Page 14 of Killing Time

Well, I supposed we’d find out soon enough.

4

DUELING PLANS

The first orderof business was to put away their purchases, but after that, Seth thought they needed to set everything else aside so they could talk to the elders…and to Abigail, of course, although he couldn’t help thinking that she wasn’t the one who made most of the decisions around here.

“Just call them,” Devynn suggested, but he knew it wasn’t that simple. Sure, there was a new, fancy, modern phone in the house, but since he hadn’t turned up anything like a book with important numbers written down in it, he didn’t think the thing was going to do him much good.

“I don’t know anyone’s number,” he pointed out, and she looked instantly abashed.

“Oh, right. I’m so used to being able to call someone from my contacts list or to look things up on the internet, I forgot it didn’t use to be so easy.”

He didn’t know what a “contacts” list was — and he supposed it didn’t matter too much, not when the rotary phone in the living room obviously hadn’t come equipped with that sort of convenience.

“It’s all right,” he said. “My cousin Helen still lives in the same house, so we can walk down there and see if she can call the rest of the elders and Abigail and set up a meeting.”

Devynn looked immediately cheered by that plan. “Oh, I’d forgotten about that. Do you think she’ll be home?”

Seth couldn’t imagine where else his cousin might be. True, she was the clan’s healer and could be out on a call, but if worst came to worst, they could always leave a message with Calum, Helen’s husband.

And really, considering the diminished state of Jerome’s population and the way it had been many years since the healer had had children at home to take care of, Seth guessed she didn’t have nearly as much to occupy her time as she used to.

“I’m pretty sure she’ll be there,” he said. “Let’s go find out.”

Devynn seemed agreeable to this, and went to fetch the little clutch pocketbook she’d obtained when she put together the rest of her new wardrobe. The day was sunny and cool, just perfect for the first of November, but it wasn’t cold enough that she seemed to think she needed any kind of sweater, let alone a coat.

No, they headed out the door without pausing to put on an extra layer, and Seth let his hand steal into hers as he thought how alive she seemed, how she was more real than any other woman he’d ever known.

How she’d made him realize what he’d been missing all these years.

Even so, he was fiercely glad that he’d waited to be with her. The intimacies they’d shared the night before would only have been cheapened if he’d done such things with one of the women who sold themselves from the bar at the Connor Hotel or any of a number of the saloons that had once flourished on Main Street, whereas now he could be proud to say that Devynn Rowe, the woman he loved more than anyone else in the world, had been his first.

Although he’d been fairly certain that Helen would be home, he couldn’t ignore the rush of relief that went through him when she answered the door following his knock.

“Seth?” she said, looking a little startled. “Is something the matter?”

“No, nothing’s wrong,” he replied as he stepped inside the foyer, followed closely by Devynn. “It’s just that Devynn and I have come up with a plan, and we need to talk to theprimaand the elders. Can you call them and make the arrangements? I have a phone at my place, but I don’t know anyone’s number, and — ”

Helen held up a hand, her expression amused. Maybe they’d been close in age back in 1926, with only around five or six years between them, but now she was very much his elder in every way possible, and it showed in her actions.

“Of course, I’ll call them,” she said. “Let’s go into the living room, and I’ll phone them from there. Do you need a snack or something to drink?”

“No, we’re fine,” Seth said after getting a corroborating nod. “We just had a late breakfast at Shorty’s.”

“Then you’ll probably be full until dinner,” Helen replied with a smile.

She led him and Devynn into the living room, which had also changed a great deal over the last twenty-one years, with the cheerful flowered couch and painted wood furniture traded out for an angular sofa and matching love seat covered in a tweed-looking fabric in a shade of grayish blue, and equally angular coffee and side tables rounding out the space. Seth had to admit the style was much more modern, but he couldn’t say for sure whether he liked it.

Not that the decor in his cousin’s living room mattered all that much. He and Devynn sat on the couch while Helen went over to the table where the telephone rested and picked up thehandset. A brief pause, and then she said, “Hello, Charles. I’ve got Seth and Devynn over here, and it sounds as if they’ve come up with a plan they want to discuss with Abigail and the elders. Are you two free?”

No reason why they shouldn’t be, when Charles had already said that the store was closed on Saturdays. And both Gilbert McAllister and Josiah Miller were of an age where they would be retired, so Seth had to think neither of them had too many claims on their time, either.

Well, except whatever their position as clan elders might require.

Helen was silent for a moment as she listened to Charles’s reply. Then she said, “That sounds good. We’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

She hung up then and turned back to her guests. “He’s going to call Josiah and Gilbert, and then we’ll all meet at the house at a quarter to twelve.” A pause, and her gaze sharpened a little. “Do you want to tell me what you two have up your sleeve?”

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