May

May held the flat, thin box, shaking it lightly. “It feels like it’s empty.”

“I assure you it’s not.” His eyes seemed as if they were uncertain. “I might need to do some explaining after you open it.”

May pulled one tail on the bow and then lifted the loosened twine from around the box. The paper fell open, and she dropped that to the floor. When she pulled back the top of the box, a small braided crown of flowers lay at the bottom. It looked as if the wreath were pressed and preserved long ago. The wildflowers and grass had dulled with time, but it was unbroken.

“I often made such wreaths as a child.” May held the precious object and looked closer at it. They seemed to be the same flowers she used to use, braided in the same way, and of the same size. “Did you make this?”

“No. I visited your home when James and I were fifteen. You and I sat together one day on a bench in the garden, and I—”

“You picked some wildflowers for me.” May had a sudden recollection of that moment. The sun was warm on her hair and a breeze swayed through the grass. She searched back through her memory. She had directed him to choose the best blooms as he waded among the weeds, doing her bidding. What came before that? “You and your mother had been at our house for a week, and we had become friends.” She looked into Henry’s face and saw him nod solemnly. “I made us both crowns from those flowers.”

May loved the smile her remembrance brought to Henry’s face. He was a handsome man.

“And I wore it,” he said.

“Yes, you did. All day if I remember correctly. Even with James teasing you about it. He called you Princess Henrietta.” Tears filled her eyes. “You’ve kept it all these years?”

“Yes, I made a true friend of you that week.” His voice was husky, and May felt as if he were holding back something he really wanted to say. She waited, but his lips were pressed together.

Suddenly he picked up another gift and handed it to her.

“Is this another memory?” she asked.

Henry just smiled.

Oh for the love, his smile is amazing! Her heart was in tatters, but she was glad a true friend sill loved her and she loved him.

She tore into the gift faster than the previous one. When she opened the box, there was a letter inside, folded into a little boat, sitting in the bottom. Her hand flew to her mouth as she gasped. “This isn’t—You didn’t keep—” She picked up the letter carefully. Its folds looked soft and thin, and the edges also showed wear from being read many times.

May’s mind flooded with memories. This time she was fourteen, and he was returning for his last year at school. Henry had been visiting James, sort of. He’d been visiting her too. They’d taken rides together, gone fishing, and walked the garden path each night.

One evening, he stopped them beside the fountain. “I’m leaving tomorrow to go back to school.” Henry’s voice had sounded sad to her. May hadn’t wanted him to leave so soon, but knew he would. She felt the same ache in her chest that she’d felt so many years ago, but today, it seemed to be cracking open like a clam shell that kept snapping shut.

She had to know more. Her thoughts nudged, trying to wedge the seam open again. Slowly and with concentration, she could feel through the crack and see bits of her past with Henry.

The tiny boat was folded in such a way that fragments of sentences could be seen. “Thank you for the… Will you be… I miss you.” Her teenage heart had decided that Henry was her first boyfriend. She’d known at the time that a friendship was the only thing allowed in her Victorian century.  But she’d had time in a modern century to see other kinds of relationships. She didn’t offer him her heart in that letter, but she offered him an intimate friendship.

“Would you read it to me?” Henry asked. His voice, sultry and deep, sent chills across her scalp and down her neck. While she’d been woolgathering, he’d moved closer to her on the couch. Two tiny presents sat between them.

She nodded and slipped her finger through the folds of paper, unfolding the letter carefully. Her eyes immediately went to the salutation, unwinding the years between when they were penned and this moment in time—Dear Henry. Her muscles seemed to tighten. When she had written those words she knew her heart meant My Dearest Love Henry. Her voice clamped down, disallowing her to read. Her heart hammered within its cage for freedom. The letter called to her, demanding her voice. She wanted this more than breath at this moment.

May looked into Henry’s face and saw the longing palpable in herself. His pupils grew, and his mouth parted slightly. Her will pressed against the dam in her, and she found the strength to whisper the words, looking into his eyes, “Dear Henry.” The phrase was sweet on her tongue, and she reveled in the triumph of saying it.

She read the next sentence. “I woke up this morning wondering what you were doing. Were you having eggs too? Did you plan to take a ride in the countryside?” It looked as if Henry were holding his breath. His face, rapt with attention, tipped toward her.

She continued to the next part. “Thank you for the letter telling me about your studies. I like knowing what you’re doing. It makes it seem like you’re closer than you are.” Like a soothing caress, each word gave her courage to read the next.

Henry pushed his hand through his hair. His chest rose with a deep breath. Then his fingers cupped around his eyebrows, shielding his eyes from her. Her stomach dropped to see him so moved to tears.

“Will you be with James when he comes home at the next school break? You probably have many things to do, but you are always welcome.” May could feel the anticipation sparkling through her chest to relive the words penned years ago. The simple and budding love was pure as rain, refreshing her soul. May’s eyes glanced over the page. She hadn’t written much more. They had added more memories and emotions between them over the following years. She’d forgotten how simple the choice of being with Henry had seemed many times as they grew up.

