Page 17 of Borrowed Time

Of course he was. At odd intervals throughout the day, Seth had wondered what might have happened if they’d declined Jeremiah’s invitation to tea. Would he have put his foot down? Snapped his fingers and made them appear in his parlor whether they wanted to be there or not?

Since he didn’t have a very good idea of the other man’s powers, it was difficult to say.

Probably better not to find out.

The housekeeper — at least, that was who Seth assumed the woman was, since she was plainly although neatly dressed — led them past the front parlor, where he saw that the settee where he’d lain Devynn down looked new and unspoiled, with no sign at all of the blood that had once stained the damask upholstery.

Clearly, Jeremiah had cast some sort of enchantment to remove the stain, which Seth thought quite a handy trick.

The house was even larger than he’d expected. Their little trio went past the study where the two men had lingered while Emma performed her healing spells on Devynn, and into a larger, less formal space toward the back of the home, where a series of three windows looked onto a large yard. The grass was yellowed with frost and the flowers had been clipped back for the winter, but an oak tree there still had some golden leaves on its branches, making the outdoor area look a little less bleak.

Jeremiah was gazing out the center window when they entered the room, but he must have heard their approach because he turned at once and offered them a smile. In the brighter light in this space, the lines around his eyes and mouth were somewhat more apparent, but he still looked as though he could only be in his middle thirties at the most.

“Thank you, Anne,” he said. “You may bring the tea now.”

She inclined her head and hurried out, presumably to fetch the liquid component of their tea, since a tray filled with small sandwiches and fruit and delectable little pastries already waited on a side table, one that had a magnificent painting of the San Francisco Peaks hanging above it.

“Thank you for coming,” he went on. “I hope you had a pleasant day in town?”

“It was…educational,” Seth replied, and one of Jeremiah’s brows lifted.

“You learned something useful?”

Seth glanced over at Devynn, and she shrugged.

“Not in regards to our sister,” he said distinctly, since Anne had just returned carrying a silver tea set, which she set down on the side table next to the tray of food. “But in getting to explore the town.”

A nod, and Jeremiah said, “Thank you, Anne. I will ring if we need anything else.”

“Of course, sir.”

She went out, and a moment passed while everyone went over to fetch their tea, giving the housekeeper plenty of time to get out of earshot.

“You are looking much improved, Deborah,” he said next, and she shook her head.

“It’s actually Devynn,” she explained. “I used Deborah as an alias because my real name is way too modern.”

Jeremiah absorbed this, then said, “Understandable. Well, Devynn, it is still good to see you up and about. Does the town match what your mother told you about it?”

She smiled. Watching her, Seth noticed as if for the first time how her day walking in the brisk mountain air had brought the color back to her cheeks, and how rosy and full her lips appeared. Yes, she was doing much, much better. Seeing her now, it was hard to believe that she’d been on the brink of death only two days before.

“Some of it,” she said. “But this feels much more real.”

While he didn’t quite smile in reply, something in theprimus’sexpression warmed, and Seth experienced an odd stab of jealousy. He didn’t like the way Jeremiah was looking at her.

No, not at all.

And he knew that was ridiculous. The other warlock’s expression was friendly, nothing more. After all, even if they hadn’t been related…a tenuous relationship, he supposed, with so many generations separating them…he had to be at least twelve years older than she, maybe more.

“I suppose it would,” Jeremiah replied, then picked up one of the small china plates that had been set next to the tray of tea sandwiches and other goodies, and placed a cucumber andcream cheese sandwich on the dish, along with a miniature scone that looked as though it was studded with blueberries.

Seth had to wonder where they got the produce, since he knew Arizona’s high desert climate could be tricky when trying to grow fruit and vegetables that flourished in much more accommodating sections of the country like the East Coast and the Midwest. Greenhouses, he supposed, and carefully tended gardens nourished with supplements to enrich the soil there.

Or it could simply be that someone in the Wilcox clan had the gift of growing things, and used their magic to ensure they always had the produce they needed.

“Please, help yourselves,” Jeremiah said as he stepped away from the side table. “You must be hungry after walking all over Flagstaff today.”

Yes, Seth realized he was ready to eat something. Their breakfast had been late and large enough that lunch hadn’t seemed to have occurred to either one of them, but his stomach reminded him that he needed to keep it properly fed even if he had been stranded in Flagstaff some twenty years before he was even born.

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