Never Love A Stranger Part 6

at the threat of tears. "I did not mean to upset you," he said hastily.

Annie stood up and stalked across the iron-gray carpet. "It's not your fault," she whispered.

She heard his footsteps cross the room, felt his presence just behind her. "It is my fault, Annie."

Tentatively his hand brushed her shoulder. She heard the sincere concern and contrition in his voice, and it touched her heart as much as his hesitant caress. "I had no intention of distressing you, but I perceive now that I should not have made such a personal observation. Please accept my apology."

Annie shook her head. She managed to get her voice under control. "No," she said more firmly. "It wasn't you. I mean, you didn't make me mad. I guess-- I guess in a way you're right."

There was a puzzled silence. "I beg your pardon'" Annie turned to face him. "I am boring," she said bluntly. "I go to work, I go home, I watch TV, I go to bed. Then I get up and start over again. And the thing that really bugs me is that I guess I was boring even when I was married to Steve. I was so happy with him, but ... I haven't partied in a long, long time."

James looked down at her for a long moment. "I think," he said at last, "that what you think of as boring is perfectly normal. The family that owned me spent most of their time either working, or enjoying each other's company. They rarely held gatherings in their home." A slight smile touched his full mouth. "And I never once saw one of them wear a lampshade."

Annie felt the corners of her own mouth quirk up in response to the dry humor in his voice. "It's just that--" She waved at the abandoned photo alb.u.m, lying open on the couch. "I look at those pictures, and I feel so--so old."

"I believe you are confusing old with mature," James said gently.

"Maybe." Annie sighed.

James regarded her with another flicker of amus.e.m.e.nt. "Tell me, Annie, do you really feel the desire to walk around with a gla.s.s bottle in your hand and a lampshade on your head'"

It sounded so ludicrous she had to grin. "No. No, of course not."

"Perhaps you have learned something in the past ten years."

"Yeah, maybe." Annie crossed the room and looked at the laughing girl in the photo alb.u.m for a long moment, then reached down and closed it. "Maybe I have, at that."

Chapter 5.

"It's called pizza."

"It is wonderful," James said, stuffing another large chunk into his mouth and speaking, rather indistinctly, around the pizza. "I have never had anything like it."

"I'm glad you like it." Annie had decided to call out for pizza, since she really wasn't in the mood for cooking. And given James' recent disclosures, she hesitated to ask him to do it, lest he a.s.sume she thought of him as some sort of servant. The last thing she wanted to do was insult him.

He had opened the door to the pizza delivery boy with the utmost caution, earning a strange look from the young man. James believed in being cautious. Considering recent events, she could hardly blame him.

The TV was on, but Annie had muted it for a commercial break and never gotten around to hitting the mute b.u.t.ton again. She had forgotten how wonderful it was to have company--real company, not the chattering empty noise of television. She had been alone for a year, except for the occasional evening spent with Kay, and she hadn't realized how very lonely she was.

Furthermore, James was good company. Last night she had thought he was insane. Tonight she found she was beginning to like him. A lot.

He had changed into one of his new pairs of chinos and a navy blue polo shirt, and his golden hair rippled in flawless waves to his shoulders. She hadn't seen him comb it all day, yet it was as unmussed as ever. She wondered with a touch of envy how he managed that. Her own hair fell to her waist, but when she left it loose it needed to be combed every hour on the hour to look decent. Generally she just pulled it into a ponytail and forgot about it.

"You look nice in your clothes," she said, watching him devour the piece of pizza. He looked fabulous, but she wasn't about to tell him that.

"Thank you," he said, glancing down at his shirt. "The truth is, I think I look rather peculiar."

"I suppose the styles you're used to are different." Something occurred to her, and she paused with the

slice of pizza partway to her mouth. "Or do you...'" She let the sentence trail off.

He looked at her in puzzlement, then suddenly flashed a killer smile. His teeth were remarkably white and straight. Even his mouth was perfect, she thought as the impact of that smile hit her like an anvil. She stared at him blankly, dazed.

"We do wear clothing, if that's what you're asking."

"I just wondered," she said awkwardly, hoping he hadn't noticed her gawking at him like a teenybopper.

"After all, you showed up here buck naked."

"I could not manage to get the temporal displacement module to permit clothing to pa.s.s through," he

explained. "I am not expert in operating such a machine." He grinned again. "I am in fact fortunate that I

did not leave any significant portion of my anatomy behind."

She felt her cheeks growing red. She had observed him closely enough to know that no significant portions of his anatomy had failed to make the trip. "Want another piece of pizza'" she said hastily, hoping he wouldn't notice her embarra.s.sment.

James looked at her with a knowing smile, and she realized he had noted her reaction, but he did not

comment on it. "Of course."

