A Laird for All Time by Angeline Fortin (room on the broom read aloud txt) 📗

A sharp ‘ha’ of laughter escaped her before Emmy could stop it and she covered her mouth before she choked on the bite of fish she had just taken.  “Is this one of those things that you don’t think women should do, Connor?  Like voting?”

He had the good grace to look a bit embarrassed as he pushed his own food from side to side.  “I will admit that when the thought occurred to me that my mind responded in immediate denial.”

“Well, it is a negative stereotype that will last many years, so feel good that you are not alone in that,” Emmy’s lips quirked in humor as she patted his arm.  “I wish I could take you there, Connor.  I wish you could know my world.”  She looked around to make sure her words were going unnoticed.  “I wish I could take you for a ride in my car.”

“Ye own one!?” he was incredulous at the idea.  A camera and an automobile!  Truly her world must be rich to allow for such a thing.  And her iPhone as well!

“I have a MINI Cooper,” she told him before leaning back to allow the footman to change the courses.  Beef medallions in red wine next.  “It’s pretty small.  I could try to draw you a picture later if you like.  Cars are nothing like the ones you have seen anymore.  They come in all shapes and sizes.”

“The one I saw in London could travel at nearly sixty miles each hour, I believe,” he commented showing greater appreciation to this course than the last.  “How fast can yers travel?”

“The car itself can go about 120,” she told him, “but limits have been set by law regulating speeds depending on where you are, like an open highway versus a residential area.”

Connor gulped at the thought of reaching such speeds and took a deep pull on his wine.  “How fast have ye traveled?” he asked with dread evident in his voice.

“Fastest?  Maybe a hundred on the open road,” she admitted but continued, “but I am not too much of a speed freak.  Still there is car racing for sport as you’ve seen and their cars can go into the two-hundreds somewhere.  I’m not exactly sure.”

“I cannot imagine traveling at such speeds.”

“Oh, that’s nothing!” she waved it away loving that she could shock and awe him. His mixture of dread and enjoyment was like offering a fairy-tale to a small child and she so enjoyed entertaining him.  She might spend a decade just telling him about such things, taking pleasure in each moment. “There are high-speed trains and all that.  Planes that can go from here to New York in hours.  Some can go faster than sound.”   A smile curved her lips as he gaped in disbelief.

“What is a ‘plane’ that it can go so fast?” he asked.

“Airplanes?” she frowned trying to place their invention in history.  “Flying machines, you know?”

“No!” he boomed and everyone at the table turned to stare.  He lowered his voice again and leaned his head close to hers.  “Unbelievable!”

“I think I might be hearing that word often in the next few days,” she teased.  “But, yes, it is true.”

Emmy ate her third course quietly while Connor digested the idea.  She could see the wheels of his mind spinning.  “What of travel to the moon?” he added.  “Ye mentioned that previously.  Has man flown to the moon yet?”

Emmy nodded pleased to see the boyishly eager look come back to his eyes.  “I remember my mom saying that she had watched it on TV as a girl.  It was a big moment, everyone was thrilled by it.  Mom said her father cried.  Neil Armstrong, the astronaut who was the first one to step on the moon said, ‘That’s one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind.’”

She said this in a low disjointed voice that brought a reluctant smile to his face.  “Have ye gone to the moon?”

With a giggle, Emmy sat back briefly twirling her wineglass and stared at him in amusement before leaning back toward him.  “No, though I have given you an impression of absolute progress in the future, it still hasn’t gotten to the point where more than a handful of people have been to the moon.”

Connor felt a sigh of relief coming from deep within.  He was thankful that progress hadn’t gone too far for it occurred to him suddenly that she had been right earlier…with all she could have in her own time there was little appeal his could hold for her.  He now understood her reluctance to stay here.  The future provided a good life for her, what more could she ask for?  How much could she sacrifice?  Perhaps love was not enough.

They excused themselves from the rest of his family after they had eaten and returned to their rooms where Emmy drew him pictures of cars and the space shuttle, she called it.  Emmy also told him about a proposed elevator to outer space that was mentioned in Popular Science magazine, a periodical he was thankfully familiar with. Since she had mentioned it twice already, she also explained the TV to him.  Connor thought its function must relate much to a movie in one’s home but Emmy added that it also told shorter stories and relayed current events much like a newspaper.

She talked to him of computers that held information beyond the iPhone allowing her to get information from any place on earth and Connor was awed by the power the future allowed one to hold within their hand.  Such things advanced at an amazing rate, Emmy told him comparing the phone as having more computing power than the roomful of computers it had taken to send the first rockets to the moon.

When they retired to bed that night, together in Connor’s large bed, he could only hold her body next to his, caressing her bare hip or shoulder occasionally as she snuggled next to him.  Connor