Chapter Five

Letcher County Kentucky

September 2011

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"

Nicole groaned and reached out her hand, fumbling blindly in the dark as she searched for her alarm. After successfully silencing the bane of her existence she covered her face with her hands and rubbed roughly.

She had taken the week off of work, having needed a vacation from rambunctious toddlers but had forgotten to turn her alarm off the night before.

Nicole pulled her blankets back over her head and rolled to her side. After several long moments of flipping and flopping she gave up on falling back to sleep and with a curse she tossed the covers aside and threw her legs over the edge of the bed.

She shuffled to the kitchen and flipped on the coffee pot that she had gotten ready the night before and then made her way to the living room to fire up her laptop and check her e-mails. She had one from one of the mothers of the children that came to her daycare begging her to let her daughter come this week and offering to pay twice the normal fee.

Nicole sighed and grudgingly sent her an e-mail back saying okay. She knew that Leslie wouldn't mind if she took little Madeline on any errands she had and of all the children she watched four year old Madeline was the most well behaved.

Leslie instantly e-mailed her back saying she was on her way and Nicole sighed as she shut the laptop and went back to the kitchen for her coffee. She wasn't even going to worry about changing out of her yoga pants and tank top before Leslie arrived.

There were certain perks to running a daycare out of your home and going to work in your pajamas was certainly one of them.

Nicole carried her steaming cup of coffee out onto her front porch and sat down in the swing. She looked out over the surrounding land and sighed. She loved her home. It had come up for sale a few years back for much less than it was worth (the bitter outcome of a nasty divorce) and Nicole had jumped at the chance to buy it.

She lived all the way back at the head of a winding hollow and mountains surrounded her. The tiny gravel road leading to her home followed a noisy river and birds were constantly singing in the trees.

Nicole had pretty flowers planted all around the two story home. She had painted it a cheerful yellow and the wraparound porch was her favorite feature.

She also loved the decorations that she had worked hard to buy or make over the years. She had found old metal wash tubs and turned them into flowerpots. She had two man saws and other tools from the eighteen hundreds hanging on her tool shed and her house was full of western touches. Spurs as wall decorations and old time kerosene lanterns and lamps as table pretties.

Most thought her style was old fashioned and much too mature for someone in her mid twenties but Nicole loved it. She often felt she had been born in the wrong time and wished that she could one day go back in time and live the life of a late eighteen hundred frontier woman.

Of course she would have to be sure to take her yoga pants and blue jeans along with her.

She smiled as she blew on her coffee and then took a drink. It would take Leslie a good twenty or thirty minutes to get here. That was one thing about living in such a spread out, lightly populated community. It took a while to get anywhere you wanted to go.

***

"Thank you so much for doing this for me!" Leslie exclaimed as Madeline ran from the car and jumped into Nicole's waiting arms.

"You're welcome." Nicole replied as she smiled at the butterfly Madeline showed her on her new shirt.

"My mother in law was going to keep her while I worked but then my husband's brother got sick so now she is busy with him and.... Ugh!" Leslie tossed her hands up theatrically and Nicole gave a light laugh.

"Don't worry about it. Maddy and I will have fun cleaning this mess of a place up."

"I'll be here around five to pick her up." Leslie promised. She kissed Madeline's head and then jumped back in her small silver car and drove away quickly, throwing gravels behind her.

"Mommy is mad this morning." Madeline said matter of factly.

"Why is that?" Nicole asked as she sat the four year old on her feet and led her up on the porch.

"I don't know." Madeline replied with a sigh and a shrug. "She says it's stress and it's gonna kill her." Nicole laughed.

"If I'm not dead yet then your mommy will be just fine." she assured the girl. "Now what do you say we go make some pancakes for breakfast?"

"Yay!" Madeline exclaimed and she raced into the house.

***

Cavanaugh moaned as he awoke and instantly felt as if one hundred tiny hammers were beating against the inside of his skull. He cracked one eye open the tiniest bit and saw the bright yellow walls and knew instantly he was no longer in his mama's kitchen, or in her house for that matter!

