OverTime 03: Slipping (First 70 Chapters)

Chapter 37: Hashtag Fort Laramie (Lillabit) - WARNING - Language

Once my friends vanished, I might become the richest Victorian bride in Wyoming!

I really had to tell Jacob about my money, but that conversation should probably wait until we had more privacy.

And maybe until just after sex.

You play the piano better than any of us, and it seems a shame to leave it to Ted's g-g-g-uncle Hiram who, by the way, forgave you enough to take some photographs of us for you. Um--spoiler alert! One of the packages holds photos.

If that didn't tempt me immediately away from the letter and into the trunk, nothing could. Then again, I had no idea how they would be dressed in said photo. Phelps knew where and when they were from.

Oops! A certain Team Leader--his name rhymes with BITCHell--is threatening to ship the package without this letter if I don't finish up, so fine. I can't have you wondering who the hell would send you photos of us, and toothbrushes, and condoms, so I'll finish up.

Spoiler alert--some of the packages also contain toothbrushes and condoms. Not the same package. You should have seen the Omaha druggist's face when Ted bought birth control in front of me! (It's freakin' illegal for women to buy it--can you believe it? Oh, and it's also against the Comstock Law to mail them, so shhh!) Nothing's too good or federally illegal for our Lil.

I love you and if you don't telegraph me from Fort Laramie I will never forgive you, so you'd better telegraph!

Your sister from another mister:

Maddie Sinclair (MD)

I... she...

Wow.

After greedily rereading some of the passages, I glanced back toward the counter and the still-locked trunk. Condoms?!

Not safe for husbands, indeed. At least, not my husband, and not at this point in our relationship. That was a conversation that could easily wait until after I'd given birth to Jacob Junior.

Yeah, I really wanted to open that trunk and look over my surprises, especially the photographs, but Maddie was right--I should probably stretch out the magic of this care package for as long as possible, instead of tearing through everything right away. This would have to last me awhile.

Also, it sounded like some of the trunk's contents were as casually profane as the letter. In fact...

I carefully folded the letter back into the key-heavy envelope and tucked it all into my reticule, an old-fashioned term for a wrist purse. Then I went to Jacob's side and took his arm, both to steady myself after all this news and to remind myself of why I'd left my friends behind in the first place.

They might be my delight, but he was my rock.

"It's from Maddie!" I told him.

"Figured," he said dourly, because he's a smart man.

"Can we fit something like this on the pack mule?"

"Reckon."

Can you answer me in sentences more than one word long? But that wasn't fair. He was a product of his time, as much as Maddie and I were products of ours.

But I'm trying to change, I thought.

Then again, I had chosen to become Victorian. He had not chosen to become anything other than a married version of himself. And himself was who I'd fallen in love with.

"You always make things work for me, don't you?" I asked him now. Because it was true.

He held my gaze for a long, quiet moment, and gave me a two-word answer. "Not always."