Page 7 of Stolen Time

What would happen if he dropped an unmentionable during one of his eye-blink journeys? Would it disappear forever, or would it simply flutter down from on high, making whoever found it wonder how it could have possibly gotten there?

Probably best not to speculate.

“Thank you, Mother,” he said, and she went on her tiptoes to press a kiss against his cheek.

“It’s good to help those in need,” she replied. “Now, you get back there — and let us all know when she awakes. This is a mystery we need to get solved.”

“I will,” he promised. Then, because he didn’t trust himself to hold onto that pile of clothing for too much longer without dropping something, he took himself away to his house, purposely making sure he’d appear close to the dining table so he could leave the bounty of clothing there once he appeared.

Once he was done, though, he hurried out to the living room, where his cousin Helen still stood close to the woman on the couch.

“She hasn’t stirred at all,” she said. “But her breathing is fine, and her color is good. As I said before, all we can do is let things run their course.”

“Thank you for watching her,” Seth replied.

“It’s what I do,” Helen said simply. “Time for me to get home, though. You just let me know tomorrow if she still hasn’t woken up.”

He nodded, and his cousin slipped out the front door, presumably heading straight for home so she could finish her now-cold dinner.

Or maybe Calum had put it back on the stovetop to keep warm.

Seth realized he hadn’t eaten anything yet. Luckily, though, he had some leftover stew that his mother had sent home with him the day before waiting in the icebox. He’d just have to do his best to heat it up while trying to keep an eye on the woman lying on his couch.

No real need to worry about that, not when she didn’t seem to have moved even a fraction of an inch in the time he’d been gone. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her, wondering if the scent of the heated food would wake her up.

It didn’t, though, and he finished the entire bowl and set it aside.

Now, as Helen had said, he could only wait.

3

DÉJA VIEWED

I openedmy eyes and blinked. The ceiling above me didn’t look familiar at first, and then I remembered how those broad beams in their crisscross pattern decorated the ceiling in the living room of my rented bungalow in Jerome.

That had been a hell of a dream…or maybe a nightmare. Memories came flooding back to me — the mine shaft high above the former mining town and current tourist destination, the way I’d tripped and fallen…and had felt as though I continued to fall for centuries in the spiraling dark, slipping down a rabbit hole deeper than anything Alice in Wonderland had ever encountered.

But….

The curtains at the windows in the house I’d been renting were filmy and pale, hung there more as accents and to add a little privacy than to keep out any light. In contrast, these were blue-checked gingham, hanging from a simple wooden pole rather than the dark bronze versions that had decorated the bungalow’s living room.

I sat up. For a second or two, the not-quite-familiar room spun around me, and I set a hand down on the sofa where I lay to steady myself.

No, that wasn’t right, either. I knew the couch at the house I’d been renting had been a warm cognac leather, while this was some kind of silky jacquard fabric, a deep blue to coordinate with the gingham curtains at the windows.

Except…that fireplace was the same, wasn’t it? The bungalow had been built in the typical Craftsman style and dated to the late teens of the previous century, and so the fireplace was wide, with built-in bookcases to either side and pretty smoke-blue tile surrounding the firebox. This one looked identical, as far as I was able to tell.

So, maybe there are two houses in Jerome with the same fireplace,I told myself.Didn’t they use to mail-order house kits out of the Sears catalog back then or something like that?

I supposed that was remotely possible. However, it didn’t explain where I was, or how I’d gotten here.

You tripped and fell,I thought then.And Bellamy went to get help and they took you here.

Again, mostly plausible. All the same, even if I’d been hurt and my friend had brought the cavalry to pull me out of that mine shaft, it didn’t explain why I’d ended up here rather than my house. It wasn’t as if I didn’t have my keys with me.

Except, I realized in a moment of panic, I didn’t. The little bag that had held my cell phone and house keys and I.D. must have slipped off my shoulder when I fell, because it sure as hell wasn’t anywhere near where I was sitting.

In consternation, I swung my legs off the side of the couch, determined to stand up despite how swimmy I was feeling. Before I could get any further than that, though, a man came out of the hallway that led to the bungalow’s two bedrooms and then paused, staring at me in shock.

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