“What took you so long?” Cam asked. “Emmie and I have been here for hours and I’m starving.”
Diamond rustled his brown hair. “Hours, young man? I don’t think your father and I are that slow.”
“I’m thirsty,” Emmie chimed in.
“Give me a minute and we will all have something to eat and drink.” Diamond shook the sand out of the blanket and spread it on the ground as Jesse pulled the picnic basket from the wagon. She passed out the food, smiling as Cam began to wolf his down. He must be due for a growing spurt the way he was eating lately.
They had chicken sandwiches, oranges from their own trees, and cupcakes spread with thick frosting for dessert. As usual, Diamond had tried to plan for all eventualities while still packing light. She had a bag of first aid supplies in the wagon and her trusty knife rested in her pocket. She no longer felt the need to carry her pepper spray. Jesse would keep her and the children safe.
She stole a glance at him, but he was busy eating his sandwich and didn’t notice her gaze. She had a husband, children, her career, and a home in what would one day be an exclusive zip code. If anyone was watching them, as she had watched so many before, they looked like an ordinary family. No one would guess she had come from the future and had the foreknowledge to prove it. She and Jesse might never profit from what she knew, but she thought she remembered enough history to keep them out of trouble and to invest wisely. Her children and grandchildren would benefit. By the time she was born, her descendants would probably be rich. It was hard to wrap her head around.
If the blue crystal were to reappear, she would gladly return to the twenty-first century if she could take Jesse and the kids with her. But she no longer wished for that day. She had everything she needed here and now.
Epilogue
“What are you reading?”
Ari sat on the settee in the parlor, going through her correspondence, a pot of tea at her elbow. “A letter from Diamond.” She reached over to the teapot and poured Bryce a cup, adding a bit of sugar.
“Hope she’s not asking for anything else,” he grumbled. “She got the rest of her promised dowry when they bought their farm last year.”
“I think Diamond is truly out of your hair. It’s a long way to California.”
“Not so long by train.”
“True. I suppose she might come back to visit. I wouldn’t mind. There are few enough people I can talk to about the future.”
Bryce settled into his chair, setting his cane beside him with a thump. “I know she tempted you to bring Hannah back to this time period, but we made the right decision. Hannah made her choice, and we had to let her go.”
“I know you’re right. Time travel is far too dangerous to take chances with. If she came back, even for a visit, she might get stuck here, unable to return to the future and the life she created there. It wouldn’t be fair to her. But I wish we could have seen her again. I hope she is alive and living a happy life, but just as we are dead and gone in her time, it feels like she’s dead in ours.”
“Gone but not dead. I miss her, too. I could have taken care of that young man who wouldn’t leave her alone. Surely she knew that, knew she could stay here.”
“She longed to return to the twenty-first century,” Ari assured her husband. “She was born there and felt at home there. I hoped she would adjust to life here, but as time went on, I think her idealized vision of the future only grew stronger.”
“By standards of this time, she would be an old woman by now, though not as ancient as we are.”
Ari smiled. They were lucky not to have become seriously ill or injured since returning to the nineteenth century, but she and Victoria also used their knowledge of nutrition and exercise to keep old age at bay. It didn’t hurt that Bryce and Sebastien had invested heavily in steamboats and then in railroads. They had also purchased land surrounding the city of St. Louis, knowing it would increase in value in the long run. Both families lived a comfortable lifestyle, but Bryce, with the business savvy of his father, had taken things further, creating a flourishing enterprise.
The three children she’d given birth to after Hannah had all married well and managed parts of the family business. They had given her and Bryce ten grandchildren and a growing number of great-grandchildren. But she missed the ones she would never know. Hannah’s children.
“Do you think she ever regretted it? As miraculous as the twenty-first century seems it was not without problems. Did she find what she was looking for?”
“What exactly was she looking for? We could give her almost everything,” Bryce grumbled.
“No internet, no TV, no Disney channel, no indoor plumbing or electricity. Shall I go on?” Ari liked to tease Bryce because when they’d made the leap to the past to save Sebastien and recover Bryce’s buried treasure, he’d been adamant that they return to the twenty-first century. But when the loss of the blue crystal made that impossible, he’d easily gone back to the old ways. By the time they had recovered the crystal, they were a growing, prosperous and well-connected family with no interest in leaving.
He laughed. “But we can afford servants to handle most of the drudgery tasks and enough money to go to the theater every night if we wish.”
“She may have wanted a career.”
“I’ve allowed her sisters to dabble in the business.”
“Listen to you. Dabble. Hannah wasn’t interested in ‘dabbling’ until she found herself a husband.”
“I don’t see why not.”
“Yes, you do. You were there for a few weeks. Women have choices
