Page 20 of Borrowed Time

“That knowledge is what has given me strength,” he replied. “It was kind of your mother to tell me things would turn out all right in the end.”

“Even if it might have messed up the timeline,” she said, and this time, his shoulders lifted.

“It is hard to say what affects what. Some might have said that her very presence in 1884 altered the future in ways that could never be completely proven. Surely taking Robert Rowe from his existence here and transplanting him to the twenty-first century had its own ripples that spread out from the splash, as it were.” Jeremiah paused there, and now his gaze moved to Seth, dark, unreadable. “Just as the two of you being here now might also be changing things. Does anyone know you’re missing, or, if you manage to return, will it be as if you’d never left at all?”

Devynn lifted her teacup and sipped from it, as though she thought she needed the caffeine to give her the focus required to answer the question. “I don’t think anyone knows for sure. That is, when my mother came back from 1884, it was the exact same day she’d left. Her location had changed, though — she returned to the family cabin because that’s where the two of you were located when you combined forces to send her andmy father through time. But when I tried to travel through time when my gifts first awakened, I could send myself to the future but couldn’t come back. I had to wait for everyone to catch up with me.” She stopped there, and again, she seemed more embarrassed than anything else, her eyes not meeting Seth’s…or Jeremiah’s. “One time, it was two weeks, and my parents almost lost their minds. That was when we decided I needed to lock down my magic as much as possible.”

“I can see why that might have been distressing for everyone involved,” Jeremiah said, expression somber. “And why you don’t have much experience working with your gift. However, I have to believe that you must find some way through to making it work for you rather than being a detriment, or you may never be able to return to your own time.”

Precisely the words Seth hadn’t wanted to hear, even though he guessed that the other warlock was trying to soften the blow just in case they truly did end up trapped in the past.

“And I,” the Wilcoxprimuscontinued, “will do whatever I can to help you.”

6

OLD ENEMIES

I knewJeremiah was only trying to help. And I also knew I needed to accept that help, because I didn’t see how I could possibly blunder my way to a solution to our problem, not when I might fling us farther into the past…or overshoot and send Seth and me into the twenty-third century or a time even more remote than that.

We’d ended our meeting with a promise to return to Jeremiah’s house the next morning after Jacob had gone to school, and Seth and I had walked back to the hotel. The whole way, he’d been silent, brooding, and I guessed it wasn’t just because we were now surrounded by people heading home from work and needed to keep our mouths shut until we were someplace where we could talk in private.

By some unspoken agreement, we headed to his room. I supposed that was probably a good idea, just because I hadn’t had time to tidy up before we headed down to breakfast, and various bits of clothing and unmentionables were still scattered across the space.

But I sat down on the one chair the hotel room offered — Seth insisted, and I didn’t argue, not when my borrowed bootshad been pinching my toes all day. My feet were only a half size bigger than my mother’s, but that half size definitely mattered when you were also carting around about ten extra pounds of bustle dress.

He went and looked out the window. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t much to see; the sun had already started to set, and long shadows were beginning to creep over the town.

But that glance seemed to steady him a little, and he reached up to pull the heavy drapes closed before he turned back to me.

“Do you really think we can trust him?”

I tilted my head to one side. “Do you think we have much of a choice?”

Seth’s mouth flattened slightly, and I could tell he wasn’t too thrilled with my response. “Probably not. But….”

While I thought I understood his concerns, I also knew he was being way too cautious here. “You’ve spent your whole life thinking Jeremiah Wilcox was the bad guy,” I said. “So I can see why you might think he doesn’t have our best interests in mind. But my mother talked about him a lot. Said he was totally misunderstood and really a tragic character. What happened to him wasn’t his fault, and while I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes he didn’t color inside the lines when it came to using magic, he also was fiercely protective of his family.” I stopped there and made myself take a breath before adding, “And I’m his family, too, even if we’re generations removed from each other. He’s going to do his best to see if I can get this stupid talent of mine under control.”

Seth didn’t question me about that “coloring inside the lines” remark, so I guessed coloring books had been around in his time.

Good, since I really didn’t have the energy to explain them to him right then. I added, “Without Jeremiah’s help, my fatherwould have died. And that’s why I know we can trust him. Especially….”

I broke off there, not sure whether that part of the story was mine to tell. Nothing had come of it, anyway.

“Especially what?” Seth asked, and I hesitated again.

No secrets,I told myself.You’ve already kept enough from him.

“Especially because when she first showed up in 1884, Jeremiah was interested in my mother,” I replied. Shock registered on Seth’s features, and I hurried to add, “Of course, he didn’t know who she was then. And later on, still before he knew the truth about her identity, she told Jeremiah she was interested in my father and didn’t have any feelings for him that way, and he backed off. If he were really a horrible person, he could have let my father die out of revenge for being rejected. But he didn’t. Instead, he saved his life. If that’s not enough to make me trust Jeremiah Wilcox, what is?”

Seth didn’t answer at first. He stood a few feet away from me, near the bed, as though he’d considered sitting down on it and then had decided that probably wasn’t a good idea, not when the two of us were trying to be on our best behavior.

“I can see your point,” he said after a moment. “And I can’t even know for sure whether my brain is telling me to be cautious purely because of the situation itself, or only because I’m not quite ready to fully trust a Wilcox.”

Well, there it was. I supposed I’d been fooling myself into thinking Seth had at least partially forgiven me for my deceptions. He’d seemed friendly enough today, but as far as I could tell, he’d acted genial because we were stuck here together and he didn’t see the point in fighting all the time…especially if doing so lowered his chances of making it home.

“That’s painting with kind of a broad brush, don’t you think?” I asked, not bothering to keep the acid out of my voice. “It’s notas if Jeremiah or any of the other Wilcoxes here had anything to do with what happened between the two of us.”

A tense second while Seth stood there in silence, and then he shook his head and shocked me by coming over and taking my hands in his.

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