The Gilded Age, a Time Travel Read Online Free PDF Page B

falsified family relationships.
When they died, they were buried in anonymous graves.”
    “So
their identities are lost to the Archives,” Zhu said. She was getting it, all
right.
    “Yes.
Like so many of the kids who ran away to the Haight-Ashbury during the Summer
of Love.”
    “Oh,
man. You’re sending me to a dim spot?”
    “Exactly.”
Chiron smiled, a real smile at last, warm and encouraging. “We’ve constructed
an identity for you.”
    “And
who will I be?”
    “The
runaway mistress of a British gentleman. That will explain your presence in San
Francisco. Your proficiency in English. You’ll go to a home in Chinatown
established by Presbyterian missionaries for rescued slave girls. You’ll stay
there, work for the director. It’s all women, you’ll like it. I understand that
the mission was a lot like the compound you lived in with the Daughters of
Compassion.”
    “That
sounds okay,” Zhu said slowly. Why did she sense he wasn’t telling her
something? Something important?
    Suddenly
Chiron searched his pockets and, like an old-timey magician, produced something
shiny from his pocket. He commanded, “Look at this.”
    His
sudden movements startled her, and an odd prickly feeling rose in her throat.
“What is it?”
    “We
call it the aurelia. A golden butterfly.”
    It
was a piece of jewelry, not a golden butterfly. A fantastic Art Nouveau brooch,
its elaborate wings crafted out of swirls of gold set with marquise-cut
diamonds and bits of multicolored glass that caught the light like tiny stained
glass windows. Instead of an insect, the body of a tiny, graceful woman cast in
gold stood at the center, her outstretched arms bearing the fabulous wings, her
shapely legs poised as if she were about to dive. She had the heart-shaped face
of a classic Gibson girl--large eyes, full cheeks, delicate mouth. Her hair was
swept up in a sort of futuristic hood. Her expression was impassive, yet
charged with some hidden passion.
    Zhu
reached out, amazed. “For me?”
    But
Chiron held the aurelia away, as if teasing her, though his expression was
anything but. “This is an artifact of 1895. This is a crucial point of
reference for you, Zhu. You must look for this artifact in 1895.”
    “Look
where?” How the gold glinted! How the glass sparkled like gems!
    “She
will have it.”
    “Okay,
I give up. Who’s she?”
    “The
Chinese slave girl you’re supposed to meet. Muse will guide you to the
rendezvous. You’ll know she’s the one because she’ll have the aurelia.
Understand? That’s the object of your project. Once you’ve found the girl, the
two of you must go at once to the Presbyterian mission. She’ll live in safety
there, eventually meet and marry a Caucasian man, and bear his child. A
daughter.”
    “Wait,
don’t tell me,” Zhu said. “I’m this girl’s great-great-granddaughter.”
    “No,
no, the Archives clearly establish that your lineage is based in China.” Chiron
tucked the aurelia away in his hidden pocket. “So that’s about it. Find the
girl, verify that she’s got the aurelia, win her confidence so she’ll go with
you to the mission on Sacramento Street. Meet the new director—a remarkable
young woman named Donaldina Cameron—and take a job with her. Make sure the girl
settles in. You must stay there, watching over her, till the Chinese New Year
in 1896. That’s when the dim spot closes and we have data supporting the
existence of the girl’s daughter. Or a female half-Chinese, half-Caucasian baby
like her. Then you’ll t-port back to this Now. Okay, Zhu? Sign here.”
    She
took the petition he offered, thought about it. The Gilded Age Project did sound simple. Mostly simple. Exciting, even. After the wearying campaign in
Changchi, an adventure! She was sick to death of prison. But Chiron still
wasn’t telling her everything. “And then what?”
    “Then
we’ll see about the handling of your trial. By the time you return, we should
know what the charge