Free Secrets of the Time Society by Alexandra Monir

New York City — January 1888
     
    Rebecca Windsor was conscious of the sudden tremor to her hands as she took the leather-bound book from her mysterious visitor.
“The Handbook of the Time Society,”
she read slowly. She narrowed her eyes at the tall, willowy figure of Millicent August. Rebecca had been surprised to find this stranger with the long silver hair waiting for her when she returned home from tea with the Vanderbilts’ dull daughter. It was frankly shocking that the footman had let this woman, who had neverbeen properly introduced to the Windsors, into the parlor of the family’s brand-new Fifth Avenue mansion. Rebecca could easily have had Millicent turned out, but she had never been able to resist anything that carried a whiff of the improper or the unexpected. So now she sat eyeing the enigmatic woman, who looked back at her unflinchingly.
    “Go on, then. Read it,” Millicent commanded, with none of the deference Rebecca’s wealth and station usually elicited from those who addressed her. She looked warily at Millicent before beginning to read aloud.
    “Time may be the master of most human beings, but yours is a body and soul it cannot conquer. This unshakeable, undisputed force, that turns day into night and infants into elders, keeps its inner workings and phenomena under a mostly impenetrable veil. If you are reading this, then you have been chosen to lift the curtain.”
Rebecca drew in a sharp breath and snapped the book shut, her heart beginning to race. “Who are you really?”
    Millicent smiled, her green eyes glittering in the light from the gas lamp. “I am the founder and president of the Time Society. It would seem that you are one of us—a Timekeeper, one link in a select chain of individuals born with the gene that enables us to move and manipulate Time. That is why I am here.”
    Rebecca was stunned. It had never occurred to her that there might be others like her, and now she was unsure whether this turn of events was a misfortune or a blessing.
    “It’s all right,” Millicent said smoothly, as though reading Rebecca’s thoughts. “You will be glad to join the Society, to have peers. It must be quite lonely to lead a double life at just seventeen years old, having no one with whom to share it.” She peered closely at Rebecca, almost testing her to see if she had in fact shared her secret with anyone. Rebecca thought briefly of telling Millicent about
him
, but she quickly decided against it.
    “I rather like being the only one with this sort of … magic,” Rebecca admitted instead.
    Millicent smiled thinly. “That too is natural. But you see, your power will grow much stronger once you join the Time Society. You will meet Timekeepers who can do things you’ve only dreamt of, and you will learn from them.” She leaned forward intently. “That is the purpose of the Society I founded half a century ago—to find others born with the Time-Travel Gene so we may use our gifts collectively, become stronger, and preserve our history while protecting our future.”
    Rebecca’s head spun with so many questions, she barely knew where to begin.
    “But—how can you look so young?” she blurted out. “You said you founded the Society half a century ago? But you don’t even look my mother’s age!”
    “It’s called age shifting,” Millicent said, the odd phrase sending a shiver up Rebecca’s spine. “Simply put, it is a way of traveling through time in the body of your younger or older self. You can learn to do it too. If you join the Society, I will teach you.”
    “How did you find me?” An unpleasant thought occurred to Rebecca, and she adopted her haughtiest tone as she asked, “Have you been
spying
on me?”
    “I certainly wouldn’t call it spying,” Millicent demurred. “Long ago, the Society formed a committee of Detectors to locate unregistered time travelers. They can be quite easy to spot when you know what to look for—a woman wearing modern clothing