more thrilling.
When they led her around the building and introduced her to the moving pathway, she had her first real sense that she was no longer in her own time. With intense concentration, she watched as the white moving belts carried them along at a fast walking speed. When they started to add their own steps to the pace, it was absurdly dislocating to watch the scenery pass twice as fast as it should. She giggled, and took Rene’s arm so that she would not fall. Jane walked on the belt that ran alongside theirs and chattered away about the house she would be living in and her next door neighbour, Maggie, who was a gifted artist, and her new husband, Travis, who was an artist, too.
The moving pathway took them across several circular canals, and the land on either side of the canals seemed to serve different purposes. She didn’t ask about it, and her companions didn’t explain. By mutual agreement, they kept information about this new world to a minimum.
Within half an hour, they had left the city behind, and had reached the coast. They left the moving pathway, and began to follow stationary pathway up the side of a cliff, where a line of beautiful villas in the Greco-Roman style dotted its edge. Half way up, Jane turned in to one of the more elaborate residences. Even Rene and Jane seemed impressed.
‘Beats our little place,’ Jane commented, as they walked into the atrium, and got their first look at the ocean beyond the floor to ceiling glass windows that opened onto a vine covered patio.
‘My one bedroom unit tends to pale into insignificance next to this, too,’ Rene said with a laugh, as he took in the parlour that was as large as the one at Foxmoor Manor, and yet infinitely more comfortable. The monochrome cream rugs beneath their feet felt as thick and cushiony as grass, and extended all the way to the white walls. The furnishings were large and well stuffed, and looked far more comfortable than anything they had at home. Extending off to the left, what looked like a kind of kitchen opened directly onto the parlour, and a table made of white wood with four chairs surrounding it, filled the gap between kitchen and parlour.
‘You can have the master bedroom Liv, as you are the guest. If this is the same as Maggie’s place next door, you’ll have the same kind of incredible view from your bedroom window as here. I bags the second bedroom, and you get the studio, Frenchie,’ Jane announced happily, fully engaged with her new, short term lifestyle.
‘Frenchie?’ Liv said with shock.
‘Her nickname for me. I’m French Canadian. The story I told your father was not far from the truth. But my father was no aristocrat escaping the French Revolution, and he had no other children but me. My mother was Obejwe.’
‘Canadian? What is that?’
‘It is what the territory above the United States will come to be called a century after your time. There will be a few wars before that happens though.’
‘It is hard to credit. You know the future. Will King George III remain monarch for much longer?’
‘Let me see,’ Rene became thoughtful as they walked down the hall to the bedrooms. ‘I think 1811 is when George IV will be made Regent, until the mad king’s death in 1820… do not quote me on that. I do not have a download that extends into that period. What about you, Jane?’
‘Nope, no idea. But your clothes remind me of Jane Austin movies I’ve seen.’
‘Jane who?’ Liv asked
‘Jane Austin. Wrote romantic novels in your time that were very popular’
‘I am afraid I have never heard of her.’
‘She didn’t write under her real name, if I recall. Does Sense and Sensibility sound familiar? Pride and Prejudice?’
Liv shook her head apologetically. ‘I am not well read in the literary field. I am a Natural Historian.’
‘That’s okay. I might dig up the movies while you’re here. You can tell me how accurate they are.’
‘Movies?’
‘Janey, slow down. Too much information. Liv, she will explain movies to you another day. Here is the master bedroom. Wow, the view is spectacular. Look, there is a storm coming in.’
They all moved to the window, and looked out at the grey ocean. On the horizon heavy, black clouds brewed. Liv felt a little frightened at the idea of being so exposed when such a storm hit. What if the windows couldn’t hold back the wind