14. The Hardest Part
14
THE HARDEST PART
Seth didn’t have any idea where Ruby lived in Jerome, so he’d made his destination the big Victorian house where his brother Charles and his prima wife had their residence, figuring that would be the safest place to land. And that was where he and the prima -in-waiting appeared, standing in the hallway just inside the front door.
At once, Ruby let go of him and looked around. “That is quite an efficient way to travel. Thank you, Seth.”
He wanted to murmur that it was nothing, but he knew for their clan, it was much more than nothing.
All the same, the only thing he could think of was Devynn driving alone on that dark highway. She’d seemed competent enough behind the wheel as she piloted the Chevy to Winslow and had learned the controls very quickly, but still….
From somewhere up ahead, he heard the sound of a chair being scooted back, and a moment later, Charles appeared in the hallway, a napkin dangling from one hand and a look of utter astonishment on his face.
Right. Caught up in the plan to rescue Ruby, Seth hadn’t really stopped to think about the hour, but it was right smack in the middle of dinnertime.
“You — you found her?” Charles said, finding his voice at last.
“Yes, he did,” Ruby said crisply. “Is Cousin Abigail in the dining room?”
“She is,” Charles replied. “You must go see her.”
It seemed that had already been Ruby’s plan, because she was walking toward the room where her prima was waiting, heels clicking on the polished wood floors, while the two men followed a few paces behind.
Sure enough, Abigail and Charles had been eating their evening meal, with a half-carved roast chicken off to one side and bowls of various side dishes scattered along one end of the long dining table. It was strange to see the prima sitting there, since before now, Seth had only met her while she was occupying her favorite seat in the back parlor.
“You did it?” she asked, pale blue eyes widening in surprise as she addressed the prima -in-waiting.
“Seth and Devynn did,” Ruby corrected her gently. “Along with some help from a Wilcox witch and warlock.”
At once, the prima looked over at him. “You had the assistance of some Wilcoxes?”
“We did,” he replied. “Let’s just say that not everyone in the clan was happy with Jasper’s plans for Ruby.”
“And where’s Devynn?” Charles said as he looked past them, as if he thought she would be standing somewhere in the hallway.
A nervous lump entered Seth’s throat as he once again thought of Devynn alone out there somewhere, gamely making her way toward home. “I could only transport one person. Devynn insisted on driving back by herself. But she’s going through Payson, so it should take her a few more hours to get to our territory.”
“That’s good to hear,” Charles replied, but now his tone seemed almost absent, as if, once he’d addressed the issue of Devynn’s whereabouts, he no longer had any reason to worry about her.
Whereas Seth knew he wouldn’t stop worrying until the second she walked in the door. They’d already agreed that she should go straight to the bungalow, so about all he could do now was wait until she appeared.
“Maybe we should send someone out to meet her,” Ruby ventured. Although the inner voice she’d used to communicate with him had always sounded confident and no-nonsense, now that she was in the presence of her prima, something about her seemed almost hesitant, as if she knew deep down that she was a much more powerful witch but didn’t want to do or say anything that might be interpreted as laying claim to the older woman’s territory. “That’s a long drive for someone who’s never gone that way before.”
Seth had already entertained thoughts along those lines, although he wasn’t sure exactly how he would implement them, not when he had no idea where Devynn would be at any given time. Still, if he teleported to the crossroads up there in the forest where you either kept going into Payson or turned south and west toward Camp Verde….
“That doesn’t seem very practical,” Abigail said in her languid, die-away voice. “No, I think it best that we just sit tight and wait for her to arrive. How long could it be, anyway? A few hours or so?”
“A bit longer than that,” Charles replied. “I have to assume Devynn won’t be going at top speed when she’s driving in the dark on an unfamiliar road. Still, I would think she’d be here by ten o’clock or a little after at the very latest.”
No clock in the dining room, but Seth guessed it was probably a little before seven. So, three hours…maybe less, if they were really lucky…of waiting for her to get back to Jerome.
Those would be the longest three hours of his life.
