Page 29 of Borrowed Time

A protest rose to Seth’s lips — he didn’t like the idea of being separated from Devynn, not when he couldn’t be sure that she might not vanish whence she had come and leave him stranded in 1884 Flagstaff — but he kept quiet. Any arguments he made would only have sounded selfish, and he realized that he needed to put his worries aside and hope that Jeremiah knew what he was doing.

Devynn’s worried expression seemed to echo some of his inner turmoil. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea for us to be apart when we’re experimenting with our magic. What if I get lost in time again?”

“You will not,” Jeremiah said. “For I will make sure you are anchored here, and even if you disappear for longer than you might like, you will always come back to this place and time.”

Her eyes widened, and Seth knew he must have looked similarly startled.

“You can do that?” she asked.

An amused quirk touched one corner of Jeremiah’s mouth. “I can do a great many things, Devynn Rowe,” he replied. “Most of the time, I have no need to use the powers at my disposal. At others, however….”

He let the words trail off, but the message seemed clear enough.

Some of the stories about the Wilcoxprimusjust might turn out to be true after all.

8

PAST PROBLEMS

We madeplans for me to come back to Jeremiah’s house on Monday morning.

“I would prefer it to be earlier than that,” he told the two of us as he guided us to the front door. “But with Jacob home from school all weekend, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. Better to do this work when we know we won’t be interrupted.”

That was all he said, but I got the message. Too much risk of Jacob overhearing what we were up to, or trying to linger nearby so he could see what we were doing. Although Jeremiah had been careful to sound neutral as he spoke those words, it seemed obvious to me that he knew his little boy was something of a snoop.

Which was probably an unkind thing to think. The poor kid had been raised without a mother and had probably learned enough about what Nizhoni had done to know he would never have a little brother or sister, never have any kind of mother figure except his aunts and maybe Mrs. Barton, the housekeeper. That kind of situation could do a number on almost anyone, let alone a sensitive boy who was extremelysmart…and maybe already beginning to show signs of the magic that would one day be his.

“I understand,” was all I said, but I thought Jeremiah knew what I meant.

“And here is the address to Mrs. Marshall’s house,” he added as he handed a small piece of paper over to Seth. “Because we’re coming up on the weekend, you shouldn’t have too much trouble catching her at home.”

Well, that was the hope, anyway. I wasn’t expecting much — although I thought it would be interesting to hear what she had to say about my mother’s abilities as a teacher — but, like Jeremiah had told us earlier, it just made sense to visit Jane Marshall. Anyone who might be paying attention to our movements…looking at you, Samuel Wilcox…would otherwise think it strange that we’d come all the way to Flagstaff to try to figure out what had happened to Eliza Prewitt without making some inquiries with the woman who technically had been her supervisor.

Seth tucked the piece of paper into the breast pocket of his frock coat. “We’ll drop by late tomorrow morning. Anyone else you think we should visit?”

Jeremiah’s brows puckered in thought. “From what I’ve been able to tell, Danica kept to herself a good deal of the time. She visited Mr. Brannen’s store on several occasions, and she also commissioned several gowns from Millie Adams, the seamstress. I suppose it wouldn’t seem too strange for you to also ask them a few questions. The general store is down on San Francisco Street, and Mrs. Adams’ shop is just around the corner.”

That seemed like some good intel to me, if only because going to visit all those people should help to keep Seth and me busy for most of the day tomorrow. We probably wouldn’t have as muchluck on Sunday, since the shops would be closed so people could go to church.

And even though my mother had dutifully attended the Methodist services while she was here, I had no intention of doing the same thing. Let the good people of Flagstaff think we “Prewitts” were heathens if they must, but no way was I prying myself out of bed to go to church. I doubted I’d get too much protest from Seth on that point, since the McAllisters of his day weren’t Christian at all, just the same as in modern times.

We thanked Jeremiah and headed out. I had no idea whether he’d cast a spell to make sure the rest of the Wilcoxes were safely occupied elsewhere or whether we were just lucky, but I didn’t catch a glimpse of any of the extended family as we made our way down the front walk and then onto the street. However, by some unspoken agreement, both Seth and I walked quickly, and only slowed our pace once we were safely out on Beaver Street and away from the neighborhood the Wilcox clan had made their beachhead in downtown Flagstaff.

“Back to the hotel?” Seth asked, and I nodded.

“I think so. It just seems safer, you know?”

He didn’t reply directly, although he commented, “We could head over to the general store instead.”

Well, maybe that was a better idea. Even though it felt as though we’d spent hours and hours at Jeremiah’s house, the time was only inching up on two o’clock, which meant we still had the majority of the afternoon to kill.

“Sure,” I said easily. “I don’t think we’ll find much, but you never know.”

Despite that weak endorsement, Seth only responded, “It’s worth a try. Besides,” he added, “I could use a real overcoat if they have any for sale.”

True enough. Even though he’d inherited the trunk with all my father’s clothing in it, no overcoat had been in evidence. Ididn’t know if he’d been wearing it when he was shot or whether it had gone missing somewhere else along the way, but even though the frock coat Seth was wearing looked sturdy enough, it wasn’t the kind of thick wool he’d need if we got an early storm.

Or even if we stayed out late in the evening for some reason. Temperatures were already dropping below freezing at nighttime and would only get colder the longer we stayed here.

---