Page 11 of Christmas Past
“Yes, you did,” Seth agreed, although his voice was quiet, almost contemplative, rather than angry. “And that hurt. It hurt more than the physical danger, if I’m being honest. I trusted you, and you manipulated me.”
Charles flinched slightly, but that didn’t stop him from responding. “I know. I’ve been living with that knowledge every day since you disappeared. I keep thinking about that last conversation we had, the way you looked at me when you realized what I was really asking of you….”
“But I forgive you,” Seth said. “For all of it. I forgive you because you’re my brother, and because I can see how much you regret it.”
Charles’s face finally crumpled then, and he pulled Seth into a fierce embrace. “I’ve missed you,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “And I thought I’d never get the chance to tell you how sorry I was.”
When they finally separated, their eyes shone with unshed tears. Charles turned to me with something approaching a genuine smile for the first time all evening.
“And congratulations on your engagement,” he said. “I can see why Seth fell for you — you’ve got grit, and it’s obvious you’ve stood by him through whatever adventure the two of you have been on. He’s lucky to have found someone who won’t run at the first sign of trouble.”
I managed a smile in return, although even now some part of me couldn’t help wondering if all this was genuine, or whether Seth’s brother had made a show of an apology simply to please their parents and keep the peace at Christmas. However, I kept those concerns to myself as I said, “Thank you, Charles. That means a lot.”
“Have you set a date?” he asked, and I could see him making an effort to be the supportive brother-in-law. “Abigail and I are getting married in just a few weeks. She wanted the wedding to happen before she turns twenty-two, and her birthday is on the fifteenth of January.”
Seth and I exchanged glances. No way in the world could we say we were getting married in only a week…a hundred and twenty years from now.
“We’re still discussing the details,” he said diplomatically, and to my relief, his brother didn’t press him for any further information.
As we made our way back inside the apartment, I thought the atmosphere now felt noticeably lighter. Charles actually joked with Seth about the amount of roast beef he’d eaten at dinner, and even Abigail seemed to have thawed slightly, asking me polite questions about my background and interests.
But I found myself growing increasingly anxious as the evening wore on. I excused myself to the small bathroom down the hall, claiming I needed to freshen up. But really, I needed a moment alone to test something that had been worrying me all day.
I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to make the smallest possible jump forward in time, just a few seconds, enough to know my gift was still working properly. I reached for that strange sensation of temporal displacement, that odd little blink that told me I’d gone somewhen else.
And…nothing.
Cold flooded my veins, and I clutched the edges of the pedestal sink to steady myself. I tried again, pushing harder, focusing all my energy on that elusive feeling of sliding between one moment and the next. My pulse quickened as I felt absolutely nothing — no tingle of magic, no sense that I’d blinked a few moments into the future, nothing but the solid, immovable present.
My time travel gift, which had always been unpredictable and difficult to control, now seemed to have disappeared entirely.
I pulled in a shaky breath, then wetted one edge of a towel and dabbed cold water on my face, taking care not to remove any of the careful cosmetics I’d applied before Seth and I left the bungalow earlier that afternoon. A glance in the mirror above the sink told me my skin was pale despite the rouge, my eyes wide with barely concealed fear. I forced myself to take several deep breaths, doing what I could to calm the racing of my heart. There had to be an explanation for what had just gone wrong. Maybe the emotional intensity of the day had affected me somehow, or maybe it was the stress of maintaining our cover story…or the simple fact that my gift had always been temperamental.
But as I rejoined the others, forcing myself to smile and help Molly clear the table, then cut slices of cherry pie for everyone, an uneasy sensation was growing in the pit of my stomach. If I couldn’t access my abilities, how were we going to get home? And what would happen if we were trapped here permanently, in a time that wasn’t ours, living a lie that would eventually catch up with us?
The thought of never seeing my own family again, of being forever cut off from the life I’d built in the twenty-first century, made my hands tremble as I reached for my coffee cup. Seth caught my eye across the table, his expression questioning, and I managed a small smile that I hoped was reassuring.
But inside, I was beginning to panic.
4
Seth could tell something was bothering Devynn after their Christmas Eve dinner at his parents’ house, but since she didn’t seem willing to volunteer any information, he decided to let it go. She could have merely been trying to process the events of the evening and Charles’s apology, or she could have been worrying that they might not be able to make their escape before the fancy meal planned at the prima’s house on the evening of Christmas Day. Over dinner, Abigail had insisted that they attend, and even though both he and Devynn had done their best to demur, she’d made it sound like a command performance.
Which meant the two of them needed to leave after Christmas morning breakfast at his parents’ apartment was done and they would ostensibly have some of the day to themselves before they had to head over to Mabel’s house.
At least Molly had said breakfast would be late, not until nine o’clock, so Seth knew he and Devynn wouldn’t have to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn to make themselves presentable. They didn’t have any presents to exchange that morning, not when their “real” Christmas would take place many decades from now, but he was just fine with a more physical way of showing their love for one another, luxuriating in one another’s embrace until it was time to head into the bathroom and get ready.
Skies were bright and clear as they often were on Christmas in this part of the world, and the little snow that had remained from the storm a few days before they’d arrived now appeared to have mostly melted. Devynn put on the beautiful red dress she’d bought from the seller on Etsy, and although Seth wore the same suit, he’d freshened it up with a different shirt and tie.
Getting ready in the primitive bathroom only reminded him of how much such things had changed over the intervening decades. However, he told himself to consider the current setup as an adventure, sort of like roughing it at a campground out in the middle of the wilderness, rather than thinking of it as something he would have to endure on a regular basis.
All the same, navigating the balky plumbing and the ice-cold floors definitely helped him appreciate the twenty-first century that much more.
Once he and Devynn had decided on this trip back in time, they’d bought presents from an antique store down in Cottonwood — a fine watch chain for Henry; a pretty tortoiseshell comb for Abigail, who did have lovely hair despite her perpetual ill health; a silver-handled valet set for Charles; a gold locket for Molly. Seth had put a photo of himself inside the locket, thinking he could leave that image with his mother, even if he couldn’t stay here in 1926. One of the McAllister cousins had run the image through Photoshop so it looked like something that might have been taken during the correct time period, and he hoped Molly would like it.
Finding period-appropriate wrapping paper for the gifts had been impossible, so Devynn had suggested that they wrap each gift in a vintage handkerchief, which they’d also found at the antique store. Possibly this was unconventional, but better the handkerchiefs than trying to explain where that crazy metallic wrapping paper had come from, or worse, the little paper gift bags she tended to favor because she’d frankly confessed as the holiday season began that she was terrible at wrapping presents.
They set out arm in arm, both protected from the chilly air by their overcoats. Despite the bright sun that shone down on them, it was still very cold outside, and Seth was looking forward to the fire he knew would be blazing at his parents’ apartment.
