John James retrieved the pitcher, poured more water for me, then set the pitcher in the center of the table. “I’ve got some hardtack, too. Would you like some?”
My stomach growled at the thought of food. “Yes, please.”
“And for you, sir?”
Marcellious gave a grunt and a nod.
After the tin plate of hardtack had been set in the middle of the table, I reached for one.
A rock-hard cracker equivalent had never tasted so good. After consuming one, I reached for another.
Marcellious lifted his chin as if giving approval to my appetite. Then, he said to John James, “What were those drawings you had on the table? They made no sense to me.”
“Nor should they.” John James settled on the wooden crate. “I’m a scholar, you see. I study time travel. Those were diagrams of mathematical calculations and conjectures regarding time travel.”
Marcellious and I exchanged a glance.
“Are you a time traveler?” I asked, sneaking a glance at the hardtack.
Would it be impolite to eat another?
“Help yourself, dear. I have more,” John James said as if reading my hunger signals.
“Are you sure?” I said.
“Absolutely! I make these biscuits all the time.” John James beamed at me. “And, in answer to your question, no, I’m not a time traveler. But I study it. In fact, I’m rather obsessed with it. Generations before me have been studying Timebornes. We’ve been carrying the torch for centuries. That’s why I have no friends and live alone. I usually have to pick up and move a lot, but I’ve been in this place for several months. It’s a sweet little home, don’t you think?”
He smiled as he gazed at his surroundings.
“Yes, it’s lovely,” I said.
Marcellious said nothing.
“Anyway…” John James drummed his hands on the table. “Back to time travel. I’ve devoted my entire life to it. I have to say, it’s truly an honor to meet a time traveler.”
He fixed his gaze on me.
“Marcellious is a Timeborne, too. Marcellious and my husband, Roman,” I said, then slid down a river of sorrow at thoughts of my presumed-dead husband. “When Marcellious said he was my husband, he was only kidding.”
I stabbed Marcellious with my gaze.
“I understand,” John James said, lifting both palms before him. “You’re not the first woman whose husband or friend has tried to protect them. Most people think I’m insane with my constant babbling about time travel. But honestly, I wassopleased to find a time traveler. And you say there are three of you nearby? What good fortune my day has become!”
He puffed up his chest.
I studied his face, still perplexed about why he looked just like my father.
“Quit staring, Olivia. You’re probably making him uncomfortable,” Marcellious said.
“You don’t get it, Marcellious. John James looksexactlylike my father. He doesn’t merelyresemblehim. He’s an exact copy.” I turned to John James and said, “I’m sorry for staring, but that’s why.”
“Huh,” Marcellious said.
“Don’t worry about it. Apology accepted,” John James said. “I’m just glad to be conversing with two people who aren’t threatening to put me in an asylum.”
“We’ve actually been looking for you. Perhaps both of us are having good fortune today,” I said.
John James pulled back his head and blinked. “You have? Why?”
