Timebound(78)

After a few minutes, we left Katherine and Connor to their analysis and headed up to my room. Trey pulled me close as soon as the door clicked shut behind us. After a very long kiss, he held me out at arm’s length. “You scared the hell out of me, Kate. What happened in there? I mean, I knew something was going to happen, because of Connor’s message, but…”

“She knew who I was. The only reason we got out of there at all is because Eve likes to impress her daddy. She wanted to surprise him by catching me all by herself.”

“Her daddy?” Trey asked.

“Conwell,” I said. He sat down on the couch and I snuggled up next to him. “It didn’t hit me until we were in the office together—same eyes, same nose. She said that temple security detected the CHRONOS key when we arrived and sent a message up to Conwell’s office. She was there when it came in. She didn’t want to disturb Conwell before the service, and security had their hands a bit full with the executive meeting, so…”

I filled in the pieces of the puzzle he had missed—my escape from Eve, the Dobermans in the center garden. He lifted the edge of the bandage on my leg and winced a bit. “I guess it could have been a lot worse,” he said.

“Yeah. We were lucky. I’m just so, so sorry for taking you into that,” I said. “It was stupid and reckless and…”

He shook his head. “I’m the one who should be apologizing to you. You didn’t know what we were getting into. I went in knowing that there was some sort of danger, because I was going to have to run—but I took Connor’s word that you were okay. I didn’t know you were going to get hurt. I should have told you…”

“You did the right thing, Trey. And maybe it will be worth it. Maybe there’s something in that stupid book that will help us.”

We spent the next few hours talking about other things, or nothing at all, just happy to be together and safe. It was clear that neither of us was especially eager to say good night, but I knew he had a trig final bright and early the next morning, so I pushed him out the door, reluctantly, a little after nine.

I watched him drive away and then, still a bit wound up, decided that a cup of herbal tea might help me relax for bed. Katherine was already in the kitchen, and the teakettle was beginning to whistle.

“You read my mind,” I said, reaching into the cabinet for cups. “Is there enough water for two?”

She nodded, and I selected a bag of chamomile, adding a smidgen of honey to my cup along with the hot water. Katherine opened a bag of her usual evening tea. I don’t know what’s in the blend, but it smells vaguely like Italian sausage and I always try to avoid the steam rising from her cup.

“Since you’re here,” she said as she poured the water over her tea bag, “maybe we should take a few minutes to talk.”

“Sure,” I said, sitting down at the table. Something about her tone led me to think that this was not going to be a happy conversation. “What’s up?”

“Two things. First, I have another gift for you.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a delicate silver bracelet with a single charm hanging from it. It was a tiny replica of an hourglass, about as long as my fingertip. It wasn’t a functional replica—the two bulbs were actually tiny pearls and the edges were a flat green stone that looked like jade.

“The chain is new,” she said. “The original broke long ago. The charm, however, is something that my mother gave me when I completed my CHRONOS training. A friend of hers made it especially for me, and I’ve never seen one like it. I always wore it when I traveled—a good-luck charm, I guess.”

She helped me fasten the bracelet onto my wrist. “I think it is a fitting gift. Not just for your birthday, but because you’re quite close to the end of your training, too—although yours has been a very compressed version, I’m afraid.”

I smiled at her. “Thank you, Katherine. It’s beautiful.”

“I wanted you to have it anyway,” she said, “but the gift serves a practical purpose, too. If you show this to me at the fair, I can promise that you’ll get my attention—especially if you point out the chipped edge right near the top and remind me how it happened.”

I hadn’t even noticed the tiny imperfection—just a small chip in the green stone that was suspended above the pearls by a small silver casing. “And how did it happen?”

“It was one of my earlier jumps—a solo trip, without Saul.” She paused for a moment, taking a tentative sip of tea, which was apparently still a bit too hot. “I’d been on dozens of jumps over the previous two years and you would think I’d have been used to seeing famous people. But as I was getting out of a carriage in New York City, where I was scheduled to attend the evening session of the American Equal Rights Association meeting—the one where they were debating whether the Fifteenth Amendment should include women?”