“I hope you do. I’ve planted a garden. I think you’d like it.” While just hours ago, she had been encased in a cloying emotion that suffocated her mind and heart with need, every sentence brought release.

Each word had chipped away at the bind around her. With a twist and a crushing blow within her chest, the remnants of the spell released. Newfound freedom nearly stole her voice, but she whispered past the rush of feelings. “I miss you. Always your friend, May.” The truth of that ran down her spine. Their love had dripped into her life gathering and growing without her even knowing the depth of it.

Every feeling, passion, excitement, grief, doubt, and joy asserted itself, and she thought of the moments in their lives that bound them by choice not compulsion.

May lunged across the last two presents and threw her arms around Henry’s neck, knocking him off balance and into the corner of the couch. As she lay on top of him, her lips crushed to his with the denied emotion of the past two days.

His arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer. Then his arms loosened, and his hands ran up and down her back as his mouth caressed her lips. A sigh escaped her, and he sounded as if he moaned deep within his chest, and a new intensity to his kiss surprised her. One hand slipped up her neck and into her hair as Henry adjusted the angle of the kiss.

His lips seared her with passion. She could feel his fingers weaving in her strands of hair. Then his lips slanted the other way and he began again to drive her to madness. When her heart seemed to pound against her ribs, he whispered in her ear, “I love you, Lady May Cottrell.”

“I love you, Henry. I’ll love you always.” She closed her eyes to feel the familiar warmth of being with him.

When her breath finally calmed, she asked, “Why did you keep that letter?” Her hair had fallen forward, laying across his face, and she brushed it behind her shoulder.

Henry looked as if he were going to answer, but stopped. His finger traced up her jawline, then dipped into her hair. He separated a curly lock and pulled it forward laying it on the skin of his jaw and neck.

May leaned in to peck his lips.

“I kept them all, but that one was special. You folded it into a boat to remind me of that time. That was the last time we’d been together before you wrote it.”

May laughed softly thinking of that day. “I honestly hadn’t meant to tip the boat over that day.” Then her voice became more solemn. Her forearms pushed against his chest, and May arched up to look into his face. “And you saved me. My dress was so heavy, and the wet weight of it pulled me under no matter how hard I struggled. Thank you.”

“You already said that years ago.” He pecked her lips this time. “It wasn’t just the words in that letter that made it a keepsake. I thought I could feel something more in them. I imagined that our friendship was turning into love. At least it was for me. I’ve patiently waited for you to grow up into the most amazing and beautiful woman I know.” His stomach muscles tightened underneath hers as he rose up to kiss her chin.

May thought of how she’d nearly lost him. Had she stayed in the twenty-first century as she’d thought she would, she might have lived her whole life without the contentment she now felt. She rested her head on Henry’s chest. Laying between his arms like this, she could see her future so clearly. Her body tingled, and her mind could only think of him. Oh, she needed to marry him soon.

Henry rolled to the side then sat up and helped May sit beside him. He looked around and found the small boxes on the floor. Picking them up, he handed one to her. “You have two more gifts to open today.”

In the next box was a lock of her hair tied with a ribbon that she’d given to him when she was seventeen. He was leaving the next day for a tour of the continent and then to his estate in Germany. He’d be gone for nearly two years. She picked up the curl, and Henry’s hand clasped around hers.

He turned the back of herhand toward him and kissed it. “You’d said the lock was so I would never forget you. It’s scandalous to say, but I slept with it in an envelope under my pillow.”

May laughed. “I think that’s sweet.” She placed it back in the box.

Henry picked up the last box. He slid from the couch and kneeled on the floor in front of her. He opened the box and withdrew the gold band with a ruby and diamond setting.

May stared at it. This was the choice she had avoided and dreaded.

“Whatever has kept you from me, whatever the reason, we can work through it together. I can support you in your desires. You needn’t give up yourself to marry me.”

She thought back to her last act as a nurse—the woman in the alley. It was then that she’d decided to return. It wasn’t the modern world that made her a nurse. It was her knowledge and skills, and her desire to help others. She still had that with her. I could make that difference here too.

When he placed the ring in the center of her palm, he said, “Everything I have is yours. Everything I am wants to serve your happiness. Every day our love will grow. Please accept me as your husband and be my wife. I love you, May. Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she said. Her voice cracked, and her eyes cried with happiness as he slid the ring onto her finger and kissed it.

He stood, and she rose to stand in front of him. With a tight embrace and kiss, they sealed their future together.

May intertwined their fingers. “I’d like to tell my father,” she said, pulling him out of the room and across the hall. “Dad?”

Lord Cottrell set a book down on his lap and looked at the couple. A huge smile overtook his face. “So you did it? And she said yes?” he asked Henry.

