A Love out of Time Ch. 02

Cynara ran down the stairs, happily greeting the astounded Wesley with a friendly hug.

"Um, do I know you?" he asked, staring down at the girl who was dressed in the old fashioned garb of her companions, but who didn't seem to be playing the part of a regency lady.

"I guess I have a lot of explaining to do," she said, still flashing her pretty smile. Turning to Katherine and the men who Wesley assumed were playing her brothers, she announced, "Everyone, this is my dear friend Wesley Rubens. Wes, this is Katherine, Finley, and my husband, Charles, Stanmore."

Wes nodded stupidly, "Did Sam put you up to this?" he asked the woman who was pretending to know him.

"Who? No," she shook her head, then leaned in close to whisper, "Just play along."

Charles looked a bit confused, but didn't say anything about it. By this time he was used to his wife's crazy surprises. Katherine was grinning, ready to follow Cynara's lead, but Finley was scowling suspiciously.

"He is your friend? Then why does he not seem to know you?"

Cynara giggled it off, "Oh, that's just a joke we have," she shrugged. Finely turned to Wes, who nodded and smiled. Cynara was thankful he had decided to follow her advise and go with the flow.

"Are you going to be staying with us for a while then, Wes?" Cynara asked innocently.

"Um, yes?"

"Perfect. I'll just have someone set you up in a guest room, come along," she grabbed his wrist and started walking off with him. Charles, knowing that he would be let in on the secret, followed them.

"So what's going on?" Wes trailed after the girl.

"Okay, you're probably not going to believe this at first, but it's the truth, so you're just going to have to trust me, okay?"

Wes sighed and nodded. "You traveled in time. You're in the 1800's." Cynara paused to gauge his reaction, which was one of disbelief.

"I know it's hard to believe, but you will undoubtedly be convinced in no time at all, especially when you see the surrounding area."

"And you are?"

Cynara couldn't quite get over the fact that she was talking to Wes again, and he was so young. Also it was strange that she remembered him, yet he didn't know who she was.

"I'm Cynara Stanmore. I traveled here from the year 2007, which was where I met you."

Wes looked at her like she was crazy. "Here, let me explain. I was living in the year 2007, when I came to Margrave Manor for a tour."

"That's why I was here!" Wes said excitedly.

Cynara nodded impatiently, "Yes, I know. I was transported back into this time and lived here for a while. Then, for an unknown reason, I was transported back into the future, 2007. There, I met you, except you were older. You told me how you went to this time period in 1980 and lived her for a while, but then you were also transported back into your own time. You follow?" Cynara decided to leave out the details of everything she knew. If you told someone that they were supposed to fall in love with someone else, it would only complicate matters, and Cynara didn't want to ruin anything.

"So I'll be going home soon?" Wes asked. Though he was playing along, Cynara got the feeling that he wasn't really buying her story and was more humoring her than anything else.

"Well, perhaps not. You see, on your first time travel trip, well the one that never actually happened, well you know what I mean. Anyway, on that trip, I wasn't here, so the fact that I'm here now, might change things."

"I see," he said, though Cynara suspected he really didn't. He glanced warily over at Charles, who was standing and grinning patiently a few feet away from them, listening to their conversation. "Who's he?"

"I told you, this is my husband Charlie," Cynara held out her hand to him, and he stepped forward to take it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Charles said to his odd guest. Though his wife seemed crazy on the surface, he was actually starting to believe her whole story about time travel. While it was quite fantastical, what other explanation could there be? He was believing her more and more with every new strange thing that popped up with her.

"Nice to meet you, too," Wes said cordially, then turning to Cynara, "And nice meet you."

Cynara giggled, "Nice to meet you," she stated, though she already knew him, "Though to the others we have to act like we are old friends. They don't know about the time travel thing, and I don't think they are as open-minded as Charlie is, so we probably shouldn't tell them."

"You think they bought the whole us being old friends thing?" he asked her incredulously.

Cynara shrugged. "Sure."

Charlie snorted, giving his opinion on the whole matter. Cynara squeezed his hand. "Well, I guess you can stay here," she said, glancing at Charlie for confirmation.

Charles nodded, and Cynara smiled, opening the door for Wes and allowing him to lead her in.

Wes looked around the room. "Nice. This part of the house wasn't open for visitors...back in 1980."

"I guess we should get you some different clothes," Cynara commented, turning to Charles. Charles nodded and pulled a call cord on the nearby wall. Soon a servant came to the door, "Will you please fetch our guest enough proper attire for an extended visit, as well as a tailor."

"Of course, sir," the man bowed and swiftly and gracefully exited the room. Wes was staring in surprise.

"Wicked," he commented his approval, and Charles looked at him in confusion.

"He means it's cool," Cynara explained.

"Ah." Charles had grown used to Cynara expressing her approval for things with the, in his opinion, completely inappropriate word "cool." It was just yet another of her quirks that she explained away as a future thing. Charles was used to just accepting these "future things," so he didn't question why a word like "wicked," that held such a bad connotation, was being used as a positive.

Cynara had also explained to him that in the future there was a significant rise of the middle class, and most people didn't have servants, so he also accepted without question Wesley's surprise at his manservant.

