The bed frame was solid oak, polished to a high gleam. The headboard was tall and arching, like a cathedral. There were no posts on the corners of this bed, but it was still solid and imposing. The mattress was covered with crisp cotton sheets, a quilt with a wedding ring design, and a bright yellow spread. The rug on the floor next to the bed was also yellow.
There was a built-in wardrobe on the wall opposite the bed. Annabel unpacked the clothes from the boxes and hung them. She had no idea who had lived in this room originally—one of Mrs. Noone's daughters, maybe, if the Noones had any daughters—but there was certainly plenty of room for clothes. There was also a dressing table with an even larger mirror than the one in the room at Cole's house.
Beside one of the two windows was a rocking chair with embroidered cushions tied on its seat and back. This room was in the front of the house, so when Annabel sat down in the rocking chair and looked out the window through the gauzy yellow curtains, she could see Russian Hill in the distance. She searched for Cole's house, thinking that she might be able to see the roof, but it was no use. The house was too far down on the other side of the hill.
Annabel sat there and watched the sunlight fade. Her second day in 1906 was coming to a close. For some reason, she felt sadder now than she had the night before, even though her mind had grown more used to the idea that she was really in the past—or what was the past to her, anyway. To everybody else in San Francisco, today was just the present.
Maybe she would be better off if she started thinking of it that way herself, she decided.
There was no telling when she might be able to get back out to the Diablos and find that cave. And no guarantee that when she did, it would take her back to her own time. She might be stuck here for the rest of her life, and if that was the case, all she could do was make the best of it. She would miss her friends from her own time, of course . . . Earl and Vickie and even Captain McPhee. She knew they would wonder what had happened to her, would probably think she was dead and might even blame themselves for her death. She wished she could reach out to them in some way and let them know that she was all right. She wished she could hear their voices and see their friendly faces again.
A bell rang downstairs. That would be Lucius, summoning the boarders to supper. With a wistful smile, Annabel got to her feet. She might as well go down and eat, she told herself. It wouldn't do any good for her to go hungry.
She gave the back of the chair a little push and left it rocking slightly as she exited the room.
Chapter 9
It was hard to believe that a week had passed since she had crawled out of that cave and found herself in the past, Annabel thought. So much had happened since then. She sat in the parlor, an open notebook propped on her lap. The pencil in her hand fairly flew as she took notes, trying to keep up with Mrs. Noone's words.
In the old days—which was still forty or fifty years in the future—a lot of women would be going to secretarial school and learning to take shorthand. Annabel could have used that education right now. Still, it hadn't stopped her from accepting the job when Mrs. Noone offered it.
"Are you interested in literature, my dear?" the elderly woman had asked at breakfast on Annabel's first morning in Pacific Heights.
"Well, I've read a lot of poetry," Annabel had replied. "And some novels—" She stopped herself before mentioning Kerouac and Burroughs and Kesey. She didn't think any of them had even been born yet.
"I've long wanted to write my memoirs, you know," Mrs. Noone said, not having paid much attention to Annabel's answer. "But I'm afraid I've waited too late. I couldn't possibly do it by myself now, and poor Lucius has too much to do just keeping the household going. To do a proper job of it, I would require the services of a full-time assistant."
"Are you . . . offering me a job, Mrs. Noone?" Annabel had asked, surprised by this development. She had already started worrying about what sort of employment she might be able to obtain in this day and age. In the back of her mind, she hadn't given up on the idea of joining the fire department, but she had to be practical and admit that it was unlikely she would be hired there. About the only thing she had come up with was working as a clerk in a store of some sort, and that didn't appeal to her at all.
"I would not be able to pay very much in the way of wages," Mrs. Noone said, "but I could include the cost of your room and board in your compensation."
A tingle of excitement went through Annabel. If Cole didn't have to pay for her room, she wouldn't become any further indebted to him. And if Mrs. Noone could afford to pay her anything at all, she could devote nearly all of her salary to paying back what he had already spent on her.
"What would you want me to do?" she asked.
"Oh, just listen to me while I ramble on about the past," Mrs. Noone said with a wave of her hand. "Take some notes, then organize them into a coherent volume. Do you think you could do that?"