“Then I’ll go and wait at my place,” he said. “She’s heading straight there, so I want to make sure I’m home when she arrives.”
“And I’ll walk with you,” Ruby announced. “My parents’ house is just partway down the block from your bungalow.” She looked over at Abigail, adding, “I assume you’ll let the elders know I’m back?”
“We will,” Charles said, answering for his wife. “But don’t you think you should wait until you can talk to them, too?”
Ruby pushed a carefully curled lock of copper-gold hair back over one shoulder. Seth had no idea exactly what the Wilcoxes had done to provide her with creature comforts while she was locked in that hotel room, but it sure looked as if they’d given her the necessities to keep herself perfectly groomed.
“We can do all that tomorrow,” she said. “I’m tired, and we’re interrupting your dinner. Now that I’m home safe, I don’t much see the urgency.”
Maybe she didn’t, and yet….
“The elders should strengthen the wards, though,” Seth said, and a brief frown crossed Charles’s face, so much older and more worn than the face of the brother he remembered.
“I was already planning to tell them to do that,” he replied, his tone now curt. “And you, Ruby — I have a feeling it will be some time before you’ll be able to wander around town unaccompanied.”
“Oh, probably,” she said, not looking too concerned. “I suppose that means I’ll just have to pray extra hard to Brigid so I can find my consort soon and will finally be able to stop worrying.” A glance up at Seth, and she added, “Let’s go. I want to let my mother know I’m back.”
A mother who would have had the double worry of a missing prima -in-waiting and a kidnapped daughter at the same time. Yes, she definitely needed to know that Ruby had come home.
It seemed Charles had been thinking about the same thing, because he didn’t try to stop them, only said that he’d let them know when the elders wanted to convene a meeting the next day to ask her about everything that had happened during her captivity.
“They’re not going to learn much,” Ruby remarked as she and Seth headed down the front steps and made their way onto Paradise Lane. “That is, I saw the man coming out of the strange car and knew he was Jasper Wilcox, but then everything went black.”
“He must have used some sort of sleep spell on you,” Seth said, and her shoulders — covered by a fluffy blue mohair sweater — lifted slightly.
“Or he just chloroformed me,” she said, sounding far more cheerful than someone talking about her own kidnapping probably should have. Maybe now she was free, she was already trying to convince herself that the entire episode hadn’t been quite as frightening as she’d originally thought.
On the other hand, Ruby seemed like a pretty tough cookie. It was possible that not much could rattle her.
“Anyway,” she continued, “I woke up in a place in the woods — a cabin, I suppose. Jasper was there, and he told me I had nothing to worry about and that they would treat me like an honored guest.”
“Did they?”
She shrugged again. “They certainly didn’t starve me, and the hotel room you rescued me from was nice enough, I suppose.” A pause, and her nose wrinkled in a sort of contempt. “All the same, I don’t know too many people who would think that kidnapping someone is a way of ‘honoring’ them.”
“Did Jasper tell you why he’d kidnapped you?”
Her brows raised, and she shot Seth such an amused glance, faintly tinged with derision, that for a moment, he felt as if she was the elder and he the inexperienced schoolboy, even though he was nearly five years older than she.
Or twenty-six years older, depending on how you looked at the situation.
“Not in so many words,” she said. “But it seemed obvious to me. He must believe that binding himself to a prima -in-waiting was his way to break the Wilcox curse. I suppose I can give him credit for coming up with such a novel solution, although I don’t think it would have worked.”
By that point, they were just about to pass the Connor Hotel, which was dark and not nearly the lively place it had been when Seth lived here in the 1920s. They turned onto Jerome Avenue so they could make their way to Hull Street and down to the neighborhood where both their homes were located.
“Why wouldn’t Jasper’s scheme have worked?”
Ruby again gave him one of those almost indulgent looks. “Because we’re not fated to be together,” she said simply. “You can’t force that sort of thing, even if you’re a warlock as powerful as Jasper Wilcox. If he hadn’t been so desperate, he would have already figured that out for himself.”
