Page 12 of Stolen Time

No sight or sound of her three children, and Seth guessed that she’d made sure Calum was keeping them occupied in theirpostage stamp of a backyard, most likely playing with a ball or possibly the croquet set, although he thought they were still a little young for that. However they were being kept busy, the house was much quieter than it usually was, and he wondered if he should say something to fill the silence.

Exactly what, he wasn’t sure; other than his McAllister cousins, he did not have any great experience with young ladies. He knew some of the unattached men in the family frequented the bar at the Connor Hotel, where they might meet women they could kiss and do quite a bit more with, but while he’d entertained the idea from time to time, something about it had never felt right to him. When he was sixteen, his father had taken him aside and explained something of what was supposed to pass between a man and a woman when they were married, and he’d absorbed as much of that unexpected information as he could, even as he told himself he would not indulge in such activities with the women at his town’s bars and hotels, the ones who made themselves freely available to anyone who had the coin to pay their prices.

Because even though he knew Helen could take care of whatever illnesses he might acquire while enjoying the company of such a woman, the thought of asking his cousin for that particular kind of help was just too awkward.

No, he supposed when the time came, his parents would help him meet a sufficiently distant cousin from Prescott or Payson or Wickenburg, and he would settle down with her and finally learn for himself exactly what passed between a man and a woman.

It occurred to him that he shouldn’t be thinking about those sorts of things, not with such an exquisite creature as Deborah Rowe sitting next to him, and yet…

…and yet he was beginning to realize she affected him in a way no other woman ever had. The purely cynical might have pointed out that was most likely because she was very prettyand also a complete stranger, and therefore exotic in a way a McAllister cousin could never be, but he couldn’t help thinking the attraction must involve something more than mere novelty.

To his relief, Helen re-entered the room, now carrying a silver tray laden with her rose-painted tea set and a basket piled high with her raisin scones, and therefore he didn’t have to come up with something clever to say to Deborah. A few minutes were spent pouring tea for everyone and handing out plates so they might help themselves to a scone, but soon enough, the refreshments had been provided, and it was time to start getting to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Deborah Rowe.

“Have you tried thinking of anything that might have happened before you were found at the mine?” Helen asked.

Deborah had just taken a bite of scone, so she had to finish chewing before she could set down the pastry, wipe her fingers on the napkin Helen had provided, and allow herself some time to ponder the question.

“I’ve tried,” she said. As far as Seth could tell, there wasn’t a hint of doubt in her tone, so he had to believe she was telling the truth. “But I can’t remember anything at all. I woke up this morning on Mr. McAllister’s couch, and that’s pretty much all I know. Everything before that is just…darkness.”

Helen’s mouth pursed, making her look more like one of the dolls his mother displayed at the mercantile than ever, and she didn’t respond immediately, instead taking a sip of tea as if that might help to focus her thoughts.

“It can happen that way sometimes, especially if someone has experienced a traumatic event. Why, some of our boys came back from the war hardly knowing who they were or where they’d been.”

A sad truth, one Seth couldn’t deny. Although the McAllister family would have preferred not to send any of its sons to fight overseas, they also knew that avoiding military service throughexcuses and lies would have only invited the kind of scrutiny no witch clan could afford. He and his brother Charles had been too young to enlist, thank the Goddess, but twenty-two men of eligible age had gone…and only twelve returned. Those survivors were tight-lipped to this day about what they had seen or done, and two of them, his cousins Ernest and Stephen, seemed to have lost their minds entirely. They spent their days in a small house at the edge of town, tended to by their families, but any hope of their coming back to themselves was long gone. A disease of the mind wasn’t something that could be easily cured by a healer, the way Helen had made sure that those with the racking coughs brought on by exposure to mustard gas regained all their lung function.

For a moment, Deborah appeared almost confused by his cousin’s comment, as though she wasn’t sure which war Helen had been talking about, but then she nodded. “World War 1, right,” she said.

Seth and his cousin exchanged a mystified look. Why in the world…pardon the expression…would Deborah have phrased her comment that way when everyone knew it had been the war to end all wars?

But then she added, “Against the Kaiser,” and Seth allowed himself a nod.

“Yes,” he said. “So, you remember that much?”

“I suppose I do,” Deborah replied, although now it was her turn to appear confused. “Is it strange that I would remember something about the war but nothing about who I am or where I came from?”

“Not necessarily,” Helen said. “Sometimes the mind can hold on to facts it sees as neutral and not specifically connected to itself. Can you tell us who the President is?”

Deborah’s face went utterly blank. “Um…Teddy Roosevelt?”

“No,” Helen said, her tone now gentle. “That was quite some years ago. Our current President is Calvin Coolidge.”

“Oh,” Deborah responded. She sounded worried, and Seth couldn’t blame her.

How was it that she’d known about the Great War, but had no idea who the current President was?

However, his cousin didn’t appear too concerned. “It’s not so strange that you might retain some facts and not others, Miss. Rowe. Can you tell me when Arizona became a state?”

“February 14th, 1912,” Deborah responded immediately.

Well, that was something. Although her memory was gone, and it seemed as though there were large gaps in the knowledge she still retained, she clearly hadn’t forgotten everything.

Helen set down her teacup. “Miss Rowe, I would like to see if you have any signs of head trauma. Only with your permission, of course.”

Seth slanted a glance at his cousin, and she responded with a barely perceptible shake of her head. He would have thought she’d learned everything she needed the night before, but maybe it was possible that if she performed a more thorough laying-on of hands, she would be able to learn if anything truly traumatic had happened to Deborah Rowe before she’d been abandoned in that mineshaft.

“That’s fine,” Deborah said. However, her expression appeared more anxious than ever, belying her words.

What was she afraid that his cousin might find?

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