Vienna, Austria, 1798

December 4th, 10:23 AM

It had been a week since Herr Leitner had asked me to go see Don Giovanni. That meant I had only two days as a maiden, then I would be engaged. This past week consisted of Mother scolding at me, me panicking in response, and shopping for engagement party dresses. I had little hope that Stephen would ever return. It really was a shame. I would have loved to ask him all of the questions I had about the future. Life had to go on, though. Today, Mother had to go to an outdoor lunch gathering with Herr Leitner's parents, which left Rebecca and me to go shopping for yet another dress to impress Herr Leitner in. The idea didn't totally upset me. Rebecca and I were good friends, after all, and we did have good taste in dresses and jewelry.

Once the two of us were ready to go, we left, giggling and joking around as if the inevitable wasn't about to happen in two days. The tailor shops and markets were filled with dresses of all kinds. My favorite dresses were the ones that weren't all that big, and the ones with lace accents. I owned a dress that was printed with flowers and lined with glazed cotton and linen. It was cut low at the neck and had a ruffled collar and wide long sleeves pleated at the upper part and narrow around the wrists. I felt beautiful every time I wore it. Unfortunately, I could only use it for very special occasions because of how rare and expensive it was.

By the end of our shopping spree, it was about two in the afternoon. I had gotten a dark green dress with short sleeves made of white lace, white silk gloves, and I bought a ruby necklace for Rebecca. We were on our way back home when I saw a young man with ginger hair, dressed in black pants, a light blue shirt, and a white coat. I grinned and started walking towards him.

"Stephen!" I called. Seeing him was the perfect thing to distract me from my troubles.

He turned around and smiled when he realized it was me.

"Daphne!" he exclaimed as we walked towards each other, "I was just on my way to look for you at your house. What have you been up to this past week?"

I looked down at the ground. I didn't know whether it was any of his business to know about my coming engagement. I decided on keeping quiet.

"I've just been enjoying the cold weather. Fall is my favorite time of the year.

We just stood there in an awkward silence, smiling at each other for a few seconds, when Rebecca cleared her throat. Seeing Stephen was such a surprise that I had forgotten she was waiting for me to go back home. Before I got the chance to explain that to Stephen, she insisted on leaving us to catch up.

I turned to Stephen when she was out of sight and noticed several people were taking notice of his clothes already.

"We should get you into something less suspicious," I suggested.

"Definitely. . . will I have to wear a powdered wig?"

"I think you can pass without one. They're beginning to go out of fashion."

"No offense, but thank goodness," he chuckled.

I chortled at his remark, and off we went to the tailor shop again. It was a tall brick building that smelled of leather. The tailor made shoes as well. I had bought several dresses there, and I never had anything to complain about. Hopefully the quality was just as good in the mens' section.

"So," said Stephen, "What exactly do men wear in the eighteenth century? I didn't pay much attention to the pictures in my high school history classes."

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. I couldn't help but smile.

"What were you interested in, then?" I asked.

"The Scientific Revolution. I guess that's pretty obvious, huh?"

"Of course. I studied that as well with my private tutor. It's quite fascinating. Not quite so as the Renaissance era of music, though," I added with a smirk.

"Alright, alright. Fair enough. They happened at about the same time."

"That's true, isn't it?"

We both smiled. And then I realized I hadn't even answered his question and we were already at the doors of the tailor shop.

"Forgive me, Stephen, I never told you what you'd be wearing. Just follow my lead. What's your favorite color?"

"Dark green."

Once I found the tailor, I asked for a dark green coat, black vest, white silk ascot, black stockings, and black shoes with a gold buckle. I walked back to Stephen, hoping he wouldn't be entirely upset by the attire. I had no idea what people in the twenty-first century thought of our fashion taste.

"The tailor will be right back with your clothes," I explained, "Forgive me if it's not exactly what you would have preferred."

"No worries, Daphne. I just appreciate you coming with me and buying clothes for me. Upper class attire must be a fortune."

"It is, but my family just happens to have a fortune. Besides, I could do with the distraction."

"Oh?"

I was about to open up to him about the engagement, but the tailor came to show Stephen his new clothes, so he had to go try them on and such. I waited by a collection of evening dresses and took the opportunity to glance over them in case I saw one that I hadn't earlier.

After several minutes, Stephen came back wearing all of the clothes I had suggested. The green coat brought out the green in his eyes and complemented his ginger hair. I watched as he looked at himself in a nearby mirror.

"How do I look?" he asked, "I feel like an aristocrat. And, well, I suppose you know what happened to them in the French Revolution."

My eyes widened.

"You studied the revolution?" I asked.

"Of course. It left quite an impact. I shouldn't talk too much about it, though. My lab partners back in 2025 don't want me talking about anything in your future, and that revolution hasn't ended yet."

"I see. I admit, that dampens my spirits a bit. I was so eager to ask you questions about the future."

"I'm sorry, Daphne. I just can't risk changing my present."

I nodded and looked down at my feet, then back up when Stephen began to ask a question.

"Seriously though, how do I look?"