She sounded utterly calm and serene, full of confidence that the universe would send her the consort of her dreams. And even though Devynn hadn’t provided a huge amount of detail, it sounded as if everything had worked out for Ruby — sometime in the near future, whether a couple of months from now or well into the spring, she would meet the man who would be her partner for decades and the father of her two sons. Her life would unfold much the way she’d hoped.
Except, he supposed for the part where she’d had to remain prima much longer than anyone had planned and had to hold on until Angela was of an age to assume the mantle of responsibility for the McAllister clan.
But he wouldn’t talk about any of that. He’d already meddled with time enough, and he wanted to make sure Ruby could meet her destiny without any knowledge of what was to come.
Sure enough, her house, a big four-square similar to the one his cousin Helen still occupied, was just a bit farther down the block from Seth’s bungalow. In his time, the place hadn’t belonged to anyone in the clan, and had instead been owned by one of his fellow foremen at the mine, a man named Alan Johnston. But he supposed as work began to wind down and everyone had seen the writing on the wall, Alan had probably sold the house and moved on to a place where he could count on work that would continue to provide for his family.
Almost as soon as Ruby reached out to open the front door, it swung inward, and Seth’s cousin Louise — now much older than the last time he’d seen her — rushed onto the porch and took her daughter in her arms.
“I was praying and praying to Brigid,” Louise said, hanging on to Ruby as though she planned never to let go again. “And she answered. She answered!”
Had he been the pawn of some kind of divine intervention? Seth supposed that was probably as good a theory as any to explain how he’d managed to get his cousin Ruby away from La Posada.
“I think it was more Seth, Mama,” Ruby replied, mouth twitching a little.
Louise let go of her daughter and seemed to focus on him for the first time. “Everyone said you’d come back. It’s astonishing — you haven’t aged a day!”
No, he hadn’t, and now someone like Ruby, who’d barely been born when he last saw her, was now much more his contemporary than any of the relatives he’d left behind.
“Time travel will do that for you,” he said weakly, and Louise smiled.
“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” she said. “But where are my manners? I was just getting dinner ready, and I’d be happy to put out another plate for you, Seth.”
“No, that’s fine,” he said hastily. “Thank you, but I need to go home and wait for someone.”
“Then you do what you need to,” Louise replied. “Just know that you’re always welcome here.”
He smiled at both women, ducking his head in acknowledgment, and said a quick goodbye before he headed back down the porch steps. Behind him, the door shut, and he wondered if he’d been an idiot for turning down a good home-cooked meal. After all, Devynn still wouldn’t be here for more than two hours at least.
But he couldn’t bear the thought of him stuffing his face at Louise’s house when Devynn might arrive early and find the bungalow empty, so he forced himself to continue. Most of the fresh items they’d bought last weekend wouldn’t be good anymore, even after being refrigerated all this time, but there was still some canned food.
Not that he was sure he’d be able to eat at all, what with the way his stomach felt as though it hadn’t just been knotted but forced into some kind of intricate intestinal crochet.
Better to have some water and wait.
He went inside and turned on several lights in the living room, along with the one that had been installed on the front porch sometime during the years he’d been gone. At least now it would be very obvious that he was home — and besides, with the porch light shining out into the darkness like that, the illumination would help guide Devynn into the driveway.
Satisfied that he’d done pretty much everything he could do, he wandered from room to room, restless, knowing he could only wait…and knowing he was physically incapable of just sitting there in the living room and watching for the headlights of the big Chevy to shine into the picture window as she pulled onto the property.
Most of their clothes were in the suitcases they’d put in the Stylemaster’s trunk, but they’d each left one or two items behind here in the bungalow. He ran a finger along the sleeve of a pretty dark green dress that hung in the wardrobe, telling himself he’d see Devynn wearing it soon enough and that everything was going to be fine.
Soon they’d be sleeping in that bed, holding each other and reaffirming their connection, losing themselves in some long, languorous lovemaking. And afterward, they’d chuckle at how they’d pulled one over on Jasper Wilcox, and how he would now have to think twice about messing with the McAllisters ever again.
