Chapter Twenty-Four

L ibby sighed and bit her lip from yelling at the noise Charlie was making playing a game of good guys and bad guys. Plus, every chance, he'd pick on his sister, who was learning to stand on her own. Every time he noticed she was on her feet, he raced past her, startling her and making her fall. Then Lucy would cry, Charlie would laugh his special evil laugh, and start all over again with his game.

Six weeks. Six weeks they'd been stuck in the house. Shortly after the ball, a series of snowstorms hit the area. Just when they'd cleaned paths to the barn and outhouse, another one would hit. By now they had received nearly three feet of snow. Charlie was going stir crazy. Cora was going stir crazy. And Libby believed she was simply going crazy. They needed to get out of the house. Somehow. Someway.

"Libby. Where are you?" Brad called from the kitchen. He must have come in from doing chores.

"In the parlor with the children."

Stocking-footed, hair slicked down from his stocking hat, he appeared in the doorway. "The sun is finally out. Cora says she needs to get some supplies in case we get another storm."

"Heavens, I hope not. How are you going to get to town?"

"I've hitched the horses to the sleigh. I thought maybe you and the children would want to go with us. The sun makes it feel warmer."

"I would love to, but I'm not sure it's a good idea."

"Why?"

"I guess I have cabin fever."

"Cabin fever?"

"It's when you're stuck in the house so long you're ready to go crazy."

"But wouldn't going to town help?

Charlie raced past, yelled at the top of his lungs, and pretended to shoot Brad. "Take that, you varmint."

Brad grabbed him and held him upside down, which only made Charlie scream louder. Lucy crawled over to him, pulled herself up by his pantleg, and started screaming, "Up. Up. Bird."

Libby closed her eyes. At least back home, no matter how much snow they'd get, it didn't take long for the road crews to clear the roads and they could get out of the house. The main ones, anyway. "Actually, what I need a break from is the little scoundrel. It would do him good to get out of here. Maybe make him run behind the sleigh and burn off some energy. What I really need is some peace and quiet."

"How about this." He set Charlie down and picked up Lucy, which at least made her stop crying. "We'll bundle up these little varmints. With Cora and Joshua along, we should be able to handle them. It should give you a few hours alone."

Libby kissed Brad on the cheek.

"Ooh." Charlie sang. "Mommy and Bradley sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g." He made a kissing sound.

"Where did you learn that?"

"Cora. She said you and Brad would get married and he'd be my new daddy."

Brad's face burned. Probably as red as hers. "Cora?"

"Yep. She did."

"I'll talk to her on the way to town."

"But maybe not in front of big ears."

Charlie laughed. "Who has big ears? I know. Lucy has big ears."

"Charlie Benjamin Daniels. You will not say nasty things about your sister." If she weren't about to have some time alone, she'd make him stay in his room. "You say one more thing or pick on your sister, and you won't be going to town."

"I'm sorry, Mommy. I won't do it again."

Yeah, right. Maybe not for the next fifteen minutes. "All right. Let's get you and Lucy bundled up."

Half an hour later, Libby stood at the front door, waving to her family. Her family. Yes, it was what Brad, Cora, and Joshua had become. If she ever got back to her own time, she'd miss them terribly. Or would she remember them? Too bad there wasn't a book on time travel. Well, there were plenty out there, but not ones describing the ins and outs of actually traveling through time.

She closed the door behind her and soaked in the silence. The only noise was the ticking of a grandfather clock in Brad's office. She giggled. How much time did she have? What should she do? The options were open-ended. Take a bath. But there was no one to carry water. Have a glass of sherry? Not at ten in the morning. Clean the kids' rooms? No. No work. Search for the plates again? No. They'd already found them and Brad had given them to Caleb to pass on to the authorities. Make hot chocolate and read a book? Excellent idea.

Libby nearly skipped down the hallway to the kitchen. She poured milk into a pan and set it on the still-hot stove. Copying Cora, in a cup she added a teaspoon of chocolate powder, two of sugar, and a splash of vanilla. She mixed it together, and when the milk was nice and warm, poured it into the cup.

She picked up the book she'd been trying to read the past few days, and with the cup in her other hand, went into the library. Before sitting down before the fire, she eyed the wall where another room was hidden and where they'd found the plates. She set her book and hot chocolate on a side table by a green winged chair.

With the poker, she stabbed at the coals in the fireplace and tossed on more wood. She took a seat, propped her feet on a footstool and wrapped a blanket around her legs and feet. She'd taken to wearing a pair of her slacks under her skirts to help keep warm. Since they'd been her maternity pants, she'd taken in the elastic. She picked up one of her favorite books, Little Women . Not close to the romantic mysteries she enjoyed reading in her time, but better than some of the heavy tomes in the library. War and Peace . Great Expectations . Crime and Punishment . Les Misérables . All much too serious for her tastes.

She took a sip of her hot chocolate. Not bad, but not as good as Cora's. What had she done wrong? She stirred the mixture resting in the bottom of the cup. Better.

Now all she had to do was stay awake. Lucy was cutting teeth, or cracking teeth as Charlie said, and neither she nor her daughter were getting much sleep. The words on the page swam before her eyes. As much as loved the story, her eyes grew heavy. Her book fell onto her lap. Peace and quiet and a nap. Was anything better than this?