Christmas Ghosts - Fiction River Read online

  Duster Kindle had on a light brown duster-length leather coat and a brown cowboy hat. Under the duster he had on a faded plaid shirt and a form of jeans.

  On the ride from the old mining town of Silver City, he and Bonnie had told Sherri about some of their lives in the old West in different timelines. Sometimes they stayed together, sometimes they split up, living for upwards of thirty or more years in the old West, starting usually from 1868 and going up to the turn of the century and sometimes beyond.

  In fact, Duster had already been back in time for over thirty years and as they had gone into the Boise Hotel, a number of people had called Duster “Marshal.”

  As far as Bonnie and Sherri were concerned, Duster had only left the old mine above Silver City two minutes before they did. But he had lived thirty years longer and it showed on his face and in his silver hair under his hat when he met them.

  It didn’t matter. Duster had explained to Sherri before they suggested this trip. When they returned to their regular timeline, they will have only aged a few minutes.

  “And if we die in the past?” she had asked at one point as they were trying to coach her on what it was like to live in 1898.

  “You automatically get returned to the cave alive in your normal timeline,” Duster had said, a frown on his face. “The timeline just sort of spits you out since you don’t really belong there. But trust me, you don’t want to do that. Death is seldom pleasant in the old West.”

  She hadn’t argued with that, since it sounded like the voice of experience talking.

  Bonnie had also just nodded and looked away.

  These two had been her best friends since high school and all the way through college. She had been there when they met, and stood up with Bonnie at their wedding. But she had never known that for the last few years of her time they had been traveling in time.

  She still, even standing in 1898 Boise after being in the past for three days, was having a very difficult time grasping that fact.

  “So are we going to go knock on the door or just stand here staring?” Duster asked. “I got to admit, this is a beautiful area, but it’s getting warm, even in the shade.”

  Around them the Boise Avenue area of widely spread mansions stretched along the ridge overlooking the Boise River. In 1898, this area was where the truly rich lived and every mansion was on acres of land with servants’ quarters and carriage houses.

  The road out from Boise along the ridge and river was a wide and fairly rough dirt lane through the trees. That rutted road looked very different from the 2015 paved road called Boise Avenue.

  Sherri took a deep breath. She had come back in time with Bonnie and Duster to try to understand what had happened to the owner of the Edwards Mansion in 1898. Supposedly the owner had committed suicide and haunted the mansion ever since, making it impossible for anyone to live in the place.

  He had killed himself sometime this evening.

  She had never seen a picture of the owner, but she knew he had had enough money to keep the house maintained and in his estate for almost eighty years after his death, even though no one lived in it. The mansion had finally been sold in the 1970s. From there it had gone through years of neglect and twenty different owners who couldn’t stand the ghost that supposedly haunted the place.

  She hadn’t actually seen the ghost, but she had had workers run from the place, and it had gotten so bad, no one was willing to come to work for her. Somehow, she had to figure out what had happened to come up with some way to stop the ghost from haunting her home.

  Until she had bought the old mansion, she hadn’t believed in ghosts.

  Of course, she didn’t think time travel was possible either, yet here she stood in 1898, about to walk up to the house she had bought one-hundred-and-seventeen years in the future.

  Sherri forced herself to take a deep breath of the warm afternoon air and then nodded. “Let’s do this.”

  Duster followed as the two women moved carefully up the smooth stone walkway and then up the polished stairs to the wide porch with its comfortable-looking wooden chairs and couches. Sherri felt like she was walking into a dream. She had imagined this porch like this after she finished the remodel, almost right down to the same type of period furniture.

  As they had planned, the two women stood slightly to one side and Duster knocked on the door. There was a brass knocker to one side and Bonnie pointed to it after he knocked and Duster just shrugged.

  Sherri really loved her two best friends. They had a relationship that she could only dream about. Maybe someday, if she ever found the right man. Maybe they would be at her wedding. If they weren’t off running around through time somewhere.

  Then the door handle rattled and was pulled open.

  And there stood the most handsome man Sherri could have ever imagined. He had pitch-black hair, slightly long and over his shirt collar as was the fashion of this time. His face was clean-shaven and seemed to have been chiseled out of stone, and his deep brown eyes looked like they could see through anything.

  He seemed to be about the same height as Duster, around six feet tall. And his shoulders seemed to be also chiseled out of stone. He looked to be in his late thirties, but she wasn’t sure of that.

  “Marshal,” the man said, his voice rich and firm. He smiled and Sherri thought her knees might give out.

  “Carson?” Duster said, reaching forward and shaking the man’s hand firmly. “I didn’t know you owned this place.”

  The man only shrugged and smiled. “Family home. You never want to mention in a poker game how rich you are.”

  Duster laughed with Carson. Sherri just stared. Never in all her life had she had such a reaction just seeing a man. He was tall, in perfect condition from what she could tell from his dark slacks, his tucked-in long-sleeved shirt, and black vest. His hands looked like they had seen their days of work and he was clearly slightly older than her.