“Yes, and she did. I request to set a date.”

“Very soon!” May added. “Would you and Mother join us for a walk in the orangery?” Although Henry was the one person who knew her best, there was a huge part of her that she’d lived in secret.

“We’d be delighted.”

“We’ll meet you there,” May said, taking Henry’s hand and leading him away.

May and Henry were sitting on a bench beneath an orange tree when her parents arrived and sat on the bench facing them.

“Congratulations to both of you. I couldn’t be happier,” Lady Cottrell said.

James came through the door, jogging toward them. “Am I too late?”

“What are you doing here?” May asked.

“I’m here to help,” he said to his sister, then to Henry he saluted. “Congratulations, Saalfeld. I didn’t think you had it in you.” He stood by their father and crossed his arms. “Go ahead, May. We’re all ready.”

What had seemed doable moments ago felt momentous now. Would Henry believe her even with this many witnesses? “I have a secret to tell, and it might change how you feel about me.” Henry was shaking his head, but May continued. “You might not want to marry me when you know this truth. If that’s the case, I’ll try to understand.”

“Tell him already. I’m meeting Vera for—” James’s mouth snapped shut when he noticed the glare on their mother’s face.

Lord Cottrell added, “What they’re about to share with you is in the strictest confidence. You’re receiving knowledge much as I had when I decided to marry my wife. Simon had to make the same decision a few months ago.”

Henry’s eyes flicked around the group and landed on May. She looked at him and pleaded silently for him to understand and accept this impossibility. He reached for her hands and held them both.

May took a deep breath to draw the courage she needed. “There have been times when I went away then came back, and you noted how much older I seemed to be. You were right. I have the ability to travel to a different time period, stay as long as I’d like, then return back here as if little time has passed.”

Henry’s hands loosened their hold then tightened again, but he said nothing in response. A long moment of silence passed. Everyone looked at him with anticipation.

Finally, he asked, “How?”

Lady Cottrell spoke up next. “I was born in that other century, nearly a hundred and fifty years in the future. I knew the advantages there, especially in medicine. Some of those were very important to my children, so I traveled back with the help of faerie magic while I still carried them.”

“And each of us,” James added, “have traveled there as we grew up also.”

“I’ve gone many times,” May said. “I graduated from college recently.” At seeing Henry’s eyebrows arch, she added, “That isn’t an unusual thing in the future. Women are as likely to go to university as men are. I’m a nurse. I specialized in medical treatment for women and babies.”

He pinned James with a look. “Is this more of the faerie magic? And how can that be possible? I’ve known you your whole life,” Henry asked.

“We’re closer in age that you think,” May replied. “I’ve sort of caught up to you. I spent four years away and you aged only a month at a time.

Henry was shaking his head, and May’s heart nearly stopped. Please don’t let it matter.

His hands slacked and he stood. He paced away from the family, then turned around and looked at May then each of the others and back to May.

She stood at the bench but didn’t approach him.

“All of you travel through time?” he said.

“No,” Lord Cottrell answered. “They have because of their mother’s unique ability, but I haven’t. I was born when George III was King of Great Britain. This is my time and my home.”

“And Simon?” Henry asked, sitting on a chair across the way.

“Yes. He knows.” May walked very slowly toward Henry. “Cora is from the future too, but chose to live here with him as my mother did with my father.” She stopped in front of him and he stood. Her fingers touched his, and he reached for her. “As I choose to live here with you,” she said.

He pulled her to him in front of her family. His lips found hers, and he kissed her passionately despite the audience.

James clapped. “That went well. I’m out of here.” He stopped at the door and said, “Welcome to the family. We might make a time traveler of you, if you wish. Could be fun.”

Henry’s questioning eyes looked at May. “You have time to think about that later. First, we need to get married,” May said.

“First, we’ll celebrate Christmas, then we’ll consider the wedding,” May’s mother corrected. “We should probably ready ourselves for dinner.” She tucked her hand in Lord Cottrell’s arm and they walked out the door.

Henry pointed toward the door everyone left through. “But James said—I guess I don’t know what he said.” He shook his head, and his fingers pushed through his hair.

“It’s possible now, at least Aunt Nellie says it is, to make someone travel who hadn’t been either selected by the magic or inherited the ability from their mother, so you could.”

“I don’t know if you want to be the first Aunt Nellie sends,” James said. “It might not go well. Consider what happened this week when she helped you with her love potion.”

“Very true. You can tell me more about that later.” Henry extended his arm. “I’m quite full of confusion for the moment.” They walked together down the hallway and up the stairs. When they stopped at her door, Henry said, “I couldn’t be happier that you said yes.” He kissed her on her forehead. “So you mean that we could consider not only where but when our wedding trip will take us?”

“Precisely.” May felt buoyant. She’d been hiding from him her whole adult life, avoiding his proposals. He’d been her best friend and confidant for years. It was freeing to share everything with him, her whole self. And he accepted it.