Page 8 of Christmas Past
Apparently, it was the latter, because then Molly said briskly, “But we’ll need to send some fresh linens over with you, along with anything you might need to restock the kitchen. The pantry is bare now, of course, and anything in the linen closet will be stale from having been stored all these months.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Devynn said. “Thank you.”
His mother’s eyes were suspiciously bright again. “It’s no matter at all,” she said. “Remember, you’re family now.”
Well, she seemed to be in his parents’ eyes.
Now they’d just have to see how Charles viewed the matter….
3
As relieved as I was that Seth’s parents had apparently decided to accept me as one of their own, I was still extremely happy to go home to our bungalow, where we could be alone. A wave of cognitive dissonance hit me as we stepped inside and I saw the place in its original form, just because I knew what it was like with a modern kitchen and bathroom, even though the original charm of the home had been preserved as much as possible. All the same, it still felt so very good to know that here we wouldn’t have to watch every single thing we said.
For a few minutes, we busied ourselves with putting things away in the pantry and the cupboards, and putting fresh sheets on both beds. Obviously, Seth and I would share the one in the larger of the two bedrooms, but just in case Molly or anyone else came snooping, it seemed wise to make it look as if I was sleeping in the other one during my time here in Jerome.
Once all those tasks were handled, however, I said, “How much are you going to tell them?”
He’d just slipped off his jacket and turned to face me in his shirtsleeves. We’d also gotten a fire going in the hearth, and some of the chill in the room had already begun to dissipate, although I knew it would never get as warm as it did with modern central heat installed.
“I’m not sure yet,” he said. “Either way, I want to wait until the time is right. I don’t want to pile too many shocks on them all at once.”
I supposed that was probably the smart way to handle the situation. Judging by a few of the things Molly had said at dinner, it seemed clear to me that she expected the two of us to get married soon and set up house here at the bungalow.
While both those wishes were technically fine, they were going to come true more than a hundred years from now, not in 1926.
“Okay,” I said. “I just want to know that you’ll give them some kind of closure before we leave.”
“I will. Don’t worry.” He came to me then and pulled me into his arms, and bent down to press his lips against mine.
Yes, that was much better. My blood warmed, and right then, I wanted nothing more than to head into the bedroom and do all the things his parents had been worried about.
“Let’s go to bed,” I whispered, and Seth nodded.
“A wonderful idea.”
Getting out of our 1920s clothes was a lot easier than the stuff we’d had to wear in the 1880s, when I’d been buried in so many layers, my elaborate bustle dresses had sometimes felt like portable prisons. Now, though, Seth and I were naked soon enough, snuggling under the covers…and finding all sorts of new ways to get warm.
Well, what his parents didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.
During the meal at Henry and Molly’s apartment, we’d learned that Charles would be coming over for dinner on Christmas Eve…and that he’d be bringing Abigail with him. I was less than enchanted by that prospect, mostly because I’d seen the kind of woman she’d turned out to be and didn’t like her very much. Possibly, I should have been more charitable, since she’d fought chronic illnesses all her life and probably hadn’t felt entirely well in a great many years. Then again, I’d known a few people who battled health issues like that in my own time and still weren’t crotchety wrecks.
However, I told myself I’d put on my game face for Seth’s sake, mostly because I understood that he had some things he needed to discuss with Charles. Not everything, of course — I knew Seth would never reveal what we’d learned during our time in 1947, about Abigail’s continuing sickliness and their unhappy marriage — but even so, the two brothers needed to come to some kind of understanding. By nature, Seth was a forgiving person, and yet it was still hard for him to deal with the unpleasant reality of the way his brother had roped him into his bootlegging schemes.
Especially since that whole mess had ended with me getting shot in the stomach.
But at least Christmas morning sounded as though it would just be Seth’s parents and the two of us, although Molly and Henry were expected at a big holiday dinner that night at the prima’s house. By that point, I knew Seth and I would want to be on our way back to the twenty-first century, so at least I wouldn’t have to deal with Abigail and Charles two nights in a row.
Molly had also informed us that the store would be closing early, at three-thirty, and that they’d love for us to come over and decorate the tree. I’d noticed the night before that a Christmas tree didn’t seem to be anywhere in evidence — not that the McAllister apartment was really big enough for a person to hide something like that — and Seth had told me it was his family tradition to put it up on Christmas Eve and then keep it up through New Year’s. It seemed strange not to have a tree around while all the other pre-holiday festivities were happening, but I knew every family did things a little differently, so I only nodded and told him that decorating the tree sounded like fun.
I didn’t know for sure whether Seth’s parents planned to tell everyone of our arrival, or whether they intended to keep things to themselves until they knew a little more about our intentions. With any luck, it would be the latter; I wasn’t exactly looking forward to handing out the same lie after lie. If we lay low for most of the day and went over to Molly and Henry’s apartment right at the appointed time, then I supposed it was possible that no one else in the clan would even know we were here in Jerome.
That morning had dawned crisp and clear, with frost painting delicate patterns on the windows of the bungalow. I’d awoken to find Seth already dressed, standing at the window in the living room and looking out at the quiet street beyond the postage-stamp front yard, wearing an expression I couldn’t quite read.
“Second thoughts?” I asked as I slipped my arms around his waist.
He leaned back against me. “No. Just…it’s strange, being back here. Everything looks exactly the way I remember it, but knowing what I know now about the future, about what happens to everyone….” The words trailed off there, and he shook his head. “I keep expecting to see changes that haven’t happened yet.”
I thought I understood what he meant. It was disconcerting to walk through a world that existed in a completely different context from the one we’d left behind. Here, his parents were still alive and healthy. Charles and Abigail weren’t married yet, although Molly had told us the big day was set for early in January, the week after New Year’s. And the mines were still operational, the town bustling with a prosperity we knew would come to an end in the next few decades.
