Part 5 (2/2)

Annie saw that James had followed her. The cat stood up in his chair and regarded him for a long moment. Then he did something Annie had never seen him do before. The hair on his back lifted, his tail puffed out, and he hissed. A second later he had leapt from the chair and raced from the room.

James watched the cat flee down the hall. ”It appears,” he remarked, ”that Oscar does not care for me.”

Annie frowned and walked over to stand next to him. She was in time to see Oscar's fluffed-out tail disappearing around the corner. ”I've never seen him act like that before. Oscar is a pretty easygoing cat. He likes everyone.”

”He doesn't like me.”

”There's obviously something different about you. Is it possible he knows you're from the future'”

”I don't see how he could know that.”

”Cats know a lot more than most people give them credit for.”

James shrugged. ”Perhaps he will grow to like me.”

”I'm sure he will. You're very likable, James.”

For a long moment James stared into her eyes. Slowly his hand came up to cup her cheek. Despite his size, his hand was soft and warm and infinitely gentle. She s.h.i.+vered at the feel of his skin against hers. He bent slowly and brushed his lips across her other cheek.

”Thank you,” he whispered.

A bit bewildered by his reaction to what was really just a simple, casually uttered compliment, Annie blinked. ”For what'”

”No one has ever called me likable before.”

Overcome with sympathy, she reached up and gripped his hand. ”I don't suppose slaves get a lot of compliments.”

”No,” he agreed dryly. ”They don't.”

”James'”

”Mmm'” ”Were you'were you really a slave'”

Her hesitant question seemed to break the spell. He dropped his hand from her cheek and stepped back. ”Yes,” he answered in a flat voice. ”I belonged to a family for many years. I raised their children and cleaned their home, and never received grat.i.tude, affection, or monetary compensation in return. I was not a person. I was merely property.”

His features were set in proud, defiant lines, as if he expected her to suddenly order him to clean the house and cook dinner. As if the knowledge that he had once been a slave would change the way she looked at him. She felt the need to offer rea.s.surance.

”Under our laws, people cannot be property,” she said. He gave her a wry smile that did not touch his eyes. ”The difficulty lies in defining the term people,” he said. ”I don't understand.” ”Never mind.” James turned and headed for the kitchen, evidently dismissing the subject in favor of the topic that was nearest and dearest to his heart. ”What do you want for lunch'” * * * * James made serious inroads into the baloney in the refrigerator, while Annie contented herself with a bowl of tomato soup. After lunch, she wandered back to Kay's study looking for something to read. She rubbed Oscar's ears while she studied the heavily laden bookshelves. She and Kay did not have similar reading habits. Annie liked Thomas Hardy, Charles d.i.c.kens, and Jane Austen. When Kay wasn't slogging her way through medical journals, she preferred romance novels with t.i.tles like Pa.s.sion's Flame, with covers that depicted muscular, bare-chested men holding women clad in gorgeous long gowns hiked halfway up their thighs. She also had a lot of paperback science fiction.

After some internal debate, Annie picked up one of the less steamy-looking romance novels and walked back to the living room. She wasn't sure she wanted to read anything too steamy with James around. The last thing she needed was s.e.xy thoughts about James popping into her head.

Any more s.e.xy thoughts, she amended honestly.

James was looking over the photos on the mantel again. ”This is another picture of you,” he said as she walked back into the room. Annie glanced at the photo, seeing herself in a long white dress, her reddish hair twisted up and hidden beneath a gossamer veil. ”Yeah, that's me and Steve when we got married. That's Kay beside me. She was my maid of honor.” ”Maid of honor'” ”She had a special place in my wedding ceremony,” Annie translated. ”She is important to you, then'” Annie nodded as she began absently thumbing through the book. ”Best friends forever,” she said.

”And the man was your husband'”

Annie nodded again. She didn't want to look at the photo too closely. She was afraid she would disgrace herself by crying.

James regarded the picture thoughtfully. ”He looks pleased.” ”I told you, we were happy together.”

”I've always wondered what it would be like to be married.” Annie looked up, seeing an oddly wistful expression on his features. Some small part of her was relieved to know he had never been married, that there wasn't a woman waiting for him in some other time and place. Then she wondered why it mattered to her. ”Kay has some photo alb.u.ms in the study,” she said. ”If you want to see some more photos of us, I'll get them.” James nodded. ”Please.” She walked back to the study, not surprised to find the alb.u.ms neatly organized by date, and yanked out a few. In the living room, she settled down on the couch, and James sat next to her. ”This is us in college,” she said, opening the first alb.u.m. ”Kay was a lot more serious than I was. I partied all the time and took the easiest courses I could find. I always told Kay she worked too hard, but if you want to be a doctor I guess you have to work for it.” James studied the photo. Annie looked at it too, seeing that she really had looked much the same then as she did now, tall and slender with extremely long legs that she had displayed in excessively short shorts and miniskirts. Kay, who was barely five foot three, had always been wildly envious of her legs. ”Kay always said I got the legs and she got the brains,” she said, grinning.

James frowned. ”I do not know you that well, Annie, but you seem quite intelligent.” ”Thanks. I'm not sure Kay's really any smarter than I am, just a whole lot more determined. She has one h.e.l.l of a work ethic. From the time she was ten she knew she wanted to be a doctor. Me, I had a hard time making up my mind.” ”What did you want to do'” Annie hesitated for a long moment, staring at the photo of the girl she had once been. ”I wanted to write poetry, actually.” ”Poetry'” ”Yeah.” She grinned wryly. ”Pretty dumb, I know. n.o.body makes a living writing poetry, after all.” James looked intrigued. ”Did you actually write some'” Annie nodded. ”In fact, I actually managed to get a few poems published. But it obviously wasn't a way I could support myself. Most of the poetry journals pay you in copies of the magazine instead of money.

You can't pay your rent with magazines. So after college I started working for an insurance company.” Instead of writing poetry, she reviewed insurance applications day in and day out. It wasn't glamorous, or even particularly interesting, but it did pay the bills. She realized with a shock she hadn't written any poetry in nearly ten years.

She lived a peaceful, boring, suburban existence. And yet she had been happy until Steve died.

James flipped through the alb.u.m, glancing at photos that depicted her. He stopped at a photo of her at a frat party and tapped on the picture with a blunt fingertip. ”What is that peculiar hat'”

”It's not a hat. It's a lampshade.”

”A lampshade'” James looked up, stared thoughtfully at the lamp on the end table, then glanced back at her. ”Why would you put a lampshade on your head'”

”It's an old cliche, all right' I just wanted everyone to know I was a party animal.”

”A party animal'”

”You know, someone who spends all her time partying. Someone who's a lot of fun.”

James studied her for a long moment. ”You do not seem like a party animal to me.”

”So I'm not much fun, huh' Thanks a lot.”

”I did not intend to insult you. I simply think you are a rather subdued person.”

Annie felt annoyance bubbling up. ”Maybe I am now,” she said through tightly compressed lips, ”but

I've been through h.e.l.l in the past year. Before Steve died, I--”

She was embarra.s.sed to hear her voice break. James shot her a typically masculine expression of alarm

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