is a good man, but I can never have the life I had in the twenty-first century.”
“We don’t have the technology you’re used to, but there are some advantages. Life moves at a slower pace here.”
“I’m not sure I consider that an advantage. I liked my fast-paced life.”
Ari eyed her skeptically.
“The excitement of the newsroom. The thrill of chasing a story…” Diamond’s voice trailed off. She had enjoyed those things, but her life had still been missing deep personal connections. If she hadn’t been so determined to break a story, she never would have found herself in this predicament.
“You don’t have to give up everything you loved about your old life,” Ari said, a smile crossing her lined, but still compelling, face as Bryce entered the room. “We have good news for you, but I’ll let Bryce tell you himself.”
“Ari has been after me again,” he said in the tone of a man oppressed. But he gazed fondly at his wife before turning towards Diamond. “She told me about your work for the Gazette. I’ve pulled a few strings and got you a place on the St. Louis Democrat.”
“That’s great.” It was what she had wanted when she first realized she was trapped in the eighteen hundreds. Working as a reporter had seemed a much better way to support herself than marriage to a near stranger, no matter how attractive he was. Why then did she feel a stab of disappointment? She still had the dowry and a steady income would enable her to rent her own place and still stay close to Jesse. She would no longer depend on Janet and Finn. Was it because, having done her this favor, she worried Bryce would not help her with the more important issue of getting Jesse out of prison?
“I appreciate what you have done, but I really hoped you could use your influence to get Jesse paroled. We would both like to put this war behind us as much as possible.”
Bryce walked over to an unoccupied chair, leaning heavily on his cane. He didn’t speak until after he had seated himself, and Ari had poured him a cup of tea. “I thought your husband was an ardent supporter of the South.”
“Not really. He’s loyal to his home, but he never wanted things to come to
