Time After Time Read Online Free PDF Page A

more.
    Liz tried not to think of
the lost jobs the freighter represented and daydreamed instead
about the magic of maritime trade. She knew — every Newporter knew
— that much of Newport's old wealth had come from its deep
involvement in trading with eighteenth-century China. From teas to
trees to silks to willoware, everything pretty once seemed to have
come from the Far East. Shipowners put the best pieces aside for
themselves, and sold the rest, and got richer and richer. No one
begrudged them back then, not if it meant they could have pretty
blue dishes on their tables and silk dress goods for twenty-five
cents a yard.
    And red-lacquered boxes
like the one Liz held in her hands. That it came from China, she
had no doubt. Probably it had been offloaded from some
square-rigger right here in Newport harbor in the days when Newport
was still a major port of the United States. She was cradling a
small token of the commerce that had enabled more than one man to
build himself an imposing mansion on Newport's Gold
Coast.
    She thought of Jack
Eastman and wondered where his money had came from. He had a certain Captain
Bligh glint in his eye that made her think he could easily take a
ship around the Horn. On the other hand, he looked like he'd be
just as comfortable in the give-and-take of a trading session
dockside. Heck, hadn't he just proved it?
    Well, he might have his
empire, but she had her red box. And she had no intention of
destroying it, only to discover it was empty.
    But it wasn 't empty. It couldn't be. What
Liz needed, she decided, was a locksmith; he'd be able to pick the
lock in two seconds flat. She dusted herself off, changed, and was
on her way out the door when she saw Victoria pulling onto the
graveled parking area in front of the rose arbor — the rose arbor
that had sealed Liz's decision to buy the house.
    Victoria had Susy in the
back seat of her BMW. As always, Liz's heart sang a bright song at
the sight of her five-year-old daughter. As always, the thought
hurtled through her mind that, if Keith had had his way
....
    But he hadn't, and for
that, Liz was more grateful than anyone else on earth.
    "Hi, honey," she said to
the child. "You must've had a good time."
    Her daughter waved through
the open window and unbuckled her seat belt in a very grown-up way,
then got out and skipped over into her mother's waiting arms for a
hug.
    "Aunty Tori let me get a
milkshake for dessert!"
    "And you were able to
drink it all?" asked Liz, glancing at Victoria with
amazement.
    "Well, no," Susy
confessed. "Aunty Tori had to help me a little."
    Victoria reassured Liz by
holding her thumb and forefinger two inches apart. Two inches of
milkshake wasn't so awful; Susy'd have her appetite back by
suppertime. "Well, just so you know you can't have a special
dessert like that every day," Liz said gravely.
    "Oh, Mommy," said Susy, as if she were
well aware that she didn't have a prayer.
    For Liz, one of the the
hardest things about sharing Susy with her parents and Victoria on
a regular basis was trying to keep Susy's diet honest. It was so
tempting to let them ply her with treats, so tempting for Liz
herself to bribe Susy whenever she had to farm her out on a sunny
weekend or a big holiday, which was inevitably when Liz had to
work.
    Life would've been so much
easier if Keith had chosen to stick around.
    Susy was peeking into the
shopping bag that sat on the ground next to her mother. "What's
this, Mommy? A present for someone?"
    Liz smiled at her
daughter's subtle fishing expedition and rumpled her dark-brown
hair. "It's a box I found in the attic," she said, lifting it out
for her daughter and Victoria to see. "It's locked, so I'm going to
take it to someone who can open it for me. Do you want to
come?"
    While Susy considered her
options, Victoria asked, "For heaven's sake, how did you get into
the attic?"
    "Jigsaw," said Liz,
rolling her eyes at the memory. "I made an ungodly mess; I haven't
even swept it up yet. I found a