Hi there!
So this is really interesting - when I started reading this chapter, I didn't realize it was going to be a time-travel thing! Time travel's awesome, although I can't think about it too hard or all the circular questions make my head hurt.
ANYWAY. I have a couple suggestions for you today.
The first and most important is to describe Catherine's surroundings. Right now all we get is this.
Holding Isaiah closer to me, I moved closer to the road, hoping to see someone. Nothing around me was familiar which terrified me. I was still young and Isaiah was just a toddler. Nothing moved besides when a breeze came. I didn’t know how much time passed by, when I finally heard something.
Catherine tells us that "nothing around me was familiar," but that could mean anything! If she comes from 2016, unfamiliar surroundings could be dinosaurs, cavemen, ancient Greeks, the Dark Ages, Victorian times, or futuristic alien worlds! All we know is that there's a road. Is it a dirt road? Some sort of pavement? What about the sides of the road - are there houses, gardens, farmland? Animals? What sorts of plants? What kind of landscape? Can she see anything resembling a city in the distance? What does she hear? What does she smell? I mention those last two because something as simple as the absence of car exhaust could really strike her, depending on where she's from. Like when I go to Mackinac Island and there's just lilacs, horse manure, and fudge, no car smells at all, and then when I return to the mainland it really stinks.
On that note, what clothing is Catherine wearing? I'd assume men from 1864 would comment on her odd dress - even if she's wearing a dress/skirt instead of pants, it's bound to be drastically different than what these men are used to, as would any makeup she might wearing (if she wears noticeable amounts of it), her hairstyle, and her shoes - not to mention Isaiah's clothing.
Finally, this.
As Isaiah stirred in my arms, I asked, “Excuse me, but where am I?”
“Puissance,” Jonathan replied.
“That isn’t a real place,” I argued. “It is not listed on any map that I know of.”
“Alexander, how could this be?” Jonathan asked. “I knew for sure we are listed on maps, for we have visitors from other countries.”
“I know not, Jonathan.”
Sighing heavily, I asked, “What is the year if I may ask, sirs?”
“1864,” Alexander replied. “Why is that you ask?”
“It was just 2016!” I exclaimed, narrowing my eyes at the memory of Rachel.
“Ma’am, I do believe that you are quite mistaken then,” Alexander said. “But what is your family name?”
Never having seen the name of a town on a map is a silly reason to assume it doesn't exist - unless Puissance is a country, in which case you should clarify that. I assumed the men answered her question about where she was with the name of their town, because that would make the most sense. And of course not every town is on every map you might have seen!
So if Puissance is a country, having a line like "the country of" would help clear that up. Alternatively, when the men say Puissance, Catherine can think, "That doesn't help, I don't know where that is" and then ask what state/country.
Also, it was a little strange to me that a) she would just come right and say, "It's not 1864, it's 2016!" when nothing's familiar and these guys rode up on horseback, which seems a lot more like 1864 than the 21st century, and b) that the men wouldn't really react to her saying that. I mean, they'd think she's crazy or at least a little dehydrated or something, right? How would YOU react if someone said they were from 152 years in the future?
Much better!
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