Page 25 of Christmas Past
“She has something that Abigail never did,” Seth replied. “Something the McAllister clan needed to get through these times.”
Devynn gazed up at him, gray eyes almost crystalline in the light of the summer sun.
“And what’s that?”
“Hope,” Seth replied.
7
Seth was already dressed and ready for the day when I emerged from the bathroom the next morning, and was sitting by the window with a cup of coffee in one hand as he watched the street outside slowly come to life. The Jerome of 1948 was quieter than the bustling mining community I’d seen with my own eyes back in 1926, but there was still a sense of purpose here, one I could sense as I saw people going about their daily routines with the determination of those who’d weathered hard times and managed to remain standing.
“How are you feeling today?” he asked as I came over to join him. A second cup of coffee waited on the table in front of the sofa, as if he’d known I’d soon be awake and would need it, and I bent down to pick it up and wrap my hands around the warm ceramic.
“Ready,” I told him…and realized I actually meant it. The bone-deep exhaustion that had sapped so much of my energy the day before was gone, to my infinite relief. I sipped some coffee, glad that it had had just the right amount of time to cool down, and added, “Ruby was right — another day of rest was exactly what I needed.”
We spent the morning quietly, since neither of us wanted to venture too far from the bungalow in case we ran into someone who might ask uncomfortable questions. I’d been a little worried that Arthur might have said something to his father despite Ruby telling him he needed to keep our arrival quiet, but we didn’t see any sign of Seth’s brother.
No, we sat on the small porch that overlooked the overgrown backyard, watching the birds flit from tree to tree and the butterflies alight on the wildflowers growing there. Off in the distance, we could hear the distant sounds of daily life in a town that was learning to survive in a changed world.
It was strange, this sense of being suspended between times. We were visitors here, temporary residents in a world that wasn’t quite our past and definitely wasn’t our future. I found myself studying every detail — the way the morning light warmed and grew brighter as the sun rose, picking out every flaw in the weathered wooden siding of the house to one side of us, the tinny sound of a radio playing a song I actually recognized, something that had made an appearance in the movie Moulin Rouge — a favorite of my mother’s, probably because of all the bustle dresses — although I’d never heard the original version before.
They say he wandered far…very far…over land and sea….
I couldn’t help smiling. Yes, the man who sat next to me on the porch had traveled very far, although in time rather than space.
All of this — the half-familiar music, the houses whose outlines I recognized but were very much changed in my time, even the occasional backfire from a car as it drove up the street out front — all of it would be nothing more than memory very soon.
If we succeeded, of course.
“Worried?” Seth asked me, after we’d finished a simple lunch of canned soup and crackers and had washed the dishes by hand. We’d both been quiet during the modest meal, as though each of us needed some time to sit with our thoughts before Ruby arrived.
I leaned against the butcher-block kitchen counter and crossed my arms as I considered his question. “Maybe a little,” I said. “Not about the jump itself so much — I trust Ruby completely, and even though we don’t have the amulet to help us this time, I know she’s much stronger now that she’s the prima and not just the prima-in-waiting. I suppose I was thinking about what comes after the jump. About going back to our regular lives after everything that’s happened.”
Actually, I thought it was more than that, even though I wasn’t quite sure how to articulate the thoughts and feelings that had surfaced in my brain. These past few days had changed something in the way Seth and I interacted, and I was still trying to put my finger on exactly what it was. This wasn’t the first time we’d faced the possibility of being trapped in the wrong era forever or had confronted the reality of what it meant to choose each other over all else. This time, though, something about his interactions with his parents, with his brother, had proven once and for all that he really was willing to give up everything to be with me.
“It might be different,” Seth said, his tone musing. Then he leaned over and touched his lips to my cheek, a caress that wasn’t intended to arouse any particular passions, but instead to show me once again that he would always be present, always be caring. “Sometimes, though, different can be good.”
At exactly one o’clock, someone knocked on the front door. Ruby stood on the porch, looking radiant in a yellow sundress that complemented her strawberry blonde hair perfectly, her full lips again wearing a red that would have made an old movie star proud. Patrick was with her, and standing behind them, to my surprise, was Seth’s nephew Arthur.
“I hope you don’t mind that I brought them along,” Ruby said as we invited everyone in. “Patrick wanted to be here to lend his strength to mine, and Arthur — well, Arthur insisted that he needed to see his uncle off properly this time.”
Arthur flushed slightly but stood his ground. “I didn’t get to say goodbye before,” he said to Seth. “I was at school when you left last year. I want to do it right this time.”
The simple honesty in his voice made my throat tighten. This boy — young man, really — had lost so much already…his mother, the stability of his hometown…and now his uncle was leaving again, this time forever.
Seth seemed to understand the weight of the moment as well. He put a hand on Arthur’s shoulder, his expression serious. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said quietly. “And I want you to know how proud I am of you. The way you’ve stepped up to help your father, the responsibility you’ve taken on — your grandparents would be proud as well.”
Arthur’s eyes brightened at the mention of Henry and Molly, and I could see him straighten his shoulders after hearing Seth’s praise.
“I’ll take care of things here,” Arthur said. “The store, my father, all of it. You don’t need to worry.”
“I know you will,” Seth replied. “You’re a McAllister. Taking care of family is what we do.”
Ruby cleared her throat gently, although her eyes were suspiciously bright. “Well, then,” she said, tone a little too brisk, “shall we get started? The sooner we get you two home, the sooner you can finish planning that wedding of yours.”
She had us all gather in the living room — the only space in the bungalow that would really accommodate that many people — with Seth and me sitting close together on that horrible flowered sofa while Ruby, Patrick, and Arthur formed a loose circle around us. The afternoon light streaming through the windows seemed to take on a different quality, becoming more golden, more intense, as if the very air was responding to the buildup of magical energy in the room.
“This might feel a little strange,” Ruby told me as she closed her eyes, her expression already taut with concentration. “You’ll sense my power joining with yours, Devynn, but don’t try to control it. Just let it guide you.”
