Loving You (Remembrance Series, Book 2) (15 page)

Angela’s hands fisted at her side as her aura grew a deeper red. “Fine, have it your way, Jordan. However, this is not the last time you will deal with me. If I were you, I would begin to watch my back.” She saw Gregory’s car pull into the parking lot and she turned to leave, glancing back for a moment. “Consider yourself warned.” She slipped into the shadows and out of sight.

“Was that Angela I just saw talking to you?” Gregory asked, getting out of his car.

I nodded and took in a deep breath that I hadn’t realized I was holding.

He was quickly by my side, wrapping me tightly in his arms. “What did she want? Did she threaten you?”

“Yes, she did. She told me that I will never marry you because you’re hers and she won’t let anyone else have you.” I laughed a bit and his brows furrowed in question to my response. “I don’t think she expected me to stand up to her.” I told him what I had stated and before I knew it, he was kissing me firmly on the lips and stroking my back.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I am in awe of you, Jordan!” He gave me another hug and kiss, before taking my hand and leading me to the front door.

We rang the buzzer designated for after hour’s visitors. We were quickly ushered in by Lorraine and noticed someone in one of the side rooms, apparently working on one of the displays.

Loraine quickly hugged both of us. “Lawrence, the curator, is just finishing up one of the displays. Come on; let me introduce you to him.”

“Lawrence, I would like you to meet my son, Gregory, and my future daughter in-law, Jordan.” She boasted.

Lawrence turned around and we were face-to-face with Ray, dressed in his signature white attire, but this time in a suit. My eyes grew wide as he put his hand out to shake mine. Then, he turned to Gregory and shook his hand, as well. “It is a pleasure to finally meet both of you. Lorraine has told me so much about the two of you that I feel I already know you.” He gave a wink at me.

“I understand the two of you recently received some period artifacts. A neckerchief and a three pointed hat, was that correct?”

We both nodded in agreement.

I wondered if Gregory could see the same thing as me. When Ray turned his back, Gregory leaned in and whispered, “Am I seeing things or is that Ray?”

I was so dumbstruck by everything that I just nodded in response.

Ray continued. “How lovely. I would love to see them, sometime. Those are rare items, indeed. Why don’t we start our tour at the beginning of the Revolutionary period, right before the war started, and work our way up to the end of the war, and end with an authentic copy of the Treaty of Paris from 1783?”

We followed as Ray began to walk to a room on the opposite end of the Center. As we passed a mirror in the hallway, I noted Ray’s reflection was of a man much shorter, slightly balding and wearing a dark gray suit with a white shirt and blue tie. Gregory caught site of what I was seeing and we both kept looking back and forth between the two different visions of what was before us.

Lorraine moved on ahead, as Ray leaned in to whisper. “Remember that things are not always what they appear to be. I’m here to help advance you on your journey, tonight. Remember to trust your instincts; your subconscious will be your guide.”

The first room was arrayed with various clothing, fitting for a variety of events, furniture, tools, everyday household items typical of the Colonial, Pre-Revolutionary era. The clothes were comparable to the ones in our dreams. The room was very standard, and nothing spectacular stood out.

Lawrence, or Ray, led us through to another room, which advanced to the time period through the beginning of the war. There were British military uniforms, Minutemen attire, a replica of Paul Revere on his horse representing his famous ride, along with a variety of military uniforms representing the various militias involved in the war, weaponry, and typical early-American military memorabilia. The room’s displays were enticing and somewhat familiar, but still, nothing called to either one of us.

Lorraine took the lead toward the next room. “This room is filled with delightful treasures from a full span of society from the poor to the elite. There are dress fashions for every stage from child to adult.” There was a weaving loom, several types of traveling luggage, a few flintlock pistols, some furniture typically found in the houses and so on.

What surprised me was that we were both drawn to one of the pistols. Gregory asked, “Would it be okay to touch a couple of the items to see what they feel like?”

Both Lorraine and Lawrence/Ray, nodded.

We both laid a hand on the pistol that interested us. I instantly had a vision of my hands in the air with Lucinda pointing it at me. “Please put the pistol away, Lucinda. What good will come to you if you shoot me? Neither of us will have Aaron if that happens.”

“You will not tell me what to do, Hannah. No one is about on the street right now, save a few red coats lurking about. People will likely assume you got caught in a crossfire between the colonists and them.” She seemed rather sure of herself.

“Are you positive you will be able to live with yourself if you shoot me? How will you be able to look Aaron in the eyes, knowing that he mourns for me; the one he truly loves?”

Her face filled with hatred, “He will grow to love me. Rebecca assured me of that. I only need to kill you so that…”

“Please continue, Lucinda. I would like to know why my demise is necessary.” I could feel Gregory looking on in horror, but my mind worked as Hannah, hoping to buy time for Aaron to get there, as he had promised to meet up with me in the alley behind my father’s medical office.

Darkness seemed to surround her and small whispers of evil intent could be heard by my overly sensitive ears. One minute she seemed to lower the gun and shake her head. The next she would raise the firearm, seeming more determined, as if under a spell. If it was a spell, was the witch doing this?

She finally stared me in the eyes, looking soulful. “I am so sorry, Hannah.” In the next breath, her eyes began to glow a deep crimson red and she spoke in an almost unfamiliar voice, “You have delayed enough, it is time to die.”

