Time Stranger: Time Travel Romance by Elyse Douglas

Author:Elyse Douglas [Douglas, Elyse]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: time travel romance
Publisher: Broadback
Published: 2021-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

On her second day sequestered in Leon’s apartment, Anne Billings stood before the full-length mirror, her hair prepped and flattened under a wig cap. With trepidation, she tilted her head slightly forward and slipped on the blonde wig from front to back. Standing erect with her shoulders square, she read her face in the mirror. Who is this strange person? she thought.

She turned left and right, patting the wig, adjusting it and frowning. It was shoulder length and layered, with bangs. The wig’s natural sheen altered Anne’s skin tone, and the overhead track lighting accented her cheekbones, sharpened now because of weight loss.

Leon looked on, pleased. He’d bought it at a shop on West 55th Street. When he’d presented it to her, his face had shined with a boyish pride. “I hope you like it. I thought it might be good to have a disguise.”

Anne stared into the mirror, absorbed and uncertain. “I’m not sure, Leon. Do you truly think it’s necessary?”

“Well… Maybe. Yeah. I mean, it can’t hurt. Right?”

“It makes me look… oh, I don’t know, a bit cheeky, I think,” Anne said.

“Cheeky? What does that mean?” Leon asked.

“Bold and brazen… a little on the saucy side.”

Leon stepped back in admiration. “Well, I think you look awesome, Ms. Billings.”

Anne looked at him through the mirror and smiled. “You use that word a lot, Leon. Awesome is such a funny word, but I like it.”

Leon stood self-consciously, with a loopy grin. “All right, I’ll just say that I think the wig looks nice on you. Okay, you’re already pretty and everything, but the wig changes your look and that’s what we want, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not like you’re going outside the apartment before we get your passport and you leave for England. But I think it’s a good idea in case somebody drops in, or if you have to go out in an emergency. It will be a good disguise.”

Anne stared at herself, soberly. “You mean, it’s a good disguise if your uncle or one of his mates comes by, or if he happens to spot me in the window. Isn’t that right?”

Leon removed, and then replaced, his glasses, adjusting them higher on his nose. It was a habit he’d developed in college whenever he’d spoken to an attractive girl.

He was conscious of doing it, but he wasn’t sure why, nor was it calculated. He’d often speculated that it might be some subconscious thing about him wanting to undress the girl. Hence the glasses off. But if he didn’t slip the glasses back on, he couldn’t see the girl so well. And he loathed contact lenses and the ritual one had to go through to keep them clean. It was the germaphobe in him.

“Yeah… I guess that’s right. My uncle is clever and persistent, so it won’t hurt to have a disguise.”

“I’m not sure I like the sound of that, Leon. All right, then, I’ll wear the wig when I’m not in my room.”

“I talked to the woman at the store about how to clean it,” Leon added.

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