Page 39 of Stolen Time

Only a few short words.

Dinner at seven. The family needs to talk.

He didn’t like the sound of that very much. Had his parents learned of his date with Deborah last night and decided to step in?

That didn’t feel right, though, not when his mother seemed to think Deborah was a nice girl and definitely hadn’t said anything that showed she disapproved of him seeing her.

And he somehow doubted she would have gotten all those clothes together for Deborah if she harbored any fears about her younger son showing too much interest in the pretty newcomer.

Worried thoughts churned in his brain as he washed up and changed into clothes that weren’t covered in rock dust. His wardrobe wasn’t extensive, but he figured he could wear thesame outfit tomorrow, a day when he wouldn’t be expected to do anything too taxing. A while back, he’d hired one of the maids from a local hotel to come in and clean the house every Monday, so it wasn’t as though he needed to worry about tidying up.

Doing his best to look as though he didn’t have a care in the world, he left his bungalow and began heading toward Main Street, passing Edgar and Denise Emory and their little boy Ralph as he went. An exchange of waves, and then he was past them and walking up Hull Avenue before turning so he could come in through the rear entrance of the mercantile. At this hour, the front door would be locked, and the family always came and went via the back door when they weren’t there on store business.

The rich smell of beef stew and freshly baked bread drifted down the stairs as he made his way up to the second-floor apartment. Seth breathed it in, knowing his stomach gurgled a little as he inhaled the delicious aroma. It had been a long while since lunch.

He was the last one to get there, since his brother and his father were already seated at the dining table, and his mother was just setting down a basket of bread as he approached.

“Oh, Seth,” she said. “I’m so glad you got my note. We’re just about ready to eat.”

No comment about his almost-tardiness, for which he was relieved. And no one seemed particularly tense, making him think this family meeting was about something other than Deborah Rowe entirely, like the ongoing discussion about whether they should get awnings for the mercantile’s front windows, or whether it was time to retire the Dodge and buy a new truck.

He took his regular seat next to his brother, then put his napkin in his lap and waited for his mother to sit down as well. Aglass of water had already been poured for him, so there was no need to ask for something to drink.

Henry McAllister gave his usual brief thanks to Brigid, and then he and Charles passed their plates down so their mother could give them each a large portion of stew, thick with carrots and potatoes and slices of onion, sweet from being cooked at a low simmer on the stovetop for a good part of the day. After that, they all helped themselves to some fresh-baked bread.

During all this, Charles had sent Seth a borderline warning glance from time to time, as if warning him of their agreement and letting him know he would most certainly cut him off if he attempted to bring up the subject at all. Those looks only made him that much more tense, since he’d told Charles he would keep silent until this thing with Mary was settled one way or another.

His brother should have known he would never break his word.

“We wanted to have you here for dinner tonight for two reasons,” their mother said. “Some happy news this afternoon — your cousin Louise just had a baby daughter!”

A new addition to the McAllister clan was always something to celebrate, although Seth wasn’t sure why his parents had seen the need to invite him over to hear the news. He would have gotten the story from his cousin Helen soon enough, since he assumed she would have presided over the child’s birth. Luckily, none of Jerome’s civilian population thought it too strange that a McAllister midwife would be in charge of such operations, not when women often still turned toward female help when giving birth rather than seeing a doctor.

“I thought Louise wasn’t due until later in the month,” Charles remarked, then put a chunk of beef in his mouth.

Molly shrugged. “Well, babies come when they want, no matter what anyone else might have to say on the subject. Butlittle Ruby is perfectly healthy, and it doesn’t seem to have been a problem that she was a few weeks early.”

“That’s not the only reason why we wanted to talk to you, though,” Henry McAllister said. “Mabel called earlier today to specifically remind us that Abigail’s twenty-first birthday is tomorrow, and very soon afterward, her consort search will begin.”

Oh, Goddess. With everything that had happened over the past week — Deborah’s arrival, the discovery of Charles’s connection to a local bootlegging operation — Seth had completely forgotten that his cousin Abigail’s all-important birthday was rapidly approaching…and that, as an unattached, not-too-distant cousin of the proper age, he would be forced to participate in the quest to find her consort.

Even before he’d met Deborah Rowe, Seth hadn’t been terribly thrilled by the prospect of possibly being his cousin’s future match. He supposed it wasn’t Abigail’s fault that she had always been so wan and languid, since he knew she’d battled one childhood disease after another. True, Helen had done her best to attend to Abigail while she fought whooping cough and diphtheria and mumps and Goddess knows what else, but even so, it seemed as though the parade of illnesses had taken its toll regardless of all the magical cures his cousin had been given.

And although no one in the clan talked about it openly, he also knew that the elders had had reservations about designating Abigail as theprima-in-waiting precisely because she hadn’t seemed strong enough to take over the management of the McAllister clan once her mother passed away, and had even gone so far to suggest that they should find someone else of the proper age. This sort of situation cropped up from time to time exactly because of this sort of reason, or simply because the currentprimahad the misfortune to have only sons.

But Mabel had been adamant that Abigail’s magic was very strong, even if her body seemed somewhat frail, and that it just made sense to designate her as theprima-in-waiting.

Despite all those protestations as to his cousin’s fitness for her future position, Seth hadn’t found the prospect of being Abigail’s consort very appealing, even back before he’d known his heart was given to someone else. She was so very languid and retiring, not the sort of person he could imagine kissing, let alone sharing the sort of activities his father had explained to him when he turned sixteen, spelling out how men had these urges but that it wasn’t safe to indulge them with certain loose women in the town who would be more than happy to take care of his needs…for a certain price.

Seated next to him, Charles looked less than happy as well. A few months ago, he wouldn’t have even been considered for the consort search, since he’d been engaged. Now, though, he was just as much of a free agent as his brother — or at least, that was what their parents must have believed, as they would have no idea that their oldest son was fully determined to get Mary back, no matter what.

Charles was the first to speak. “I’m afraid I can’t participate. I’ve recently begun corresponding with Mary Towne, and I think she and her family are beginning to soften toward me. I won’t jeopardize the current situation by participating in the consort search. If word ever got back to Mary that I’d kissed another woman, my chances would be utterly ruined.”

Both Molly and Henry looked understandably startled by this announcement, since Seth guessed that Charles hadn’t uttered even a hint to them that he was doing his best to reconcile with his former fiancée. In fact, he had a strong feeling that his older brother hadn’t written to Mary at all, and had only attempted such a gambit as a way of delaying the inevitable.

“You didn’t say anything to us about that,” their mother said, confirming Seth’s suspicions.

“Because I didn’t want to mention it until I knew the engagement was back on,” Charles replied, his chin taut. “Before then, there wouldn’t have been much point, would there? But because of that, I absolutely cannot be part of the search for Abigail’s consort.”

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