Free Odette Speex: Time Traitors Book 1 by Padgett Lively

family almost his entire life. He had started as a lowly stable boy. But his intelligence and hard work had seen him rise to the position of footman and occasional valet in the household of Adelphia’s father, a baron, Lord Casterbridge.
    When Miss Delphie, as he still thought of her, was a young woman, she caught the eye of Alistair Riverton, the Marquis of Montagu, heir to a dukedom. Nobody was more surprised than Adelphia herself.
    Plain and big-boned, she stood in her stocking feet practically eye to eye with the young marquis. More daunting still was her lack of fortune and connections, Lord Casterbridge being a nobleman of rather modest means. But the marquis was captivated by her graceful carriage and independent mind and offered for her within a fortnight of meeting.
    It was a good marriage. Adelphia grew into her role as marchioness and then as duchess. But her liberal leanings repeatedly clashed with those of her more conservative husband. And while his ardor for her never waned, his patience often did.
    Joseph knew she was torn. Adelphia loved the Duke and her family but rebelled at the strictures placed on her as a woman. She was often disgusted by the arbitrary tyranny of the aristocracy.
    She looked over at him now, concern creasing her forehead. “You realize that if Odell and his sister succeed, your people will spend decades more in slavery.”
    So that’s what’s bothering her .
    He sat down again and stared into the fire. She brought him with her when she had married. In the Duke’s large establishment, Joseph had quickly proven his worth and was now majordomo as well as Adelphia’s closest confidant.
    “Your grace,” he replied quietly, “the servitude in which most of us find ourselves is also a form of bondage.” She flushed and looked away.
    When the British defeated the American rebels, as punishment, all free men not of the nobility were stripped of their lands, reducing almost everyone to the level of serf or peasant.
    A short time later, slavery was outlawed in the colonies. The shared experience of poverty and backbreaking work resulted in significant mixing of the races among the lower orders. This racial cohesiveness gave birth to the only uprising of note since the American Agitators.
    In 1859, the fugitive and labor leader John Brown attacked Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in an attempt to gain access to weapons and lead a revolt against the nobility. He led a group of “free” men and women. Capturing several buildings and holding out for almost two months until they were all killed in a massive British counterattack. Joseph took secret pride in the fact that Matilda Walker, a distant forebear on his father’s side, had been one of Brown’s lieutenants.
    “But you are right to fear,” he admitted. “While our burdens are onerous, slavery is indeed different… something entirely evil. I can’t know if we are doing the right thing.” He stood abruptly and walked over to her. “But a chance for democracy… to stand up and be the equal of any man. That this existed once in another time, well…” He looked down at her, bereft of words.
    She nodded. Joseph was the only person in whom she could confide when Odell approached her with his preposterous story and business proposition. She was a well-known liberal and was given some latitude in society because of who she was. But she was always careful to limit her involvement to the acceptable alleviation of suffering with clinics, orphanages, and women’s shelters. With her ballet company she hoped to bring the beauty of art and dance to the masses. Never, until now, had she challenged the actual societal structure.
    They had both been here, in this room, when Odell returned from his trip over two hundred years in the past. They had taken turns nursing him through the nausea and disorientation that followed. The escape pod had been badly damaged. She walked over to the sleek, burnt object and bent down to touch the cool