Play along, Carter had said. Thinking of him made me stretch for the pocket that wasn't there.
"Nell!" I exclaimed. "Have you seen my phone?" At the blank look she gave me, I racked my mind for an explanation. "A small, silver box that was in my pocket when I came here."
"You mean the devil's box?" Nell's voice was hushed. "I have it. I did not let your father see it, Josie."
"Right. Where is it?"
Nell hesitated then got up and went to a jewelry box on a vanity near the window. She opened it and pulled out the phone.
I almost sighed with relief.
Nell put it back quickly, closed the box and kissed the dainty golden cross she wore on a thin chain around her neck.
"So I am the daughter of John," I began. There was no easy way to figure out who I was. "I've been gone for a year because … why did I leave?"
"A certain obligation," Nell whispered, as if I should know. "Do you remember?"
"No."
"You were to marry a man your father chose."
I started to laugh then stopped at Nell's confused look. I hadn't thought twice about the status of women in the Old West. Recalling that the women's rights movements didn't start for another almost hundred years, I began to think I had a lot of learning to do in order to fit in.
"Now that I'm back, do I have to marry him still?" I asked.
"He has since married another," Nell added.
"Oh." My gaze went to the jewelry box. "Good for him, I guess."
"Would you like to dress to see your father?"
"Um, yes. Yes I would."
Nell appeared pleased. "I'll prepare your gown." She hurried out the door.
I shook my head and went to the vanity. I pulled the cell free and examined it again. Like yesterday, there was no battery and no signal - and two messages from Carter. At least he was keeping up his part of the deal and texting. I gazed at the phone, grappling with the idea that somehow, Carter was communicating with me, even though we were two centuries apart.
I wished I'd had more of a science mind. I knew nothing of physics or how any of this was possible. Not about to question it, so long as he was talking to me, I kissed the cell, my one connection to my time.
Be like Amy Pond or Clara Oswald, I told myself, recalling my favorite Doctor Who companions. They were never scared or worried when they went to strange worlds or hostile time periods.