He sat upright in a rush and instantly regretted it as his head began to pound even harder. He looked around the room and frowned. It was a bedroom. He was lying on a bed with a mattress that felt rather odd below him, though the flower patterned blanket was soft.

A dresser and a wardrobe were against the far wall and a long mirror hung on the door. He frowned when he saw the small rectangular box on the table beside the bed. It had flashing red numbers and it was unlike anything he had ever seen.

Fearing it might be something to cause him harm Cavanaugh stood from the bed and limped over to it. He pulled his revolver and tapped the blinking contraption with the barrel several times but nothing happened. Frowning Cavanaugh put his gun away and picked the box up in his hands.

There was a strange rope of some kind, though it was unlike any rope he had ever seen, hanging out the back and he saw that it was hooked into a strange white hole in the wall.

"What in the hell is going on?" he asked out loud as he sat it back on the table. Memories of his dreams came back to him. Mary telling he and his brothers that they were going to be sent to a different time to learn lessons or some such nonsense like that. He had chalked it up to bad potatoes at the time but now?

He walked to a window and glanced outside. The mountains looked like home but what in the hell was that big bright blue metal carriage on wheels? He didn't see anywhere to hook your horses to it and it looked far too heavy to be pulled by anything less than a whole team of oxen.

Where in the hell was he? And where were his brothers? He was alone in this room.

Cavanaugh limped toward the door and then stopped when he heard a woman singing on the other side of the door, "Cowboy, take me away. Fly this girl as high as you can into the wild blue. Set me free oh I pray. Closer to heaven above and closer to you..."

The singing grew closer and Cavanaugh barely managed to jump back before the door was thrown open and he found himself staring into a pair of big, green eyes.

The woman let out a scream and proceeded to spray him in the face with something that was in a clear bottle in her hands.

Instantly Cavanaugh's eyes began to burn and he bit back a curse as he used his sleeve to desperately scrub at his face.

"Who are you?!" the woman demanded.

"Cavanaugh McEllis," he growled as his eyes watered and streaked tears down his face. "Can I ask what exactly you just threw in my eyes, ma'am?"

The woman blinked several times as she stared hard at him with the bottle still held out in front of her as if to warn him she would shoot again, "Bleach," she replied. "Why do you talk funny?"

Cavanaugh squinted as he looked at her and frowned, "I talk the same as you."

She appeared to be around five and a half feet tall and she had a full, soft build. Her hair was dark blond and in a strange gathering at the back of her head, looking almost like a horses tail as it hung down her back. She had a heart shaped face and full lips and her green eyes were the color of emeralds beneath her thick lashes.

"I'm calling the cops," she warned.

Cavanaugh frowned, "Call? Cops?"

"How did you get in here?" she demanded.

Cavanaugh shrugged one shoulder, "I'd be glad to tell you that, ma'am, if only I knew." he replied. "I have three brothers...."

Before he could finish telling her what had happened a child's voice reached his ears, "Are you a real cowboy?"

The woman's eyes widened with horror and she took off running down the hall, "Madeline!"

Curious as to what in the world was going on and which of his brothers must have been downstairs Cavanaugh quickly followed after her. He caught up to her just as she turned into another room, this one full of all kinds of toys, unlike anything he had ever seen before. He realized with relief that it was Andrew in this room talking to a little dark haired girl with long braids. At least now he didn't have to worry about Andrew.

"Well hello there, ma'am," Andrew said with a lopsided grin as he held out his hand to the blond woman. "My name's Andrew McEllis."

"Who are you people?" The woman demanded as she grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her into her arms. Though the girl didn't look happy to have her game interrupted.

"I already told you, ma'am. My name is Cavanaugh McEllis. This is my brother Andrew. I got two more brothers around here somewhere and we're from the year 1875. What year is it now?"

The woman's green eyes widened and she blinked several times as she stared at him, "You are insane." she said slowly.

Cavanaugh shook his head, "I don't think I am. Of course when I fell asleep it was 1875 and I wake up now and I don't think it's 1875 anymore so maybe I am a little crazy."

"Hey Cav," Andrew said as he held up a toy that looked similar to the giant blue thing with wheels outside. "What the heck is this thing?"

