Page 70 of Borrowed Time

After he left, an excruciating silence fell. I knew deep down that none of our fellow diners gave a damn what we were talking about, but after what Samuel had said to us at the depot, I felt as if I had to watch every word, every gesture.

Seth appeared to realize we needed to talk about something, so he said, “It seems Williams didn’t work out for us, but perhaps tomorrow we could try taking the train to Winslow. If Eliza truly did head east, that would have been her first stop.”

A logical assumption to make, and if we really had been looking for our lost sister, then that probably would have been our next step.

However, with Jeremiah expecting us at one o’clock, a jaunt out to Winslow wasn’t in the cards.

“Perhaps,” I said. “I will have to see how I feel. I’m a bit tired after being outdoors today and riding the train.”

An utter lie, but I had to hope Seth would understand why I’d publicly shot down his suggestion to take another day trip.

Since his head tilted toward me for just the barest fraction of a second, I had to believe he’d gotten the point. “Of course, Deborah,” he said politely. “Considering so much time has already passed, it’s not as if another day is going to make much of a difference.”

No, it wouldn’t…well, at least not in our pursuit of our elusive “sister.”

On the other hand, I had to hope the coming day would make all the difference in the world when it came to leaving this time and heading into the future.

Another night, another chance to have my sleep plagued by more disturbing dreams. The same elements showed up in them, but even more blurred and hazy, and if I hadn’t already seen them in previous nightmares, I might not have been able to even recognize the black car or the tall frame of the black-haired man.

The only thing that remained clear was the sky, that black expanse cold with flickering stars. Usually, I loved to look at the night sky — one of the many blessings of living in northern Arizona was how little light pollution there was, since all the cities there followed the guidance of the International Dark SkySociety and did their best not to interfere with star-watching — but something about the sky in these dreams felt almost inimical, as if some alien intelligence was staring down at me.

Even in a dream, I realized that was silly. My world couldn’t be exactly ordinary, filled as it was with witches and warlocks and magic powers in all shapes and sizes, but even I knew aliens weren’t real.

After tossing and turning for a bit, I managed to sleep the rest of the night, though, and when I got up, I thought I looked more rested than I had for the past several days.

I chose the green wool gown to wear, partly because the world outside was decidedly grayer than it had been the past couple of days, the skies heavy with the threat of snow, and partly because it was one of the simpler dresses in my wardrobe, one that was a bit easier to move around in, with a modest train and a bustle that, although fashionable enough, wasn’t weighed down with unnecessary frou-frou.

And the high neck of the bodice also helped to hide the amulet, which still hung around my throat.

Seth and I had already agreed to meet in the restaurant for a late breakfast at ten-thirty, since we thought that might serve as a kind of brunch and remove the necessity for having another meal at midday. I didn’t know how much of a workout Jeremiah planned to put me through, and it just seemed like a good idea not to be weighed down with too much food.

Because we were eating so late, the dining room was nearly empty. All the same, I couldn’t help sending a worried glance around us, as though my subconscious was worried that Samuel Wilcox might pop out from behind a parlor palm.

Of course, he didn’t materialize, and we ordered our food without any complications, steak and eggs for Seth, pancakes and bacon for me.

“Did you sleep well?” he asked politely, and I nodded.

“Quite well. I think all that fresh air yesterday did me a world of good.” I paused there and reached for my tea. I hadn’t mentioned the dreams to him this morning, partly because we hadn’t had much opportunity to speak in private, and partly because I wasn’t sure they meant anything. Recurring dreams weren’t that strange — when I was in high school, I’d had the same dream over and over again about being in a sailboat out on the ocean, with no one around for hundreds of miles. Never mind that I’d never been to the beach in my life, let alone gone sailing.

The dream had gone away, as those things almost always did, and I had to believe these half-nightmares would depart once they’d run their course as well. I wouldn’t even try to decipher their meaning — a black-haired man didn’t seem so strange, considering I’d been surrounded by black-haired Wilcoxes for most of my life, and as for the car, I was probably just yearning to be back in a place where the main form of transportation didn’t have four legs.

“Yes, it was interesting to go to Williams, even if our search there didn’t yield much fruit.”

No one was sitting nearby, and yet I still thought we should keep up the fiction about looking for our lost sister. “All the same,” I said, “I think I would like to stick a little closer to home today. All that travel yesterday was a little more taxing than I expected.”

“Of course,” Seth responded at once. “But perhaps you would still be willing to go for a walk later today?”

“That sounds like a good idea,” I said, because it was. We needed some pretext to head out early this afternoon, although obviously, we couldn’t let on that we planned to go anywhere near Jeremiah Wilcox’s house.

Seth inclined his head, then picked up his knife and fork to cut himself a piece of steak. I was still a little surprised by theready availability of red meat here, but I knew ranching was a big part of the local economy, and we were reaping the benefits of that.

The rest of our breakfast passed quietly enough, and when it was over, we went back to our hotel rooms, with him saying in an undertone that we could meet out front at a little before one o’clock.

A flicker of nervousness went through me, one I did my best to quell. After all, this wasn’t the first time I’d practiced my time travel skills with Jeremiah Wilcox.

I just had to hope it would be the last.

Once again, Park Street was quiet and serene, with no one around to see Seth and me making our way up the front steps at Jeremiah’s house. The sky had grown darker, though, and while I hadn’t seen any flakes falling, the air had that heavy, damp feeling to it that told me snow was on the way…and soon.

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