The Time Heiress by Georgina Young- Ellis

pleased by Evie’s impetuousness this morning. She’s showing more and more how much of a mind of her own she has, and though normally that’s something I consider a good quality in a person, in this kind of risky experiment we are undertaking, it could backfire, and already has. She ended up in Five Points this morning after taking a cab to the wrong All Angels. She doesn’t even know the city well enough to know Second Avenue from the Bowery, and yet, in the future, she’s lived here for several years working as an artist. Maybe it’s because she’s driven everywhere by her chauffer and doesn’t have to pay attention. No, now I’m just being unkind. It’s easy to get confused when you’re dealing with a city that looks nothing like you’re used to.
    But still, she seems to want to thwart me—as if she doesn’t trust me to be the guide, which, frankly, is how I got dragged along on this venture. Am I just the babysitter to a rich, spoiled girl? I’ll get to bed early tonight and hopefully tomorrow will prove more satisfactory to us both.

Chapter Six
     
    The woman had told us to look for a sign with two words on it, and she wrote it down so we could match the letters to the sign that said SPRING GROVE . She said go to the third farmhouse and watch the window by the back door. When a yellow quilt was put out on the sill to air, that was the sign that runaways could approach.
    Well, we got to Spring Grove and found the farm and waited all one day and one night, nearly starved by this time, till we saw a lady open the window and put out the yellow quilt. Still, we were fearful, but we needed food and rest so we went to the door and knocked, our hearts pounding. The woman answered, real matter of fact, and took us out to the hay loft of the barn, and left us with plenty of food and some warm blankets.
    —From Caleb Stone’s narrative, as remembered by Dr. Cassandra Reilly
    *****
    The next morning Evie chose her outfit with special care: a print skirt and top of light-blue flowers, with darker flowers that increased in size toward the borders. The neck was a high white collar, and the bodice buttoned down the front to the waist with small, delicate, pearl buttons. It was form-fitting and came snuggly down to the waist, forming a V in the front. The sleeves were long, and bell-shaped at the wrist, set off at the edges with white, cotton lace. The skirt was very full and two tiered, becoming wider at the bottom, and held out by a crinoline petticoat. Gazing at herself in the bedroom mirror, she thought she looked like what princesses looked like in fairy tales, before they knew they were princesses. She stepped out into the sitting room to find Cassandra waiting for her, wearing an ensemble of soft gray and dark red, wool plaid, a white ruffled blouse exposed through the deep v-neck of the bodice.
    “You look so elegant,” the younger woman said.
    “Thank you,” Cassandra replied with a slight smile. “You look beautiful.”
    Evie giggled nervously. “Why don’t we have breakfast in the hotel dining room, so we can practice interacting with people?”
    They sallied down to the first floor and toward the back of the building to find a sunny dining room that opened onto a garden. There were few other guests breakfasting on the Monday morning. Each of them looked up and watched the women walk through the room to the table where the host directed them.
    They ordered a meal of eggs, bacon, toast, jam and coffee, but did not have luck conversing with anyone other than the waiter. The other guests in the dining room, a businessman who peeked at them occasionally from behind his newspaper, a man and woman with two fussy children, and a large gentleman eating his breakfast rapidly and staring at them openly, did not seem likely candidates for conversation. By the time they finished their breakfast, it was close to eleven.
    “Do you think this is a good hour for someone to be at the church?” asked Evie as she