Timebound(9)

Connor chuckled softly, although I really didn’t get the joke, and then grabbed a couple of bagels from the box and headed for one of the two staircases in the foyer. Clearly, he was a man of few words and a big appetite.

“And I’m a researcher more than a teacher,” Katherine continued. “I haven’t taught since your grandfather died.”

“Grandfather and Prudence?” I regretted the words immediately—it had to be hard talking about the death of a child, even many years later.

But if it bothered Katherine, she didn’t let on. “Yes, of course. And Prudence.”

After breakfast we were given the grand tour, with Daphne padding up the stairs behind us. It was a very large house, with one curved staircase going up to the right and another, the one that Connor had followed, going up to the left.

“The living quarters are on this side. You each have a small suite of rooms—we can redecorate if they don’t suit you.” We walked down the hallway a bit and she pointed me toward a suite that was about the same size as our entire cottage at Briar Hill. Then she disappeared down the corridor, chatting with Dad.

I stepped into the main room in the suite, which was painted a very pale blue. The canopy bed in the center was white wrought iron, with scrollwork and a blue and white gingham quilt. It looked much more comfortable than Dad’s sofa bed. I sat on the edge of the mattress and looked around. There was a private bath and dressing area to the right of the bed and a sitting area to the left with a sofa, a desk, and two tall windows that looked out over the back gardens. It was beautiful and spacious, but I was also glad that I wouldn’t be leaving my small nook in the townhome behind entirely. I liked my glow-in-the-dark stars, my clutter, and my skylight, and I wasn’t sure that this room would ever feel like it was mine in quite the same way.

“So… will it do?” I jumped slightly, startled to find Katherine at the door. My expression was apparently answer enough, because she didn’t pause. “I sent your father up to the attic to check something for me. Hopefully, he’ll get distracted by the chaos there and we’ll have a few minutes to talk. We have more work to do in the next few months than you can possibly imagine, my dear.” She sat down on the edge of the bed, placing a ziplock bag that contained a small brown book between us. “So much depends on you and your abilities and we haven’t even begun to test them. I just thought we had more time.”

“My abilities? Is this related to the medallion?”

Katherine nodded. “It is. And to your so-called panic attacks. I’m sorry you had to go through that alone—I know it was scary.”

I made a small sick face. “It was awful. I felt like something was wrong—really wrong. But I didn’t—don’t—know what it was. Every inch of me just… I don’t know… screamed that something was out of place, out of kilter. And it’s not like it ended. It’s more that it faded. Whatever was wrong was still not… fixed, but I became accustomed to it, maybe? That’s not right, either.” I shook my head. “I can’t explain it.”

Katherine took my hand. “The first time was on May 2nd of last year, correct? And the second began on the afternoon of January 15th?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Yes. Dad told you the dates?” I was surprised to know that he even remembered the exact days.

“He didn’t have to. I felt it, too. But I had an advantage in that I understood immediately that I was experiencing a temporal aberration.”

I could feel my eyebrow beginning to arch upward, but I tried to keep my expression neutral. It was so nice to have someone believe they weren’t panic attacks, but what on earth did Katherine mean by a temporal aberration?

“And unlike you,” Katherine said, “I had the medallion. You must have been frightened half to death.” Her blue eyes softened. “You look like her, you know.”

“Like my mom?”

“Well, yes, a bit—but more like Prudence. They aren’t identical twins. Your eyes are your father’s, however. There’s no mistaking that green.” Katherine’s thin hand reached out to tuck in one of the stray dark curls that always seem to escape any hair band or clip.

“Deborah’s hair is a much tamer version—you have Pru’s wild head of curls. I could never get the tangles out…”

After a long moment, she smiled and shook her head, back in the present now. “I’m wasting time.” She lowered her voice and spoke quickly. “Kate, it is going to happen again. I’m not sure when there will be another temporal shift, but I suspect that it will be soon. I don’t want to scare you, but you’re the only one who has the ability to set this right. And you must set this right. Otherwise everything—and I do mean everything—is lost.”