She pa.s.sed him another piece of pizza, plucking a piece of ham off it and offering it to Oscar. The cat had unbent enough to remain in the same room as James, although he remained next to Annie, keeping her between himself and James. Greedy as ever, Oscar gobbled down the ham.

James offered the cat a piece of ham. Oscar's ears instantly went back and he made a spitting noise.

"He still doesn't like you," Annie said apologetically.

"It is all right. I am simply interested in him. I have never seen a cat before."

Annie felt a distinct shock. A world without cats in it was too alien for her to comprehend. "There are no

cats in the future'" James shook his head. There was too much pizza in his mouth for him to answer. "What else is different in the future'" James swallowed the pizza. "Everything. Nothing." "Could you be a little more informative'" "I'm not certain I should be. It is probably for the best that you not know what the future holds." He frowned. "It could alter my society in unpredictable ways." "Sounds like your society could use altering." "I agree. It could. But random changes might not be desirable ones."

"What possible effect could I have on the future, anyway'" Annie asked. "It's not like I'm the President or anything."

"Have you ever heard of the b.u.t.terfly effect'"

"You mean the idea that the movement of a b.u.t.terfly's wing in America can alter the weather in China'"

He nodded. "Yeah, I've heard of it. It's silly, if you ask me."

"Not as silly as you might think. Like the weather, the future is shaped by a great many small events."

"Maybe. If you ask me, the future is shaped by important people. I'm not important."

"Perhaps not in your own eyes."

She wondered what he meant by that. Was he saying she was important to him' Of course not, she

decided almost instantly. He was merely saying that one of her great-great-great-grandchildren might turn out to be important. Knowing something about the future could presumably alter her actions, thus altering everything her descendants did, or even altering her decision to have descendants.

"Do you have children'" she blurted.

He swallowed his last piece of pizza and mopped his fingers carefully on a napkin, then took a swig of c.o.ke. At last he turned toward her. "I cannot have children." "Oh," she said, vaguely disappointed for no reason she could think of. "Did you have a--I mean--were you ever--" "I have no family, if that is what you are attempting to ask. Slaves are not permitted to marry." His voice was impa.s.sive, but she felt a cold rage well up in her at his words. Even in antebellum America, slaves had been permitted to marry and bear children. They had been subject to arbitrary separation from their loved ones, but at least they had been permitted to have families. For a society to rule that some people could not even marry or procreate seemed grossly unfair.

"Why the h.e.l.l not'"

James appeared slightly taken aback at her annoyed response. "We were slaves," he said, as if that explained everything.

"But--" Annie cast about for some way to put her anger into words. "Marriage is important," she said at

last, "the most important inst.i.tution humans have. When you fall in love and can't even marry, that's just--inhumane."

"Slavery is inhumane."

His stoic, philosophical att.i.tude was beginning to grate on her. "d.a.m.n it!" she exploded. "Don't you

even care that you weren't treated fairly'"

James blinked with surprise. "Of course I care," he responded. "I cared so much that I single-handedly

started a movement that led to the deaths of everyone I loved. And the fact is that I'm not sorry for it."

He paused. "One is better off dead than as a slave."

Annie felt embarra.s.sed that she had chastised him for his lack of feeling. Obviously he had cared a great deal about the wrongs of his world, and had struggled to right them, with no success. "I'm sorry," she murmured, placing a hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry for the way they treated you."

He looked down at her hand for a long moment. "It is singularly absurd of you to apologize for something that happened three centuries after you lived."

"I suppose it is," she said softly. "I wish I could make them apologize to you."

She saw the ironic slant of his mouth. "They won't."

"Did no one else care how you were treated'"

James shrugged. "Some people, perhaps. But they were a small minority. The seductive thing about slavery is that it is very convenient. Most people find it hard to live without it, once they have possessed it."

"That doesn't alter the fact that slavery is wrong."

James looked at her a long moment, then seemed to shrug off his introspective mood with an effort.

"You are an extraordinary woman," he said, smiling at her shyly. "When I am with you I feel almost--" He

hesitated. "Almost like a person." She stared into his eyes with great intensity. "James," she whispered, "you are a person. Never doubt it." Without stopping to think, she leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth. His lips were soft and yielding with surprise, and they tasted vaguely of oranges and lemons. Her hand curved around the back of his neck, pulling him closer, drawing him into the kiss. He responded helplessly, opening his lips and letting her deepen the kiss. Almost involuntarily, her tongue slid into his mouth and touched his. The intimacy was so startling, so shocking, that she drew back quickly and stared at him.

"I--I'm so sorry," she stammered. "I don't know what came over me. I haven't done anything like that since--since--"

James was gazing at her with wide blue eyes. "I have never been kissed before," he said softly.

"Never'"