Charles was used to even the less wealthy families in the area having at least one servant, and had asked why the middle class in the future didn't think this necessary. Cynara had gone on to explain the rise in technology and fanciful machines that would do the work for you. Her ready responses to his questions of the future were just another item in the growing list of reasons that Charles had actually started to believe her. Either she was telling the truth, or she had an amazing and quick imagination. Now with the appearance of her "friend," Charles wasn't even fighting it anymore.

"Hello," Ashton appeared out of nowhere, stepping into the room. "I heard that Cynara had a guest, so I thought I would drop by and introduce myself." He turned to Wes, taking in his jeans and t-shirt.

"Where do you people come from?" he half laughed his question, turning to Cynara. "And what ever possesses you to where such ridiculous clothes?"

Cynara giggled, but did not deem it important to answer his question, instead she turned to Wesley. "Wesley, this is Ashton Stanmore, Ashton, this is my old friend Wesley Rubens."

"Hey," Wesley nodded at Ashton.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Ashton said politely, in a contradiction to his earlier outburst. "How do you know our Cynara?"

"Uhh," was Wesley's only reply, glancing in Cynara's direction.

"He's a family friend. I've known him for practically forever," Cynara replied.

"So your memory has returned then?" Ashton asked pointedly.

Oh crap. Cynara had all but forgotten about her amnesia. "Oh, bits and pieces here and there," she shrugged off Ashton's suspicion.

Ashton raised his eyebrow, but didn't comment further.

Cynara abruptly looked over to Charles. "I think I'll go find Katie. You stay and help Wes with his clothes and stuff." Charles scowled at the suggestion, but didn't say anything to contradict it, while following his wife longingly with his eyes as she walked out the door.

It didn't take long for Cynara to find Katherine, who immediately accosted her with questions about their new guest.

Cynara laughed and waived it off with a dismissive flick of her hand. "Oh, just an old family friend, you know," she shrugged. Katherine didn't look pleased with such a vague answer.

"But why was he wearing such strange clothes?" she insisted.

"Why so curious?" Cynara teased, "Do you like him or something?" she asked, knowing that if Katherine already didn't like Wesley, she soon would. She secretly smiled when she saw Katie blush.

"You do!" Cynara accused in a shouted whisper.

"Don't be ridiculous," it was Katherine's turn to give a dismissive wave of her hand. "I find him to be utterly insufferable."

Cynara was shaking her head. "Utterly insufferable means you like him."

"I most certainly do not!" Katherine said indignantly.

Cynara gave and exaggerated shrug of her shoulders, "All right, all right, if you say so," she conceded with a smirk, deciding to let the point go for the time being.

Katherine narrowed eyes and crossed her arms, her cheeks in a blush. Thinking of her matchmaking plans for Katherine and Wesley reminded her of her need to help Finley and Jane get together. She needed reinforcements, and while Charles grudgingly helped her when she asked, she needed a new recruit.

"Katherine," she said, looping her arm through the other girl's and walking her out toward the garden, "There is something that I've been meaning to talk to you about."

"Oh?" Katherine said, eager for the subject change Cynara was bringing on.

"It's about you're brother," she started.

"Which one?"

"Finley." Katherine narrowed her eyes at the name, their recent fight fresh in her memory.

Cynara knew that Katherine was a little annoyed with Finley at the moment, but she also knew that she love him dearly. She needed to persuade her help on the basis of sisterly affection.

"He's in love," she blurted out, hoping to gain some sympathy for him.

Katherine stopped walking, "What?" she stared at her new sister like she just grew horns.

"It's true."

Katherine stared disbelieving at Cynara for a few seconds, but was eventually satisfied that she wasn't joking. "I, for some reason, just never pictured Finley in love. With who? And why did no one tell me this before?"

"Jane Withurby."

"Jane Withurby?" Katherine stopped the casual stroll the two women had started again. She knew that Cynara and Miss Withurby were friends, although she herself hadn't seen much of the girl in the weeks she'd been home. "I thought it was assumed that she was to be soon engaged to Mr. Trahern?"

"There's the problem," Cynara explained.

Katherine looked thoughtful for a time. "We need to convince Jane that Finley is the right man for her," Cynara continued.

Katherine, looking mildly exited now, "How are we going to do that?"

Cynara sighed, "I don't know. We certainly aren't going to get any help from Finley."

Katherine nodded knowingly, her brother wasn't exactly a charmer, and wasn't adept at making friends too easily.

"We should invite her over, and throw the two of them together. They'll at least have to talk to each other then, won't they?" Katherine suggested.

Cynara shook her head, "I've already tried that, and it didn't really work. Though I don't know what else we could do."

"If she could only get to know him like we know him, she would see how wonderful he is. Finley just doesn't make good first impressions."

"That's it!" Cynara said excitedly.

"What is?" Katherine stared at her completely confused, she didn't think she had come up with anything that Cynara didn't already know.

"We just need to teach Finley how to act to get a girl!"

Katherine looked skeptical. "I don't think Finley is going to like that."

"You're probably right," Cynara conceded, "But that just means that we have to make him."

Katherine giggled and Cynara smiled triumphantly. Everything was working out wonderfully. She had Charlie, Finley would have Jane, and Katherine and Wesley would fall in love as fate intended it. Thinking of fate, though, worried Cynara. She had assumed that since she was back, she could prevent Katherine's murder, but what if there was nothing she could do.

Cynara tried not to let her worried thoughts show on her face, and instead smiled at her friend. She would just have to keep an eye on Katherine, and though she dreaded doing it, she would have to tell Charlie so he could watch out to.