Well, he’d just have to hope that they’d find a way to leave this place before the truly cold part of the year descended.
They walked briskly toward Park Street, where Jeremiah’s house was located. Seth supposed he should be glad that the weather hadn’t been wet recently, since the dirt roads, while heavily rutted, at least weren’t muddy as well. Despite the cooler temperatures, Devynn had only placed a flowered challis shawl around her shoulders, rather than one of the heavy wool cloaks that had come to her as part of her mother’s wardrobe, but he guessed that she, as a native of Flagstaff, was probably far more used to cold weather than most people.
Just like the day before, the housekeeper answered their knock and let them inside. This time, though, instead of goingto the back parlor at the rear of the house, she led them to the dining room, where three place settings had been laid out on the long table, which was covered in a white damask cloth.
Jeremiah was waiting for them there and offered a smile of greeting as they entered the room. “Thank you for coming,” he said. “I thought it would be a good idea to have our meal before we got down to business.”
“Thank you for the invitation,” Devynn replied. “Believe me, we’re glad of the help.”
“Mrs. Barton, you may bring in the food now,” Jeremiah said to the housekeeper, and she nodded before heading out to the hallway, presumably so she could go to the kitchen and fetch their lunch. After she was gone, he added, “Once we’ve been served, she’ll stay in the kitchen, and we will be able to speak freely.”
“Good,” Seth said, since he’d been wondering how in the world they were going to keep their conversation private if the woman intended to keep coming and going throughout the meal.
Then again, Jeremiah Wilcox had probably been careful to hire someone who did as she was told and didn’t poke her nose into business that had nothing to do with her. In a witch household, a busybody servant most likely wouldn’t last very long.
“Please, go ahead and sit,” theprimussaid, and Seth hurried over to pull out the chair at Jeremiah’s right for Devynn, since that way she wouldn’t have to walk to the far side of the table.
She gave him a grateful smile, and he went over to the other empty seat while Jeremiah sat down at the table’s head. Soon enough, Mrs. Barton was back with a pitcher of iced tea, along with a bowl of fruit compote and a large chicken pie with a perfectly golden crust.
It felt a little strange to sit there while she bustled about; no one in his clan employed servants, deeming them an extravagantrisk. Seth thought he could give Jeremiah Wilcox a little grace in the matter, however, since he had a child to raise on his own and most likely needed the extra help around the house.
Theprimusthanked the woman and told her that if they needed anything else, they would ring. For the first time, Seth noticed a small brass bell sitting near Jeremiah’s place setting, presumably so he could call the housekeeper back for assistance if necessary.
A few moments of near silence as Jeremiah cut slices of chicken pie for them all, and then as the tea and the compote were passed around. Eventually, though, everyone had everything they needed, and the warlock gave both Seth and Devynn a shrewd look.
“I heard my brother visited you at the Hotel San Francisco’s restaurant last night,” he said, and Devynn’s eyes widened.
“How did you hear about that?”
“I have my sources,” Jeremiah replied, which didn’t reveal much. Maybe the front desk clerk was his particular spy, or perhaps he had his own magical means of surveillance when it came to his family members. “However, it doesn’t sound as if he caused too much of a scene.”
“It could have been worse,” Devynn agreed, although the glitter in her blue-gray eyes told Seth she was still angry about the way Samuel had interrupted their dinner. “All the same, I got the feeling he’d like us out of town sooner rather than later.”
Jeremiah reached for his goblet of iced tea. “I can see that. Guilty conscience weighing on him, no doubt.”
Seth lifted an eyebrow, and Devynn said, “How much does he know?”
“Very little,” Jeremiah replied at once. “More to the point, nothing useful. He did not deserve the truth of what happened next, not after what he did to your father. I informed him thatRobert Rowe died of his wounds and that I buried him in the forest where he wouldn’t be found.”
“And Eliza?” Seth asked, thinking her disappearance would be much more difficult to explain away.
“I told Samuel that I took her in my carriage to Kingman, where she could get on a train bound for Los Angeles. It was too risky to say that she’d gotten on the train here in Flagstaff, where someone might have taken note of her departure.”
That made some sense. Or at least, Seth thought he could see how Eliza suddenly leaving the town where she was supposed to be teaching school might have attracted some unwanted attention.
“And because you’d already moved hers and my father’s things here,” Devynn said, “Samuel didn’t have any reason to suspect that she didn’t take her trunk with her.”
She didn’t seem too concerned that Samuel Wilcox might have recognized one of her borrowed dresses, but then again, the angry warlock didn’t seem like the sort of person who noticed those sorts of details.
“Exactly,” Jeremiah said, then placed the bite of chicken pie into his mouth.
It did seem as though most of the loose ends had been tied off…well, unless you knew what had really happened to Devynn’s parents. And even if something about the situation hadn’t felt entirely right, no one in town — not even his own brother — probably dared to press Jeremiah too closely about what had happened.
“This means that Samuel has no reason to believe you’re anything beyond who you claim to be,” Jeremiah continued. “He dislikes change or anything that might upset the quiet routine of our days here in Flagstaff, which is why he was not happy to learn that Eliza Prewitt’s siblings had come in search of her. As I said, he has a guilty conscience, and although he knows I willcover for him simply because the alternative is unpalatable, that doesn’t mean he still isn’t inwardly squirming with worry that you might find a clue which implicates him.”
If Samuel was so concerned about his conscience, it might have been better for him to rein in his temper and not go off half-cocked, so to speak. However, everything Seth had seen of the man — and everything Devynn had said about his actions regarding her parents — made it pretty clear that Samuel Wilcox was not the sort of man to sit down and carefully weigh the consequences before he acted.
Someone so utterly unlike Jeremiah — in temperament at least — Seth had a hard time imagining.