  “So why do I deserve this honor, Marshal?” he asked, glancing first at Bonnie, then at Sherri.

  Their gaze locked and Sherri could feel her face growing warm. No doubt she was blushing. How was that even possible? She was proud of the fact that no man could get to her. She had gone through college and a master’s degree in journalism and never let herself get close to a man emotionally. She had had her flings and relationships, sure, but never anything serious. She had had too much writing to do, too much of the world to see to be tied down to anyone.

  Now here she was blushing over a single glance from the best-looking man she had ever seen. A man who would be dead long, long before she was born.

  Finally Carson looked away and back at Duster.

  “This is my wife, Bonnie,” Duster said.

  Bonnie took Carson’s hand, nodded and smiled. “Wife, huh?” Carson said, smiling with a smile Sherri was afraid Carson might direct at her in a moment. “Marshal Kindle has many secrets.”

  “More than you know, sir,” Bonnie said, laughing.

  Carson laughed with her and Sherri wasn’t sure if her legs were going to hold her much longer. How could anyone have this kind of effect on her?

  Wow.

  The laugh reached Carson’s eyes and the sound seemed to be accepted by the trees and building around them. He was so perfect, she just wanted to jump him and put her legs around him and kiss that fantastic mouth of his.

  Wouldn’t that shock the women of Boise in 1898?

  “And this is Sherri Edwards,” Duster said. “A journalist from back east traveling with Bonnie and hoping to do some articles on the great homes of the West.”

  “My pleasure,” Carson said, again holding her gaze and extending his hand.

  When Sherri reached out and took his hand it felt like all of time had come unstuck around her. Her gaze stayed locked on his beautiful brown eyes and his smile seemed to change slightly into puzzlement.

  She made herself take a deep breath to push back the coming dizziness and he finally let her hand go.

  “Most assuredl
y my pleasure,” Carson said, his voice slightly breathless. “Please come in. I’ll be honored to show my home to someone so beautiful.”

  That was it. She couldn’t really be in 1898 falling in lust with a man more than a hundred years too old.

  This had to be a dream.

  Two

  Carson Edwards could not believe the beauty of the woman also named Edwards who had just walked up to his front door. So far he had managed to stay alone and not attached to any single woman for his entire adult life, but then Sherri Edwards stepped through his front door and every desire to remain alone ended just like that.

  He had never experienced anything like it, and trying to remain a gentleman in this instance was difficult at best.

  And at the same time he was convinced he knew her from somewhere. But he could just not place where. More than likely it was his attraction to her that caused that feeling.

  And clearly she was as attracted to him as he was to her.

  Besides that, she was with Duster and Bonnie Kindle, two of the most famous time travelers of all history. The very people who would get him started traveling in time. But they clearly didn’t recognize him, so in their future they hadn’t met yet. That meant that more than likely Sherri was with them from a period around 2015 or early 2016.

  Of course, Bonnie and Duster and Sherri from that time period had no way of knowing that he and others were also time travelers. Or that he had been planning on moving on tomorrow and just leaving the house and his estate in case he wanted to return. Now, because of their visit in this timeline, he might just need to stick around a little longer.

  Especially with Sherri.

  She was very, very attractive, even made up in the ill-fitting period costume that women wore at this time in history. Her long black hair seemed to shine around her face and her eyes were filled with intelligence. He was attracted to her more than he wanted to admit.

  Far, far more.

  He got his three guests settled on the back porch overlooking the wide back lawn and the river below. He served them all iced tea, which both Bonnie and Duster looked at with puzzlement, but said nothing. He knew for a fact they were wondering exactly how he got ice on a warm day in May without even being away from them for more than a few minutes to pour the tea. In this time period ice was stored in an icebox in huge chunks or in a basement ice house-like room that took time to go to.

  Wouldn’t they be shocked to learn he had a small ice machine in the basement.

  Sherri was doing everything in her power to not look at him, which he felt was funny. He caught her eye and each time she would look quickly away. She was as attracted to him as much as he was to her.

  He also had no doubt that they were related in any fashion. There were many, many Edwards and even all the ones from the Boise area were not connected in any fashion. He knew every relative he had. He had made sure of that when he started traveling in time. She was not among them.

  He sat down facing the three of them, his back to the river and the beautiful scene that had caused him to build this home in this location in so many timelines.

  Duster had taken off his coat and hat while both women were enjoying the coolness of the tea. Fashions in this time in history were not pleasant for woman, of that there was no doubt.

  “So, you like my little home?” he asked, smiling at Sherri.

  “I do,” she said, nodding. “Very much.” Her voice sort of choked and more than likely she had forgotten her cover story. He knew that what she really wanted to know was why he would kill himself and then haunt this mansion for such a long period of time.

  She said nothing more and he let the silence build.

  He just needed to get this all out in the open if he was really going to get any answers about who Sherri really was. And he really, really wanted to know everything about her.