"I must say you look very handsome. I wouldn't be surprised if you managed to charm a few maidens with your appearance alone."

His face turned red at the compliment.

"Oh, you don't have to say all that just to make me feel better," he said.

"I speak only the truth."

Stephen smiled sheepishly and looked down at his shoes. His shyness was endearing to me. Once we had paid for the clothing, I offered to go eat lunch at my house, to which he politely declined.

"After buying me a whole new outfit, I couldn't ask you to make me lunch as well," he insisted, "How about we just walk around and talk? Is there a park nearby?"

"I'm not sure what you would call a park, but there's a lovely garden not too far from here. Would you like to go there instead?"

"I'd love that. Shall we?"

He held out his arm for me to take with a smile.

I couldn't help but giggle as I wrapped my hand around his elbow and we began to walk.

"You sure know your manners, Stephen."

"I read up on eighteenth century customs while recovering from my sprained ankle this past week. That's why I hadn't come earlier. I didn't want you to see me walking around in crutches."

"What are crutches?"

"Ah, you don't have those yet. Well, they're these tall things that you place under your armpits when you have an injured leg. They help you walk."

"How interesting. I'm glad you have access to that sort of thing."

After some minutes of conversing about how our weeks had been, I smiled and looked ahead to see that we had arrived at the garden. It had a stone pathway through sections of all kinds of flowers and stone statues every few meters. The whole garden was centered around a stone fountain in the center. There were roses, hyacinths, orchids, lilies, daisies, and some that I didn't recognize. My favorites were the hyacinths. They came in purple, pink, and white in the garden. Being around them always brought peace to my mind.

"Daphne, this place is beautiful," Stephen said.

"I know," I said dreamily, "My mother has been bringing me here since I was a little girl. I had always wanted to share it with someone else. Today, I have been given the opportunity."

Stephen and I smiled at each other and I broke from his grasp to go look at a statue in a corner. It was Hyacinthus, a character from Greek mythology. Right next to the statue was the flowers that were named after him. When I turned, Stephen was sitting on the stone ledge of the hyacinth garden. He motioned for me to sit down next to him, and so I did.

"We need to talk," he said.

"Of course, is there a problem?"

"Not at all. I just want to warn you about what I will be able to do and say to you, and what you should keep to yourself. I know that your maid knows I'm a time traveler, and that's fine. I just need you guys to not tell anyone else. Before you know it, people will go out looking for me and asking me about their future or try to invent time travel before I do. Any of that will severely change my present. I won't be able to tell you about your future, or of events that affect you, like the French Revolution. What I can do is show you music, because I know you really care about it. As long as you keep all of that to yourself, it should be fine. I trust you."

"I perfectly understand. I appreciate you risking your present to show me music. How can I repay you?"

"There's no need. Maybe next time I come, I can show you all about different music that has come to be.

"Oh, Stephen, that would be marvelous! You have no idea how that excites me. . ."

My excitement faded, though. How would we get the chance if I was too busy attending Herr Leitner's parties?

"What is it?" he asked.

I sighed.

"I don't think that can happen. I don't even think you coming back can happen."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm to be engaged, Stephen," I explained. When I met his eyes, I saw his sympathy.

"For months, my mother has been raving about this businessman, Philip Leitner. His family is wealthy, and so she decided that he would be my husband in order for us to keep our fortune. He's going to propose in two days. He invited me to an opera and everything. Once that happens, I won't have time for anything except for planning our wedding and attending parties with him. I won't even have time for my musical studies."

There were a few seconds of silence as I watched Stephen process all that I had said. His gaze looked upon me now with pity.

"Daphne, I'm so sorry. Arranged marriages didn't sound very fun when I learned about them. I can't imagine what I would do if I had to give up my life's work. . . but I still want to see you. We're friends. We can meet at night."

I felt my face turn hot and began to fan myself with my hand.

"Stephen, what a scandal that would be!" I giggled.

"No! That's not what I meant! I should have known that was a more sensitive matter here."

We were both laughing, our faces red at the interpretation of his suggestion.

"I know you didn't mean it like that," I said, "it just means a little differently here."

"I know, I know. I'm so sorry."

We got our last laughs out before we remembered the topic of conversation before all of the joking. Then, the situation felt more unfortunate than it already was.

"All jokes aside, meeting at night seems to be our only option," I proposed.

"Then that's what we'll do. I'll come back Thursday night, the night of your engagement. I figure you'll be in need of a friend by then."

"I certainly will. We can come back to the garden and you can teach me about music. It'll be wonderful."

"I'm looking forward to it."

We figured it was time for me to get back home before Rebecca got suspicious, and Mother was surely back from her gathering. Stephen offered to walk me back to my house, but I didn't want Mother to be looking out the window for me, so I had to decline. We said our goodbyes, hugged, and I watched him go back to the alley where he said he had arrived. I had to go back to my reality, which was a lot less enjoyable than walking around with my friend from the twenty-first century. In my reality, I had a strict mother, a soon-to-be fiance, and dreams that could only ever be that.