Into Another Time

Meeting the Roths

My nerves were wracked as Amelia shouted in affirmation to her mother. It took her barely 20 seconds to get inside the room but it felt like forever, her steps thumping like my incoming doom. " I'll handle this", Amelia whispered to me, as she skipped to the door and opened the latch. There was no time to give her a reply as the door flew open. Her mother looked at Amelia and was about to say something when her vision shifted to inside the room, to me. Her mouth slightly hung open from whatever she was going to say as she locked eyes with me, staring at me, taken aback. Thank god at least I was properly dressed so she would consider me 6one of them.

The woman staring at me had the same fawn colored hair as Amelia, the only difference being that Amelia's was open and free flowing and her's were thick and messily plaited into two plaits and hidden by a white veil. She was dressed in a rougher looking, dark red, tunic-gown. She looked like she was in her 40s, the same tanned skin as Amelia's, although hers was a little bit sunburnt. It made sense now why everyone around had tanned skin, no sunscreen + agricultural work in the hot sun= tanned skin. I guess Amelia's mom worked harder than she did, lol. She also had the same nose and lips as Amelia. The only difference in these two was the eye color, Amelia's was hazel while her mom had dark brown eyes. Yup, this was her mother alright.

"Amelia", the shocked woman turned to her daughter," Who is this maiden in our house!?"

Amelia was getting uneasy and nervous, rubbing her one arm with the other absent-mindedly like a guilty person.

" Mother, this is Emma. She is my friend", she stated. Her mother again peered at me," How come I have never seen you around before?", she finally spoke to me, coming inside the room. " She's not from Windsor, Mother", Amelia quickly replied, following behind her mother. Mrs Roth's eyebrows furrowed as she again looked at me, this time with confusion and suspicion," Who is she then?", she asked, this time to Amelia. The less I speak, the better anyway....

" This is Emma, um, yes Emma", Amelia fumbled and I realized she didn't know my last name. Well this is bad, at least for her mother. " I just met her today", she confessed. This did nothing to wipe off the growing suspicion on her mother's face as she fully turned to me, clearly wanting me to answer her questions now.

" Well, Emma, where are you from?", she demanded.

" I am from America. It's quite far from Windsor so I doubt you would have heard about it, Mrs Roth"

"Yes I haven't. This is very strange. Where is your family?, Goodness! you are not travelling alone, are you?", she asked, apprehensively, as if I was a kid really travelling from America to England, all alone. OK, I really needed to step up my acting game and repeat my sad story again. If I did not convince Amelia's mom successfully, I was toast.

" They-they aren't alive anymore, Mrs Roth", I said in the quietest tone, I could manage, looking down to avoid making eye contact. She fell back into the same expression she had when she saw me for the first time, shocked and taken aback with her jaw hanging. I closed my eyes and pretended to compose myself just for the effects. A bit of sniffle there, looking around the room and looking uncomfortable. If Chloe could see me now, she would be holding her belly laughing her ass off. Her name did bring sadness into my mind again as a final touch. Perfect.

" I-Um, that's very..unfortunate", Mrs Roth stuttered, at a loss for words. She looked a tad embarrassed now instead of suspicious. After a quick darting of eyes towards Amelia, she attempted to rectify the situation and compensate for her initial approach to me.

" I am sorry, dear, I had no idea. Amelia is usually out at this hour in the fields and I just got startled seeing her with a stranger in her room. Especially as she's just met you today, she doesn't usually bring her friends in the house", she apologized.