My heart raced as I watched, in slow motion, her finger against the trigger before pulling hard to fire the weapon. “NOOOOO!” I felt pain as I was thrown to the ground and the ability to breathe became difficult. I must have been shot.

I could feel Gregory’s presence surround me, so I looked up and found myself gazing into Aaron’s eyes. He had pushed me out of the way of the bullet, but he was bleeding from his arm. I looked over where Lucinda had been. She had dropped the gun and took off running.

“Aaron, you have been shot! Let me take a look at your wound.” I tore at the hole in the fabric on his arm. Thankfully, the wound was not deep and could easily be treated. I reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for saving my life. Now let us get you to my father so he can tend to your injury.”

He stood and went for the gun. “After your father tends to me, I need to show my father what Lucinda has done and make certain that she will no longer bother you.”

Suddenly, I had a brief flash of memory of her being sent to a hospital for being mentally unstable and father apologizing over and over for her behavior. As a result of our scare, our marriage was postponed a fortnight.

We both came back to the present, amazed at what we saw. I glanced down at my watch and saw that only a minute or two had passed since we had asked about the gun.

Lawrence/Ray motioned us over to where there were several pieces of furniture and what looked like some jewelry boxes. One of the smaller boxes had some kind of decorative carving in the top of the lid, along with initials. Lorraine was about to join us, when Ray diverted her attention to another area of the room, asking her to help date a few items he had added earlier in the day.

Gregory picked up the box and turned it over in his hands. “I remember making this for you, or rather, for Hannah. I spent days trying to get just the right pattern carved into the top of this jewelry box for you. I wanted it to be a pattern you would adore, to present to you at the Wedding. These initials, inside the heart, at the center of the box, are ours; showing the uniting of two people, but sharing one love and one heart for an eternity.”

I laid my hand atop of his and saw everything he was remembering. My eyes grew wide as I realized our suspicions were correct about our middle names. He was Aaron Anthony Williams and I was Hannah Olivia Clark.

We continued on into the next room, which housed contained documents and various versions of our American flag. There were framed pictures, along the walls, of the famous buildings where historic government writings were created as well as the museums where the originals currently reside as along with hand copied authenticated copies of the documents, themselves. I was instantly drawn to the picture of one building, next to the copy of the Declaration of Independence. I had only envisioned the first floor and ornate entryway in my dreams, never fully seeing the full building, until today. It was Independence Hall in my dreams! This must mean that our history resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first capital of the United States.

Gregory leaned in behind me, resting his head on my shoulder. “Did you find something that interests you?”

I pointed to the picture. “This is the building in my dreams; Independence Hall. We were in Philadelphia.” We both realized at that moment that we had family ties that link back to Philly. After some more research, we would definitely need to take a trip there.

Lorraine spoke up. “Jordan, have you seen the amazing journals that have been kept wonderfully preserved over the years? I’ve been dying to take a look through a few pages to see what life was like back then. Care to join me?”

“Yes, ma’am; I would love that.”

Gregory continued to check out all the historic buildings. I could see, through his facial expressions that his memories were starting to return.

I walked over toward Lorraine and began looking through the various journals, not really knowing what I was looking for. Nothing felt familiar, until I reached a tattered blue one. The feeling I got from it was inviting, so I opened it to discover my own penmanship staring back at me from the pages.

Ray looked over my shoulder. “That journal is one of the most fascinating in the lot. Would you like me to point out my favorite entry?”

I looked up into his serene smile. “Yes, please and thank you.”

He turned toward the three-quarter mark, where a few more entries were written before abruptly ending in August 1775. The entries read:

The entries end after that, with no word on what happened. My guess is that something must’ve taken place to leave the saga of Hannah and Aaron at that point; but what? I could only hope that our research and dreams would put together the final pieces.

I looked back at Ray and watched as he smiled warmly and then faded away, leaving Lawrence in his place. “That concludes our tour for tonight. I’m sorry I can’t extend it longer, but I must be getting home to my family.”

Lorraine spoke for us. “We completely understand, Lawrence. We must get going, too. We have dinner reservations in ten minutes and need to head out, as well.” We all thanked him for his time and extending us the courtesy of a private tour.

We each took our respective cars and followed Gregory’s mom to our eating destination which, thankfully, was only a few blocks away at one of the finer hotels, in the downtown district.

It turned out that Lorraine and Gregory had my mom drive down to join us for the weekend. We ended up sampling food from another chef. This one’s specialty was Italian cuisine. The food was amazing, but I wasn’t too sure about having Italian food at an Engagement/Wedding Party. I didn’t mind dishes involving beef, chicken or fish. My main concern was with the pasta and sauces, since they could be messy. The food was delicious, but we were still not ready to make a decision about a caterer, yet.

We were thankful when Lorraine and Douglas stated they didn’t need a decision right away. However, it meant we still had two or three more chefs to try out. Since when did planning a wedding get so cumbersome? Whatever happened to just buying the dress, picking out flowers and showing up? Everything felt rushed, rushed, rushed!

I was so sick of work, wedding details, and dealing with Pamela and Angela that I was elated to have my mom around. I missed spending time with her. Granted, we talked on the phone every day, and sometimes two or three times a day. She was always happy to impart some motherly advice when I asked. But, I missed just hanging out with her and hoped that she wasn’t too lonely with Dad gone and now me not staying there.

Lorraine and I were quickly becoming good friends—to the point I almost called her “Mom,” a couple of times. But, I really needed my own mother to help me feel more secure about what was happening in my life.