The little girl giggled, "That's a truck," she replied. "Nicole has one just like it outside."

"Madeline, don't talk to strangers!" the woman scolded.

Andrew frowned, "We ain't strangers. We done told you our names." he looked at Cavanaugh. "Where's Jamison and Ian?"

"Don't know." Cavanaugh replied with a shrug. He was busy watching the woman who appeared to be about to have a breakdown of some kind.

"Cavanaugh? Ian? Andrew?" Jamison's voice called out and Andrew smiled.

"That's our brother Jamison. He's a U. S. Marshall." Andrew frowned as he reached up and swatted at two dangling knobs from some sort of spinning contraption on the ceiling. "Or I guess he was back in 1875. What year is it, ma'am?"

"2011." the woman replied though her voice sounded distant and dazed. Andrew whistled and Cavanaugh leaned against the door jam. 20ll? They were nearly one hundred and fifty years in the future! Was this really happening? And what exactly was it supposed to be teaching them or proving?

"This way, Jamison," Cavanaugh called out and he noticed the woman's breathing increased and her eyes widened when Jamison came down the hall.

"Where the hell are we, Cav?"

"2011"

"Shit," Jamison said with a nod as he looked around at the pictures on the wall.

"Where's your other brother?" Madeline asked.

"Do I need to call the police?" the woman asked quietly and Cavanaugh shook his head.

"No, ma'am. We don't mean you two any harm," she looked into his eyes and he felt the smallest tugging at his heart. He quickly looked away and broke the contact.

"Ian is still missing," Jamison stated.

Suddenly a terrible noise filled the air from upstairs. It was loud and pulsing and Andrew quickly covered his ears, "What is that?" he demanded, staring at the ceiling.

"My alarm clock." the woman replied. "Sometimes it has a mind of its own." The men just frowned at each other. They had no idea what an alarm clock was. The woman was just heading back for the stairs when a gunshot filled the air and the noise was silenced.

Reacting on instinct, Cavanaugh grabbed the woman and pulled her behind him, stepped in front of the girl and drew his gun.

The woman gasped and fought against him but he held her firmly in place until Andrew went running past them up the stairs, "I believe we found Ian!" he exclaimed.

Jamison threw Cavanaugh a look clearly meant to tell him to calm down and Cavanaugh grumbled as he released the woman's arm and allowed her to take Madeline's hand and lead the girl up the stairs.

"What did you do, Ian?" Jamison demanded as they all poked their heads into the room and saw him standing in a light green bedroom beside a small side table. Cavanaugh recognized the remains of one of those blinking number boxes that had been in the other bedroom.

"I shot it," Ian stated obviously. "Where the hell are we?"

"Letcher County, Kentucky in the year 2011 and you owe me an alarm clock," the woman replied dryly.

Ian looked down at the now silent device and then back at her and he gave her his most devilish grin, "As far as I'm concerned I did you a favor. That thing made a terrible racket."

The woman stood very still for a moment and then Cavanaugh saw her swoon. He reached out quickly and caught her falling body as he shot Ian a look, "Maybe shooting things wasn't the best way to make a good first impression." he scolded and Ian grinned sheepishly and holstered his gun.

"Is she asleep?" Madeline asked and Cavanaugh nodded. "I'm hungry. Are you making lunch?"

"Well since it's our fault she's sleeping I guess we don't have much of a choice." Ian replied as he tipped his hat to the girl. She frowned and moved a little closer to Cavanaugh. Ian harrumphed and followed Jamison and Andrew who were already heading downstairs.

"Are you real cowboys?" Madeline asked Cavanaugh and he frowned.

"I guess I am." he replied. "But Andrew is a gambler, Ian is....a businessman and Jamison is a U.S. Marshall."

"Wow! You're a real cowboy! Nicole loves cowboys."

Cavanaugh frowned as he looked at the woman in his arms. He would swear he could feel his mother's presence surrounding him as he stood here and he silently told her to butt out. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be finding or learning while he was here but he certainly wasn't going to be falling in love. His mother and Mary could just get that out of their minds right now.