“Perhaps now would be a good time for us to retire to the solar,” Beth suggested brightly, hoping to alleviate the other woman’s embarrassment.
The others agreed, and—with lighter spirits all around—they exited the great hall.
An hour later, Dillon and Alyssa sat with their heads bent over Beth’s cell phone, gazing in astonishment at the photo she had just taken of them, as well as those she had taken of Robert, Marcus and the others.
Thank goodness Beth had packed her solar charger. Without it, her cell phone’s battery would have long since died and she wouldn’t have had the photos to aid her whenever she tried to convince others she was from the future.
She and Robert had recited her tale as concisely as possible. Through much of it, Dillon had looked angry and suspicious. Alyssa had appeared unsettled. But, as with Michael and the others, Beth’s modern goodies—the cell phone and coins in particular—convinced them where words would not.
Alyssa’s gifts, however, also afforded them another way.
“Alyssa,” Beth said, extending her hand, palm up, “would you like to see the future?”
Alyssa glanced at Dillon.
“Do not overtax yourself, sweetling,” he murmured.
Beth’s gaze dropped to the woman’s stomach. “Oh. Will it tire you?” She didn’t know how exactly the woman’s gift worked.
Smiling, Alyssa shook her head as she handed her husband the cell phone. “Not overly.”
“Good.” Beth extended her hand again. “Do I just picture what I want you to see?”
“Aye, though I should warn you I may pick up other things along the way,” she cautioned. “Things you may not wish me to see. Things you think of often.”
Beth bit her lip. That was a bit unsettling. “Then I should probably warn you that you are likely to see a lot of Robert naked.”
Alyssa’s eyes widened as a blush climbed her cheeks.
Dillon released a bark of involuntary laughter.
When Beth glanced at Robert, his eyes twinkled as his lips stretched in a mischievous smile.
“You imagine me naked often, do you?” he murmured, toying with a lock of her hair.
Beth winked. “Are you kidding? You’re naked right now.”
Laughing, he kissed her cheek.
Beth turned back to Alyssa. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist. Would you please keep anything personal or embarrassing you might see in my thoughts between you and me?”
“Aye, Beth,” she said with a smile. “I would have done so without your request.”
“Thank you. Now, why don’t I start by showing you my homeland?”
As soon as Alyssa took her hand, Beth closed her eyes and pictured a map of the world laid out before her. “Okay, there’s Europe. There’s England. And way over here to the west are North and South America.”
Alyssa’s hand tightened on hers. “I have read ancient scrolls that suggested there was land far to the west, but I never guessed ’twould be so much.”
The map in Beth’s mind molded itself into a sphere and settled into orbit around the sun with the other planets all in their places.
Alyssa gasped and jerked her hand back.
Beth opened her eyes. “What?”
“You know the Earth circles the sun,” Alyssa whispered, then looked at Robert.
Robert raised his hands. “I did not tell her. She already knew.”
Beth nodded. “Everyone knows that in my time. The Earth is round and revolves around the sun, along with seven other planets and three dwarf planets.”
When Dillon and Alyssa just stared at her, Beth fidgeted uncertainly. “Do you wish to continue?”
Nodding hesitantly, Alyssa again took Beth’s hand.
Beth pictured the globe again and let a map of the United States overlay itself atop the North American continent. “This is the country I was born in, the United States. This is Texas.” Mentally, she zoomed in on the Lone Star State. “And this is Houston, the city I’ve lived in all of my life.”
“’Tis so large,” Alyssa breathed.
“It is,” Beth agreed. “I think at last count there were around six million people living in the Houston metropolitan area.”
Both Robert and Dillon expressed shock at such a high number.
“’Tis true, Dillon,” Alyssa said as Beth showed her the tall buildings and the masses of people. “Look at all of the glass windows!”
Glass windows, Beth had come to understand, were very rare and expensive in this time.
“Oh!” Alyssa exclaimed. “What are those?”
Beth smiled. “Cars. Also called automobiles. You might understand them better as horseless carriages or wagons. Most are powered by a liquid fuel, rather than animals, and can travel three or four times faster than the fastest horse you’ve ridden.”
“Oh, I wish you could see this,” Alyssa told the men, her voice high with excitement.
“You know what’s even cooler than the cars?” Beth asked with a grin. “Airplanes.”
Beth recalled as vividly as possible her last trip to the airport. Walking through the long boarding tunnel, taking her seat, then watching out the window as the plane took off and the land fell away beneath them.