Chapter 3 #3
Seth was quiet for a long moment, his hands shoved into the pockets of his wool trousers. When he finally spoke, his voice was gentler than I’d expected. “As Devynn said, that’s…complicated. But first, I think you might have some things you should say to me.”
Charles’s composure cracked then, and I saw a flash of the guilt he’d been carrying written plainly in his features. His shoulders sagged, and he suddenly looked much older than his years, reminding me of the version of himself we’d met in 1947.
“Seth, I’m sorry,” he said. The words came out quickly, as if he somehow knew if he didn’t say them all at once, he’d never say them at all. “It was my fault. Dragging you into the bootlegging ring, and then what happened to you, Devynn — I never meant for any of it to go so wrong.”
Expression almost stricken, Seth replied in a near-murmur, “I know you didn’t.”
“When you disappeared like that and never came back,” Charles continued, his words coming even faster now, as if a dam had burst, “I thought — I thought I’d gotten you killed.
Both of you. And for what? A chance to win back Mary Towne?
Some stupid idea that I could impress her family with a big house and a fat bankroll?
” He turned to me then, and for a second, his mouth tightened.
Somehow I knew he was forcing himself to address me directly, and I knew then that our dislike was mutual.
“Devynn, I should never have involved Seth in any of it. I should never have put you in danger. When Allenby shot you….”
My throat tightened. I’d heard about the aftermath of that night only in 1947, when we’d learned that Lionel Allenby had supposedly died in an “accident” shortly after shooting me.
I’d never really considered what Charles must have gone through in those immediate moments, watching us both disappear and not knowing if I’d died in his brother’s arms.
“It’s all right,” I said quietly. “We’re both fine.”
“But where were you?” The anguish in Charles’s voice was painful to hear.
“My mother’s been putting on a brave face, but I know she’s been heartbroken at the way Seth disappeared.
Dad’s aged ten years. I did that. I caused all of it because I was too proud to accept that Mary Towne was never going to come back to me. ”
Seth stepped closer to his brother. “Charles, it’s all right. Devynn and I are fine. And what happened wasn’t entirely your fault.”
Hands now shoved in his pockets, Charles retorted, “How can you say that? If I hadn’t been running moonshine — ”
“If Lionel Allenby hadn’t been a greedy, violent man who saw Devynn as a threat to his operation,” Seth broke in, voice firm enough that his brother seemed to subside for the moment.
“If I had been honest with you about how I felt about the whole business instead of just going along with it. If I had told Devynn the truth from the beginning instead of trying to hide what I was doing. There were a lot of factors that led to that night, Charles. You weren’t the only one who made mistakes. ”
Charles stared at his brother for a long moment, clearly wrestling with himself. “But I was the one who got you involved in the first place. I knew you’d do anything for family, and I exploited that.”
“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.