Page 35 of Borrowed Time

The waiter came back and they both ordered tea, while Seth asked for the baked ham and Devynn ordered chicken. Once that was handled, he gave a brief glance around — no one seemed to be paying any particular attention to them, but he still knew he needed to check — and then said, “Can you think of any other people we should visit?”

“No,” Devynn replied, the amused expression she’d worn a moment earlier slipping away. “Like I said, it wasn’t as if my mother partied hard while she was here. She taught classes and lived at the boarding house, and it sounded as though she had dinner at Emma’s house a couple of times, but I don’t think there’s anyone else she really interacted with on a regular basis.”

Interesting that Danica Wilcox had dined at the healer’s house more than once. Were the Wilcoxes just being hospitable…or had they been auditioning her as a prospective spouse for their multiple-widowedprimus?

Maybe a little of both. In the end, it hadn’t come to anything, not once Danica had revealed her true origins and Jeremiah Wilcox had realized there would be no relief from the curse.

Not in this life, anyway.

The waiter came by with their tea and Seth thanked him, then poured some out of the little white pot into Devynn’s cup before filling his cup as well. “So it seems there isn’t much we can do until you meet with Jeremiah on Monday.”

“Not really,” she replied. “Although I suppose we could see if there’s anything happening here in town. My mother didn’t talk about much of a nightlife — well, except a harvest dance she went to — but there’s got to be something to do around here besides just hanging out in a saloon.”

A diversion Devynn would definitely have to avoid if she wanted to keep up the pretense that she was a properly brought-up young lady from back East. “Well, we can take a look when we go walking after lunch,” Seth said. “Maybe there’ll be posters or something.”

He knew he sounded dubious, because what he’d seen so far of Flagstaff hadn’t indicated that it did much more than provide the various loggers and ranchers who populated the area with a place to eat and shop and stay. But possibly they had theaters with live acts or something similar, although he knew movie theaters wouldn’t come along for decades.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Devynn replied.

The waiter came by with their food then, and for a minute or so, the two of them were quiet as they attended to their meals.

But then a half-familiar woman’s voice said, “Mr. and Miss Prewitt?” and both he and Devynn looked up from their lunches.

Approaching their table was a group of four women, all of them dressed in elaborate bustle gowns, their heads bedecked with feathered hats in various shapes and sizes. Three of them had dark hair, while one of them, in striking contrast to the others, was almost white blonde.

He recognized the woman who had spoken, though.

Emma Garnett, Jeremiah’s sister.

At once, he set aside his napkin and stood. “How very good to see you, Mrs. Garnett.”

“And good to see the both of you out and about,” Emma replied, her gaze moving to Devynn. Seth realized then that the Wilcox healer had never gotten a chance to truly check on her patient, and was probably surveying her carefully to make sure she didn’t show any lingering signs from her near-death injury.

But Devynn had been doing very well, and now appeared blooming and in the peak of health, so he guessed Emma must be pleased with her patient’s progress.

“How are you enjoying Flagstaff?” she went on, and this time, Devynn was the one who replied.

“Oh, we’re having an excellent time,” she said. “The fresh air is marvelous. But my brother and I were wondering if you knew of anything happening in town that might provide some diversion this evening? We are finding it rather tedious to do nothing except retire to our rooms and read after dinner.”

One of Emma’s elegant black brows lifted, but she still smiled in response, even as her companions murmured amongst themselves. “I believe a group of traveling performers have a show of various monologues and sketches at the Sundown Theater over on Leroux Street,” she said. “While we haven’t had a chance to attend, I have heard good things.” A pause, and then she added, “But where are my manners? Let me introduce you to my sisters-in-law. This is Mrs. Grace Wilcox, my brother Samuel’s wife” — she inclined her head toward the one blonde among the group — “and this is Mrs. Lita Wilcox, who is married to my brother Edmund, and Mrs. Jenny Wilcox, whose husband is my youngest brother Nathan. It is a little tradition of ours to go out for lunch one Saturday each month, so I think it was fortuitous that we should run into you. Everyone, this is Mr. and Miss Prewitt from St. Louis, come to explore a little of our corner of the Wild West.”

All the other women murmured greetings of one form or another, although Seth couldn’t ignore the way Grace’s eyes narrowed and her expression was barely polite. Well, even though they were all acting as though they’d never heard of the visitors, he knew that Jeremiah had already told his family why they were here, and he guessed that bit of information wouldn’t exactly make him or Devynn terribly welcome.

And the Goddess only knew what Samuel had been saying about the two of them, if his wife’s reaction was any indication.

To Seth’s relief, though, the Wilcox women didn’t linger, only said a few courteous words about hoping he and his sister would continue to enjoy their stay in Flagstaff before they headed forthe door, silk skirts rustling as they went. And after they were gone, both he and Devynn were studiously silent for a moment.

But then she looked across the table at him and said, “Do you think that was a coincidence?”

“I honestly don’t know,” he replied. “Did they do a lot of things together when your mother was here?”

Devynn’s shoulders lifted. “It sounds like they’re a pretty close-knit family, but I don’t know for sure whether that included going out to lunch together. On the other hand, it wasn’t as if my mother was around them all the time, so I guess we might as well give them the benefit of the doubt.” She reached for her fork, which she’d set down during that interaction with the Wilcox women, and a small smile touched her lips. “But at least they gave us some information about the show at the Sundown Theater. That’s worth checking out, right?”

“Definitely,” he agreed, glad that she now looked a little more cheerful.

He felt somewhat more cheered as well. After all this wandering around town and talking to people who had absolutely no useful information to provide about “Eliza Prewitt” — even if he and Devynn didn’t really need such information — he thought a little diversion would be a good idea.

It looked as if they might get to have a date after all, even if they had to pretend to be brother and sister the whole time.

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