  He laughed for a moment, then he said, “Sorry, I can’t take this any longer. Honest, I have no plans on killing myself tonight.”

  The look of shock from all three of them was priceless.

  “So what year did you buy this place?” he asked, looking at Sherri. “And what history do you really want to know about why I built it?”

  She just blinked and he loved the shocked look on her face. Her beautiful mouth opened, then closed, then panic filled her eyes and she glanced at Duster, who was looking just as confused as Bonnie.

  He smiled at Duster and Bonnie. “What, you think you are the only two time travelers?”

  Then he laughed. “Well, actually, you did start it all. And trained all of us to do it right. Or will train all of us, as the case might be.”

  Three

  Sherri just sat there stunned, not only at the fantastic man sitting across from her, but at what he had said.

  He was a time traveler as well.

  Duster and Bonnie looked shaken to their core and neither had spoken. So she finally decided to stop acting like a fish-out-of-water with her mouth and ask a few questions.

  “I bought the place in 2015,” she said, “with the intention of restoring it so it looks like this.” She waved her arm around at the beauty that surrounded her. “But I can’t get anyone to work for me because of the stupid ghost that haunts this place, supposedly the ghost of you.”

  Now it was Carson’s turn to look surprised. “The batteries weren’t supposed to last that long,” he said. “They were supposed to die about the time the money I left in trust to keep this home in shape ran out.”

  “Batteries?” Sherri asked. “You’re saying the ghost is a fake?”

  “Of course,” Carson said, laughing. “Ghosts don’t exist.”

  “And neither did time travel until I came back here,” she said, enjoying his laugh and smiling back. She was gaining her strength and footing with him.

  “You want to see where I hid it?” he asked. “So you can fix it when you get back.”

  “I damned sure do,” she said, standing as he did. “That stupid ghost has caused me more grief than I want to think about.”

  “You coming, Marshal and Bonnie?” Carson asked as he led Sherri into the cooler insides of the house.

  Both of them were still just sitting there, their glasses in their hands, looking totally stunned. Sherri knew how they felt. Maybe she was accepting Carson as a time traveler faster than they were because they had lived hundreds and hundreds of years thinking they were the only two. She was still new to this insanity.

  In fact, when the three of them had sat over dinner one evening after touring the old mansion and listening to her complain about the ghost, Duster and Bonnie had suggested she go back and see her home and try to figure out what happened to the original owner.

  She had just laughed until they told her they were serious.

  For a week, she had thought them crazy until they took her on a Sunday drive up to Silver City and showed her the old mine and the time machine. She had watched Duster vanish out of thin air and then within minutes return, dressed completely differently, with a brand new newspaper from 1890 and claiming he had lived almost twenty years while they had stood there talking.

  Two weeks later, she had decided she wanted to try the insanity or call their bluff. And now three days later she found herself in 1898 talking with the fantastic original owner of her home.

  Together, they went into the front parlor, then Carson pointed to a panel up about two feet below the twelve-foot ceiling. “The ghost device is in there, disguised as an old ice box that is locked up tight. Just never thought the batteries would last until 2015.”

  “Glad they did,” Sherri said. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

  Then she realized what she had said and blushed.

  “I’m really glad they did as well,” he said, smiling at her.

  For a moment, she thought he was going to reach out and take her hand. If he did that, she wondered if her knees would hold her up. What she wanted more than anything else was for him to just hold her and kiss her.

  But
sadly, he didn’t take her hand. They just held each other’s gaze for a moment before Duster finally broke the silence.

  “Think we can talk for a bit about you being a time traveler?”

  Carson laughed. “I think so. Let’s go downstairs where it’s comfortable and cool.”

  “There is no downstairs in this mansion,” Sherri said, stunned. “I know, I have copies of the original plans.”

  She instantly realized how silly that sounded since she was standing with the original owner and builder just twenty years after he had built the place.

  Carson gave her that smile that wanted to melt her into a hot puddle on the polished stone floor. “Haven’t found it yet, huh?”

  “Haven’t been able to with your stupid ghost haunting me,” she said, smiling back at him.

  “I hope to do more than just haunt you,” he said, smiling at her, before turning away and heading toward the kitchen area.

  She just stood there, her mouth once again doing the fish-out-of-water routine until Bonnie took her arm and nudged her forward.

  “Damn men can do that to you, can’t they?” Bonnie whispered.

  “I heard that,” Duster said behind them.

  “I’ll see who’s going to do what to whom,” Sherri said softly to Bonnie and the two of them laughed all the way to the kitchen and the hidden door that led to the secret basement.

  Four

  Carson spent the next two hours in his air-conditioned basement living area, flirting with Sherrie and explaining to Bonnie and Duster how he had gotten to this time at this point, and how he knew about Bonnie and Duster. And how they had trained him. Or more accurately, would train him.

  The room looked more like his family room in 2018 than it did in 1898. He had a small generator working off of a nearby artesian spring, and he had built an air conditioner and a fridge and small icemaker from parts and coolant he had packed into Boise with him from the old mine.