Page 5 of Christmas Past
“Need a ride?” she asked. “My husband and I didn’t think anyone should be walking in this cold.”
Yes, it was very chilly, probably just below freezing. Snow gleamed pale on the roadside, signaling that a storm had come through here recently, although the drifts weren’t deep enough to have made their way overly difficult.
“That would be wonderful,” he replied. “We’re just going to Jerome — McAllister Mercantile.”
“It’s right on our way,” the woman said, and her blue eyes twinkled. “Doing some last-minute Christmas shopping?”
“Something like that,” Devynn put in. “We were driving from Prescott, but our car broke down about a mile or so back.”
Now the woman’s expression turned puzzled. “It did? Milo and I didn’t see any cars on the roadway.”
“Oh, we pushed it off the road so it wouldn’t cause a hazard,” Seth said hastily. “But a ride down into Jerome would be wonderful.”
The woman nodded. “Then get in.”
Seth opened the rear passenger door and helped Devynn negotiate her way inside. She scooched over to seat herself behind the driver, a big, burly man who looked to be about ten years older than his wife.
If she was even his wife at all. He thought it was probably better not to ask.
The important thing was that they wouldn’t have to trudge all the way down to Main Street. Devynn had made sure to get shoes with practical heels, so Seth knew she could have made the trek if necessary, but this was much easier.
What had seemed like a daunting walk took only about five minutes. Although he guessed it must be past five o’clock by that point and the mercantile was closed, he knew they didn’t have to worry about that, not when it would be easy enough to go around to the back door and let themselves in that way.
The car came to a stop across the street from the shop, and the blonde woman sent them a worried glance over her shoulder. “Oh, dear — it looks as if the mercantile isn’t open.”
“It’s fine,” Seth assured her. “My folks own the store, so we’ll be going in the back entrance to the apartment.”
Now she looked puzzled, as if she couldn’t quite figure out why they hadn’t corrected her comment about Christmas shopping when it seemed apparent they had an entirely different reason for going to the mercantile. But then her expression cleared, and she shrugged the slightest bit, as if telling herself it was none of her concern.
“You two have a good evening, then,” she said.
That seemed to be their signal to leave. Seth and Devynn both thanked her — and the taciturn driver — for the ride, and they got out of the car and paused on the sidewalk. The street lamps were decorated with pine boughs that he knew members of the clan must have gathered up on Mingus Mountain, and big red velvet ribbons made them all the more festive. Farther down the street, closer to the English Kitchen, some people were moving about, but at this end of town, all the shops were closed, and no one had any reason for being here.
“Well, that helped,” Devynn said. She put her gloved hands on her hips and glanced around. Although the evening air was still chilly, it felt a little warmer down here, as if being surrounded by buildings helped to shelter them from the worst of the cold. “And we must be pretty close to Christmas, since she made that comment about last-minute shopping.”
Seth had thought much the same thing. “Sounds like it,” he said, and then tugged at his overcoat. Now that the moment had come — now that they were about to cross the street and go into the apartment where he’d spent his entire life until he’d bought the bungalow — he found himself curiously awkward. There was so much to say, and he had no idea where to begin.
Seeming to sense some of his uneasiness, Devynn came closer and looped her arm through his. “It’s going to be fine,” she said. “You know your parents are going to be thrilled to see you.”
He supposed so. No, it was his brother Charles who was the real question mark. But was he even still living in the apartment anymore? He and Abigail had bonded as consorts way back in June, after all, and Seth somehow doubted the prima-in-waiting would have wanted to wait very long to be joined to her fiancé in wedded bliss.
Not that there had been much bliss in that joining, if what he and Devynn had seen when they visited 1947 had been any indication.
“I hope so,” he said briefly.
Arm in arm, they walked across the street and went around the back of the building. The old Dodge pickup truck the family used for mercantile business was parked back there, and Seth’s throat tightened.
The last time he’d driven that truck, it had been to go on that doomed bootlegging expedition up to the mine shaft…with Devynn riding along in the bed, unbeknownst to him.
That trip hadn’t turned out very well, and he knew it was only because of the intervention of the Wilcox healer in 1884 that the woman he loved more than life itself hadn’t perished that day.
It had always been a fifty-fifty proposition as to whether the back door would be locked or not. Today it was, but a locked door was no impediment to one of witch-kind. Seth laid his hand on the knob, and it swung inward easily. As usual, the overhead light in the small, cramped foyer off the stockroom was on, and he had to be glad of that. His parents only turned it off when they had to change out the bulb, since they never knew when they might need to go down to the store to check on something.
The light it cast was enough to get them up the first flight of stairs, the ones that led to the main floor of the apartment. It occupied the second and third stories of the building, with the bedrooms at the very top. Seth found himself hoping he and Devynn wouldn’t have to stay there, that his bungalow would still be empty at this point. He knew his cousin Margie had eventually moved into the house after it became clear he wasn’t coming back, but he didn’t know exactly when that had happened.
Now hand in hand, Seth and Devynn paused on the landing outside the apartment door. From inside, he heard the murmur of voices and a faint drift of music that he guessed was coming from the big radio in the living room, his father’s pride and joy.
For some reason, hearing it made Seth feel a little less nervous. It was perfectly normal for them to be having dinner around this hour — his parents had always eaten early at this time of year — and even though he’d been gone for months, the realization that they’d kept up their regular routines reassured him.
