“How did I not notice that before? But that explains it,” Bette exclaimed with a sigh of relief, “I’m in Katie’s house and David was always such a modernizer, so now I know where all that strange and perplexing stuff came from. But what am I doing here? I don’t remember going to see Katie.”

Bette traced back the events of the last night and it made her frightened again, “If I’m at Katie’s house then it all happened as I remembered. Christina did die and I was in such a shock that Alicia had to take me to see Katie,” Bette started crying, desperately wishing to see Alicia who could tell her what happened exactly.

Suddenly, Bette heard some distant voices in the hallway that were getting louder and more distinct. She looked out of the door and saw Alicia and Christina walking towards the room and talking, as if nothing happened at all.

Seeing Bette awake and staring at them made Tina and Alice stop dead in their tracks. The silence between them lasted only for a couple of seconds. Alice was about to open her mouth and say something when Bette blinked a few times, staring at Tina’s face with a shocked expression and then she went down unconscious again for the second time this morning.

“Alice, what’s wrong with her, why does she keep fainting?” Tina asked in frustration.

“Well Tina, imagine yourself in her place. Just yesterday she was home in 1885, preparing for an art show, living her normal life and all of a sudden she finds herself in different and strange surroundings. Combine that with the shock of last night, which I will tell you about as soon as I get to that point in my story because right now I’m still in the closet…in my story I mean…and so you have an answer for Bette’s frequent fainting.”

“Alice, this is so freaky.”

“But you have to admit, Tina, it’s also pure genius.”

“God, she’s so gorgeous…I love her so much,” Tina whispered, staring at Bette who was lying lifeless in front of them, unaware that Alice heard her.

Alice looked at Tina with astonishment, “You love her?”

“What?”

“You just said that you loved her.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did.”

“I said that she was gorgeous and then I just stopped talking.”

“Don’t you pull Chandler on me, Tina,” Alice said with a smirk, “We watched that episode together and we both know what happened there.”

“Okay, okay. I’m so desperately in love with Elizabeth Porter, the mystery woman from my miniature painting…this gorgeous creature that is lying at my feet as beautiful as ever.”

“Tina, I thought it was just infatuation with the history and the mystery behind the face, but to be in love with someone you don’t even know…and a woman on top of it. You are not even gay, Tina.”

“I know…I know,” Tina said as her face got all flustered. She sighed and attempted to joke, hoping that it would help her to eliminate the confusion she felt, “I guess I’ve been hanging out with you guys too much and it appears that gayness is a very contagious disease and I caught it.”

Alice just shook her head and asked seriously, “Are you in love with the flesh and blood Elizabeth Porter or with her impossibly perfect and flawless image?”

TBC….