It was a good image, one Seth wanted to hold in his mind for as long as possible.
He walked back into the living room and stared at the clock on the mantel.
Eight fifteen.
Still far too early, right? Charles had said it would take Devynn the greater part of three hours to get to Jerome, probably more. Seth had to admit his older brother knew the road better, as he’d driven out that way on store business at least three or four times a year, whereas Seth had only been to Payson a couple of times.
But….
No alcohol in the house, which was probably a good thing. At the same time, he couldn’t help thinking about the brandy Jeremiah had given him back in 1884, how it had seemed to quiet his nerves as he waited to hear whether Devynn would survive her gunshot wound.
Well, he didn’t have brandy in the house, but he did have the tea they’d bought at the general store in Cottonwood. It would probably help settle him a little to go through the ritual of heating the water and then making a nice pot of English Breakfast.
And if not, at least the whole process would use up some time.
He got down a chubby brown teapot and its matching cups, telling himself how happy Devynn would be to have some tea waiting for her when she arrived. Yes, they’d sit down on that angular couch he still wasn’t used to and talk about their various adventures, and she’d prove that all his worry had been for nothing.
Headlights went past the front window, and he all but ran from the kitchen — to be fair, in his bungalow, nothing was terribly far away — and hurried over so he could peer outside.
But no, that wasn’t the Stylemaster, but a big, bulbous truck he thought was either dark blue or black, rumbling its way past his house and up to Main Street.
Doing his best to ignore the disappointment surging in his chest, Seth returned to the kitchen as the water in the kettle was just beginning to boil. He turned down the gas and went to the pantry, where the packet of loose tea and the little perforated tin tea ball waited on a high shelf.
Fragrant steam began to slip past the teapot’s lid, and he realized how tense he was, how every single muscle in his body felt like a spring that had been coiled too tightly and was about to let loose at any moment.
It’s going to be fine, he told himself.
Except it didn’t feel fine. He didn’t pretend to be psychic or anything close to it, but his gut was telling him that something had gone horribly wrong.
Eight forty-five. Still way too early for Devynn to have reached Jerome, although at least the time was inching its way past.
He poured a cup of tea for himself and went back into the living room, forcing himself to sit down mostly because pacing around the damn house hadn’t done him a bit of good. Hands wrapped around warm ceramic, gaze fixed on the cold hearth, as though he thought he might jinx the whole thing if he kept staring out the window.
Nine o’clock.
Goddess, this was excruciating. He wished they were in the future, in the world Devynn had described, where they had phones you could carry in your pocket, guaranteeing that you were never out of touch, not really. If she’d had one of those pocket miracles with her now, she could have called him and said yes, she was on the way, but she’d had to stop for gas in Payson and was running behind. He would have still been impatient, wishing she was home, but his brain wouldn’t have been manufacturing terrible scenario after terrible scenario, even as his thoughts did their best to avoid the worst one of all, the scenario that was the most likely.
The one where she hadn’t gotten away at all and had been captured by Jasper Wilcox before she had a chance to get anywhere close to McAllister territory.
Seth put his cup down so roughly that some of the tea slopped onto the coffee table’s surface, but he barely noticed.
Goddess, would his brain ever shut up?
He rose from the couch and went to look out the window. Darkness all up and down the street, except for a porch light here and there, and maybe every once in a while, the faintest hint of illumination seeping out from behind thick curtains pulled nearly shut. He couldn’t say for sure whether all those dark houses really were unoccupied or whether their residents just went to bed early.
Maybe it didn’t matter, except he thought if he had plenty of people nearby, he wouldn’t feel quite so much alone. No close family anymore, not with his parents gone, Charles nearly a stranger, and most of his contemporaries now middle-aged versions of themselves, all the interests and experiences they might have once shared in common erased by the decades he’d been gone as if they’d never existed at all.
The only anchor in a world that now seemed adrift was Devynn, and if she was gone, too….
No, he couldn’t think that. He wouldn’t allow such a notion to take hold in his mind for more than a few traitorous seconds.
On the mantel, the clock continued to tick quietly away into the night.