Robert folded his arms across his chest and raised one eyebrow in what she took as a cold challenge. “Then by all means, enlighten me with an example or two and we shall see how difficult it is for my poor backward brain to conceive of it.”
Groaning again, she resumed her pacing. “Robert, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just… for Pete’s sake! You guys probably still think the Earth is flat and that—”
“The Earth is not flat. It is round,” he interrupted.
“Really? You knew that?”
“Scholars have known that for some time now, though the church continues to insist it is flat.”
“Oh.” She frowned. “Teachers should really stop teaching that everyone-was-afraid-Columbus-would-sail-off-the-edge-of-the-Earth crap in school then.”
He blinked.
“Right. Too far off topic.” She resumed her pacing. “Okay. So you know the Earth is round. But you probably think that the sun—and pretty much everything else in the universe—revolves around the Earth. And you probably know little to nothing about solar systems or galaxies or just how big this universe really is. We do. All of those stars up there,” she said, motioning to the ceiling, “are suns just like our own with their own little groups of planets that revolve around them or circle them just like the Earth does our sun. And we’re pretty damned sure that there’s life on at least a few of them.”
She paused to take a breath, then dove back in. “And Earth isn’t the only planet that revolves around our sun. There are eight planets and three dwarf planets. Although, honestly, I still think of Pluto as a planet, not a dwarf planet. And with our technology, we’ve taken close-up pictures of some of these planets, and taken soil samples of at least one, and even studied their weather patterns. We’ve sent men to the moon, Robert. In the twentieth century, men actually walked on the moon. We’ve built a station up in space, where astronauts live for months at a time with great big rockets that take them to it. If I were born in your time, would any of that have occurred to me?”
He didn’t answer.
“Well, would it?”
The silence stretched.
Had she tossed too many modern words in there for him to get the gist of it?
She studied him. No. Something she had said had gotten to him. Some fragment of her ramblings had actually reached him.
His face lost quite a bit of color. He gripped the arms of his chair so tightly that his knuckles whitened. He looked positively shell-shocked.
“Robert?”
Leaning forward, he braced his elbows on his knees again and clasped his hands between them.
“What is it?” she asked.
“’Tis naught,” he answered, his face full of unease.
“I don’t think so,” she protested, watching him. “Something I said unsettled you.”
He stared down at his hands for a moment and seemed to weigh his words very carefully. Either that or he debated the wisdom of speaking them aloud. “You do not believe the sun revolves around the Earth?” he asked finally.
That wasn’t what she had expected. “No. Nay, the Earth, along with the other planets in our solar system, all revolve around the sun. But Europe didn’t—or rather won’t—figure that out until…” She frowned. When had they figured that out? “I’m not sure. Maybe the 16th century. I think Copernicus came up with a model somewhere around then.” She had a vague recollection of writing an essay on it in middle school.
Robert looked none too pleased.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that,” she murmured. Sure, he hadn’t been thrown by the Earth being round thing. But the Earth revolving around the sun instead of vice versa must have come as a shock.
As she studied Robert, she frowned, then narrowed her eyes.
Or had it?
Shouldn’t he be shouting denials or accusing her of madness or witchcraft or heresy or laughing it all off as a joke by now? Because he wasn’t doing any of that. He was just sitting there, staring at her. Almost as if he were wondering how the hell she had known.
Her eyes widened. “You knew!” she exclaimed, pointing a finger at him with a combination of accusation and triumph. “You knew the Earth revolves around the sun and now you’re trying to figure out how I knew it!”
“How did you know it?” he asked softly.
“We’re taught that and a lot more, beginning at a very early age in school. If I didn’t have such a hard time remembering numbers, I could probably tell you the Earth’s dimensions, too.”
“As could I.”
She blinked. “What?”
He quirked one supercilious eyebrow.
“Seriously?”
The eyebrow’s twin rose, as did the corners of his lips as he leaned back in his chair.
“No freaking way!” Beth hurried across the room and reclaimed her seat. “How is that possible? You’re not supposed to know about that stuff yet.”
“You must first vow you will not repeat what I tell you,” he cautioned.
“Done. Now give it up.”
He grinned. “You have the most peculiar way of issuing demands.”